Doukhobor
Encyclopedia
The Doukhobors or Dukhobors , earlier
Dukhobortsy (literally - Spirit-Wrestlers) are a group of Russian
origin.
The Doukhobors were one of the sects - later defined as a religious philosophy, ethnic group, social movement, or simply a "way of life" - known generically as Spiritual Christianity
. The origin of the Doukhobors is uncertain. The first clear record of their existence, and the first use of the names related to "Doukhobors", are from the 18th century. However, some scholars believe that the sect had its origins in the 17th or even the 16th century. They rejected secular government
, the Russian Orthodox priests, icon
s, all church ritual, the Bible
as the supreme source of divine revelation, and the divinity of Jesus. Their pacifist beliefs and desire to avoid government interference in their life led to an exodus of the majority of the group from the Russian Empire
to Canada
at the close of the 19th century.
Assimilated to a varying extent into the Canadian mainstream, the modern descendants of the first Canadian Doukhobors continue to live in south-eastern British Columbia
, southern Alberta
and Saskatchewan
. Today, the estimated population of Doukhobors in North America
is 40,000 in Canada and about 500 in the United States.
. Believing in God
's presence in every human being, they considered clergy and rituals unnecessary. Their rejection of secular government
, the Russian Orthodox priests, icon
s, all church ritual, the Bible
as the supreme source of divine revelation, and the divinity of Jesus elicited negative response from the government and the established church, attested as early in 1734, when a Russian Government edict was issued against ikonobortsy (Iconoclasts
).
The first known Doukhobor leader, in 1755-75, was Siluan (Silvan) Kolesnikov , originating from the village of Nikolskoye in Yekaterinoslav Governorate
in what is today south-central Ukraine
. He was thought to be a well-read person, familiar with the works of Western mystics
such as Karl von Eckartshausen
and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
.
The early Doukhobors called themselves "God's People" or simply "Christians". Their modern name, first in the
form Doukhobortsy is thought to have been first used in 1785 or 1786 by Ambrosius, the Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav or his predecessor, Nikifor (Nikephoros Theotokis
)
The archbishop's intent was to mock them as heretics fighting against the Holy Ghost (Spirit; , Svyatoy Dukh); but later on (around the beginning of the 19th century, according to S.A. Inikova) the dissenters picked the name, usually in a shorter form, Doukhobory , implying that they are fighting not against, but along with the Spirit.
As pacifist
s, the Doukhobors also ardently rejected the institutions of militarism and wars. For these reasons, the Doukhobors were harshly oppressed in Imperial Russia. Both the tsar
ist state and church authorities were involved in the persecution
of these dissidents, as well as taking away their normal freedoms.
The first known use of the spelling Doukhobor is attested in a government edict of 1799, exiling 90 of them to Finland
(presumably, the Vyborg
area, which was already part of the Russian Empire at the time) for their anti-war propaganda.
In 1802, Tsar Alexander I
encouraged resettlement of religious minorities to the so-called 'Milky Waters" (Molochnye Vody): the region of Molochnaya River (around Melitopol
in today's southern Ukraine
). This was motivated by the desire both to quickly populate the rich steppe
lands on the north shore of the Black
and Azov Seas, and to prevent the "heretics" from contaminating the population of the heartland with their ideas. Many Doukhobors, as well as Mennonites from Prussia
, accepted the Tsar's offer, coming to the Molochnaya from various provinces of the Empire over the next 20 years.
As Nicholas I
replaced Alexander, he issued a decree (February 6, 1826), intending to force assimilation of the Doukhobors by means of military conscription
, prohibiting their meetings, and encouraging conversions to the established church. On October 20, 1830, another decree followed, specifying that all able-bodied members of dissenting religious groups engaged in propaganda against the established church should be conscripted and sent to the Russian army in the Caucasus
, while those not capable of military service, as well as their women and children, should be resettled in Russia's recently acquired Transcaucasian provinces. It is reported that, among other dissenters, some 5,000 Doukhobors were resettled to Georgia
between 1841 and 1845. The Akhalkalaki
uyezd
(district) of the Tiflis (Tbilisi) Governorate
was chosen as the main place of their settlement. Doukhobor villages with Russian names appeared there: Gorelovka, Rodionovka, Yefremovka, Orlovka, Spasskoye (Dubovka), Troitskoye, and Bogdanovka
. Later on, other groups of Doukhobors - resettled by the government, or migrating to Transcaucasia by their own accord - settled in other neighboring areas, including the Borchaly uyezd of Tiflis Governorate and the Kedabek uyezd of Elisabethpol (Ganja) Governorate
).
After Russia's conquest of Kars
and the Treaty of San Stefano
of 1878, some Dukhobors from Tiflis and Elisabethpol Governorates moved to the Zarushat and Shuragel uyezds of the newly-created Kars Oblast
(north-east of Kars
in today's Republic of Turkey
).
The leader of the main group of Doukhobors that arrived to Transcaucasia from Ukraine in 1841 was one Illarion Kalmykov . He died in the same year, and was succeeded as the community leader by his son, Peter Kalmykov (? - 1864).
After Peter Kalmykov's death in 1864, his widow Lukerya Vasilyevna Gubanova (? - December 15, 1886; ; also known as Kalmykova, by her husband's surname) took his leadership position.
The Kalmykov dynasty resided in the village of Gorelovka, one of the Doukhobor communities in Georgia (shown on one of J. Kalmakoff's maps). Lukerya was respected by the provincial authorities, who had to cooperate with the Doukhobors on various matters. The number of Doukhbors in the Transcaucasia reached 20,000 by the time of her death in 1886. By that time, the Doukhobors of the region had become vegetarian, and become aware of Leo Tolstoy
's philosophy, which they found quite similar with their traditional teachings.
. However, only part of the community ("the Large Party"; ) accepted him as the leader; others, known as "the Small Party" (Малая сторона Malaya Storona), sided with Lukerya's brother Michael Gubanov and the village elder Aleksei Zubkov.
While the Large Party was a majority, the Small Party had the support of the older members of the community and the local authorities. So on January 26, 1887, at the community service where the new leader was to be acclaimed, the police walked in and arrested Verigin. He was to spend the next 16 years in exile in Russia's Far North; some of his associates were sent to exile as well. Still, the Large Party Doukhobors continued to consider him their spiritual leader and to communicate with him, by mail and via delegates who traveled to see him in Obdorsk
, Siberia.
At the same time, the government applied greater pressure to enforce the Doukhobors' compliance with the laws and regulations that they found vexatious, such as registering marriages and births, contributing grain to state emergency funds, or swearing oaths of allegiance. Even worse, the universal military conscription
that had been introduced in most of the Russian Empire, was now (in 1887) imposed in its Transcaucasian provinces as well. While the Small Party people would cooperate with the state, the Large Party, wounded by the arrest of Verigin and other leaders, and inspired by his letters from exile, only felt strengthened in their desire to abide in the righteousness of their faith. Under instructions from Peter V. Verigin, they stopped using tobacco and alcohol, divided their property equally between the members of the community, and resolved to adhere to the principles of non-violence. They would refuse to swear the oath of allegiance
required by the new Czar Nicholas II
in 1894.
Under further instructions from Verigin, as a sign of absolute pacifism, the Doukhobors of the three Governorates of Transcaucasia made the decision to destroy their weapons. As the Doukhobors assembled to burn them on the night of June 28/29 (July 10/11, Gregorian Calendar
) 1895, with the singing of psalms and spiritual songs, arrests and beatings by government Cossack
s followed. Soon, Cossacks were billeted in many of the Large Party Doukhobors' villages, and over 4,000 of their original residents were dispersed through villages in other parts of Georgia. Many of those died of starvation and exposure.
