This article is devoted to eschatological aspects of Old Believer discussions about the priesthood in the Urals and Siberia. The author’s method combines the study of Old Believer history with analysis of their written works. The paper includes an overview of the main trends found in polemics about the “ true” hierarchy of the priesthood in the 18th and 19th centuries. The key source is “The Discourse about the Times of This Century”, a text created by an unknown Old Believer author in the last quarter of the 19th century.