This article is devoted to the extraordinary personality of Makar Afanas’evich Zeniukhin (1938-2020) a Bespopovets Old Believer belonging to Chasovennye Denominationfrom Xinjiang, and to his lifelong ordeals while migrating from China through Argentina toWoodburn, Oregon, and ending up in the Siberian Dubchessky Monastery, Russia. The accountof his life reflects the consequences of the twenty-first century split in the Old Believerscommunities among the Oregonian Bespopovets Old Believers. It also describes MakarZeniukhin’s dialect, including the characteristic features of his language variation on differentlevels. The research is based on the method of scientific description and discourse analysis thatstudies his language recorded during our conversations between 2004 and 2014. The article alsodescribes his written language based on letters sent to us from the Siberian Dubchessky Monastery. Makar Zeniukhin’s oral narrations, coherent stories, and written letters are of particular value as historical and ethnographic resources depicting the events and life of Old Believers in Oregon, USA.
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