As persecution seemed to be unsuccessful in making the Doukhobors comply with the conscription laws, and the entire affair was an embarrassment in the face of international public opinion, the Russian government agreed in 1897 to let the Doukhobors leave the country, subject to a number of conditions:
Some of the emigrants went first to Cyprus
, but the climate there did not suit them. Meanwhile, the rest of the community chose Canada
for its isolation, peacefulness, and the fact that the government welcomed them. Around 6,000 migrated there in the first half of 1899, settling on land granted to them by the government in what is now Manitoba
and Saskatchewan
. More people, including the Cyprus colony, joined later that year, bringing the total count to 7,400 - about one-third of the total Doukhobor population in Transcaucasia. Several smaller groups joined the main body of migrants in the later years, directly from Transcaucasia, or from various places of exile. Among these late-comers were some 110 leaders of the community that were in prisons or in exile in Siberia in 1899 and were obliged to serve out their term of punishment before they could join their community in Canada.
The Doukhobors' passage across the Atlantic Ocean
was largely paid for by Quakers
and Tolstoyan
s, who sympathized with their plight, and by the writer Leo Tolstoy
, who arranged for the royalties from his novel Resurrection
, his story Father Sergei, and some others, to go to the migration fund. He also raised money from wealthy friends. In the end, his efforts provided half of the immigration fund, about 30,000 roubles.
The anarchist Peter Kropotkin
and James Mavor
, a professor of the political economy at the University of Toronto
, also helped the migrants.
In accordance with the Dominion Lands Act
of 1872, Canadian government would grant 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of land, for a nominal fee of $10, to any male homestead
er able to establish a working farm on that land within three years. Living on single-family homesteads would not fit Doukhobors' communitarian tradition. Fortunately, the Act contained the so-called Hamlet Clause, adopted some 15 years earlier to accommodate other communitarian groups such as Mennonites, which would allow the beneficiaries of the Act to live not on the actual land grant, but in a village ("hamlet") within 3 miles (4.8 km) from their land.
This would allow the Doukhobors to establish a communal life style, similar to the Hutterite
s.
Even more importantly, by passing in late 1898, Section 21 of the Dominion Military Act, the Canadian Government exempted the Doukhobors from military service.
The land for the Doukhobor immigrants, in the total amount of 773400 acres (3,129.8 km²), was granted in three "block settlement
" areas ("reserves"), plus an "annex", within what was to soon become the Province of Saskatchewan
:
Geographically, North and South Colonies, as well as Good Spirit Lake Annex (Devil's Lake Annex, to non-believers) were around Yorkton
, not far from the border with today's Manitoba
; the Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony, was located north-west of Saskatoon
, quite a distance from the other three "reserves".
At the time of settlement (1899), all four "reserves" were located in the Northwest Territories
: Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony in the territories' provisional District of Saskatchewan, North Reserve, straddling the border of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia
districts, and the other two entirely in Assiniboia. After creation of the Province of Saskatchewan
in 1905, all reserves found itself within that province.
Peter Verigin, the Doukhobor leader induced followers to free their "brethren" (animals) and pull their wagons and ploughs themselves.
On the lands granted to them in the prairies, the settlers established villages along the same lines as back in the old country. Some of the new villages were given the same Russian names as the settlers home villages in Transcaucasia (Spasovka, Large and Small Gorelovka, Slavianka etc.); others were given more abstract, "spiritual" names, not common in Russia: "Uspeniye" ('Dormition
'), "Terpeniye" ('Patience'), "Bogomdannoye" ('Given by God'), "Osvobozhdeniye" ('Liberation').
The settlers found Saskatchewan winters much harsher than those in Transcaucasia, and were particularly disappointed that the climate was not as suitable for growing fruits and vegetables. Many of the men found it necessary to take non-farm jobs, especially in railway construction, while the women stayed behind to till the land.
Due to Doukhobors' leaders aversion to private ownership in land, Petr Verigin (who had served his sentence and was able to come to Canada in 1902) managed to have land registered in the name of the community. But by 1906, the Dominion Government, in the person of Frank Oliver, the Minister of Interior
, started requiring registering the land in the name of individual owners. Many Doukhobors' refusal to do so resulted in 1907 in the reverting of more than a third (258880 acres (1,047.7 km²)) of Doukhobor lands back to the Crown.
Another problematic issue raised by Oliver was that, in contradiction to the previous minister, Clifford Sifton
's assurances given before the Doukhbors arrival to Canada, the Doukhobors would now have to become naturalized citizens (i.e., British subjects) and to swear an Oath of Allegiance
to the Crown - something that was always against their principles. A new crisis was to develop just a decade after the conscription crisis in Russia.
The crisis resulted in a three-way split of the Doukhobor community in Canada:
The Independents were a group most easily integrating into Canadian capitalist society. They had no problem with registering their land groups, and largely remained in Saskatchewan. It was they who, much later on (in 1939) finally rejected the authority of Peter Verigin's great-grandson, John J. Verigin.
. His first purchase were near the US border around Grand Forks
. Later, he acquired large tracts of land further east, in the Slocan Valley
around Castlegar
. Between 1908 and 1912, some 8,000 people moved to these British Columbia lands from Saskatchewan, to continue their communal way of living. In the milder climate of British Columbia, the settlers were able to plant fruit trees, and within a few years became renowned orchardists and producers of fruit preserves.
As the Community Doukhobors left Saskatchewan, the "reserves" there were closed by 1918.
The Sons of Freedom, meanwhile, responded to the Doukhobors conflict with Canadian policy with mass nudity and arson as a means of protesting against materialism, the land seizure by the government, compulsory education
in government schools and, later on, Verigin's supposed assassination. This led to many confrontations with the Canadian government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(continuing into the 1970s).
Peter V. Verigin was killed in a still-unsolved Canadian Pacific Railway
train explosion on October 29, 1924 near Farron, between Castlegar
and Grand Forks, British Columbia
. The government initially (during investigation) had stated the crime was perpetrated by people within the Doukhobor community although the Doukhobors' customary failure to cooperate with Canadian authorities due to fear of intersect violence culminated in no arrests being made. To date, it is still unknown who was responsible for the bombing. Thus, while the Doukhobors were initially welcomed by the Canadian government, this assassination controversy, as well as Doukhobor beliefs regarding communal living and no child education, amongst other beliefs, created an air of mistrust between government authorities and Doukhobors which would last for decades.
Peter V. Verigin's son, Peter P. Verigin who arrived from the Soviet Union
in 1928, succeeded his father as leader of the Community Doukhobors. He became known as Peter the Purger, and worked to smooth the relations between the Community Doukhobors and the larger Canadian society. His policies, seen by the radical Sons of Freedom as ungodly and assimilationist, were answered by increasing protests on the part of the latter. The Sons of Freedom would burn the Community Doukhobors' property, and organize more nude parades. The Canadian Parliament responded in 1932 by criminalizing public nudity
. Over the years, over 300 radical Doukhobor men and women were arrested for this offense, which typically carried a three-year prison sentence.
In 1947-48, Sullivan's Royal Commission
investigated arsons and bombing attacks in British Columbia, and recommended a number of measures intended to integrate the Doukhobors into the Canadian society, notably through the participation of their children in public education. Around that time, the provincial government entered into direct negotiations with the Freedomite leadership.
But W. A. C. Bennett's Social Credit
government, which came to power in 1952, took a harder stance against the "Doukhobor problem". In 1953, 150 children of the Sons of Freedom were forcibly interned by the government agents in a residential school
in New Denver, British Columbia
. Abuse of the interned children was later alleged.
In less than a half a century Sons of Freedom acts of violence and arson rose to 1112 separate events and over $20 million in damages (bill to taxpayers) that included public school bombings and burnings, bombings of Canadian railroad bridges and tracks, the bombing of the Nelson
courthouse, and a huge power transmission tower servicing the East Kootenay district resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs.
