The Phenomenon of Old Belief in the Belarusian Lands

In the conditions of modern state social and cultural policy of Belarus, the problem of studying and using the cultural heritage is very actual: the creation of projects and programmes of social and cultural development demands the research of history, heritage and traditions. A noticeable trace in the Belarusian cultural heritage was leftby the Old Believers who moved on Belarusian lands in the second half of the 17th century. The history of the Old Believers on the Belarusian lands before the beginning of the 20th century is widely represented in the monographs of A.A. Gorbatsky: The Old Believers in Belarus at the End of the 17th - the Beginning of the 20th Centuries, Brest 1999; The Old Belief in the Belorussian Lands, Brest 2004. There is no monographic literature concerning the history of the Old Belief in Belarus in the 20th century. In the Belarusian scientific magazines there are some articles by T. Dobzhinskaya and T. Hursan devoted to the analysis of the life and activity of Old Believers in Belarus in the 20th century. The articles by T. Dobzhinskaya deal with the history of the Old Belief in Vitebsk region in the first half of the 20th century. T. Hursan in her articles analyzes ethnographic features of Old Believers in Mogilev region. The aim of this article is to show some peculiarities of the development of the state policy in relation to Old Believers in Belarus in the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries.