UDC 391

The article examines the processes of adaptation of traditional Christian confessions for the Siberian region (primarily folk Orthodoxy and Old Believers) to the ongoing changes in the surrounding world. Special attention is paid to such a phenomenon as "technical eschatology", which is associated with the endowment of technology with eschatological significance, when the spread of technical innovations - new means of transport, communications, household appliances, etc. - is regarded by carriers of traditional religious consciousness as a direct sign of the coming or already coming "last times". The research is based on the author's long-term field research, as well as published works of peasant writers-Old Believers, which assess the new realities of modern life and, first of all, the achievements of science and technology of the XX century in terms of the Orthodox Faith.

Keywords: folk Orthodoxy and Old Believers of Siberia, traditional eschatological myth, apocalyptic images, modern achievements of science and technology.

Introduction

One of the reasons for the transformation of traditional religious consciousness is the rapid change in the subject environment surrounding a person, including the emergence of new means of transport, communications, household appliances and other technical innovations. Being a characteristic reflection of the growing processes of globalization, the dynamic development of traditional media, as well as the explosive spread of the latest (satellite, electronic, etc.) technologies, inevitably lead to the formation of a single information space for the entire post-industrial society [Rogozin, 2006, p. 476]. At the same time, "new global realities", according to experts, radically change the most conservative structures of social consciousness and behavior - traditions, customs, as well as religious and ritual practices [Zhvitiashvili, 2003, p.6]. In this regard, the question of what is happening in modern conditions with cultures focused on preserving traditions, how they adapt to the rapid changes in the surrounding world, is of particular interest.

One of the ways of understanding the changes that are taking place by the carriers of religious consciousness is to endow technology with not only sacred, but also eschatological meaning. At the same time, the spread of technical innovations is regarded as a direct sign of the approach of the "last times". This phenomenon, called "technical eschatology" in the scientific literature [Akhmetova, 2004, § 2.3], is considered in the article based on the materials of the Folk Orthodox and Old Believer traditions of Siberia. The research is based on the author's field collections, as well as published works by peasant writers-Old Believers, which assess the new realities of modern life, including the achievements of science and technology of the XX century, in the categories of Orthodox dogma.

Eschatological myth in the context of Russian history of the XX century

The traditional structure of the" universal eschatological myth " includes images of the global

The work was carried out within the framework of the thematic plan (R & D 1.5.09) and the AVCP " Development of the scientific potential of the Higher School of Economics (2009-2010) "(project of the RNP.2.2.1.1 / 1822) of the Federal Agency for Education and Science, with the support of the RGNF (project No. 08 - 01 - 00333a).

1. A family of Old Believers in the Usinsk-Uryankhai region. Early XX century (AREM, 1135-49).

distortions of the world order, the general decomposition of cultural norms and rules, as well as the inevitable disasters that will befall humanity on the eve of the end of the world [Petrov, 2004, p. 46]. At the same time, one of the main motives of such narratives is associated with the appearance of unusual objects. At the later stages of the development of eschatological theory, these are various technical innovations (Panchenko, 2001).

The first signs of "technical eschatology" as a distinctive feature of mass religious consciousness in Russian history date back to the 1920s and 1930s, which were characterized by the modernization of all aspects of peasant life, which, accordingly, was accompanied by a radical break in the traditional worldview. The changes that took place, as already noted, affected the deep foundations of human perception of the world, including the familiar subject environment: new, previously unseen household items, tools, means of transport and communication appeared. So, when they first heard a broadcast from a radio producer, many villagers, according to informants, disowned it as a diabolical obsession; when they saw the plane, they called it the iron devil. Often people were simply afraid of new agricultural machinery, in particular the first tractor, believing that it would trample the entire earth and poison the entire atmosphere (PMA*, 1998, 2000, Novosibirsk region, Altai Territory).