Many of the independent and community Doukhobors believed that the Freedomites violated the central Doukhobor principle of nonviolence
(with arson and bombing) and therefore did not deserve to be called Doukhobors. However, rifts generated during the 20th century between the Sons of Freedom and Community and Independent Doukhobors have largely been laid to rest now.
(Azerbaijan); the former Doukhobor villages now were mostly populated by Baptists. Elsewhere, many Doukhobors joined other dissenter sects, such as Molokans or Stundist
s.
Those that remained Doukhobors were required to submit to the state. Few protested against military service: for example, out of 837 Russian Court Martial cases against conscientious objectors recorded between the beginning of World War I
and April 1, 1917, merely 16 had Doukhobor defendants - and none of those hailed from the Transcaucasian provinces.
In 1921-23, Verigin's son Peter P. Verigin arranged the resettlement of 4,000 Doukhobors from the Ninotsminda
(Bogdanovka) district in south Georgia into Rostov Oblast
in southern Russia and other 500 into Zaporizhia Oblast
in Ukraine.
The Soviet reforms affected greatly the life of the Doukhobors both in their old villages in Georgia and in the new settlement areas in Russian and Ukraine. The state anti-religious campaigns
resulted in the suppression of Doukhobor religious tradition, and the loss of books and archival records. A number of religious leaders were arrested or exiled: for example, 18 people were exiled from Gorelovka alone in 1930. On the other hand, Communists' imposition of collective farming
did not go against the grain of Doukhobor way of life. The industrious Doukhobors made their collective farms
prosperous, specializing e.g. in cheese
-making.
Of the Doukhobor communities in the USSR, those in South Georgia were the most sheltered from the outside influence, both because of the sheer geographical isolation in the mountainous terrain, and due to their location in the area near the international border, and concomitant travel restrictions for outsiders.
, some 4,000 of them claiming "Doukhobor" as their religious affiliation. Perhaps another 30,000 live in Russia and neighboring countries. About 5,000 live in the U.S. along the northernmost parts of the US-Canada border.
.
During Canada 2001 Census
, 3,800 persons in Canada (of which, 2,940 in British Columbia
, 200 in Alberta
, 465 in Saskatchewan
, and 155 in Ontario
) identified their religious affiliation as "Doukhobor". As the age distribution shows, the proportion of older people among these self-identified Doukhobors is higher than among the general population:
E.g., 28% of the self-identified Doukhobors in 2001 were aged over 65 (i.e., born before 1936), as compared to 12% of the entire population of Canadian respondents. The aging of the denomination is accompanied by the shrinking of its size, starting in the 1960s:
Of course, the number of Canadians sharing Doukhobor heritage is much higher than the number of those who actually consider oneself a member of this religion. Doukhobor researchers made estimates from "over 20,000" people "from [Doukhobor] stock" in Canada (Postnikoff, 1977) to over 40,000 Doukhobors by "a wider definition of religion, ethnicity, way of life, and social movement" (Tarasoff, 2002).
Canadian Doukhobors no longer live communally. Their prayer meetings and gatherings are dominated by the singing of a cappella
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Russian
. Doukhobors do not practice baptism
. They reject several items considered orthodox among Christian
churches, including church organization and liturgy, the inspiration of the scriptures, the literal interpretation of resurrection, the literal interpretation of the Trinity
, and the literal interpretation of heaven and hell. Some avoid the use of alcohol, tobacco, and animal products for food
, and eschew involvement in partisan politics. Doukhobors believe in the goodness of man and reject the idea of original sin
.
The religious philosophy of the Doukhobors is based on the ten commandments including "Love God with all thy heart, mind and soul" and "Love thy neighbour as thyself." The Doukhobors have several important slogans. One of the most popular, "Toil and Peaceful Life," was coined by Peter V. Verigin.
Since the late 1980s, many of the Doukhobors of Georgia
started emigrating to Russia. Various groups moved to Tula Oblast
, Rostov Oblast
, Stavropol Krai
, and elsewhere. After the independence of Georgia, many villages with Russian names received Georgian names - for example, Bogdanovka became Ninotsminda
, Troitskoe became Sameba, etc. According to various estimated, in Ninotsminda
District, the Doukhobor population fell from around 4000 in 1979 to 3,000-3,500 in 1989 and not much more than 700 in 2006. In Dmanisi
district, from around 700 Doukhobors living there in 1979, no more than 50 seem to remain by the mid-2000s. Those who do remain are mostly older people, since it is the younger generation who found it easier to move to Russia. The Doukhobor community of Gorelovka (in Ninotsminda District), the former "capital" of the Kalmykov family, is thought to be the best preserved in all post-Soviet countries
.
, was designated a National Historic Site in 2006, under the name "Doukhobors at Veregin
".
A Doukhobor museum, currently known as "Doukhobor Discovery Centre" (formerly, "Doukhobor Village Museum") operates in Castlegar, British Columbia
. It contains over a thousand artifacts representing the arts, crafts, and daily life of the Doukhobors of the Kootenays
in 1908-1938.
Although most of the early Doukhobor village structures in British Columbia have vanished or been significantly remodeled by later users, a part of Makortoff Village outside of Grand Forks, British Columbia
has been preserved as a museum by Peter Gritchen, who purchased the property in 1971 and opened it as the Mountain View Doukhobor Museum on June 16, 1972. The future of the site became uncertain after his death in 2000. But, in cooperation with a coalition of the local organizations and concerned citizens, the historical site, known as Hardy Mountain Doukhobor Village, was purchased The Land Conservancy
of British Columbia in March 2004, while the museum collection was acquired by the Boundary Museum Society and loaned to TLC for display.
Canadian Museum of Civilization
in Ottawa
has a collection of Doukhobor-related items as well. A special exhibition there was run in 1998-99 to mark the centennial anniversary of the Doukhobor arrival to Canada.
Non Fiction
Dukhobortsy (literally - Spirit-Wrestlers) are a group of Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
origin.
The Doukhobors were one of the sects - later defined as a religious philosophy, ethnic group, social movement, or simply a "way of life" - known generically as Spiritual Christianity
Spiritual Christianity
Spiritual Christianity is a type of religious thought among the sectarianism of Russian Orthodoxy, with followers called spiritual Christians ....
. The origin of the Doukhobors is uncertain. The first clear record of their existence, and the first use of the names related to "Doukhobors", are from the 18th century. However, some scholars believe that the sect had its origins in the 17th or even the 16th century. They rejected secular government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, the Russian Orthodox priests, icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
s, all church ritual, the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
as the supreme source of divine revelation, and the divinity of Jesus. Their pacifist beliefs and desire to avoid government interference in their life led to an exodus of the majority of the group from the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at the close of the 19th century.
Assimilated to a varying extent into the Canadian mainstream, the modern descendants of the first Canadian Doukhobors continue to live in south-eastern British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, southern Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. Today, the estimated population of Doukhobors in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
is 40,000 in Canada and about 500 in the United States.
Early days - Ukraine and southern Russia
The origin of the Doukhobor movement dates back to the 17th and 18th century Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Believing in God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's presence in every human being, they considered clergy and rituals unnecessary. Their rejection of secular government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, the Russian Orthodox priests, icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
s, all church ritual, the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
as the supreme source of divine revelation, and the divinity of Jesus elicited negative response from the government and the established church, attested as early in 1734, when a Russian Government edict was issued against ikonobortsy (Iconoclasts
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
).
