On Burials in the Abolished Cemetery
In the early 1850s, when the Old Believers once again faced persecution from the state, their cemetery on Malaya Okhta was effectively abolished. A decree prohibited the burial of dissenters there. The Old Believer cemetery on Malaya Okhta entered a period of limbo that lasted for over a decade.
In 1864, Pomorian elder Kulikov, who despite everything wished to be buried in this cemetery, submitted a corresponding request. Two months later, in December of the same year, he passed away. The request was reported to the sovereign and was most graciously granted. Dmitry Alexandrovich Kulikov was laid to rest in the Malaya Okhta Old Believer cemetery, which was returned to the Pomorian community in 1865.
On Love for Ancestral Graves
The nearly 30-year reign of Nicholas I was a time of severe trials for the Old Believers. By the end of the Nicholas era, in the early 1850s, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer cemetery was heavily impacted. Essentially, it was abolished as the authorities officially prohibited the burial of dissenters there. This was a severe blow to the capital's Pomorian community, which owned most of the cemetery's territory. Pomorians were forced to bury their co-religionists at the Volkovskoye Cemetery. The Old Believer section there (and a smaller part of the Malaya Okhta dissenters' cemetery) was managed by the Fedoseevtsy, representing another non-priestly Old Believer group, which naturally led to certain tensions.
The Old Believers had to make considerable efforts to reinstate their cemetery on Malaya Okhta. They repeatedly petitioned for this, but it seems that the decisive role was played by a collective petition from wealthy Pomorian merchants. In 1865, by personal permission of Alexander II, the cemetery was returned to the Pomorian community. It is hard even to imagine what significance this event had for the Pomorians. In his book "Petersburgers. Russian Capitalism. The First Attempt," Lev Yakovlevich Lurye quotes Petersburg journalist Nikolay Alexandrovich Skrobotov, who in 1881 published several articles in the newspaper "Petersburg Leaf" about the Petersburg Old Believers. Describing the revival of the Malaya Okhta bastion of Old Belief, Skrobotov noted that “one of the mentioned trustees, when obtaining permission to bury the dead in the Pomorian cemetery again, managed to secure permission to exhume his father's coffin from the grave and transfer it from the Fedoseevsky cemetery to the Pomorian one.” Other Pomorians followed this trustee’s example.
On Cemetery Advertising
The residents of Okhta have always been known for their entrepreneurial spirit, occasionally manifesting this trait even in the most sorrowful circumstances. For example, in the late 19th century, visitors and caretakers of the Malaya Okhta cemetery noticed an advertisement on the fence of one grave, which read: “In eternal memory of Lukerya Sidorova. The fence around the grave was made by the grieving husband of the deceased, a blacksmith living in Malaya Okhta who takes orders for similar work. I charge modestly and work diligently.” This was probably not the first instance of advertising at a cemetery, but it surely sparked significant controversy. This fact has been preserved in the history of Malaya Okhta and our city thanks to an indignant publication in the "Petersburg Newspaper" dated January 20, 1898.
History of the Location
1762
This year is considered to be the date of foundation of the Maloohtinsky Old Believer cemetery, although there is a possibility that it emerged as early as the 1740s. The cemetery was founded and controlled by the Pomorians, but part of it belonged to the Fedoseyevtsy, representatives of another non-Pope Old Believers' consensus. Probably in the same year a small wooden chapel was built for the Fedoseyevs.
1768
In the fall, the Maloohtinsky Old Believer cemetery received official status and was expanded.
1789
A stone chapel was erected on the plot of the Fedoseyevs.
Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery
The Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery, now simply known as Malaya Okhta, is located not far from the beginning of Novocherkassky Prospekt, behind the residential buildings on its even-numbered side. Almost square and quite small (its area is about three hectares), it gently slopes down towards the Okhta River, which flows behind it. Incidentally, the riverbanks at this location are connected by the pedestrian bridge "Krasny Sudostroitel." (This three-span bridge was deemed unsafe and dismantled between 2003 and 2004. Only the piers and abutments remain. Restoration began in November 2019, and "major repairs" were completed in October 2020.) The cemetery's main facade faces an unnamed roadway, which was called Malaya Prospekt from 1900 to 1941, renamed Shaumyan Prospekt in 1941, and formally abolished in 1978. Malaya Okhta is shielded from view by a low stone wall with a gate and a guardhouse. A person unaware of its existence can easily pass by, not suspecting that behind this wall lies a cemetery, indeed the oldest Old Believer cemetery in Petersburg.