A striking example of Old Believer literature, which attaches eschatological significance to technology, is the works of the Yenisei Old Believer writer I. N. Zharikov. The emergence of a network of railways, telephone, telegraph, construction of power plants, the invention of the airplane and other technical achievements are raised by the author to the rank of signs that allow us to judge the approach of the "final battle of the Apocalypse" [Zolnikova, 2006, p.225]. The same categories were used to assess the political and socio-economic cataclysms of the era when the forced planting of collective farms, the mass destruction of churches,and the dekulakization of the strongest and most affluent part of the rural population were identified by the peasants with the end of the world.

The ideas about the" last times", which are characteristic of all Christian confessions, were most fully embodied in the Old Believer worldview. It was "the real facts of the bloody persecution of the Old Believers from Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich to Stalin," N. N. Pokrovsky emphasizes, that forced peasant thinkers to creatively develop "the most traditional Christian eschatology" [Dukhovnaya literatura..., 1999, pp. 11-12]. While the early eschatological constructions of the Old Believers focused mainly on polemics with the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church about the time of the Second Coming, the nature of the Antichrist, etc., the subsequent evolution of the eschatological myth brought to the fore other subjects and images related to understanding new forms of social life, including the role of technical innovations in society.

Finding salvation in the Old Believers ' worldview traditionally meant leaving the world of the Antichrist for dark forests, distant deserts, and deep caves. The most consistent development of the idea of escapism, as noted by K. V. Chistov, was among the Northern Russian and Siberian bespopovtsy [2002, p. 180, 188], including the Old Believers of the chapel concord (Fig. 1), one of the places of compact residence of which at present are monasteries and settlements in the upper reaches of the Small Yenisei - the so-called Upper reaches (Kaa-Khem district, Republic of Tyva)**. A characteristic feature of the culture of this local group, as shown by the folklore and ethnographic survey conducted in 2004 , is the preservation of the tradition of existence

* Author's field materials.

** A detailed description of the history of the chapel concord, an introduction to scientific usage, and an analysis of written sources identified during archaeological expeditions were carried out by Novosibirsk researchers led by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Pokrovsky [Dukhovnaya Literatura..., 1999,2005].

spiritual poems, both in oral and written versions. They cover an extremely wide range of topics-from classic Old Testament plots (The Flood was terrible, / The people saw, /Wrath is coming, wrath is coming... etc.) to those that sound like a direct response to modern events and phenomena (It's boring to live in a godless country, / Where the idol and God are fake... etc.).

According to their status, Old Believers-chapels are divided into lay, eating from common dishes, semi-worldly, separated in dishes, and cathedral, i.e. members of the community consisting of the cathedral brotherhood. Each of these categories differs in the degree of sinfulness and, accordingly, in the purity of its "cup". "Clean chalices" are considered to be available only to cathedral members who observe all religious prohibitions and regulations. The rest, including catechumens (those who wish to join the brotherhood) and excommunicated ("apostate from God" members of the brotherhood), are considered to be in a cell, i.e. bearing some degree of sin. Those who join the cathedral assume a number of restrictions, including those related to the use of household appliances (by the decree of the Sandakchess Cathedral of 1994, chapels are forbidden to keep radios and televisions in their homes) [Dukhovnaya literatura..., 2005, p. 21]. As reported by one of our interlocutors (born in 1979, pos. Sizim), when his mother received the blessing to join the cathedral, the first thing they did was remove the tape recorder and TV from the house *.

The principle of fidelity to antiquity, established as a fundamental doctrine, manifested itself in all spheres of activity of the Old Believers. Even today, the desire to follow the old patterns most vividly characterizes the life of" desert people", inhabitants of hermitages, zaimok and remote settlements. At the same time, the need to adapt to the external world forces representatives of this population group to gradually change their views on the achievements of scientific and technological progress in general. Various arguments of the Old Believers "for" and "against" the use of technology have been repeatedly considered in the specialized literature [Pokrovsky, 1988, p. 32-33; Tatarintseva, 2006, p. 72; etc.]. Among the modern Old Believers of Tuva, a fairly wide range of opinions on this issue is recorded. For example, those who live in the skete of Matushka, according to SM. Vershinina (born in 1938, the village of Erzhey), at first they did not allow him to cut wood with the Druzhba chainsaw, calling it an antichrist charm. To which he had to object: Then you don't use gasoline and don't drive a car, but only cultivate flax and sew your own clothes (PMA, 2004).An amazing compromise was found by Sizim's former mentor, the late Ivan Grigoryevich Yurkov, who defined his attitude to the use of the technique as follows:: What is a sin for fun, then for work - it is possible. Makarii Hermogenovich Rukavitsyn, who is now a living mentor, has earned himself an equally amazing reputation as the "local Kulibin", the inventor of agricultural tools (PMA, 2004).

