Different People, the Dukhobors

In 1898 a group of Russian peasants migrated to Canada to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. The name Dukhobors mean spirit (dukh) wrestlers (bortsy). Their particular sect was a Christian religion that is thought to have originated in the 17th and 18th century. Because of their philosophy, called 'a simple way of life', this ethnic group and social movement rejected the Russian Orthodox Church, the Bible, icons, and the government. They reject wars and militarism, for this reason, the Russian government tried to control them by torturing them, finally exiling some of them as dissidents and took away all their rights and freedom.

In their faith, they do not believe in heaven or hell, practice baptisms, believe in the holy trinity and dismissed the idea of original sin, in favor of the goodness of man. They do practice the ten commandments, believe in simple living and continue to practice one of the four form of vegetarians, avoid tobacco and alcohol.

By the end of the 19th century over two-thirds of this sect decided to migrate from Russia to Canada hoping to find a safer haven there in which to practice their faith. With help from the Quaker, who are pacifist also, and wealthy friends like Leo Tolstoy, they managed to pay their way for passage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1898. Tolstoy even donated the royalist from his book the "Resurrection" and other of his writings to help them in their cause.

It was isolated and peaceful in Canada and the Canadians welcomed them at that time. Once established in their new home they established a communal life until the leader of the sect was killed in a train explosion. The Canadian government accused the Dokhobor people of blowing up the train but they adamantly denied it and said the Canadian government was at fault. The truth has never been established as to what happened there. However, a riff was caused between the two groups over this controversy, the way their educated their children and their way of life in general. That mistrust remains to this day. It didn't help that a small group of them broke from the original group and formed their own sect called the "Svobodniki" (or sons of freedom)

This new group decided to protest by using massive nudity and arson because of their belief that the Canadians had assassination of their leader. They burned their clothes, when their land was seized by the government and their children were taken away to be educated in government schools in New Denver, British Columbia. The Royal Mounted Police came in and eventually forcibly interned these 'sons of freedom'

This split to sect into two groups the ones who didn't believe in violence and those that did, but in the past few years this problem has become resolved.

There are 30,000 of the Dukhobors still living in Canada.