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Religious dissidents settle into American life
-!-!-
By Matthew Volz
-!-!-
2002-03-13
-!-!-
Forty years ago, a small group of Russian religious dissidents resettled in the United States following a Cold War propaganda battle. The Rev. Ilya Gun tells what happened to them.
-!-!-
The Rev. Ilya Gun found his calling late in life. He was at first taken aback when a Russian Orthodox priest in New Jersey suggested he join the clergy in the 1970s. Gun was an immigrant in his 40s with no formal education who knew farming and fishing. He protested that his illiteracy kept him from becoming a priest.
.
"He said, 'That's OK,'" Gun, 76, said in broken English. "You come to church, you believe. You become a priest."
.
Gun took his vows in 1974 and, in doing so, joined the faith that caused his ancestors to flee Russia. Gun, his wife Anastasia, and their two sons were Russian Orthodox Old Believers, members of a sect that split from the Orthodox church centuries ago.
.
The Guns came to the United States with 225 other Old Believers from Turkey nearly 40 years ago. Today, the members of their group have blended into American life in varying degrees. Some, like Gun, have been completely reabsorbed into mainstream life. Others live in isolation in Alaska, where they continue to practice their faith with little outside influence.
.
The Old Believers originally split from the Russian Orthodox Church over changes in rituals made in the 17th century. Some changes were minor, such as the number of fingers used to make the sign of the cross, but the Old Believers considered any change heretical and continued to practice by the old rites. The sect has been compared to the Amish in their traditional customs, way of life and dress.
.
Despite abandoning the old rites for church vestments, Gun still considers himself an Old Believer. For him, the term goes beyond religion. Gun and his group had no national identity before coming to America. They are Russian descendents and speak Russian, but they never lived in Russia. They never integrated with the Turks after 200 years of living in Turkey. Although most of his group have been naturalized as American citizens, being an "Old Believer" remains the closest thing to a national identity Gun has, and he said crossing himself with three fingers instead of two does not take that away.
.
Gun strikes a stern figure at first blush. Deep lines are etched on his face and his white beard flows from his chin to his chest. But that image disappears when asked about Turkey: His eyes crinkle, he smiles broadly and he sits a stranger so close that knees touch.
.
His community of Old Believers had lived in a village in Turkey called Koca Gol since the 18th century. They numbered 5,000 at their peak, and lived as farmers and fishermen. By the time he and his wife moved to Istanbul for work in 1956, the Old Believers in Turkey were dying out.
.
The bloodlines were too close to intermarry any further, Gun's wife, Anastasia said, and their religion would not allow them to marry Muslims. To survive, they would have to move.
.
The Guns' resettlement from Turkey to the United States 40 years ago was a little-known propaganda battle in the Cold War. In 1962, the Soviet Union started a propaganda program called "Return to the Homeland," in which dissidents were encouraged to return to the Soviet Union. They promised the Old Believers free passage and their own land. That year, 1,000 Old Believers boarded a ship in Istanbul bound for Russia.
.
About 250 stayed behind, not wanting to settle in Russia. Ilya and Anastasia Gun's acquaintances in Istanbul advised them not to go.
.
The Tolstoy Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit organization, lobbied for their resettlement in the United States, where they would not have to live under the Communist party.
.
"They were very suspicious of the Soviets," said Robert Whittaker, the Tolstoy Foundation's archivist and a Russian professor at the City University of New York.
.
The foundation's lobbying efforts paid off. On April 12, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy signed an order allowing the remaining Old Believers into the United States. The more conservative members of the group soon moved to Oregon, taking an offer of land that promised a pioneering, isolated life. Five years later, that group further splintered, with some moving to Alaska for more land and even greater isolation.
.
The others, including the Gun family, opted to stay on the East Coast. They came from a more liberal group of Old Believers and were more comfortable integrating into their surroundings.
.
"Now I feel at home," Anastasia said.
.
"Now I am happy."
.
Though they still thought of themselves as Old Believers, the Guns found that America had changed them. They felt the disparity between their American and Old Believer lives on a 1999 visit to Moscow. It was their first trip to the Russian capital, Gun recalled recently while cooking breakfast in the kitchen of an Orthodox church in New York City's Upper East Side. At an Old Believer monastery, he recalled, he was warmly welcomed as a long-lost brother. A priest even invited him to move in with them permanently.
.
"I said no," Gun said with a shrug.
.
On that same trip, Anastasia discovered just how much she had changed since moving to America. A Muscovite, upon finding out she was an Old Believer, asked Anastasia to speak in the "old way," the centuries-old Russian spoken by many Old Believers. She faltered.
.
"I think I forgot how," she said.
.
But despite he and his family's changes since their Cold War encounter, Gun said he will always identify with the dissident group from Turkey.
.
"I am Old Believer," he said proudly.