According to the received information, cars and tractors appeared in the personal use of local residents not earlier than the 1990s. At the same time, electricity was provided to the villages. The first black-and-white television also appeared in these places only at the end of the second millennium. This item of household appliances is especially intolerant among the cathedral members of the community.

Television in modern Orthodox Discourse

The motif of the appearance of unusual objects is characteristic not only for Old Believer narratives about the end of the world. Similar motifs are very actively developed in modern Orthodox movements, including in the framework of such a religious subculture as the Orthodox church environment. This subculture, which was located on the very periphery of public ideology, remained unknown for many years. Based on the materials received, in particular, from pilgrims of the Seraphim-Diveyevsky Monastery and Optina Pustyn, A.V. Tarabukina showed that technology and technological progress in general are considered in the Orthodox church and near-church discourse as the result of Satanic influence [2000, § 1.2]. M. V. Akhmetova, who devoted a special study to the eschatological motives of the consciousness of the people of the "church circle", also came to the conclusion that the widespread use of the latest (including computer) technologies, according to the ideas existing in the church environment, is a sign of the coming of the Antichrist [2004, § 2.3].

A special place in modern eschatological concepts is given to such an item of household appliances as a TV. It is believed that television, which has been firmly embedded in the everyday life of people since the 60s of the XX century, played a crucial role in humanity's awareness of its integrity, for the first time allowing individual groups of the population not only to hear, but also to see each other. At the same time, the attitude of the elderly part of rural residents to it is paradoxically affected by the following factors:-

* No less intolerant attitude of this category of the population remains to the reproduction of the human image and voice, which is why bans on photo and audio recording continue to exist among them [Lyubimova, 2004, p. 55].

Fig. 2. Staroobryadka-chapel for reading "divine books", village. Erzhey of the Kaakhemsky district of the Republic of Tuva, 2004 (photo by the author).

at once, traditional ideas about such an object of religious worship as an icon were affected. Performing, in fact, the same role of a "guide" to another world as an icon, the TV is perceived by them as an object endowed with some magical properties. However, its involvement in the sphere of the sacred is interpreted differently in the religious environment.

Rural residents of the European part of Russia "adapted" to consecrate ritual plants and ritual food right in front of a television screen as early as in the late 1980s, when central television began broadcasting the Orthodox service on Easter. Reflecting on this phenomenon, E. N. Razumovskaya, who recorded it in the population of the Tver region, suggests that " the subconscious of the traditional person works here in two directions." First, the TV is a "window" into another world, where the characters look "incredibly well-fed, smartly dressed and rich" compared to the inhabitants of a modern village. Secondly, an illiterate peasant woman perceives the images flashing on the screen as nothing more than an inexplicable miracle. Hence the conscious choice of a place for the TV-the red corner, where it is just like icons, "swaddled" and decorated with devout people [Razumovskaya, 2002, p. 244-245].

The opposite attitude to this mass media was recorded among the Old Believers of Tuva. The TV set that appeared in these places only at the end of the second millennium, usually placed in the red corner, is perceived by cathedral members of the community only as a beast icon that has taken the traditional place of ordinary icons.

Moreover, this piece of household appliances is regarded by them as a direct sign of the coming or already coming "last times": In our book, the Apocalypse, the TV is called an animal icon. This means that the last times are coming. The animal icon is the last prophecy. As soon as the Zverin icon appears, so the last times will come (informant-A. A. Zhitnikova, born in 1920, village. Erzhey)* (Figure 2).

A similar attitude to television, as well as computer technology, is observed in the modern Orthodox church environment. A television set with an antenna and a cord is regarded as a "demon with horns and a tail", and the widespread use of computer technologies is associated with the coming of the Antichrist [Tarabukina, 2000, § 2.11]. Like an icon perceived in traditional culture as a "window to another-divine-world", the TV, according to M. V. Akhmetova, appears as an "anti-icon of the last times". Its special role in modern "technical eschatology" is determined by the fact that this item of household appliances acts, on the one hand, as a certain entity "possessing a demonic nature", and on the other-as a "magic window", " medium connecting this and the other world "(Akhmetova, 2004, § 2.3)..

Thus, the ambivalent properties of this innovation determine the different (sometimes diametrically opposite) attitude of the bearers of religious consciousness to it. At the same time, it should be taken into account that any confessional environment, in turn, is highly stratified, since it includes not only the elite, but also broad strata of the illiterate population.

Endowing the TV with positive sacral properties is characteristic of the folk-legal environment as a whole, which is currently represented mainly by rural elderly women. The current demographic situation in rural areas is such that the female elderly population, as Priest Alexander Shantaev writes, is several times larger than the male population. That is why "rural Orthodoxy (today) has turned out to be predominantly female" [Shantaev, 2004, p. 17, 19]. It is not by chance that the materials of E. N. Razumovskaya on modern forms of religious practices among rural residents of the Tver region contain a reservation that we are talking about" illiterate peasant women " [2002, p.244-245].

* The TV set (or" talking icon") is considered a" satanic " reality of the 20th century by the authors of the Ural explanatory Apocalypse. Newspapers and radio are also regarded by them as "means of witchcraft and sorcery, with the help of which Satan corrupts the people" [Pokrovsky and Zolnikova, 2002, p. 419, 424].

3. The Old Believer book with a leaflet. Museum of Life of Old Believers in Tarbagatai village, Tarbagatai district of the Republic of Buryatia, 2007 (author's photo).

Figure 4. The opening page of the Apocalypse. A manuscript of the end of the XVIII century (based on: [Buraeva, 2003]).

The opposite perception of TV as a kind of" demonic entity " is recorded in the Old Believer and Orthodox church environment. In this regard, it should be noted that in all historical epochs, the Old Believers were distinguished by an exceptionally high level of literacy, and the spiritual life of the Old Believers (in contrast to modern rural Orthodoxy) always obeyed a pronounced patriarchal-male principle. At the same time, at all stages of its development, the predominantly urban temple environment was oriented towards the monastic elite and the elders. For this reason, the worldview of representatives of this religious subculture is also elitist [Tarabukina, 2000, "Introduction"].

Thus, mass forms of religious consciousness, as follows from the above materials, are associated with a certain sacralization of technical innovations, while elite ones are more likely to demonize the results of scientific and technological progress. That is why a correct comparison of the Orthodox and Old Believer worldviews implies the choice of similar status carriers of religious traditions for comparison. At the same time, the main source of ideas about the "last times" in both cases continues to be the "divine books" (Figure 3) and, first of all, the Apocalypse, whose images and symbols are interpreted in relation to the modern era.

The problem of "pseudo-book attribution" of eschatological texts

A distinctive feature of popular eschatological views has always been the desire to support certain information with references to sources of book origin. It is established that the traditional methods of constructing eschatological works were various systems of evidence for the onset of the" last times " based on excerpts from the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Church fathers. It is not by chance that since the 18th century, when eschatological teaching was being formulated most intensively, the need to correlate the predictions set forth in these texts with the real Russian reality has become of paramount importance for Old Believer writers [Guryanova, 2001, 2004].

