Small Kolki

The Small Kolki Fedoseyan community exists from 1770 (1740 according to other data). In parishioners' opinion, the first worship house was built in 1710. In the early 19th century, Small Kolki in Alatskivi manor in Dorpat district became the centre of the community. There were 79 houses and 444 residents (more than in Big Kolki) in the village by the end of the 19th century. There was a wooden Old Believer church, built in 1874 for 300 people, with the area of 163,2 square meters.

The Kolki Old Believer community of the Fedoseyan concord was registered by the Livland Province Government on March 8, 1908. It had 584 members at the time. F. P. Puzanov was elected the chairman, A. I. Galaganov the vice-chairman of the council. In 1913, B. Y. Prostatov, B. S. Kulakov, P. G. Polyakov, V. F. Kudryashov, F. A. Gorin, I. N. Saborov, A. A. Yermakov, F. M. Kaptsey, L. K. Beluzov and Y. D. Okunev were the members of the community council. A peasant from the Alatskivi rural district Sofroni Guryanovuch Beluzov (born 1875) held the preceptor's post.

In the beginning of 1913, the chairman F. P. Puzanov was sued for the forge of metrical records. He was removed from his position for a half of a year. The court judged Puzanov not guilty. A mistake in the record was explainable, first, by the Old Believers' custom to register marriages and births not immediately but somewhat later, not long after the real event, and, second, a high percentage of illiteracy among Old Believers. In July of the same year, the members of the community confirmed their will to appoint Puzanov to the chairman's post again.

In the independent Estonian Republic, the community was actively developing. In the late 1920s, the capital repairs were undertaken in the worship house, yet the latter was so rickety and small, that a new wooden worship house was built out of necessity in 1928. The deputy P. P. Baranin organized collection of means to support the building.

S. G. Beluzov served as the preceptor until 1930. He was entrusted to hold the burial service for the famous icon painter G. Frolov in the Rajushi church on October 2, 1930. There were 485 members in the Small Kolki community by 1930. Yakov Sysoich Krivonogov was elected the preceptor (1931-1949).

On February 16, 1945, the parish of 394 members was re-registered as the Small Kolki Old Believer community. The community got a wooden worship house decorated by copper and wooden icons, together with inventory and subsidiary buildings, for free and unlimited use. Sysoy Andreyevich Tsakukhin served as the preceptor from 1949 to 1973. Later Fevronia Andreyevna Kuznetsova, Praskovya Perfiryevna Galaganova and, from the 1990s, Varvara Yevstigneyevna Prigozheva acted as preceptor's deputies. P. Y. Yershov, S. M. Lovyagin. S. S. Kayalin, G. F. Amelin, G. Y. Polyakov and Y. Gorina held the chairmen's post. At present, the community has restored its membership in the Union of the Old Believer communities of Estonia. 120 families are the members of the parish.

Sources: EHA, f. 296, series 9, record 501; f. 297, series 1, record 4873; series 6, record 726 (протокол собрания № 46 от 28 авг. 1916 г.); f. 330, series 1, record 1701, 1772; f. 3096, series 1, record 1-18.

References: Перечень зарегистрированных старообрядческих общин, Церковь, 7 декабря 1908, № 49; Перечень старообрядческих общин Эстонии, Старообрядческий календарь на 1930 год. Рига. 1929, с. 66; Сведения о русском населении в Прибалтийском крае, Имперская политика России в Прибалтике в начале ХХ века. Тарту, 2000, с. 321.

G. Ponomaryova, T. Shor