Abstract

The movement of spiritual Christians-Molokans in the Tambov region in the 1990s–2010s underwent major changes. The objective of this study is to analyze the historical prospects for the development of this movement in the region in question. There has been no general study of Molokans of the Tambov region since the expeditions of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1959–1960; only local studies of individual Molokan communities were attempted, for example, in the town of Rasskazovo. The topic of the old Russian sectarianism still needs further research. This work is based on the field research that the author conducted in 2017 and 2019. The heyday of the Molokan movement in the Tambov region fell on the first half of the 19th century. At the turn of the 19th century, Molokanism experienced a crisis while the number of Molokans was gradually decreasing in the context of spreading baptism. During the Soviet period, the Molokan movement in the region was in decline and most of the Molokan communities disappeared. In the 1990s–2010s there were three small Molokan communities in the Tambov region — in Tambov, Uvarovo and Rasskazovo. They flourished in 1999–2010, when the Molokans held congresses and active communication between the communities, and published Samizdat magazines. Nowadays, two of the three communities — in Tambov and Uvarovo — have survived. However, the absence of active and young members promises them no prospect. Nevertheless, these communities cultivate the spiritual and ritual traditions of Molokanism. In villages where communal life ceased during the Soviet period, the Molokan tradition degraded to separate religious practices, mainly related to the burial and commemoration of the dead. This allows concluding the importance of community life and Sunday liturgical gatherings for Molokans. The decline of the present-day Tambov Molokanism is primarily due to the lack of active community members, lack of internal and external Molokan preaching, and inability to interest young people in Molokan teaching.