Raskolniki

The Raskolniki are Old Believers in one part of the province whose religious ferment becomes entangled with the rumors surrounding Chichikov’s purchases of dead serfs. The novel presents them through a report of collective alarm and violence, then as a community Murazov hopes to reach through personal persuasion rather than official procedure.

Identity and Background

The narrator’s note identifies the Raskolniki as dissenters who refused the revised Church Service Books promulgated by Patriarch Nikon in 1665. This historical detail locates their religious difference in a specific dispute over church books, rather than treating their dissent as an undefined superstition.

Rumor and Unrest

During the provincial crisis, a rumor spreads that an Antichrist has arisen who will not even let the dead rest and is purchasing them wholesale. The Raskolniki respond by summoning people to prayer and repentance. The report also describes them as bludgeoning non-Raskolniki in batches under cover of capturing the supposed Antichrist. The dead-soul scheme has thus escaped the world of private dealings and official paperwork: distorted into a religious threat, it helps provoke violence in the countryside.

Murazov’s Intervention

When the Governor-General considers the province’s troubles, Murazov offers to send grain to famine-stricken localities and personally attend to people’s needs. He also asks leave to speak with the Raskolniki, reasoning that they are more likely to listen to a plain man than to an official. He doubts that he will succeed, but insists that officials who merely draw up reports and lose themselves among documents are unlikely to calm them. His proposed intervention is direct and personal, in contrast to the administrative confusion surrounding the unrest.

Narrative Significance

The Raskolniki appear briefly, through the consequences of a rumor and the proposed response to it, rather than through an individual member’s viewpoint. Their presence broadens the scandal of the dead souls into a provincial emergency involving religious fear, violence, famine, and ineffective government. Murazov’s intention to approach them also connects the episode to the novel’s contrast between bureaucratic paperwork and moral action grounded in personal responsibility.