"resolve the conflict, such as the resettlement of the Large-Party Doukhobors to some remote province of Russia (assuming that an exemption from military service could still be granted), or emigration to Britain or Canada. Leo Tolstoy and his associates addressed Russian and international public with letters and articles about the persecution of the Doukhobors. In 1898, an agreement was reached with the Czar's Minister of the Interior, Ivan Nikolayevich Durnovo, to allow the Doukhobors leave for Canada. Between 1898 and 1899 around 7,500 Doukhobors from Transcaucasia did so. Of them, some 3,300 were the members of the Large Party; the"
"Doukhobors The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (, ""Dukhobory"", also ""Dukhobortsy"", ; literally """"Spirit-Warriors / Wrestlers"""") are a Spiritual Christian religious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia, often categorized as ""folk-Protestants"", Spiritual Christians, sectarians, and/or heretics. They are distinguished as pacifists who lived in their own villages, rejected personal materialism, worked together, and developed a tradition of oral history and memorizing and singing hymns and verses. Before 1886, they had a series of single leaders. The ancient origin of the Doukhobors is uncertain. The first written records of them are from the 1700s, some"
"from contaminating the population of the heartland with their ideas. Many Doukhobors, as well as Mennonites from Prussia, accepted the Emperor'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 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, the Emperor Alexander I encouraged resettlement of religious minorities to the so-called ""Milky Waters"" (""Molochnye Vody""): the region around the 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"""
"Zaporizhia Oblast in Ukraine. The Soviet reforms greatly affected the life of the Doukhobors both in their old villages in Georgia and in the new settlement areas in the Russian South 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 the Doukhobor way of life. The industrious Doukhobors made their collective"
"The Doukhobors rejected the holiness of Jesus Christ and the Bible, and were naturally pacifists and conscientious objectors who refused to participate in wars and battles. The death of ""Queen Lukerya"" in 1886 was followed by a leadership crisis. However, only part of the community (""the Large Party""; ) accepted her designated successor, Peter Verigin, as the leader; others, known as ""the Small Party"" (Малая сторона), 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"
"former Doukhobor villages were now mostly populated by Baptists. Elsewhere, some Doukhobors joined nearby Spiritual Christian groups. Those who 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 4000 Doukhobors from the Ninotsminda (Bogdanovka) district in south Georgia into Rostov Oblast in southern Russia and another 500 into"
"was to mock them as heretics fighting ""against"" the Holy Spirit (, ""Svyatoy Dukh""); but later on (around the beginning of the 19th century, according to SA Inikova) the dissenters picked the name, usually in a shorter form, ""Doukhobory"" (, ""Dukhobory""), implying that they are fighting not ""against"", but ""along with"" the Spirit. As pacifists, the Doukhobors also ardently rejected the institutions of militarism and wars. For these reasons, the Doukhobors were harshly oppressed in Imperial Russia. Both the tsarist state and church authorities were involved in the persecution of these dissidents, as well as taking away their normal freedoms."
"26, 1887, at the community service where the new leader was to be acclaimed, the police arrived and arrested Verigin. He was sent into internal exile for the next 16 years in Russia's Far North of Siberia; some of his associates were sent into exile as well. 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 its laws and regulations. The Doukhobors had resisted registering"
"religion and world view had traditionally espoused non-violence, the dangerous conditions of life in the southern borderlands of Russian Empire and the necessity to co-operate with the authorities resulted in the Doukhobors of the mid- and late-19th century owning and using weapons for self-defence, and, when conscripted, joining the Russian military. However, as a moral and religious revival, inspired by the exiled community leader Peter Vasilevich Verigin and by Leo Tolstoy's philosophy of non-violence, by 1895 many of the Doukhobors living in Transcaucasia resolved to destroy the weapons they owned. Those of them who had already served in the military"
"a result of Russian Revolution (1905), religious tolerance has been legislated. Verigin's delegation met with Stolypin and other ministers, who made an offer of land in the Altai (south-western Siberia) and an exemption from the conscription. Although the offer was personally confirmed by Nicholas II, Verigin felt that, no matter what, the Doukhobors' situation in Russia would not be as secure as in Canada. In March 1907 his delegation went back to Canada. Verigin established his first Canadian residence at the Doukhobor village of Poterpevshie (, 'The Victims', or perhaps 'The Survivors'), some 15 km northwest of Kamsack, Saskatchewan. On"
"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 neighbor 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"
"some of their power and income. In the following years, both peasant and noble discontent would come to be expressed in new political movements in Georgia. During the reign of Nicholas II, Russian authorities encouraged the migration of various religious minorities, such as Molokans and Doukhobors, from Russia's heartland provinces into Transcaucasia, including Georgia. The intent was both to isolate the troublesome dissenters away from the Orthodox Russians (who could be ""corrupted"" by their ideas), and to strengthen Russian presence in the region. Because Georgia served as more-or-less a Russian march principality as a base for further expansion against the"
"in the direct revelation of God to the inner man"". Adherents are called Spiritual Christians () or, less accurately, ""malakan"" in the Former Soviet Union, and ""Molokans"" in the United States, often confused with ""Doukhobors"" in Canada. (""Molokane"" proper comprised the largest and most organized of many Spiritual Christian groups in the Russian Empire). Historian Pavel Milyukov traced the origins of Spiritual Christianity to the Doukhobors, who were first recorded in the 1800s but originated earlier. Milyukov believed the movement reflected developments among Russian peasants similar to those underlying the German Peasants' War in the German Reformation of the 1500s."