Prophetic instructions about the fate of humanity and the entire world on the eve of the Second Coming, set forth in the early Christian work "Revelation of John the Theologian", better known as the Apocalypse (Figure 4), are saturated with a system of images that are considered "very difficult to properly understand and interpret". It is for this reason that the church charter prohibits reading it during divine services (it is necessary not to read it, but to interpret it, and only competent old men can do this - PMA, 2004). The content of the Apocalypse becomes clear only as the events predicted in it occur [Archbishop Averky (Taushev), 2006]. To when-

However, the previously mysterious prophecy about the instantaneous defeat of vast spaces is explained only with the invention of the atomic bomb, "the use of which made such a probability obvious" (Pokrovsky and Zolnikova, 2002, p. 298, 300).

Nevertheless, not all events and phenomena interpreted as fulfilled prophecies go back to ancient sources. In the system of apocalyptic images, there is no mention of the "animal icon" ("talking icon", "devil icon", etc.). However, this image in the worldview of modern Old Believers, as already noted, is an encrypted symbol of television and at the same time - one of the signs of the onset of the "last times". The analysis of such facts, drawn from modern eschatological narratives, allowed A. A. Panchenko to raise the question of the "paradox of pseudo-book attribution", the essence of which lies in the fact that most narrators emphasize the book origin of the eschatological information known to them. This, in turn, often confuses researchers who try to find written sources of folk stories about the "last times"in all cases. At the same time, the genesis of such texts, their social and cultural functions, the author emphasizes, are connected with the events and phenomena of the modern era. When faced with problems that are beyond the usual forms of everyday life, including: with technical innovations, the bearer of traditional consciousness interprets them as fulfilled prophecies described in their time in canonical texts and apocryphal literature (Panchenko, 2001).

An illustrative example of a modern appeal to the authority of book sources when describing technical innovations as signs of fulfilled prophecies about the "last times" can be found in the statements of the mentor of the Uymon Old Believers community, T. M. Kudryavtsev (born in 1929), recorded in the summer of 2006 in the village. Ust-Koksa (Ust-Koksinsky district, Altai Republic): In the old books, everything about the last times is said. We lived - we did not know any radio, then radio appeared, gramophones went, gramophones. Now the last time is coming, apparently noticeably. It was written that five thousand versts away they would talk, but here they would hear. Everyone was thinking-wondering-who is it? Then we found out-radivo. Now television. I was told that the house would be a good place to see everything. All right... That before the last time, the whole white world will be covered with wire. Here it is right now and covered-the contact lines of power for long distances are stretched. Drawing attention to the fact that the "old books" already had all the information about the future achievements of scientific and technological progress, Titus Mikhailovich emphasizes the allegorical nature of the predictions embedded in them: No one knew about it, and everything was already said in the old books. But there it is written differently, you need to guess... There everything is predicted for a thousand years in advance (PMA, 2006). Similarly, discussing the images of animals mentioned in the books of the ancient prophets, a modern writer-Old Believer A. G. Murachev comes to the conclusion that the "seven-headed beast" is a tsarism that lasted until "the royal throne was darkened". "Everything is clear and clever, but you just need to understand it correctly, "the people's thinker concludes in an essay entitled" On the End of the World " (1994) (pit. po: [Dukhovnaya Literatura..., 1999, p.302]).

One of the specific features of the confessional consciousness of the Old Believers is connected, therefore, with the historical teleologism inherent in it. The history of mankind itself appears as a continuous struggle between dark and light forces, culminating at the end of the world, and all events taking place in the world are strictly predetermined. So, the Old Believers living in Tuva are convinced that sooner or later a world war will begin, and all countries will merge into one. From seven cities, people will gather in one city and live there (PMA, 2004). The symbols of successive epochs are well-known apocalyptic images-white, black and red horses: Each horse is about different times, and the red one is about the Soviet government (informant - K. I. Yurkova, born in 1926)., pos. Sizim). Some messages contain detailed descriptions of them: This book, the Apocalypse, is compiled from both the beginning and end of the century. There are horses drawn there. The first horse goes, eats grass, and an angel of the Lord sits on it. The second horse just goes, the angel of the Lord also sits on it. And the third horse, red, is already flying at full speed. On it, the leader, that is, the angel, is no longer there. His tail is trimmed and his mane is trimmed. This is the Soviet government, the present people. That's what the Soviet government is like. Today it is, and tomorrow it is different. Death sits on the last horse (informant-A. A. Zhitnikova, born in 1920, village. Erzhey). In the already mentioned essay "On the End of the World" A. G. Murachev explains that such an apocalyptic pair as a rider and a horse symbolize, respectively, the rulers and the people. The Old Believer writer describes the "present" times, which date back to 1917, as "complete atheism, atheism", and adds: "... the horse went berserk. ., that is, the people came out of submission... and he slew the king on horseback" (cit. by: [Ibid., p. 299]).

