The article is concerned with the study of religious identity in the context of understanding the features of Old Believers’ idea. Specific character of formation and preserving religious identity, mechanisms of preserving the traditions as the factor of formation of religious identity of the Old Believers in traditional cultural society as well as in foreign culture and other-ethnos society are defined. The author investigates specifics of mechanisms of preserving tradition and the result of this process in popovtsy and bespopovtsy communities. Special attention is paid to aspects of Old Believers’ collective and individual identity. The Old Belief appears as a religious phenomenon with its identity being transformed under the influence of external conditions. The Old Believers in the course of the historical development attached special significance to preserving cultural and religious heritage. Throughout many centuries Old Believers’ communities stood firm against assimilation and due to specific mechanisms of preserving tradition kept the religious identity in an invariable look up to the present time.