BASKOVNIK (Russ. separatist), the name of a variety of sects in the Russian church, which date from an early period, and must be regarded rather as a general designation of dissenters from the established church of Russia, than as a description of any specific form of doctrinal belief. Such dissent is traceable from the very earliest period of the distinct organization of the Russian church. A monk, named Andrew. in 1003; another, called Demitry (Demetrius), in the 12th c.; an Armenian monk, named Martin, who was burned as a heretic at Constantinople in the end of the same century; Leo, bishop of Rostow, in the beginning of the 14th, and Strigolnik and Nikita toward its close—are all mentioned as having originated or propagated heresies of various kinds. A still more remarkable and more formidable organization—a form of Crypto-Judaism—was intro duced in the 15t-h c., by a concealed Jew, called Zacharias, who succeeded in gaining many followers. One of these, called Zosima, is particularly noticeable as having obtained much popularity, and even managed to have himself elected metropolitan of Moscow. His sect. which studiously concealed itself wherever this concealment s;!emed necessary, was condemned by a synod (1490), and repressed with great rigor; but it con tinued to maintain a concealed and precarious footing, and is said to possess disciples even to this day, especially in the government of Irkutsk, under tile name of Seles newschtschina. A sect, whose leading principles were borrowed from the German reform ers, was founded in 1553 by Matthias Baschkin; but it was condemned at a synod in Moscow, and does not appear to have taken much hold on the people.
But it is from the middle of the 17th c. that—the separation of the sects from the national church having become more tangible. from its involving non-conformity with the established worship—the designation of Raskolnik finds its fullest application. At that period a complete revision of the ancient Slavonic liturgical and ritual books, which had suffered grievously from the ignorance, and probably also from the heterodoxy of transcribers, was undertaken by the patriarch •Nikon. See PnturrrNs. The revised books were introduced into the churches by the authority of the czar as well as of the patriarch; but many of the clergy and people resisted the innovation, and refused the new liturgies. Foremost among the recusants, or non-conformists, were those who had already been sectaries upon other grounds; but all differences were to some extent merged in this common ground of protest, and all were known under the common appel lative Raskolniks.
In later Russian history the Raskolniks are sometimes called by the name, which they themselves affect, of Starowierzi (" men of the old faith"), or Prawaslawnfije (" ortho dox"). Each sect has its specific doctrinal peculiarities; but most of them follow certain common observances, in which lies their tangible difference from the national church.
They cross themselves with the first and middle finger, and not with the first three fingers; they use only the unrevised service-books; they repeat Hallelujah only twice; in church ceremonies they turn from left to right, and not from right to left; they use seven and not five altar-breads in the eucharistic offering; they pay worship only to sapient pictures, or those painted by themselves; they use an eight-pointed instead of the ordinary cross; they attend only their own churches, and hold no communion of worship with the members of the national church; they never shave or cut their hair, and adhere strictly to the old Russian costume.
They may be divided, in general, into two classes—those which have popes_ (priests), and those who do not recognize the priestly order. The former are in every respect more moderate and more free from fanaticism than the Raskoluiks, who discard the ministry of priests. Their priests, however, have often been outcasts of the orthodox church, who betook themselves to the rival communion. The most notable among the Raskolniks of this class are those called Peremasanowschtina, who re-ordain all popes joining their communion; the who are said to permit freedom of divorce and exchange of wives; Dositheowsehtschina, so-called from their founder, a monk named Dositheus; and Tschernobolzi, whose chief distinction consists in refusing to take an oath, and to say the prayer for the emperor prescribed in the liturgy. Of the popeless Raskolniks, the chief are the Philippins (q.v.), the Pomonenians or Rebaptizers, the Theodosians—an offshoot of the Pomortemans—and a sect of mystic spiritualists with strong Protestant and rationalistic leanings, called Duchoborzen. A curious develop ment of the Raskolniks movement is found in the Samokriselitehina (self-baptizers) and the Samostrigolsehtschina (self-ordainers), among whom each one administers baptism to himself, each priest ordains himself, and each monk or nun performs the ceremony of their own consecration without the interposition of the regular ministry. It may be added, in conclusion, that with a considerable proportion of these various sectaries,_there is found largely mixed up with religious fanaticism an element of communism and of dis affection toward the reigning dynasty, or, more properly, toward the established order of things. The latter may be in part explained by the rigorouS measures of repression under which the Raskolniks have suffered for many successive generations. The former is an ordinary accompaniment of the sectarianism of the poor, and is especially frequent among sectaries of the peasant class.