The article is concerned with the understudied question in historiography about the role and place of Old Believers in Ya. V. Abramov’s publicist writings, who is one of the reformed narodnik movement ideologists. The topic of Old Believers in Abramov’s works is analyzed in the framework of the theory of “critical thought development” formulated by him in the early 1880s. The reasons for Abramov’s turn to the theme of Old Believers, the main points of his theory of “critical thought development”, and the place of Old Believers' component in it are given brief consideration. The component of philosophy of history in the writer’s doctrine is provided insight into, whereby a key role of Old Believers in colonization model of forming the Russian state helped retaining traditional living principles as opposed to the serfdom system that became autocratically established since XVII century. Special attention is paid to social and economic mechanism of the activity of the Vygovsky monastery which became a model of “critical thought” development of the Russian people towards creation of communitarian types of human community.