"Freedomites Freedomites, also called ""Svobodniki"" (Russian: ""free people""), later called the Sons of Freedom, first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and later in the Kootenay and Boundary Districts of British Columbia (BC), as zealots who separated from Doukhobors. Of about 20,000 active Doukhobors in Canada today, ancestors of about 2,500 were Freedomites, of which very few today identify with or practice zealous protesting, and many joined Community Doukhobors. Confusion that Freedomites were Doukhobors arose because all moved to Canada together to escape religious persecution in Russia, and seek land and freedom. A few, unsatisfied with broken promises by the"
"areas, including the Borchaly uyezd of Tiflis Governorate and the Kedabek uyezd of Elisabethpol 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 in 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"
"Christianity, as opposed to the ""mystics"" - ""christoverchestvo"" adherents, ""Doukhobors"" and ""skoptsy""."" (p. 322) Uklein's Molokans from Tambov energetically proselytized in settlements along the Volga River and Russia's south-eastern frontier, spreading the Molokan faith in Orenburg, Saratov and Astrakhan provinces and organizing congregations until his death in 1809. From the intervention of Count Nikolay Zubov in 1795, Molokans (бесшапочники) were tolerated under Tsarina Catherine but constrained by strict rules imposed upon them intended to curb community growth. Those who ignored the restrictions were punished in Tsarist Russia as heretics. Molokan evangelists and missionaries suffered imprisonment, banishment and other forms of"
"variety of it. It is reasonable to assume that the formative period for the speech of the Doukhobors was the first four decades of the 19th century. It was in 1802 that the Doukhobors, as well as the members of Russia's other dissenter Christian groups, were encouraged to migrate to the Molochna River region, around Melitopol near Ukraine's Sea of Azov coast. Over the next 10–20 years, the Doukhobor, Molokan, and other settlers, speaking a variety of mostly Southern Russian dialects arrived to the Molochna from several provinces located, primarily, in what is today eastern Ukraine and south-central Russia. In"
"was the first known Doukhobor leader, active from 1755 to 1775. He came 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"" (, ""Dukhobortsy"", 'Spirit wrestlers') 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"
"not encountered until moving to Canada. Doukhobor Russian The Doukhobors are a Spiritual Christians (folk Protestants) from Russia 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 English environment and the speech of the Ukrainian settlers in Saskatchewan. Over several generations, this dialect has been mostly lost, as the modern descendants of the original Doukhobor migrants to Canada are typically native English speakers, and when they do speak Russian,"
"in 1899. They called themselves Doukhobors, spirit wrestlers, a pacifist community that had been exiled by Tsarist autocracy. They complied with instructions to hoist a yellow quarantine flag after being granted pratique. The vessel was then directed to the deep water wharf at the north west end of the island. Tolstoy acted on their behalf and direct instructions from Dr Frederick Montizambert on leave from Grosse Île quarantine station during this time. Their stay lasted three weeks. Accommodation was limited, and the Doukhobors found where hired contractors were building a new detention centre. Probably encouraged by the high wages being"
"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 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"
"Doukhobor Russian The Doukhobors are a Spiritual Christians (folk Protestants) from Russia 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 English environment and the speech of the Ukrainian settlers in Saskatchewan. Over several generations, this dialect has been mostly lost, as the modern descendants of the original Doukhobor migrants to Canada are typically native English speakers, and when they do speak Russian, it is typically a fairly standard"
"independent nations. Their early religion was a form of shamanism. However, interaction with Turkey resulted in the dominance of Islam, especially between 1829 and 1864 when it was used as a mean to further separate the locals with Russians, who were mainly Orthodox Christians. After the end of the Caucasus War, the Russian government urged relocation of the coastal tribes. This initiative was avidly promoted by the Turkish authorities; however, the relocation to Turkey resulted in much suffering and death as the refugee camps in Turkey could not cope with the large numbers of migrants. Seeing that, the Russians later"
"Tiflis passed through Romanovo, where Klubnikin now lived and witnessed the passing of hundreds of escorted Spiritual Christian prisoners. The famous writer Leo N. Tolstoy protested to the Tsar about this cruelty, resulting in aid from the Society of Friends, London, and the Canadian government to move over 7,400 (about one-third) of all ""Dukhobortsy"" to central Canada. Immediately other Spiritual Christian tribes in Kars and Erevan petitioned to follow the ""Dukhobortsy"" to Canada. A Russian businessman in Los Angeles, Peter A. Demens had been promoting California to immigrants from Russia for a decade, objected to ""Dukhobortsy"" settling in Canada, and"
