Doukhobors

Doukhobors or Dukhobors (Russian, “spirit wrestlers”), popular name of a religious sect active in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries and in Canada since 1898. Following the liturgical changes introduced by the patriarch Nikon in 1652 in the time of Tsar Alexis I, father of Peter the Great, and the more radical evolution in Russian society imposed later by Peter, a large segment of the Russian rural population joined a variety of nonconformist religious movements. These movements originally defended the traditional ways of Russian Orthodoxy but later degenerated into a plethora of mystical, orgiastic, or rationalistic groups. The Doukhobor movement, in its various forms, combined several of these trends. Originating in southern Russia, it rejected not only the authority of state and church but also that of the Bible.

The major element in the religious life of the Doukhobors was the “gathering” (sobraniye), at which large passages of the Book of Life—a collection of hymns and popular proverbs handed down orally—were sung or recited around a table laid with simple peasant food. This food—bread, salt, and water—came to symbolize Doukhobor faith and hospitality. In more recent times, canticles translated from Western Protestant hymnals were also included at gatherings.

The doctrines of the sect included the belief that the spirit of God dwells in all things, pacifism, the rejection of military conscription and state authority in general, the rejection of the worship of icons, and, occasionally, the community of property. Reacting against external social pressures, a small group of Doukhobors at times practiced collective nudism.

Frequently divided into factions that followed different leaders, the Doukhobors were sporadically persecuted from 1773 onward. A Doukhobor community of about 4,000 people was settled near the sea of Azov by Tsar Alexander I in 1801. From 1840 to 1841, the group was deported to the Caucasus. A splinter faction led by Peter Verigin settled first in Siberia in 1887, then in Georgia, in the Caucasus Mountains. In 1895 the Doukhobors refused to serve in the Russian army and, under Verigin’s leadership, gathered and publicly burned their weapons. Afterward, persecution and deportation of the sect intensified.

Taking the name Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood, the sect attracted the sympathy of Leo Tolstoy. With the moral and political backing of the great novelist and the financial support of British Quakers (see Friends, Society of), 7,500 Doukhobors immigrated to Canada between 1898 and 1899. They were granted exemption from conscription and easy terms for landownership in Saskatchewan. In 1907, however, the government required registration of land by individuals, rather than communal landholding. Led by Verigin, who also had immigrated, about 6,000 Doukhobors resettled in British Columbia. A small faction caused civil disturbances, particularly through nudist demonstrations against government-required schooling.

The total number of Canadian Doukhobors in the late 1990s was 30,000, according to the country’s Museum of Civilization. Most have integrated themselves fully into Canadian society. Statistics on the number of Doukhobors in Russia were unavailable.

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