The scope of eschatological experiences of modern Old Believers, as well as representatives of other religious subcultures, extends not only to the socio-historical reality, but also to the natural environment. At the same time, the very idea of the "last times" often takes on an ecological connotation.

Scientific and technical images in the latest interpretations of the Apocalypse

The elements of mythological thinking peculiar to the eschatological reasoning of the Old Believers are especially clearly manifested in the stories about the onset of the"last times". Already in the time of Archpriest Habakkuk, charges were formulated against Nikonian heretics, who, according to supporters of the "old faith", "defiled the earth, the mother of all, defiled the air, defiled the sky" [Zhuravel, 2001, p. 56]. Habakkuk himself regarded contemporary reality as a universal catastrophe, when all the natural "elements":" air, earth and water " - come out of their limits. The disturbed balance of the universe, in which fires burn, animals run away, birds fly away, and "fish are diminished in the waters", also covers the human race, which is experiencing "pestilence, war, and other horrors" [Life..., 1960, p.274]. At the same time, A. I. Klibanov emphasizes, the world of nature and the world of man are not yet opposed to each other, since " the God-given whole... it bears no sin." The sin lies with those who followed the" apostate " church [Klibanov, 1992, p. 35].

According to N. N. Pokrovsky, the way of cognition of the Creator proclaimed in ancient Russian literature through comprehension of the world created by him predetermined a special interest in natural disasters. For this reason, various kinds of disasters (earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, etc.) in the Orthodox literary tradition have always been considered as signs that made it possible to realize the approach of the last apocalyptic drama [Dukhovnaya literatura..., 2005, p. 16, 557]. Thus, in one of the Old Believer writings of the second half of the XIX century, it is explicitly stated that" increasing fire eruptions "foreshadow the approach of the last day, which opens with" all - destructive fire " (see: [Ibid., pp. 413-414]). Similarly, the coming of the end of the world is described in the stories of the modern Orthodox population: Gladness, pestilence and earthquakes are already the beginning of the Second Coming (PMA, village of Shaidurovo, Suzunsky district, Novosibirsk region, 2003). In the narrative of the Old Believer mentor T. M. Kudryavtsev, all the above-mentioned scientific and technical achievements are assigned the role of a kind of eschatological signs. With vivid colors, the narrator paints a picture of the Last Judgment, when at first fire will flare up from the east to the heavens, everything around will burn-both the heavens and the stones ... and the seas will dry up. Then, in the west, the fire will stop and form a flooded lake for flour. And only the boundless mercy of the Lord, according to the author, will for the time being pacify the wrath of the heavenly bodies and natural elements, giving hope for salvation to all sinners: All are submissive to the Lord God-the heavens, rivers, animals. Only one person is defiant... The sun can't stand it any longer: "I'll burn them all,"he says... And the Lord says: "No, be patient, maybe they still rest.".. The moon can't stand it... Earth says: "I'll devour them all.".. Here, the earth is shaking - what do you think it is? The Lord will look at the earth, and it, Mother, is shaken, can not tolerate sinners, and He still tolerates*.