However, historians do not agree on a single founding date for it. According to the most common version, the cemetery was established in 1762, but there is a suggestion that it might have originated in the 1740s. The choice of Malaya Okhta for the dissenters' cemetery, where, even a century later, as Pomyalovsky and his "Porechans" claimed, the spirit of freedom still prevailed, is quite understandable. Firstly, the Okhta translated settlements had a degree of autonomy and were removed from the city, which somewhat weakened police control. Secondly, since the times of Peter the Great, there had been many Old Believers among the Okhta residents, as free carpenters for the state shipyards were mainly recruited from northern, "dissenter" provinces.
The cemetery was founded and controlled by Pomorians, with part of it belonging to the Fedoseevtsy – representatives of another non-priestly Old Believer group. This proximity later caused difficulties for the cemetery.
The fate of the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery was complex, entirely dependent on the state’s attitude towards dissenters. Researchers note that in the second half of the 18th century, this attitude became more tolerant. In particular, in the fall of 1763, Catherine II herself opposed the harsh persecution of Old Believers. (The period of Elizabeth Petrovna's reign was extremely difficult for dissenters, as she was very devout and apparently lacked religious tolerance. The situation began to change under Peter III, but he reigned for only a few months.) Five years later, in the fall of 1768, a decree was issued granting the cemetery official status. At the same time, it was expanded. Soon, the Malaya Okhta cemetery became a major Pomorian center, one of the most important in the capital.
It should be noted that until the early 20th century, cemeteries played an enormous role in the lives of Old Believer communities. This was due to the fact that until 1883, dissenters were prohibited from building prayer houses. In most cases, their prayer houses emerged informally and could be closed at any time. However, as highlighted in their article on Malaya Okhta Cemetery (in the book "Historical Cemeteries of Petersburg") by Lev Yakovlevich Lurye and Alexander Valeryevich Kobak, there was no direct prohibition on establishing cemeteries. Consequently, Old Believer cemeteries often became surrounded by prayer houses, almshouses, hospitals, dining rooms, book and icon painting workshops, becoming complex confessional centers. Additionally, they also became business centers where one could learn the latest financial news, find work, hire co-religionists, or even obtain a loan.
As already mentioned, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery was shaped by representatives of two non-priestly groups: Pomorian and Fedoseevtsy. The primary contributions came from the more state-loyal Pomorians, who owned most of its territory. The more ascetic and uncompromising Fedoseevtsy, who opposed secular and church authority, controlled the smaller portion. The contradictions between Pomorians and Fedoseevtsy were so significant that the cemetery at Malaya Okhta had separate prayer houses and almshouses for each group.
Interestingly, the Fedoseevtsy quickly (perhaps even before the Pomorians) established their own place of worship there. It is reported that by 1762, a small wooden chapel had already been built on their part of the cemetery. In 1789, it was replaced by a stone chapel funded by merchant Dmitriev. The Pomorian stone prayer house with a "high dome and bell tower" appeared in the cemetery in 1792, financed by merchant Makey Ivanovich Undozerov.
Under Alexander I, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery was expanded with additional land annexed in 1802 and 1809. For the Pomorians, an almshouse and later a hospital were built here. Today, Malaya Okhta is one of the most secluded corners of our city, but at that time, life around it was bustling, paradoxically speaking, considering it was a place of rest. In the already mentioned article by Lurye and Kobak, citing archival documents, it is mentioned that in the 1820s, around 150 people lived near the cemetery "without a permanent residence," including a manager, a treasurer, two clerks, three cooks, three janitors, a sexton, four psalmists, and up to twenty singers.
