Bloody Dispute. The State Church Persecuted Old Believers More Zealously Than the State Itself
In the Tretyakov Gallery, one cannot miss the enormous painting by Vasily Perov, Nikita Pustosvyat. Dispute on Faith. At the center of the composition is a figure that evokes little sympathy: an elder with a frenzied, crazed expression—Nikita Dobrynin, an Old Believer priest. This is a caricatured, biased portrayal. The term “Pustosvyat” (meaning “false saint”)…