At the same time, in the latest interpretations of the Apocalypse, the achievements of science and technology are elevated to the rank of the direct cause of not only social, but also environmental disasters, as, in particular, the titles of the works of the Yenisei Old Believer writer A. G. Murachev indicate.: "Science and Technology as a killer" (1983) and "Preatomic Harbingers" (1984) (see: [Ibid., pp. 398-406]). According to the author, science and technology deserve sharp criticism because both of them are the fruit of" wisdom " not spiritual, but carnal [Ibid., p. 398]. And in this regard, A. G. Murachev's views directly echo the views of another Old Believer writer, I. N. Zharikov, whose works explain the corruption of science by the fact that it teaches people to think not about the Kingdom of Heaven, but about "how best to use life on earth." In other words, the negative perception of science in both thinkers is associated with its rejection of the " narrow path "(i.e., the path of moral achievement and rejection of worldly temptations) and turning to the" broad path " (i.e., the path of pleasure and sin) (see: [Zolnikova, 2006, p.223, 224]).

A. G. Murachev is particularly indignant at the "different chemistry", from which, as he believes, "everything dies: the forest dries up, the grass fades, insects and animals die, people wither, rocks and stones become decrepit, seas and rivers become shallow "(cit. by: [Dukhovnaya literatura..., 2005, p. 398]). For the author himself, there are no harmful (" ... -

* In their own words, Old Believer writers populated sacred history with "recognizable images of peasants and peasant women with all their inherent psychology" (Pokrovsky and Zolnikova, 2002, p.313). In the oral retelling of T. M. Kudryavtsev, Christ goes to death because of human envy: the Lord, He gave sight to the blind, walking to the lame, raised Lazarus ...and they, the Jews, could do nothing... They wanted to kill Him out of envy. Judas sets out on the path of treachery, having made a mistake: Yuda took bread, and did not protect himself with a cross, because of the bread, the demon took possession of him. The narrator places the main characters of the sacred story in the peasant environment that is familiar to him. Pontic Pilate lives with him in an ordinary hut, and Christ himself spends his last night in the house with the sleeping disciples and in continuous conversations with the Father: They had such a fence in the fence there... The Lord will go and talk with his Father, Sabaoth, and he will say to him, "Yes," he says, " Son, you will have to be baptized by Fire accept... " (PMA, 2006)

they are useful creatures, since each one (including countless "mosquitoes and other gadflies") is a creation of God, so the loss of any of them causes acute emotional regret. "Where are those hundreds... schools of geese and cranes, - asks the taiga scribe, - which flew north in the spring and south in the autumn over our heads, when in childhood we raised our eyes to their cry and admired their harmony. Why did they change their innate nature and not continue to perform air travel now?" The main reason, in his opinion, lies in the same chemistry, from which they "expelled" or " completely went to extinction... dozens of breeds", carefully preserved by Noah "from the destruction of the flood "(cit. by: [Ibid., pp. 398-399]). At the same time, A. G. Murachev believes that the reduction of animal and plant species is a direct consequence of human lack of faith. "With the decrease of Christians," the popular thinker is convinced, " the Lord will not give fruit in all creation, both in fish, birds and animals."* At the same time," the longsuffering of God will be extended "as long as the" good and righteous " remain in the midst of a sinful world. However, the author regards the "execution of atomic war" as inevitable (cit. by: [Ibid., pp. 399-400, 402]).

The most detailed description of science and technology is contained in the already mentioned treatise of A. G. Murachev " On the End of the World "(see: Dukhovnaya Literatura, 1999, pp. 290-305), which briefly describes the author's eschatological concept and gives a new interpretation of world history. "The number of weeks," says the Yenisei scribe, " is honest, holy, and reverent before God," which is why "there must be different weeks of times in history" [Ibid., pp. 294-295]. A. G. Murachev characterizes each of the selected periods from different angles. If " churches inform the character of Christians... the press informs the imperious character", that is, the trumpets "inform about wars and the development of science and technology" [Ibid., pp. 298, 300]. "For 70 years of demonic atheism," the author states, "millions of Christians have fallen away from faith in Christ," so the fifth (current) stage will inevitably be resolved by an atomic war, after which "the whole world will unite into one state", headed by the antichrist. The sixth stage will end with the destruction of the Antichrist himself "and all his worshippers", and the seventh will mark "the coming of Christ and the end of the world" [Ibid., pp. 297-298].

