When becoming Patriarch of Moscow, Nikon decided to revise the liturgical books so that they would be in line with the rest of the Orthodox world: among the introduced changes : the numbers of fingers used while crossing would pass from two to three, the numbers of alleluia from two to three, processions would be held counterclockwise instead of clockwise, Jesus would be spelled
Іисусъ [
Iisus] instead of
Ісусъ [
Isus] and the Nicene Creed was alterated.
Some Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) members, including the archpriest Avvakum and the bushop Paul of Kolomna, led the movement against such reforms, considering "Greeks" shoul not have any authority on Slavonic texts and that their fall under Catholic or Muslim domunation has been caused by heretical practices.
In 1666 Nikon is deposed but his reforms are confirmed, creating a turnoil among
raskolniks or Old Believers, who preached the Antichrist ruled Russia, resisted against State forces (see Stenka Razin and Pugatchev, who were related to Old Believers) and fled abroad (10% of the population), in Siberia and the forrests, or simply burned themselves to escape a world seen as ruled by Satan.
Later, they would see the Peter the Great's reforms - beard cutting, Western education for nobility and clergy, head tax - as satanic, and preached he was the Antichrist.
The
Raskol weakened the ROC and discredited the Moscow Patriarcate, allowing Peter the Great to replace it by the Holy Synod.
So,
- How to prevent the Raskol from occuring?
Would a less brutal behaviour from Nikon help the adoption of the religious reforms?
- What would be the effects of the schism not occuring?
Old Believers tended to predominate the market trade and, in the XIXth, were involved in industrialisation.
(Subsidiary question : was the quasi-disappearence of the
Raskol during the XXth century caused by the fact the Old Believers tended to be merchands or rich farmers, both category targeted by the Soviets?)
(Some of my informations about Raskol are tired from Antoine Leroy-Beaulieu books about Russia)