Bibliography

Church of the Holy Ascension

Website of a prominent Russian Orthodox Old Rite church in Gervais, Oregon.

Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive (CRBEHA)
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/crbeha/home.htm

This online archive includes ten items from the Oregon Historical Society collection, several of them difficult to obtain elsewhere. They include pamphlets, open letters and public announcements by Brother Ambrose Moorman on Old Believer matters; a 1973 report by John Hudanish on the state of the Old Believer community in Woodburn, a copy of the Manual for Educators of Russian Old Believers in Oregon, and more.

Cleveland, Nika. “Russkie starovery v Oregone. Russian Old Believers in Oregon, USA.” My Odyssey.

This Russian-language blog entry about Russian Old Believer communities in the Oregon towns of Woodburn, Gervais, and Mulino is most impressive for its large, vibrant photographs capturing may dimensions of Old Believer life, culture, and practice: clothing, food, architecture, ritual artifacts, and much more.

Hudanish, John. “Two ROCOR Bishops and the Russian Old Believers in Oregon.” In ROCOR Studies: Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad.

This writer’s personal account of growing up in an Old Believer community in Oregon also covers the sect’s broader history. A supplemental gallery has more photographs and snippets of information; text for this resource in English and Russian

Maginnis, Tara. “Old Believer Dresses.” The Costumer’s Manifesto.

Maginnis, a costume designer at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) theater department, presents photos and brief descriptions of about 30 modern Old Believer women’s and girls’ outfits found in a thrift shop in Fairbanks.

Museum of Russian Old Orthodox History and Culture
Our Lady of Tikhvin Center, St. Benedict, Oregon .(St. Benedict is located within the town of Mt. Angel, Oregon).

While the Museum itself maintains no web site, Paul Wigowsky (who is not directly affiliated with the Museum) has published his personal collection of photographs showing some of the Museum’s displays.

Old Believers in OrthodoxWiki.

A mid-length biography of Bishop Daniel of Erie, the ROCOR (Daniel (Alexandrow) of Erie) prelate who is bishop to the Erie, PA Old Ritualist Church of the Holy Nativity. Descendants of the bezpopovtsy (aka bespopovtsy) Pomortsy who emigrated from Poland to Pennsylvania in the 1880s form the historic core of the congregation.

Old Rite Russian Orthodox Church of the Nativity, Erie, Pennsylvania.

Extensive parish website maintained by the Old Rite Russian Orthodox Church of the Nativity (under the omophorion of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia). Descendants of the bezpopovtsy Pomortsy who emigrated from Poland to Pennsylvania in the 1880s form the historic core of the congregation. Besides the usual parish news and announcements, articles include a history of Znamenny Chant, appropriate behavior at Old Rite services, and an ever-growing list of Old Rite publications translated into English. In English.

Old Ritualist Monks. Holy Nativity of the Mother of God Skete.

Blog maintained by monks of the Holy Nativity of the Mother of God Skete in Voltaire, North Dakota.

Osipovich, Tatiana. Russian-Speaking Communities in Oregon.

Emeritus Professor of Russian at Lewis & Clark College, Tatiana Osipovich created the website Russian-Speaking Communities in Oregon as part of a Mellon summer research grant. Dedicated pages explore the histories and experiences of Russian Orthodox and Evangelical Christians, as well as Russian Jews. Fellow scholars Richard and Tamara Morris helped author the page dedicated to Old Believers. Perhaps the most interesting and valuable pieces of history on the site is a personal narrative straight from the mouth of an Oregonian Old Believer: a recorded interview with Makar Afanasyevich Zenuhin is available as an audio file with an accompanying transcript (interview conducted in Russian).

“Religious Flight and Migration: Old Believers. Religioznye Gonenie i Migratsiia: Starovery.” In Meeting of Frontiers.

A site produced by the Library of Congress, Meeting of Frontiers explores various dimensions of the Russian-American cultural encounter in Alaska an the Pacific Northwest.

Scheffel, David. “Old Believers.” Canadian Encyclopedia.

Brief (under 200 words) general encyclopedia article relating primarily to the Fairview/Hines Creek community of Old Believers in Alberta, Canada.
Starover-pomores. Starovercheskoe Obschestvo im. I.N. Zavoloko (Old Believer community, named after Ivan Nikiforovich Zavoloko).
This Russian-language website provides a history of the community, located in Riga, Latvia. It also contains a biography of iconographer Pimen Sofronov, who emigrated to the United States, continuing to paint icons in New York and New Jersey. While this history dwells more on his life in Europe than his years in North America, it goes into somewhat greater detail than other sources listed here.

Wigowsky, Paul J. Collection of Old Believer History and Traditions.

Wigowsky, a Russian-speaking schoolteacher with many years experience teaching Oregon Old Believer students, has put together an extensive and generally reliable site describing Old Believer faith, history and traditional ways. One of the best resources available for school-age researchers. Highlights of the page include access to Wigowsky’s book, Freedom for an Old Believer, a 181-page novel recounting the adventures of a fictional Old Believer couple. The couple leaves rural China in the 1950s, emigrates to Brazil in 1964 and emigrates again to Oregon where the husband dies in the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Wigowsky goes to great lengths to portray Old Believer life, including much historical background and many details of custom and belief. Most of the incidents are drawn directly from the real-life experiences of the Oregon community. Other material (expositions of dogma, folk tales, religious stories) are drawn from secondary sources and fit less comfortably into the narrative. The site also hosts pictures of the Museum of Russian Old Orthodox History and Culture in St. Benedict, Oregon (also linked above) and personal photo’s from Wigowsky’s teaching career.