ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the emerging practices and beliefs of the followers of Inochentie from the period of the Balta pilgrimage up to and including the establishment of the Garden of Paradise. Contemporary observers very quickly noticed that the Balta movement was highly organised, with a recognisable hierarchy, distinctive gender roles and an economic strategy. Aspects of monastic tradition, distinctive forms of dress and ecstatic practices, coalesced into a new loosely defined religious system. The short-lived realisation of the Garden of Paradise, an apocalyptic utopian community that was conceived as a safe refuge as Holy Russia descended into chaos, marked a distinctive shift from an inclusive mass pilgrimage to an increasingly bounded community of the elect with its own distinctive hierarchy and practices. Integral to the worldview of the movement, a trait shared with other Russian sectarian groups, was the centrality of the figure of the Tsar to the ordering of the cosmos. The brand of Inochentist peasant Tsarism, reflected in their texts and narratives, recognised the earthly Tsar Nicholas as the symbolic reflection of Heavenly rule that, with the approaching apocalypse, was to be realised through the person and deeds of Inochentie of Balta.