A. G. Murachev identifies the technique generated by science with locusts ("godless science... created pruzey (locust), that is, a variety of equipment") and divides it into "agricultural" and "military". The latter, designed "for the mass destruction of mankind" ("all cars, tanks, planes and helicopters"), is likened to" battle - ready " horses, combining in their appearance not only zoo-and anthropomorphic features, but also certain technical characteristics. Thus, "iron hulls and armor "are combined with" human faces"," women's hair "(symbolizing" charm and love of technology"), as well as" lion's teeth " (meaning tank and other shells) [Ibid., pp. 300-301]. Atomic weapons ("the king of all weapons") are also presented by A. G. Murachev through traditional apocalyptic images of horses, endowed with unusual attributes-iron armor and lion's heads (since "there is no beast in the world more terrible than a lion"), from whose mouths " fire, smoke and a bug (sera. - G. L.)". Demonstrating a good knowledge of special scientific terms, the author gives his own interpretation of the listed "plagues", from which, according to the prediction, "a third of humanity" will die: "Under fire, of course, all-burning, lightning-fast, terribly bright and blinding light... which at a cloudy height with a loud, terrible crash will tyrannize for about ten seconds after the bomb explodes ... By smoke, of course, is atomic contagious dust... which... it will sow and poison the entire surface of the earth, feed and water... Under the bug, of course... a giant air wave that... spreading out, dragging a cloud of dirt and litter behind it, instantly destroying houses and forests... then he will become exhausted" [Ibid., p. 303]. A. G. Murachev sarcastically calls various types of deadly weapons ("atom, hydrogen, netron and laser beam")" canfets "and predicts that sooner or later all of them will be tried" in God-defying languages " [Ibid., p. 304].

So, if in the early eschatological writings the disturbance of the universal balance is interpreted as the anger of natural elements "protruding from their limits", and natural disasters themselves are regarded as signs of the end of the world, then in later interpretations of the Apocalypse the role of eschatological signs is assigned to objects and phenomena symbolizing the achievements of scientific and technological progress. At the same time, it is science and technology (primarily military) that are elevated to the rank of direct causes of natural and social catastrophes that will inevitably hit the world on the eve of the Second Coming and the Last Judgment. Having inherited a suspicious attitude towards science from the Middle Ages, modern writers-Old Believers, according to N. D. Zolnikova, unexpectedly landed in "the main pain point of post-industrial civilization: the global destructive impact on the entire earth's ecosystem of uncontrolled development of science and technology" [2006, p.226]. In other words, in the Old Believer writings, emphasizes

* Various manifestations of antimaterinism (i.e., suppression of the sphere of reproduction of life, reduction of its symbols, etc.), emphasizes T. E. Shchepanskaya, also refer in folk eschatology to signs of the onset of the "last times" [2002, p. 220, etc.].

N. N. Pokrovsky, reflected "the most acute problem of our time: the degradation of the earth's nature under the onslaught of the achievements of scientific and technical civilization" [Dukhovnaya literatura..., 2005, p. 21].

Conclusion

Traditional religious consciousness continues to mythologize reality even today, and conversely, modern reality has a direct impact on religious consciousness. At the same time, the development of myth-making processes has a fairly well-defined specificity in Orthodoxy and Old Believers.

As the study showed, the perception of scientific and technological innovations by the bearers of religious consciousness depends on the nature of religiosity (mass or elite), the type of settlement (rural or urban), the educational level of the confessional environment, and even the gender aspect (mainly male or female believers). In general, the concept of the" last times " with its function as a universal explanation of the changes taking place in nature and society retains the importance of a structure-forming element in the worldview of carriers of various religious subcultures. Contributing to the understanding of the past and forming an attitude to the present, they are the basis on which a certain model of behavior is developed, which helps to adapt to changes in the surrounding world.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 07.07.08.

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