The first known Doukhobor leader, in 1755-75, was Siluan (Silvan) Kolesnikov , originating from the village of Nikolskoye in Yekaterinoslav Governorate
Yekaterinoslav Governorate
The Yekaterinoslav Governorate or Government of Yekaterinoslav was a governorate in the Russian Empire. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinoslav .-Administrative divisions:...
in what is today south-central Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. He was thought to be a well-read person, familiar with the works of Western mystics
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
such as Karl von Eckartshausen
Karl von Eckartshausen
Karl von Eckartshausen was a German Catholic mystic, author, and philosopher.Born in Haimhausen, Bavaria, Eckartshausen studied philosophy and Bavarian civil law in Munich and Ingolstadt. He was the author of The Cloud upon the Sanctuary , a work of Christian mysticism which was later taken up by...
and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was a French philosopher, known as le philosophe inconnu, the name under which his works were published.-Life:He was born, at Amboise, into a poor but noble family....
.
The early Doukhobors called themselves "God's People" or simply "Christians". Their modern name, first in the
form Doukhobortsy is thought to have been first used in 1785 or 1786 by Ambrosius, the Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav or his predecessor, Nikifor (Nikephoros Theotokis
Nikephoros Theotokis
Nikephoros Theotokis or Nikiforos Theotokis was a Greek scholar and theologian, who became an archbishop in the southern provinces of the Russian Empire...
)
The archbishop's intent was to mock them as heretics fighting against the Holy Ghost (Spirit; , Svyatoy Dukh); but later on (around the beginning of the 19th century, according to S.A. Inikova) the dissenters picked the name, usually in a shorter form, Doukhobory , implying that they are fighting not against, but along with the Spirit.
As pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
s, the Doukhobors also ardently rejected the institutions of militarism and wars. For these reasons, the Doukhobors were harshly oppressed in Imperial Russia. Both the tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
ist state and church authorities were involved in the persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
of these dissidents, as well as taking away their normal freedoms.
The first known use of the spelling Doukhobor is attested in a government edict of 1799, exiling 90 of them to Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
(presumably, the Vyborg
Vyborg
Vyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, to the northwest of St. Petersburg and south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...
area, which was already part of the Russian Empire at the time) for their anti-war propaganda.
In 1802, Tsar Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
encouraged resettlement of religious minorities to the so-called 'Milky Waters" (Molochnye Vody): the region of Molochnaya River (around Melitopol
Melitopol
Melitopol is a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast of the southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the Sea of Azov....
in today's southern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
). This was motivated by the desire both to quickly populate the rich steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
lands on the north shore of the Black
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
and Azov Seas, and to prevent the "heretics" from contaminating the population of the heartland with their ideas. Many Doukhobors, as well as Mennonites from Prussia
Molotschna
Molotschna Colony was a Russian Mennonite settlement in what is now Zaporizhia Oblast in Ukraine. Today is called Molochansk with a population of under 10,000. The settlement is named after the Molochna River which forms its western boundary. Today the land mostly falls within the Tokmatskyi and...
, accepted the Tsar's offer, coming to the Molochnaya from various provinces of the Empire over the next 20 years.
Transcaucasian exile
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
replaced Alexander, he issued a decree (February 6, 1826), intending to force assimilation of the Doukhobors by means of military conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, prohibiting their meetings, and encouraging conversions to the established church. On October 20, 1830, another decree followed, specifying that all able-bodied members of dissenting religious groups engaged in propaganda against the established church should be conscripted and sent to the Russian army in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, while those not capable of military service, as well as their women and children, should be resettled in Russia's recently acquired Transcaucasian provinces. It is reported that, among other dissenters, some 5,000 Doukhobors were resettled to Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
between 1841 and 1845. The Akhalkalaki
Akhalkalaki
Akhalkalaki is a small city in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti with a population of 60,975. Akhalkalaki lies on the edge of the Javakheti Volcanic Plateau. The city is located about 30 km from the border with Turkey. 90 percent of the city's population are ethnic Armenians...
uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
(district) of the Tiflis (Tbilisi) Governorate
Tiflis Governorate
Tiflis Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire with its centre in Tiflis . In 1897 it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants...
was chosen as the main place of their settlement. Doukhobor villages with Russian names appeared there: Gorelovka, Rodionovka, Yefremovka, Orlovka, Spasskoye (Dubovka), Troitskoye, and Bogdanovka
Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda is a town and a rayon located in Georgia's southern district of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The rayon has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census. The Armenians number 32,856, Georgians 476 and Russians 943...
. Later on, other groups of Doukhobors - resettled by the government, or migrating to Transcaucasia by their own accord - settled in other neighboring areas, including the Borchaly uyezd of Tiflis Governorate and the Kedabek uyezd of Elisabethpol (Ganja) Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate or Elizavetpol Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Elisabethpol . Its area was 44,136 sq. kilometres, and it had 878,415 inhabitants by 1897....
).
After Russia's conquest of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
and the Treaty of San Stefano
Treaty of San Stefano
The Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78...
of 1878, some Dukhobors from Tiflis and Elisabethpol Governorates moved to the Zarushat and Shuragel uyezds of the newly-created Kars Oblast
Kars Oblast
Kars Oblast was one of Transcaucasian governorates of Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was in the city of Kars, presently in the Republic of Turkey. The governorate bordered with the Ottoman Empire, Batum Oblast, Tiflis Governorate, Erivan Governorate, and from 1883 to 1903 with...
(north-east of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
in today's Republic of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
).
The leader of the main group of Doukhobors that arrived to Transcaucasia from Ukraine in 1841 was one Illarion Kalmykov . He died in the same year, and was succeeded as the community leader by his son, Peter Kalmykov (? - 1864).
After Peter Kalmykov's death in 1864, his widow Lukerya Vasilyevna Gubanova (? - December 15, 1886; ; also known as Kalmykova, by her husband's surname) took his leadership position.
The Kalmykov dynasty resided in the village of Gorelovka, one of the Doukhobor communities in Georgia (shown on one of J. Kalmakoff's maps). Lukerya was respected by the provincial authorities, who had to cooperate with the Doukhobors on various matters. The number of Doukhbors in the Transcaucasia reached 20,000 by the time of her death in 1886. By that time, the Doukhobors of the region had become vegetarian, and become aware of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's philosophy, which they found quite similar with their traditional teachings.
Religious revival and crises
The death of "Lukerya", who had no children, was followed by a leadership crisis. Lukerya's own plan was for leadership to pass after her death to her assistant, Peter Vasilevich VeriginPeter Vasilevich Verigin
Peter Vasilevich Verigin often known as Peter "Lordly" Verigin was a Russian philosopher, activist and preacher of the Doukhobors.- In Transcaucasia:...
. However, only part of the community ("the Large Party"; ) accepted him as the leader; others, known as "the Small Party" (Малая сторона Malaya Storona), sided with Lukerya's brother Michael Gubanov and the village elder Aleksei Zubkov.
While the Large Party was a majority, the Small Party had the support of the older members of the community and the local authorities. So on January 26, 1887, at the community service where the new leader was to be acclaimed, the police walked in and arrested Verigin. He was to spend the next 16 years in exile in Russia's Far North; some of his associates were sent to exile as well. Still, the Large Party Doukhobors continued to consider him their spiritual leader and to communicate with him, by mail and via delegates who traveled to see him in Obdorsk
Salekhard
-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Salekhard is twinned with:*Azov, Rostov Oblast, Russia-External links:*...
, Siberia.
At the same time, the government applied greater pressure to enforce the Doukhobors' compliance with the laws and regulations that they found vexatious, such as registering marriages and births, contributing grain to state emergency funds, or swearing oaths of allegiance. Even worse, the universal military conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
that had been introduced in most of the Russian Empire, was now (in 1887) imposed in its Transcaucasian provinces as well. While the Small Party people would cooperate with the state, the Large Party, wounded by the arrest of Verigin and other leaders, and inspired by his letters from exile, only felt strengthened in their desire to abide in the righteousness of their faith. Under instructions from Peter V. Verigin, they stopped using tobacco and alcohol, divided their property equally between the members of the community, and resolved to adhere to the principles of non-violence. They would refuse to swear the oath of allegiance
Oath of allegiance
An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to monarch or country. In republics, modern oaths specify allegiance to the country's constitution. For example, officials in the United States, a republic, take an oath of office that...
required by the new Czar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
in 1894.