"farms prosperous, often specializing in cheesemaking. Of the Doukhobor communities in the USSR, those in South Georgia were the most sheltered from the outside influence because of the sheer geographic isolation in the mountainous terrain, their location near the international border, and concomitant travel restrictions for outsiders. In 2001 an estimated 20,000–40,000 people of Doukhobor heritage lived in Canada, some 3,800 of them claiming ""Doukhobor"" as their religious affiliation. Perhaps another 30,000 of Doukhobor heritage live in Russia and neighboring countries. About 5,000 of Doukhobor heritage live in the northernmost continental U.S. along the Canada–US border. In 2011 there were"
"rest belonged to the Small and the Middle Parties. Among them was Verigin's mother, Anastasia Verigina, around 80 years of age at the time. Smaller numbers of Doukhobors, directly from Transcaucasia or from various places of exile, continued moving to Canada in the years to follow. In the fall of 1902, after 16 years in exile, Verigin was released from Obdorsk. He visited Leo Tolstoy in October, Verigin was to visit Russia again, only once. He came in 1906, leading a delegation of 6 Doukhobors, to investigate a possibility of the return of the Doukhobors to Russia, now that, as"
"Around 1884, the religion began to spread into the Russian Empire, where the Bahá'í community in Ashgabat built the first Bahá'í House of Worship, elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions and became a center of scholarship. The Bahá'í Faith also attracted the attention of several Russian scholars and artists. During the Soviet period, Russia adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, leading the Russian Bahá'í community to abandon its administration and properties in accordance with its principle of obedience to legal government, though Bahá'ís across the Soviet Union were nevertheless sent to prisons and camps or"
"Freedom of religion in Russia In Russia, the prominence and authority of various religious groups is closely tied to the country's political situation. In the 10th century, Prince Vladimir I, who was converted by missionaries from Byzantium, embraced Christianity as the official Russian religion. For approximately 1,000 years thereafter, Russian Orthodoxy became the country’s primary denomination. Although the constitution of the former Soviet Union nominally guaranteed religious freedom, religious activities were greatly constrained and membership in religious organizations was considered incompatible with membership in the Communist Party. Thus, overt claims of religious beliefs was a hindrance to individual advancement. While"
"the Russian Orthodox Church could engage in missionary activity to convert non-Orthodox people, and apostasy was treated as an offense punishable by law. Catholicism, Islam and other religions were tolerated only among outsider (""inoroditsy"") peoples but forbidden from spreading among Russians. Throughout the history of early and imperial Russia there were, however, religious movements which posed a challenge to the monopoly of the Russian Orthodox Church and put forward stances of freedom of conscience, namely the Old Believers—who separated from the Russian Orthodox Church after Patriarch Nikon's reform in 1653 (the ""Raskol"")—, and Spiritual Christianity (or Molokanism). It is worth"
"one of Doukhobor communities in Georgia (shown on one of J.J. Kalmakoff's maps.), in the ""Sirotsky Dom"" (), or ""The Orphanage"" - the facility serving as the Doukhobor headquarter, as well as, indeed, home for orphans and the aged. Lukerya was respected by the provincial authorities, who had to cooperate with the Doukhobors on various matters. While working for her and living at her residence, Verigin received an extensive religious education, and was prepared by childless Lukerya to become her successor as the leader of the Doukhobors. He became acquainted with the Doukhobor ideas of administration - rejecting secular government."
"Russians began living outside of the Russian Federation, most of them in the former Soviet Republics. Ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority. After the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees. Many white émigrés"
"the face of increasing violence and persecution, state restrictions on freedom of religion, and biased allotments of communal farmland. They emigrated to Germany, Britain, the United States, parts of South America, and other regions. After the Bolshevik revolution, Islam was for some time (until 1929) treated better than the Russian Orthodox Church, which Bolsheviks regarded as a center of the ""reaction"", and other religions. In the declaration ""Ко всем трудящимся мусульманам России и Востока"" (""To All Working Muslims in Russia and the Orient"") of November 1917, the Bolshevik government declared the freedom to exercise their religion and customs for Muslims"