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Father Nikola Babkov is a helper for metropolitan foreign communities. He is an Old Believer and has been all his life. Old Belief communities formed as a result of Russian Orthodox Church theological reforms of the 17th century. After a period of torture and mass executions and unrecognised by the state, Old Believers were forced to move to unreachable parts of the country and lived independent of state and official church. Population decline led the government to invite families to return “home”, to practice their faith in the land of their fathers, only to find fierce opposition from neighbours and authorities. Father Nikola talks to Natalia Golysheva about the relationship between Old Believers and the traditional Russian Orthodox Church. How will both traditions be reconciled?