Under further instructions from Verigin, as a sign of absolute pacifism, the Doukhobors of the three Governorates of Transcaucasia made the decision to destroy their weapons. As the Doukhobors assembled to burn them on the night of June 28/29 (July 10/11, Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
) 1895, with the singing of psalms and spiritual songs, arrests and beatings by government Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s followed. Soon, Cossacks were billeted in many of the Large Party Doukhobors' villages, and over 4,000 of their original residents were dispersed through villages in other parts of Georgia. Many of those died of starvation and exposure.
Migration to Canada
- the emigrants should never return;
- they would migrate at their own expense;
- community leaders currently in prison or in exile in Siberia would have to serve the balance of their sentences before they could leave.
Some of the emigrants went first to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, but the climate there did not suit them. Meanwhile, the rest of the community chose Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
for its isolation, peacefulness, and the fact that the government welcomed them. Around 6,000 migrated there in the first half of 1899, settling on land granted to them by the government in what is now Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. More people, including the Cyprus colony, joined later that year, bringing the total count to 7,400 - about one-third of the total Doukhobor population in Transcaucasia. Several smaller groups joined the main body of migrants in the later years, directly from Transcaucasia, or from various places of exile. Among these late-comers were some 110 leaders of the community that were in prisons or in exile in Siberia in 1899 and were obliged to serve out their term of punishment before they could join their community in Canada.
The Doukhobors' passage across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
was largely paid for by Quakers
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
and Tolstoyan
Tolstoyan
The Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy . Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount....
s, who sympathized with their plight, and by the writer Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
, who arranged for the royalties from his novel Resurrection
Resurrection (novel)
Resurrection , first published in 1899, was the last novel written by Leo Tolstoy. The book is the last of his major long fiction works published in his lifetime . Tolstoy intended the novel as an exposition of injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of institutionalized church...
, his story Father Sergei, and some others, to go to the migration fund. He also raised money from wealthy friends. In the end, his efforts provided half of the immigration fund, about 30,000 roubles.
The anarchist Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
and James Mavor
James Mavor
James Mavor was a major Canadian economist of late 19th – early 20th centuries. He served as a Professor of Political Economy of the University of Toronto from 1892 to 1923. His influence upon Canadian economic thought is traced to as late as the 1970s...
, a professor of the political economy at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, also helped the migrants.
On the prairies of Canada
Dominion Lands Act
The Dominion Lands Act was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of Canada's Prairie provinces. It was closely based on the United States Homestead Act, setting conditions in which the western lands could be settled and their natural resources developed...
of 1872, Canadian government would grant 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of land, for a nominal fee of $10, to any male homestead
Homesteading
Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...
er able to establish a working farm on that land within three years. Living on single-family homesteads would not fit Doukhobors' communitarian tradition. Fortunately, the Act contained the so-called Hamlet Clause, adopted some 15 years earlier to accommodate other communitarian groups such as Mennonites, which would allow the beneficiaries of the Act to live not on the actual land grant, but in a village ("hamlet") within 3 miles (4.8 km) from their land.
This would allow the Doukhobors to establish a communal life style, similar to the Hutterite
Hutterite
Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Since the death of their founder Jakob Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially living in a community of goods and absolute...
s.
Even more importantly, by passing in late 1898, Section 21 of the Dominion Military Act, the Canadian Government exempted the Doukhobors from military service.
The land for the Doukhobor immigrants, in the total amount of 773400 acres (3,129.8 km²), was granted in three "block settlement
Block Settlement
A block settlement is particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies.This settlement type was used throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
" areas ("reserves"), plus an "annex", within what was to soon become the Province of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
:
- The North Colony, also known as the "Thunder Hill Colony" or "Swan River Colony", in the PellyPelly, Saskatchewan-External links:********...
and ArranArran, SaskatchewanArran is a village in eastern Saskatchewan, Canada, approximately 90 km northeast of Yorkton and 10 km west of the Manitoba border. Arran is located on Highway 49.- History :...
districts of Saskatchewan. It became home to 2,400 Doukhobors from Tiflis GovernorateTiflis GovernorateTiflis Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire with its centre in Tiflis . In 1897 it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants...
, who established 20 villages on 69000 acres (279.2 km²) of the land grant. - The South Colony, also known as the "Whitesand Colony" of "Yorkton Colony", in the CanoraCanora, SaskatchewanCanora is a town located at the junction of highways No. 5 and 9 in east-central Saskatchewan, north of the city of Yorkton. Centrally located on the corners of four adjacent rural municipalities, the community is home to approximately 2,400 residents and draws upon a substantial trading area...
, VereginVeregin, SaskatchewanVeregin is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located 50 kilometres northeast of Yorkton, and some 10 km to the west of the nearest town, Kamsack.The Veregin railway station is served by Via Rail.- History :...
and Kamsack districts of Saskatchewan. Some 3,500 Doukhobors from Tiflis GovernorateTiflis GovernorateTiflis Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire with its centre in Tiflis . In 1897 it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants...
, Elisabethpol GovernorateElisabethpol GovernorateElisabethpol Governorate or Elizavetpol Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Elisabethpol . Its area was 44,136 sq. kilometres, and it had 878,415 inhabitants by 1897....
, and Kars OblastKars OblastKars Oblast was one of Transcaucasian governorates of Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was in the city of Kars, presently in the Republic of Turkey. The governorate bordered with the Ottoman Empire, Batum Oblast, Tiflis Governorate, Erivan Governorate, and from 1883 to 1903 with...
, settled there in 30 villages on 215010 acres (870.1 km²) of land grant. - The Good Spirit Lake Annex, in the BuchananBuchanan, Saskatchewan-External links:* *...
district of Saskatchewan, received 1,000 Doukhobors from Elisabethpol Governorate and Kars Oblast. Russia settled there in 8 villages on 168930 acres (683.6 km²) of land grant. The annex was along the Good Spirit River, flowing into Good Spirit Lake (previously known as Devil's Lake). - The Saskatchewan Colony, also known as the "RosthernRosthern, SaskatchewanRosthern is a town at the juncture of Highway 11 and Highway 312 in the central area of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located roughly halfway between the cities of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.-History:...
colony", "Prince AlbertPrince Albert, SaskatchewanPrince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...
Colony" or "Duck Lake Colony", was located along the North Saskatchewan River in the LanghamLangham, Saskatchewan-Neighboring Communities:Rural Saskatchewan is known for the support that communities give each other in the form of attending community activities, sharing sport teams, and building friendships among children and adults from neighboring towns and cities. Communities that surround Langham include...
and Blaine LakeBlaine Lake, SaskatchewanBlaine Lake is a town in central Saskatchewan, Canada and is situated 80 kilometers north of Saskatoon at the junction of Saskatchewan Highway 12 and 40....
districts of Saskatchewan, north-west of SaskatoonSaskatoonSaskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
. 1,500 Doukhobors from Kars Oblast settled there in 13 villages on 324800 acres (1,314.4 km²) of land grant.
Geographically, North and South Colonies, as well as Good Spirit Lake Annex (Devil's Lake Annex, to non-believers) were around Yorkton
Yorkton, Saskatchewan
Yorkton is a city located in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, near the Manitoba border. Founded and incorporated in 1882 by a group of settlers from Ontario, it has grown to 15,038 residents as of the 2006 census. The city is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Orkney No. 244 and the Rural...
, not far from the border with today's Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
; the Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony, was located north-west of Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
, quite a distance from the other three "reserves".
