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Comment by danielmorozoff | Hacker News Reader

If anyone is interested, the Lykovs were part of a group of 'Old Believers' (староверы) a sect of the Russian orthodox church. The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges (an attempt to solve the problem of 'Religion is the opium of the people')

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

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> The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges

No, it's because all the Orthodox that existed in cities realised the schism was stupid. Most of the 'Old Believers' moved to whatever remote part of Siberia or Alaska long before the communists existed. And those that do still exist, live in a timewarp, and are more akin to a cult than an Orthodox community. Keep in mind the schism happened in 1666 - nearly 3 centuries before the communist revolution.

Though the schism happened long before the Lykovs, the communist party led a strong campaign to destroy christian organizations in the early 20s-40s (right around the time the lykovs left).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_(...

Here is another example of a community of old believers in Alaska (1968) with an article in the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/a-17th-c...

The communists not only destroyed the christians communities but also massacred anyone belonging to the bourgeoisie. It started with the Cheka.

The persecution actually began under Peter the Great. By the time Communists came into power most old believers had already fled.

The main reason for persecution was the old believers distrust of state power. They didn't accept rule by it and they didn't take any part in it. They were similar to the Amish people in the US.

The Danube delta has a fairly large population of old believers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipovans

Yep and in an irony of history, they, not the Metropolitan of Moscow, were actually being better at adhering to tradition.

They have a lot of interesting traditions, including meditation techniques not known to "Metropolitan of Moscow".

What tradition do they hold to that has any relevance to Orthodox Christianity? It's not as if the MP (Moscow Patriarchate) is particularly modern - apart from not forcing their lay adherents to abandon modern technology. There are still hermits and monks in the canonical Orthodox Churches - on Mt. Athos, at Valaam, Mt. Sinai, etc... Canonical Orthodox churches still reject most of the shit that the Anglicans and Catholics have accepted. But they cross themselves with 3 fingers instead of 2...

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