DOUKHOBORS, doo'no-borz (Russian dukhobortsy, °spirit wrestlers," from their van quishing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), a sect which started in Kharkov, Russia, about 1740, and spread rapidly in the Dnieper provinces who now call themselves Christians of the Universal Brotherhood. The founder's name is not preserved: he was a Prussian sub-officer who settled in Russia when his term expired. He and his successors, Kolesnikoff, Kapustin, etc., taught the familiar doctrine of the °inner light," with logical but socially inconvenient extensions: that as God in the soul is the one guide to action, the Bible is not inspired (though they accept the 10 Commandments), and it is not only superfluous but sinful to read and write, printing being a snare of the Devil; that God manifests himself in the fullest power in the human soul, and as they had that power, they were embodiments of God, and to he wor shipped and obeyed as such; that Christ was only a sinless man, and the sinless leaders were his equals and successors. Every one's action being dictated by God, it cannot be wrong, and civil rulers are needless and their rule a usurpa tion; all being equal before God, churches are needless and they do not enter them; mar riages need neither ceremonies nor permission, being of inclination only. It is easy to see that these tenets brought them in conflict with the authorities, who tried to restrict them to theory instead of practice, and imprisoned numbers for contumacy; but in 1801 a commissioner's report to Alexander I that they were well-behaved citizens induced him to order them left alone. The first colony was founded at Milky Waters, Sea of Azov, in 1801, and by 1816 the com munity numbered 3,000 souls. Crimes com mitted in the internal management of the colony led to their deportation (1841-44). The report of an imperial commission was so shocking that they were deported to the then wilderness of Transcaucasia; a high bleak plateau unfit for agriculture, where they became almost wholly cattle-raisers and eaters, and increased to some 15,000. The government gradually put down the civil despotism of the leaders, and enforced decency of life; but it was not done without much petty tyranny, and doubtless corruption and abuse, of which they com plained. Then came Pobiedonosteff's policy of unifying the elements of the empire, and enforcing conformity to the Greek Church; and in 1887 a bitter faction fight between two pretenders to the Doukhobor leadership rent the community. In 1895, as a sign that they regarded war as sinful, a large number destroyed all weapons of offense, and on ac count of this about 4,000 were deported from their homes and scattered among the Georgian tribes. Championed by Tolstoi, an agitation
in their favor sprang up in England and other countries; and in 1898 the Russian government agreed to permit their emigration. About 1,000 went to Cyprus, these afterward joining the main body in Manitoba, where be tween January and June 1899 7,363 located, settling in the vicinity of Yorkton, Swan River and Prince Albert. They would not take lands in severalty, but only in communities; but they were prospering and learning English, filling the schools with their children, and appearing to slough off their unassimilable characteristics. Suddenly they adopted the tenet that all use of animals or their products for human service is sinful, and refused to eat milk, butter or eggs, wear woolen or leather garments, or use draft animals. Then one settlement refused to pay school taxes, till the government seized and sold their cattle. In the summer of 1902 they all at once turned their stock loose on the prairies and began hauling their own loads to market, sometimes 50 miles off, and themselves, drawing the plows; the government rounded up the stock, sold it and placed the proceeds to the credit of the communities. While crippled in power to work for lack of animals, the rumor spread that Jesus was shortly to appear at Winnipeg, 300 miles east, to lead them to a new kingdom; they deserted the villages, and on the night of 27 October 1,500 to 2,000 set off across country. After dreadful sufferings from cold and hunger, and joined by thousands more, men, women and children, they came near York ton 10 days after, and lay out in the fields with the thermometer at 22°. The police singled out the women and children and the sick, and locked them into comfortable quarters; several hun dred of the men went on alone, the women clamoring to accompany them and some going insane. When about 100 miles from Winnipeg, the mounted police forced them into freight cars and took them back to their villages. Pilgrimages on a small scale have since taken place, in each year from 1903 to 1907, but those have occasioned little trouble. Peter Vcregin, their leader, has on their behalf made extensive purchases of fruit-lands round Nelson, British Columbia. About 35 per cent of the immigrants have broken away from the community to start on their own account. According to the Cana dian census of 1911, there were 10,943 in the Dominion. Consult Elkinton, 'The Doukho bors' (Philadelphia 1903) ; Maude, 'A Peculiar People: The Doukhobors) (New York 1904).