At the time of settlement (1899), all four "reserves" were located in the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
: Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony in the territories' provisional District of Saskatchewan, North Reserve, straddling the border of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia
Assiniboia
Assiniboia refers to a number of different locations and administrative jurisdictions in Canada. The name is taken from the Assiniboine First Nation.- District of Assiniboia:...
districts, and the other two entirely in Assiniboia. After creation of the Province of Saskatchewan
History of Saskatchewan
History of Saskatchewan encompasses the study of past human events and activities of the province of Saskatchewan, the middle of Canada's three prairie provinces. Archaeological studies give some clues as to the history and lifestyles of the Palaeo-Indian, Taltheilei, and Shield Archaic Traditions...
in 1905, all reserves found itself within that province.
On the lands granted to them in the prairies, the settlers established villages along the same lines as back in the old country. Some of the new villages were given the same Russian names as the settlers home villages in Transcaucasia (Spasovka, Large and Small Gorelovka, Slavianka etc.); others were given more abstract, "spiritual" names, not common in Russia: "Uspeniye" ('Dormition
Dormition of the Theotokos
The Dormition of the Theotokos is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches which commemorates the "falling asleep" or death of the Theotokos , and her bodily resurrection before being taken up into heaven. It is celebrated on August 15 The Dormition...
'), "Terpeniye" ('Patience'), "Bogomdannoye" ('Given by God'), "Osvobozhdeniye" ('Liberation').
The settlers found Saskatchewan winters much harsher than those in Transcaucasia, and were particularly disappointed that the climate was not as suitable for growing fruits and vegetables. Many of the men found it necessary to take non-farm jobs, especially in railway construction, while the women stayed behind to till the land.
Due to Doukhobors' leaders aversion to private ownership in land, Petr Verigin (who had served his sentence and was able to come to Canada in 1902) managed to have land registered in the name of the community. But by 1906, the Dominion Government, in the person of Frank Oliver, the Minister of Interior
Minister of the Interior (Canada)
The Minister of the Interior was a cabinet post responsible for federal land management, Indian affairs and natural resources extraction...
, started requiring registering the land in the name of individual owners. Many Doukhobors' refusal to do so resulted in 1907 in the reverting of more than a third (258880 acres (1,047.7 km²)) of Doukhobor lands back to the Crown.
Another problematic issue raised by Oliver was that, in contradiction to the previous minister, Clifford Sifton
Clifford Sifton
Sir Clifford Sifton, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician best known for being Minister of the Interior under Sir Wilfrid Laurier...
's assurances given before the Doukhbors arrival to Canada, the Doukhobors would now have to become naturalized citizens (i.e., British subjects) and to swear an Oath of Allegiance
Oath of Allegiance (Canada)
The Canadian Oath of Allegiance is a promise or declaration of fealty to the Canadian monarch, taken, along with other specific oaths of office, by new occupants of various government positions, including federal and provincial viceroys, appointees to the Queen's Privy Council, Supreme Court...
to the Crown - something that was always against their principles. A new crisis was to develop just a decade after the conscription crisis in Russia.
The crisis resulted in a three-way split of the Doukhobor community in Canada:
- The edinolichniki ('Independents'), who constituted by 1907 some 10% of the Canadian Doukhobors. They maintained their religion, but abandoned communal ownership of land, rejecting hereditary leadership and communal living as being non-essential to it.
- The largest group - the Community Doukhobors - continued to be loyal to their spiritual leader Peter V. Verigin. They formed an organization known as Christian Community of Universal BrotherhoodChristian Community of Universal BrotherhoodChristian Community of Universal Brotherhood was the main spiritual and economic organization of Canadian Doukhobors from the early 20th century until its bankruptcy in 1938...
(CCUB) (Now USCC). - The more radical Sons of FreedomFreedomitesFreedomites, also called Svobodniki or Sons of Freedom, first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and later in the Kootenay and Boundary districts of British Columbia, as a Doukhobor extremist group...
group (also called the "Svobodniki" or "Freedomites"), which emerged in 1903, embraced Verigin's writings in a zealous manner.
The Independents were a group most easily integrating into Canadian capitalist society. They had no problem with registering their land groups, and largely remained in Saskatchewan. It was they who, much later on (in 1939) finally rejected the authority of Peter Verigin's great-grandson, John J. Verigin.
In British Columbia
To take his followers away from the corrupting influence of non-Doukhobors and Edinolichniki ('individual owners') Doukhobors, and to find better conditions for agriculture, Verigin, starting in 1908, bought large tracts of land in south-eastern British ColumbiaBritish Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. His first purchase were near the US border around Grand Forks
Grand Forks, British Columbia
-Schools:Schools in the region are operated by School District 51 Boundary which has its main office in Grand Forks but also serves Midway, Greenwood, Beaverdell, and Rock Creek....
. Later, he acquired large tracts of land further east, in the Slocan Valley
Slocan Valley
The Slocan Valley is a valley in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada.The valley is home to the villages of Slocan City, New Denver, Silverton, as well as the unincorporated communities of Crescent Valley, Slocan Park, Passmore, Vallican, Winlaw, Appledale, Perry Siding, Lemon...
around Castlegar
Castlegar, British Columbia
Castlegar is the second largest city in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the Selkirk Mountains at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. It is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local economy fueled by forestry, mining and tourism...
. Between 1908 and 1912, some 8,000 people moved to these British Columbia lands from Saskatchewan, to continue their communal way of living. In the milder climate of British Columbia, the settlers were able to plant fruit trees, and within a few years became renowned orchardists and producers of fruit preserves.
As the Community Doukhobors left Saskatchewan, the "reserves" there were closed by 1918.
The Sons of Freedom, meanwhile, responded to the Doukhobors conflict with Canadian policy with mass nudity and arson as a means of protesting against materialism, the land seizure by the government, compulsory education
Compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...
in government schools and, later on, Verigin's supposed assassination. This led to many confrontations with the Canadian government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(continuing into the 1970s).
Peter V. Verigin was killed in a still-unsolved Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
train explosion on October 29, 1924 near Farron, between Castlegar
Castlegar, British Columbia
Castlegar is the second largest city in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the Selkirk Mountains at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. It is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local economy fueled by forestry, mining and tourism...
and Grand Forks, British Columbia
Grand Forks, British Columbia
-Schools:Schools in the region are operated by School District 51 Boundary which has its main office in Grand Forks but also serves Midway, Greenwood, Beaverdell, and Rock Creek....
. The government initially (during investigation) had stated the crime was perpetrated by people within the Doukhobor community although the Doukhobors' customary failure to cooperate with Canadian authorities due to fear of intersect violence culminated in no arrests being made. To date, it is still unknown who was responsible for the bombing. Thus, while the Doukhobors were initially welcomed by the Canadian government, this assassination controversy, as well as Doukhobor beliefs regarding communal living and no child education, amongst other beliefs, created an air of mistrust between government authorities and Doukhobors which would last for decades.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1928, succeeded his father as leader of the Community Doukhobors. He became known as Peter the Purger, and worked to smooth the relations between the Community Doukhobors and the larger Canadian society. His policies, seen by the radical Sons of Freedom as ungodly and assimilationist, were answered by increasing protests on the part of the latter. The Sons of Freedom would burn the Community Doukhobors' property, and organize more nude parades. The Canadian Parliament responded in 1932 by criminalizing public nudity
Public nudity
Public nudity or nude in public refers to nudity not in an entirely private context. It refers to a person appearing nude in a public place or to be seen from a public place. It also includes nudity in a semi-public place, where the general public is free to enter, such as a shopping mall...
. Over the years, over 300 radical Doukhobor men and women were arrested for this offense, which typically carried a three-year prison sentence.
In 1947-48, Sullivan's Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
investigated arsons and bombing attacks in British Columbia, and recommended a number of measures intended to integrate the Doukhobors into the Canadian society, notably through the participation of their children in public education. Around that time, the provincial government entered into direct negotiations with the Freedomite leadership.