-!-!-
Old Believers are sworn in as American citizens in Alaska
-!-!-
The Tolstoy Foundation
By Matthew Volz
-!-!-
2002-03-13
-!-!-
Forty years ago, a small group of Russian religious dissidents resettled in the United States following a Cold War propaganda battle. The Rev. Ilya Gun tells what happened to them.
-!-!-
The Rev. Ilya Gun found his calling late in life. He was at first taken aback when a Russian Orthodox priest in New Jersey suggested he join the clergy in the 1970s. Gun was an immigrant in his 40s with no formal education who knew farming and fishing. He protested that his illiteracy kept him from becoming a priest.
.
"He said, 'That's OK,'" Gun, 76, said in broken English. "You come to church, you believe. You become a priest."
.
Gun took his vows in 1974 and, in doing so, joined the faith that caused his ancestors to flee Russia. Gun, his wife Anastasia, and their two sons were Russian Orthodox Old Believers, members of a sect that split from the Orthodox church centuries ago.
.
The Guns came to the United States with 225 other Old Believers from Turkey nearly 40 years ago. Today, the members of their group have blended into American life in varying degrees. Some, like Gun, have been completely reabsorbed into mainstream life. Others live in isolation in Alaska, where they continue to practice their faith with little outside influence.
.
The Old Believers originally split from the Russian Orthodox Church over changes in rituals made in the 17th century. Some changes were minor, such as the number of fingers used to make the sign of the cross, but the Old Believers considered any change heretical and continued to practice by the old rites. The sect has been compared to the Amish in their traditional customs, way of life and dress.
.
Despite abandoning the old rites for church vestments, Gun still considers himself an Old Believer. For him, the term goes beyond religion. Gun and his group had no national identity before coming to America. They are Russian descendents and speak Russian, but they never lived in Russia. They never integrated with the Turks after 200 years of living in Turkey. Although most of his group have been naturalized as American citizens, being an "Old Believer" remains the closest thing to a national identity Gun has, and he said crossing himself with three fingers instead of two does not take that away.
.
Gun strikes a stern figure at first blush. Deep lines are etched on his face and his white beard flows from his chin to his chest. But that image disappears when asked about Turkey: His eyes crinkle, he smiles broadly and he sits a stranger so close that knees touch.
.
His community of Old Believers had lived in a village in Turkey called Koca Gol since the 18th century. They numbered 5,000 at their peak, and lived as farmers and fishermen. By the time he and his wife moved to Istanbul for work in 1956, the Old Believers in Turkey were dying out.
.
The bloodlines were too close to intermarry any further, Gun's wife, Anastasia said, and their religion would not allow them to marry Muslims. To survive, they would have to move.
.
The Guns' resettlement from Turkey to the United States 40 years ago was a little-known propaganda battle in the Cold War. In 1962, the Soviet Union started a propaganda program called "Return to the Homeland," in which dissidents were encouraged to return to the Soviet Union. They promised the Old Believers free passage and their own land. That year, 1,000 Old Believers boarded a ship in Istanbul bound for Russia.
.
About 250 stayed behind, not wanting to settle in Russia. Ilya and Anastasia Gun's acquaintances in Istanbul advised them not to go.
.
The Tolstoy Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit organization, lobbied for their resettlement in the United States, where they would not have to live under the Communist party.
.
"They were very suspicious of the Soviets," said Robert Whittaker, the Tolstoy Foundation's archivist and a Russian professor at the City University of New York.
.
The foundation's lobbying efforts paid off. On April 12, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy signed an order allowing the remaining Old Believers into the United States. The more conservative members of the group soon moved to Oregon, taking an offer of land that promised a pioneering, isolated life. Five years later, that group further splintered, with some moving to Alaska for more land and even greater isolation.
.
The others, including the Gun family, opted to stay on the East Coast. They came from a more liberal group of Old Believers and were more comfortable integrating into their surroundings.
.
"Now I feel at home," Anastasia said.
.
"Now I am happy."
.
Though they still thought of themselves as Old Believers, the Guns found that America had changed them. They felt the disparity between their American and Old Believer lives on a 1999 visit to Moscow. It was their first trip to the Russian capital, Gun recalled recently while cooking breakfast in the kitchen of an Orthodox church in New York City's Upper East Side. At an Old Believer monastery, he recalled, he was warmly welcomed as a long-lost brother. A priest even invited him to move in with them permanently.
.
"I said no," Gun said with a shrug.
.
On that same trip, Anastasia discovered just how much she had changed since moving to America. A Muscovite, upon finding out she was an Old Believer, asked Anastasia to speak in the "old way," the centuries-old Russian spoken by many Old Believers. She faltered.
.
"I think I forgot how," she said.
.
But despite he and his family's changes since their Cold War encounter, Gun said he will always identify with the dissident group from Turkey.
.
"I am Old Believer," he said proudly.
-!-!-
Old Believers are sworn in as American citizens in Alaska
-!-!-
The Tolstoy Foundation
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