Figure 1.-- This press photo shows girls identified as 'Russian refugees' at a Soviet exhibit of childrens arts and crafts. We believe the girls are Old Belivers. They are also called Old Ritualists (старове́ры or старообря́дцы). They are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church as they existed prior to the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between (1652-1666). The press caption read, "Oregon Girls View Exhibit: Three girls, descendents of Russian refugees now living in a colonhy near Woodburn, Ore., looked at a model of a Soviet harvesting machine. The model is part of a Soviet Children's Arts and Crafts Exhibit now in Portland. The exhibit also was shown in Seatle. Many of the Woodburn-colony adults and children still speak Russian as their principal language and dress in native costume. The photograph was dated November 14, 1955.

Religion is another major cause of refugee flows. This was not the case in the ancient era. Ancient peoples could be very brutal, but religion was not commonly the reason. At the time dieties were seen as gods of a particular people and important to make war on other peoples with different gods. Conquered people might be put to the sword, but they usually did not have the conquerors religion imposed upon them. Which makes sence if a god was the diety of a specific people. Several imperial regimes were especially tollerant when it came to religion: Persia and Rome. Now this may seem strange when it comes to Rome because we all know about the persecutions Jews and Christians. But both were a rare excepotion. Rome did not pececute either Jews or Christians because of any problem with theology--it was concerns over political loyalty. With the transition to modern times this changed because of the rise Abrahamic religions (especially Christianity and Islam). Chistianity was not tolerant of other religions. It did tolerate Jews, to a degree. This changed over time. Spain was the most tolerant country in Europe, but this changed with the completiuon of the Reconquista. Both Spain and Portugal expelled Jews and Moslems (1490s). Islam tended to be more tolerant, but like Christianity the degree of toleration varied over time. Islam in our modern era has become extrodiarily inttolerant. And like Christianity befor the modern era this included both toward other religions as well as other sects of Islam. With Islam the conflict has primarily between Shi'ia abd Sunni, but there are other sects. With Christiamity, the Great Schism split the Church between Catholic and Orthodox sects (1054). Conflicts ensued, but were limited to an extent by geograohic separation. The Protestant Reformation (1517) proved much more violent as Catholics and Protestants lived together and led to bloody religious wars (17th century). Prominent examples are the French Hugenots escaping persecution in France or the Puritans escaping opression in England. Tsarist Russia was extemrly intolerant of Jews, but conquered areas with Jewish popularions leading to pogroms. Many Polish/Russian jews fled to America and to a lesser extent Europe. Totalitarian Commnunism begining with the Soviet Union launched brutal atheistic campaigns.

Created: 6:05 PM 9/8/2018
Last updated: 6:05 PM 9/8/2018