In 1834, a two-story stone building was erected on the Fedoseevtsy’s part of the cemetery, housing an almshouse, prayer house, hospital, and a common dining room for people of different denominations. Against the grim backdrop of the Nicholas era, this event was perhaps the only bright spot for the cemetery. Under Nicholas I, dissenters were severely persecuted, and the first victims of the 1840s crackdown in the capital were the Fedoseevtsy, known for their radicalism. They avoided contact with Nikonians, i.e., priests and parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church, rejected marriage, did not pray for the tsar, and considered secular authority to be the Antichrist’s creation. It is not hard to guess the reaction this provoked among the authorities. The proximity of the Fedoseevtsy and Pomorians eventually resulted in the harshest sanctions for the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery. In 1850, the prayer houses of both non-priestly groups at the cemetery were sealed, and a decree was issued a few years later prohibiting the burial of dissenters there. The inhabitants of the almshouses were transferred to charitable institutions at the Volkovskoye Cemetery, where Old Believers had their section, and the buildings were transferred to the care of the Imperial Society for the Care of the Poor. This organization decided to place "paupers belonging to taxable and other lower classes" there. The expropriated Malaya Okhta Cemetery was separated by an iron fence. Some of the expropriated buildings were reconstructed. In 1857, the Orthodox Church of the Decapitation of St. John the Baptist was consecrated here, and a Home for the Care of Poor Elderly Women was opened. According to available information, women from the Home for the Care of the Sick Poor (later called Isidorovskoye), located in Kolomna at that time, were transferred here. The patron of the new old almshouse on Malaya Okhta was Count Grigory Alexandrovich Kushelov-Bezborodko, who took it under his care. One of the sections of the Home for the Care of Poor Elderly Women was named after another benefactor – State Councillor Konstantin Konstantinovich Zlobin. This three-story stone building (Novocherkassky Prospekt, 8, building 1) now houses the day hospital and the medical rehabilitation department of Psychoneurological Dispensary No. 5.
Since Old Believers always attached great importance to cemetery beauty and burial rites, the abolition of their Malaya Okhta stronghold was deeply painful for them. For more than ten years, Old Believers were deprived not only of the opportunity to bury their deceased at this cemetery but also to maintain it properly. Fortunately, in the 1860s, the state’s attitude towards dissenters began to soften again. In 1865, by personal permission of Alexander II, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery, which had suffered considerably from the demolishers, was returned to the Pomorian community. The emperor likely took into account the collective petition of wealthy Pomorian merchants Alexey Dmitrievich Pikkiyev, V. I. Mironov, and Alexander Platonovich Orlovsky, who advocated for the cemetery. Through the efforts of trustees and ordinary Old Believers, Malaya Okhta was quickly restored. However, the local almshouses were never returned to the dissenters, so the necessary infrastructure had to be rebuilt from scratch. As noted in the "Okhta Encyclopedia" by Alexander Yuryevich Krasnolutsky, in the same year, one of the cemetery trustees, merchant I. P. Mikhailov, bought a plot of land nearby, where a two-story stone building with services was soon erected. This building housed a free medical point, which in 1873 was transformed into an Old Believer almshouse. A prayer house dedicated to St. Prophet Elijah was established there. This prayer house (actually Pomorian-Fedoseevsky) was dismantled in 1930, and the buildings were reconstructed for the needs of a poorhouse for the elderly.
During the 1860s and 1870s, Pomorian cemeteries (including Malaya Okhta) were often rebuilt and re-equipped. For example, in 1871, Old Believers erected a monument dedicated to the victims of the 1850s. This monument was demolished after 1937, but its preserved image can be seen in an old postcard.
By the end of the 19th century, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery had almost completely recovered its former status. The stone construction, as already mentioned, was supervised by Old Believer Pomorian and Fedoseevtsy communities, with significant funds provided by prominent Pomorian merchants who were dedicated to charity.
The 20th century was turbulent for Malaya Okhta. First, in the early 1900s, the cemetery again had to deal with the consequences of the brutal suppression of dissenters. In 1913, an unplanned reorganization took place: after the complete destruction of the Orthodox chapel (part of the old almshouse) and an extensive reconstruction of the cemetery territory, Pomorians and Fedoseevtsy were separated by a new fence, with the Fedoseevtsy receiving a reduced plot. This territorial redistribution did not benefit either party.
In 1917, the cemetery underwent a significant transformation due to the October Revolution. Many Old Believers were imprisoned or exiled, and their property, including the cemetery, was taken over by the Soviet authorities. The cemetery’s status and functioning were significantly altered, and the area began to experience neglect and disrepair.
In the Soviet period, the cemetery suffered severe degradation. Its territory was used for various purposes not related to its original function, and the remaining Old Believer buildings were repurposed or destroyed. In 1937, the cemetery underwent extensive land reclamation and was subsequently opened as a public park, though the Old Believer community’s historical connection to the site was disregarded. The cemetery’s historical monuments and burial sites were mostly lost or repurposed.
Despite these challenges, the Malaya Okhta Old Believer Cemetery remains a significant historical site. The Old Believer community's efforts to preserve and restore the cemetery reflect their deep respect for their heritage and the memory of their ancestors.
How to find Malookhtinsky Old Believers' Cemetery?
