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Abstract
The Estonian Old Believers (EOB) are a culturally endangered small Estonian national minority. Thanks to the government’s support to tourism development some secular and religious aspects of the EOB’s cultural heritage have been used to organize ‘tourism of Old Belief’. The organization of such tourism and its effects on the preservation of Old Belief have not been addressed in the relevant policy-making. Analysis shows that project-based tourism organization, which lacks coordination and the application of sustainability in the context of this community, has only a minimal economic effect. And due to the effect of commodification, tourism challenges the EOB culturally. This raises a question about the limits of tourism organization, which is understood in terms of a differentiation of the frontstage and backstage of EOB life.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Wolfgang Drechsler, Donald Kraybill and Jeff Bach for substantial help, as well as numerous interviewees, conversation partners and anonymous reviewers.
Notes
1. The Parliament of Estonia database (http://www.riigikogu.ee/?op=advsearch) was used for the analysis. Combinations of the words Old Believers; culture of Old Believers; Old Believers’ tourism; Old Believers and tourism; influence of tourism on Old Believers; influence of tourism on Old Belief; influence of tourism on the Old Believers’ culture were used to find any records of tourism of Old Belief.
2. Tourism is a private-sector activity aimed at making profit by creating entertainment for the tourist that has a tendency to over-consume resources and create negative externalities (see McKercher Citation1993, p. 6).
3. The total number of the Amish has grown from 6300 in 1901 to 273,710 in 2012 (Kraybill et al. Citation2013, p. 156).
4. Pennsylvania belongs to the top 10 tourism destinations in the USA (U.S. Census Bureau Citation2011, pp. 774–775). The number of tourists in Lancaster grew from 500,000 in 1963 to seven million by 2000 (Kraybill and Nolt Citation2004, p. 23). Nowadays, Amish settlements in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana attract 19 million tourists with an annual profit of 2 billion dollars Kraybill et al. (Citation2013, p. 386).
5. In 1950, 90% of the Amish were farmers (Kraybill Citation2013, pp. 276, 282).
6. The failure rate of Amish enterprises during the five-year period is 5%, while that of non-Amish enterprises is 65% (Kraybill et al. Citation2013, p. 303).
7. The Parliament of Estonia database (http://www.riigikogu.ee/?op=advsearch) was used for the analysis. Combinations of the words Old Believers; culture of Old Believers; Old Believers’ tourism; Old Believers and tourism; influence of tourism on Old Believers; influence of tourism on Old Belief; influence of tourism on the Old Believers’ culture were used to find any records about tourism of Old Belief.
8. Old Believers baptize by immersion (rather than pouring a little water on the baptized), make the sign of the cross with two fingers (rather than three), process liturgy in Church clockwise (rather than anticlockwise) and sing double Alleluias (rather than triple), to name just a few differences between the Old Believers and the ROC (Paert Citation2010, p. 884).
9. The EOB belong to the priestless sub-division of Old Believers. Compared to priestly Old Believers, they have less sacraments, and they practice lay ministry. The EOB are divided into two historical affiliations: Fedoseevcy (the Raja and Väike-Kolkja villages) and Pomorcy (the rest of the settlements). The former accept three Sacraments: confession, baptism, and marriage; the latter have only baptism and confession.
10. According to the National Minorities Cultural Autonomy Act (LCANM Citation1993) § 1 national minorities are citizens and residents of Estonia; have longstanding ties with Estonia; are distinct from Estonians ethnically, culturally, religiously, or linguistically and are motivated to preserve their culture, religion, or language. In this vein, Estonian national minorities are Jews, Germans, Swedes, and Russians. To specify, only Russians including the EOB who have been living in Estonia since the First Republic (1918–1941), e.g. 37,500–50,000 persons by 1989 (see Mihhailov Citation2007, pp. 2–3) fully fall under this definition. The majority of Russians who migrated into Estonia in Soviet times are thus considered rather an ethnic minority.
11. All translations from Estonian and Russian are by the author except where otherwise noted.
12. Such sympathy can also be explained by the idea that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, i.e. similarly to the EOB, the Russian Empire and Soviet Union threatened Estonians, their culture and identity (see only Mertelsmann Citation2005).
13. Estonia is one of the most secularized societies with the most liberal religious policies in the world (Ringvee Citation2008, p. 181)
14. In 2000, 2515 EOB were registered (Statistical Office of Estonia Citation2000, p. 30).
15. This is a life-time unpaid lay ministry. In 2006, three congregations had their preceptors, in 2013 only one is left.
16. The generation gap, the decline of traditions and secularization were documented already in Soviet times among all Old Believers including the EOB (Vorontsova and Filatov Citation2000, p. 59, Plaat Citation2005, p. 18).
17. For example, Enterprise Estonia (EAS) is a government agency responsible for the allocation of money to tourism projects.
18. The total number of visitors in the settlements of EOB is fewer than 10,000 persons (see http://www.positium.ee/eas_keskused/). The exact number of tourists is unknown. According to the statistics, on average 1375 tourists visited the worship house in Raja annually between 2005 and 2010 (Jõgevamaa Turismiinfokeskus Citation2011). In 2012, 8000 persons visited Kolkja Museum (Portnova Citation2012). The total registered population in Raja and Kolkja is, respectively, 542 and 400 persons.
19. Thanks to this practice, the congregation bought firewood for heating their worship house in the amount of €800 and a new baptistery in the amount of €1200 (Antropova Citation2012).
20. These are official tax-levied jobs.
21. Sanctums should be open to the visitors on weekends from 15 May to 15 September at least five hours a day for five years after the end of the project (see Ministry of Interior Citation2011, Citation2012).
22. The Setu are an ethnic group living in the South-Eastern part of Estonia. Estonians believe that the Setu are an Estonian regional subgroups. However, the Setu consider themselves an Finno-Ugric nation, stressing their linguistic and cultural differences from the Estonians. The Setu have their own flag, anthem, epic and representative bodies. The total of the Setu is 5000–6000 persons (Jääts Citation2000).