But W. A. C. Bennett's Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
government, which came to power in 1952, took a harder stance against the "Doukhobor problem". In 1953, 150 children of the Sons of Freedom were forcibly interned by the government agents in a residential school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in New Denver, British Columbia
New Denver, British Columbia
New Denver is a village in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, along the shore of Slocan Lake. New Denver was founded as a mining town in 1892, and briefly known as Eldorado City before being renamed after Denver, Colorado. It was incorporated as a village in 1929 and currently has approximately...
. Abuse of the interned children was later alleged.
In less than a half a century Sons of Freedom acts of violence and arson rose to 1112 separate events and over $20 million in damages (bill to taxpayers) that included public school bombings and burnings, bombings of Canadian railroad bridges and tracks, the bombing of the Nelson
Nelson, British Columbia
Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the extreme West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings from its glory days in a regional silver rush,...
courthouse, and a huge power transmission tower servicing the East Kootenay district resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs.
Many of the independent and community Doukhobors believed that the Freedomites violated the central Doukhobor principle of nonviolence
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
(with arson and bombing) and therefore did not deserve to be called Doukhobors. However, rifts generated during the 20th century between the Sons of Freedom and Community and Independent Doukhobors have largely been laid to rest now.
Staying behind
After the departure of the more zealous and non-compromising Doukhobors and many community leaders to Canada at the close of the 19th century, the Doukhobor groups staying within Russian Empire entered a period of decline. By 1905, few Doukhobors remained in Elisabethpol GovernorateElisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate or Elizavetpol Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Elisabethpol . Its area was 44,136 sq. kilometres, and it had 878,415 inhabitants by 1897....
(Azerbaijan); the former Doukhobor villages now were mostly populated by Baptists. Elsewhere, many Doukhobors joined other dissenter sects, such as Molokans or Stundist
Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia
The Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia is part of the large family of Evangelical Christian Baptists, a Protestant evangelical movement which began in the Russian Empire, in the midst of the Orthodox establishment. It originally attracted peasants, urban artisans, the lower...
s.
Those that remained Doukhobors were required to submit to the state. Few protested against military service: for example, out of 837 Russian Court Martial cases against conscientious objectors recorded between the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and April 1, 1917, merely 16 had Doukhobor defendants - and none of those hailed from the Transcaucasian provinces.
In 1921-23, Verigin's son Peter P. Verigin arranged the resettlement of 4,000 Doukhobors from the Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda is a town and a rayon located in Georgia's southern district of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The rayon has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census. The Armenians number 32,856, Georgians 476 and Russians 943...
(Bogdanovka) district in south Georgia into Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Southern Federal District. Rostov Oblast has an area of and a population of making it the sixth most populous federal subject in Russia...
in southern Russia and other 500 into Zaporizhia Oblast
Zaporizhia Oblast
Zaporizhia Oblast is an oblast of southern Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhia.This oblast is an important part of Ukraine's industry and agriculture.-Geography:...
in Ukraine.
The Soviet reforms affected greatly the life of the Doukhobors both in their old villages in Georgia and in the new settlement areas in Russian and Ukraine. The state anti-religious campaigns
Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
The history of Christianity in the Soviet Union was not limited to repression and secularization. Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union...
resulted in the suppression of Doukhobor religious tradition, and the loss of books and archival records. A number of religious leaders were arrested or exiled: for example, 18 people were exiled from Gorelovka alone in 1930. On the other hand, Communists' imposition of collective farming
Collectivisation in the USSR
Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Stalin between 1928 and 1940. The goal of this policy was to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms...
did not go against the grain of Doukhobor way of life. The industrious Doukhobors made their collective farms
Kolkhoz
A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...
prosperous, specializing e.g. in cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
-making.
Of the Doukhobor communities in the USSR, those in South Georgia were the most sheltered from the outside influence, both because of the sheer geographical isolation in the mountainous terrain, and due to their location in the area near the international border, and concomitant travel restrictions for outsiders.
Current status
Today an estimated 20,000–40,000 people of Doukhobor heritage live in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, some 4,000 of them claiming "Doukhobor" as their religious affiliation. Perhaps another 30,000 live in Russia and neighboring countries. About 5,000 live in the U.S. along the northernmost parts of the US-Canada border.
Canada
CCUB, the Orthodox Doukhobors organization or Community Doukhobors, was succeeded by Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ, formed by Peter P. Verigin (Peter V. Verigin's son) in 1938. The largest and most active Doukhobor organization, it is headquartered in Grand Forks, British ColumbiaGrand Forks, British Columbia
-Schools:Schools in the region are operated by School District 51 Boundary which has its main office in Grand Forks but also serves Midway, Greenwood, Beaverdell, and Rock Creek....
.
During Canada 2001 Census
Canada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...
, 3,800 persons in Canada (of which, 2,940 in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, 200 in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, 465 in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, and 155 in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
) identified their religious affiliation as "Doukhobor". As the age distribution shows, the proportion of older people among these self-identified Doukhobors is higher than among the general population:
| Age groups | Total | 0–14 years | 15–24 years | 25–44 years | 45–64 years | 65–84 years | 85 years and over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Canadians, 2001 | 29,639,035 | 5,737,670 | 3,988,200 | 9,047,175 | 7,241,135 | 3,337,435 | 287,415 |
| Self-identified Doukhobors, 2001 | 3,800 | 415 | 345 | 845 | 1,135 | 950 | 110 |
| Self-identified Doukhobors, 1991 | 4,820 | 510 | 510 | 1,125 | 1,400 | 1,175 | 100 |
E.g., 28% of the self-identified Doukhobors in 2001 were aged over 65 (i.e., born before 1936), as compared to 12% of the entire population of Canadian respondents. The aging of the denomination is accompanied by the shrinking of its size, starting in the 1960s:
| Census year | Self-identified Doukhobor population |
|---|---|
| 1921 | 12,674 |
| 1931 | 14,978 |
| 1941 | 16,898 |
| 1951 | 13,175 |
| 1961 | 13,234 |
| 1971 | 9,170 |
| 1981 | ? |
| 1991 | 4,820 |
| 2001 | 3,800 |
Of course, the number of Canadians sharing Doukhobor heritage is much higher than the number of those who actually consider oneself a member of this religion. Doukhobor researchers made estimates from "over 20,000" people "from [Doukhobor] stock" in Canada (Postnikoff, 1977) to over 40,000 Doukhobors by "a wider definition of religion, ethnicity, way of life, and social movement" (Tarasoff, 2002).
Canadian Doukhobors no longer live communally. Their prayer meetings and gatherings are dominated by the singing of a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. Doukhobors do not practice baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
. They reject several items considered orthodox among Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
churches, including church organization and liturgy, the inspiration of the scriptures, the literal interpretation of resurrection, the literal interpretation of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, and the literal interpretation of heaven and hell. Some avoid the use of alcohol, tobacco, and animal products for food
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
, and eschew involvement in partisan politics. Doukhobors believe in the goodness of man and reject the idea of original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
.
The religious philosophy of the Doukhobors is based on the ten commandments including "Love God with all thy heart, mind and soul" and "Love thy neighbour as thyself." The Doukhobors have several important slogans. One of the most popular, "Toil and Peaceful Life," was coined by Peter V. Verigin.
Georgia and Russia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
started emigrating to Russia. Various groups moved to Tula Oblast
Tula Oblast
Tula Oblast is a federal subject of Russia with its present borders formed on September 26, 1937. Its administrative center is the city of Tula. The oblast has an area of and a population of 1,553,874...
, Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Southern Federal District. Rostov Oblast has an area of and a population of making it the sixth most populous federal subject in Russia...
, Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol. Population: -Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major...
