The foundation of the medieval state of Dobruja, under Dobrotici, in the 14th century, was achieved concomitantly with the setting up of the medieval state of Transylvania and also with those in Wallachia and Moldavia, leading to an indubitable conclusion: by getting to the same internal organization, every state on the Romanian territory replied to a single impulse - that of an unitary civilization.

Taking into account that so many people had lived for a short period on the Romanian territory (Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, etc.), every of them succeeding - more or less - to leave a trace on the development of local population's culture and civilization, we are going to highlight only few aspects regarding the Russian community (the Russian population living in the Danube Delta region), ethnics of eastern-Slav origin from Russia, the so-called "Lipovens". The exode of the Russian population from their homeland was generated by the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church due to Patriarch Nikon, in the middle of the 17th century.

Immediately after the Great Synod in 1654, when the Patriarch Nikon had reformed the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian authorities - lay and religious - reinforced restrictive measures, culminating with those required by Petru the Great (1682-1725), who had come to the throne, one of those being the fact that he immediately initiated a drastic europenization process. The strong refusal he encountered due to a significant number of Russian orthodox Christians against his innovating process, made him react: they were immediately submitted to an inhuman tax policy and even forced to adopt a distinct clothing style. Being unable to resist all these restrictions, the old rite Christians decided to leave their homeland, wandering into the entire world (Poland, Austria, Canada, Alaska, Japan, etc.) on exile. They also got to the Danube riverbanks, in Dobruja, especially because they were fishermen, coming from the Don and Nipper riversides, having the opportunity to earn their living in the same way - fishing.

Known by the local representatives under the name of "Lipovens", the Russian minority succeeded to preserve their language, their religion and customs, despite the fact that they were divided on both religious criteria (in 1690, they were split up into those who agreed to priests - popovatz - and those who denied the priests) and also on ethnical criteria ("the great Moskvites Russians", simple "rebels", "Zaporojan" Cossacks, "Hahols", "Nekrasowitzs", Ukrainians).

After they had stopped in South Bessarabia, in the linden forests, the so-called "Starovers" settled on the Romanian territory, especially in Dobruja and Bukovina, in two great stages: the first one was immediately after the Bulawin's uprising, in the time of Petru The Great, and the second in the time of the great Russian Czarina, Ecaterina II (1762-1796), when they took the measure of exterminating the Cossacks.

One may ask himself "why did a great number of the so-called <Starovers> choose to live for a while on the Romanian territory?"... Well, you may say that, from days of yore, the foreign travelers had always admired the abundance and the splendor of the Romanian territory, its variety, and another important fact was that the church and also our ancestors had shown great sympathy and indulgence to those who came under the circumstances, but on good intention. The attitude of the authorities was a premise for many neighboring communities to be settling on the Romanian territory.

In the 18th century, when the presence of Starovers in Dobruja (1762 - Sarichioi) had been documentary certified, the province of Dobruja was indeed populated by an ethnographic mosaic (Thracians, Tartars, Bulgarians, Tcherkezians, Gagautz, Germans, Jews, Greeks), but the majority was Romanian. From the beginning of the 15th century until after the Romanian Independence War (1877-1878), Dobruja had been a part of the Ottoman Empire, a piece of "Dar-al-Islam" ("The House of Peace"), where the Christians were granted with a specific status, that of proteges - "zimnai-ilar", having to respect the seven compulsory duties, one of these being the payment of a special tax. The Christian Church was granted the official recognition and also its subjects - the Christians - didn't have to suffer from religious conversion to Islam.

As a matter of fact, the Starovers enjoyed a good treatment from the Ottoman Empire, they had been considered simply "guests" and been well paid for their military services. Sadyk Pasha himself attempted to organize a regular army consisting of so-called "Nekrasovitzs", in order to fight with much more success against Russia, but his project failed because of Hetman Gladki had deserted, in 1828. In exchange for their military support, the Ottoman Empire granted them a generous and full autonomy, also an important part of the territory and right of concession on fishing. For these reasons, the Nekrasovitzs got into open conflict with the true Rebels. In order to end this conflict, the Ottoman authorities had to move few groups on the Danube or even in the Western part of the empire, near the city of Bursa.

