Moscow, July 28, 2011
Old Believer family arrives in Siberia from Bolivia. Photo: Voice of Russia
"The Old Believers, who have never been to Russia, communicate in the language of a Siberian village, the same as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. They strictly obey Russian customs and rites and 100-year-old traditions," says a report posted on the ministry website.
Nine adults and 21 children came from Bolivia. They took part in the state and regional programs of assistance to voluntary resettlement of compatriots from abroad.
"The arrival of this Old Believers group to the Primorye Territory is just the beginning. Other Russian Old Believers in Bolivia have the same plans," the service said.
The first four families of Old Believers resettled from South America to the village of Kofrovka in the Ussuriysk District of the Primorye Territory in February 2011.
The service told Interfax in April 2009 that about 500 Old Believers living in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and some other South American countries had taken an interest in the resettlement program.
Old Believers separated from the Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. They emigrated from Russia in the late 17th - early 18th century following the church split and the persecution of Old Believers by secular and church authorities.