, and elsewhere. After the independence of Georgia, many villages with Russian names received Georgian names - for example, Bogdanovka became Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda is a town and a rayon located in Georgia's southern district of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The rayon has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census. The Armenians number 32,856, Georgians 476 and Russians 943...
, Troitskoe became Sameba, etc. According to various estimated, in Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda is a town and a rayon located in Georgia's southern district of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The rayon has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census. The Armenians number 32,856, Georgians 476 and Russians 943...
District, the Doukhobor population fell from around 4000 in 1979 to 3,000-3,500 in 1989 and not much more than 700 in 2006. In Dmanisi
Dmanisi
Dmanisi is a townlet and archaeological site in Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera.- History :...
district, from around 700 Doukhobors living there in 1979, no more than 50 seem to remain by the mid-2000s. Those who do remain are mostly older people, since it is the younger generation who found it easier to move to Russia. The Doukhobor community of Gorelovka (in Ninotsminda District), the former "capital" of the Kalmykov family, is thought to be the best preserved in all post-Soviet countries
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
.
Historical sites and museums
In 1995, the Doukhobor Suspension Bridge spanning the Kootenay River was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. The sites of Community Doukhobors' headquarters in Veregin, SaskatchewanVeregin, Saskatchewan
Veregin is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located 50 kilometres northeast of Yorkton, and some 10 km to the west of the nearest town, Kamsack.The Veregin railway station is served by Via Rail.- History :...
, was designated a National Historic Site in 2006, under the name "Doukhobors at Veregin
Doukhobors at Veregin
"Doukhobors at Veregin" is a National Historic Site of Canada located in the village of Veregin, Saskatchewan, and designated so in 2006. The site is also known as National Doukhobor Heritage Village....
".
A Doukhobor museum, currently known as "Doukhobor Discovery Centre" (formerly, "Doukhobor Village Museum") operates in Castlegar, British Columbia
Castlegar, British Columbia
Castlegar is the second largest city in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the Selkirk Mountains at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. It is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local economy fueled by forestry, mining and tourism...
. It contains over a thousand artifacts representing the arts, crafts, and daily life of the Doukhobors of the Kootenays
Kootenays
The Kootenay Region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson.-Boundaries:The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land...
in 1908-1938.
Although most of the early Doukhobor village structures in British Columbia have vanished or been significantly remodeled by later users, a part of Makortoff Village outside of Grand Forks, British Columbia
Grand Forks, British Columbia
-Schools:Schools in the region are operated by School District 51 Boundary which has its main office in Grand Forks but also serves Midway, Greenwood, Beaverdell, and Rock Creek....
has been preserved as a museum by Peter Gritchen, who purchased the property in 1971 and opened it as the Mountain View Doukhobor Museum on June 16, 1972. The future of the site became uncertain after his death in 2000. But, in cooperation with a coalition of the local organizations and concerned citizens, the historical site, known as Hardy Mountain Doukhobor Village, was purchased The Land Conservancy
The Land Conservancy
TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia is a not-for-profit, charitable land trust based in British Columbia, Canada.The purpose of the Society is to protect plants, animals, natural communities and landscape features that represent diversity of life on earth, by protecting the lands and...
of British Columbia in March 2004, while the museum collection was acquired by the Boundary Museum Society and loaned to TLC for display.
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada's national museum of human history and the most popular and most-visited museum in Canada....
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
has a collection of Doukhobor-related items as well. A special exhibition there was run in 1998-99 to mark the centennial anniversary of the Doukhobor arrival to Canada.
Literature
- Svoboda, a novel by Bill Stenson.
- Head Cook At Weddings and Funerals, And Other Stories of Doukhobor Life, a novel by Vi Plotnikoff. Published by Raincoast Books, 2001.
- Tanya by Eli Popoff. Published by Mir Publication Society 1975.
- Doukhobor Daze by Hazel O'Neail. Published by Gray's Publishing Ltd, Evergreen Press Limited, 1962.
Non Fiction
- The Spirit Wrestlers: A Russian Odyssey by Philip MarsdenPhilip MarsdenPhilip Marsden also known as Philip Marsden-Smedley is an English travel writer and novelist.Marsden has a degree in anthropology and worked for some years for The Spectator magazine. He became a full-time writer in the late 1980s...
. Published by HarperCollins, 1998.
- Terror in the Name of God: The story of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors by Simma Holt, 1964.
- The Doukhobors by George WoodcockGeorge WoodcockGeorge Woodcock was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet, and published several volumes of travel writing. He founded in 1959 the journal Canadian Literature, the first academic journal specifically...
, Ivan Avakumovic, Carleton University Institute of Canadian Studies. Published by McClelland and Stewart, 1977
- Spirit Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers' Strategies for Living, by Koozma J. Tarasoff. Published by Legas Publishers and Spirit Wrestlers Publishing, 2002.
Music
- In 1962, the American folksinger Malvina ReynoldsMalvina ReynoldsMalvina Reynolds was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her song-writing, particularly the songs "Little Boxes" and "Morningtown Ride".-Early life:...
wrote Do As the Doukhobors Do (originally The Doukhobor Do) about the Doukhobor nude protests. The song was recorded by Pete SeegerPete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and is available on The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 compilation. - The Canadian alternative rock band Sons of FreedomSons of Freedom (band)Sons of Freedom were a Canadian alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band, consisting of vocalist James Newton, guitarist Don Harrison, bassist Don Binns and drummer Don Short, formed in 1987 in Vancouver, British Columbia....
took its name from the radical Doukhobor movement of the same name.
- In the 1967 song "Ferdinand the Imposter" by Canadian group The BandThe BandThe Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, written by Canadian-born Robbie Robertson, the title character "... claimed he was a Doukhobor, but they never heard of that in Baltimore".
Television
The Doukhobors: The Living Book and Toil and Peaceful Life; Two-part 1976 CBC/NFB film narrated by George Woodcock.See also
- Christian anarchismChristian anarchismChristian anarchism is a movement in political theology that combines anarchism and Christianity. It is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus...
- Doukhobor RussianDoukhobor RussianThe Doukhobors are a Christian sect who in 1899 established a number of commune-style settlements in Western Canada. They have brought with them a Southern Russian dialect of their communities of origin, which over the following decades underwent some changes under the influence of the Canadian...
- FreedomitesFreedomitesFreedomites, also called Svobodniki or Sons of Freedom, first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and later in the Kootenay and Boundary districts of British Columbia, as a Doukhobor extremist group...
- Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
- List of pacifist faiths
- MolokanMolokanMolokans are sectarian Christians who evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants that refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning in the 17th century...
- Peace church
- Simple livingSimple livingSimple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want...
- Spiritual Christians
- TolstoyanTolstoyanThe Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy . Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount....
- Walter v. Attorney General of AlbertaWalter v. Attorney General of AlbertaWalter v. Attorney General of Alberta, [1969] S.C.R. 383 is a famous decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court upheld the Albertan provincial Communal Properties Act of 1955, which among other things, restricted the amount of land that could be owned by Hutterites and Doukhobors...
- Radical Christianity
External links
- Doukhobor Genealogy Website
- The Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC) Doukhobor website
- ISKRA, a Canadian bilingual Doukhobor magazine
- Spirit Wrestlers
- Doukhobor Russian Paintings - Original artwork depicting Doukhobor culture, heritage, and spirit
- www.Doukhobor-Museum.org
- Canadian Museum of Civilization Exhibition on the Doukhobors
- CBC Archives: Doukhobor bomb blast ignites fear in the Kootenays
- Ivan Sysoev, prolific and well-known Doukhobor poet and hymnist
- Explosion on the Kettle Valley Line: The Death of Peter Verigin - Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
- Multicultural Canada website including Simon Fraser University Doukhobor Collection and James Mavor's personal and professional papers documenting Doukhobor immigration to Canada
- Folk furniture of Canada's Doukhobors
- The Doukhobors Arrive in Canada