After that, the Rebels of Slav origin settled along the Dobrujan plateau, succeeded to draw the Nekrasovitz on their side, together beginning to set up and/or resurrect the villages of Carcaliu (Kamena or Komenka), near Macin, Tataritza (near Silistea), Ghindaresti(Guizdar) - near Harsova.

The Ottomans allowed the Nekrasovitzs Lipovens to settle on the territory situated between Tulcea and Babadag, except Constanza and Navodari, and to rebuild the villages of Sarichioi (Seriacovo) on the bank of the Razelm Lake and Jurilovka, that continued to be the richest villages of fishermen in Dobruja. In the southeast part of Babadag, in the mountains region, there is a third village, Slava Rusa ("The Russian Glory"), whereas the locals are farmers, like the population of the neighboring village, Slava Tcherkeza. An important number of them are living in the city of Tulcea and in the neighboring villages: Chilia Veche, Mahmudia, Ieroplava, Sfishtovka, Letea.

The Russian Starovers are now an integrated part of the new reality, one amplifying the ethnic diversity, they are so good at fishing that any other population with fishing skills is called upon the name of "Lipovens" (this is a case similar to the well-known Serbs - on gardening, or Germans - skillful craftsmen, Bulgarians - which are the best greengrocers, etc.). Because of the local abstruseness and the lack of real communication, this community hasn't been correctly defined yet, from the many vitally important points of view: ethnicity, religion, cultures. The end of the millennium requires rediscovering and analyzing in a new light their cultural and spiritual essential features.

The Church played an important role in preserving their ethnic identity. The language of the religious service is still the Slavonic, their writing is Cyrillic, their calendar is the Julian (at 13 days after the Gregorian calendar) and the religious center of the Lipovens from everywhere is, excepting the one in Russia, the Church of Braila. The fact that they succeeded in preserving the old Slavonic, along with many Ukrainian and Romanian words, and also of their tradition and customs, are elements contributing to highlight the profile of the present Russian community.

After the Treaty of Berlin (1878), when Dobruja reverted to Romania, following the partial retreat of the Turk population from the Romanian territory, the empty demographic spaces were completed both with the local Romanian population and also with Russian - lipovens. In the dark communist era and after the events of December '89 that reestablished the democratic rights and liberties, there were no ethnic conflicts, no claims regarding the administrative or territorial autonomy of the ethnic minorities, including the local Russian-lipovens population. Because this community kept on living in abstruseness and isolation, their economical and social situation couldn't be properly perceived. This fact, along with few people prejudices, was fully seized by some foreign sources, which - deliberately or not - denigrated the reality in order to distort the image of this ethnic community at an international level. These facts generated some artificial inter ethnic tensions in the region, in order to promote certain interests in the area, interests that are totally opposed to peaceful living with the Romanian majority.

In this direction, let us mention few representative members of the Nationalist Association "Rodina" from the Russian Federation, Lev Gaganov and Vladimir Ivanovici Anushkin, who, pretext of a recent documentation on the present life of the Russian-lipovens in Dobruja, they operated for artificially stimulating some Russian nationalistic attitudes amongst this ethnic community - unknown to the Russians-lipovens in the region -, motivating that "only the homeland could solve the problems of the Russian nationals - even if they are not living in its borders - in the matter of their culture and language". Despite their efforts, the Starovers ethnics in the region couldn't be influenced and refused to get involved - in any way - not regarding territorial claims, not in claiming the annexation to the Russian territory, not even in claiming the administrative autonomy.

•·    By preserving their language, their religion, their customs and tradition, the Russian-lipovens are in fact trying to preserve their spiritual and cultural identity, to live at peace with the Romanian majority.

•·          In the contemporary period, the fact that many ethnic groups succeeded to live together on the land of Dobruja, understanding and respecting each other, lead us to an important conclusion: Dobruja is a model of inter ethnic life together, in the European space.