Динамика изменения численности русского населения в Западном Причудье (Эстония) в XVII–XIX веках и проблема старообрядчества
Dynamics of Changes in the Number of Russian Population in Western Prichudye (Estonia) In The XVII-XIX Centuries and the Problem of Old Believers

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, changes in the number of inhabitants in Estonia as well as the Russians in the villages on the western coast of Lake Chudskoe (Western Prichudye) in the period from the end of the 16th to the end of the 19th centuries have been traced. The data obtained from the inspections, lists of Lutheran parishes, the estimations, the analysis of toponymy of 16th century and dialect peculiarities of the Russians of Western Prichudye made it possible to conclude that the main body of Russian population of the coastal villages were the descendants of Russians that had lived in the Northern and Western Prichudye long before the split of the Orthodox Church in Russia took place. As it is read in the reports to the Governor General in the 19th century, the Old Belief without the priest spread over Prichudye due to vigorous activity of Feodosii Vasiliev adepts among local Russians, and not as a result of the resettlement of a considerable number of Old Believers from Russia as it was supposed earlier. The assumption is made that the origin of the word vene used by western Finns to call the Russians is a derivative from the word словене.

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