A Russian-speaking village… in the US?
April 9th, 2006An interesting story about a group I’d never heard of:
Wandering Old Believers Find a Home in Alaska
I was actually reading this article about the more familiar situation of a Native American group, the Sugpiaq, trying to defend their dying language by getting it taught in schools. But this bit wasn’t about Native Americans:
A dozen parents flew out of the village of 230 and then drove to Soldotna last Monday to make their pitch to the Kenai Peninsula School Board. They were joined at the podium by parents from the Russian Old Believer village of Kachemak Selo, who were seeking a similar step-up of support for Russian language instruction in their local school.
At which point I said “hey what?”
That’s really what I said I said, “hey what?”
See, this article is about Alaska, and I had no idea that there were still Russian speakers in Alaska… holdovers from the days when Alaska was Russian?
Not exactly, it turns out. Check this out:
Wandering Old Believers Find a Home in Alaska
The Old Believers split from the church in the 17th century when Patriarch Nikon ordered a number of reforms to Russian Orthodoxy. Many of the changes were minor — the number of fingers used in the sign of the cross, the spelling of Jesus’ name, the number of times “hallelujah” is said in prayer — but the Old Believers considered any change to the rites heretical and refused to go along.
The Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated them and the tsars persecuted them. Many left Russia or moved to the Siberian taiga where they could pass the old rites down to their children in peace.
So this group left Russia in the time of the Tsar, and wandered around the world ever since. Now they’re Americans, and they still speak Russian.
The ideal solution would be to find a certified Russian instructor that would be willing to make the two-mile hike to and from the village every school day.
“We will be on the lookout for somebody like that, but those are in very short supply,” Stewart said.
I would try to summarize the whole story but… good grief, it’s complex, and I have work to do!
Both of the links above are worth a read, however. The second one even has a couple rather great pictures.
