Spiritual Christians in Siberia and in the Far East of Russia (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

The article is devoted to the life of spiritual Christians in Siberia and in the Far East of Russia in the second half of the 19th -early 20th centuries. A lot of mystical and rationalistic sects appeared after the Raskol of the Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of the 17th century. The Khlysts (Khlysty) were among them. In the second part of the 17th century the movement of the Dukhobors and the Molokans emerged from the Khlysts Movement. The Khlysts had an idea of the possibility of a direct talk with God, avoiding mediation of priests. Later, spiritual Christians developed this thesis and proclaimed the idea of "inner church" in the soul of the believer. The Dukhobors and the Molokans mostly represented the social protest of the Russian peasantry (and the Molokans represented the protest of suburbanites and merchants as well) against the existing feudal and serfdom orders and dogmatism of the Russian Orthodox Church. Followers of spiritual Christianity denied all orders of the Orthodox Church, external church ceremonies, worship of visible demonstrations of cult: icons, crosses, relics. They denied churches (buildings), monasteries, monasticism, saints and seven sacraments. The communities of spiritual Christians existed in the European part of the country, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Empire. The sectarians represented state peasants, handicraftsmen, small traders. The Dukhobors and the Molokans were strongly persecuted by the government. Authorities saw the sectarians as very harmful and exiled them in remote and far distant places of Siberia and Yakutsk region. Some of spiritual Christians were left in settlements of Yeniseysk, Irkutsk and Tomsk provinces. After signing the Treaty of Aigun between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty (28 may 1858) forced relocation of spiritual Christians began in the Far East. Later, spiritual Christians informed their fellows about advantages of resettlement expressed in freedom from conscription, religious tolerance and opportunity to receive an allotment of hundred desyatinas. The relocation of spiritual Christians is described in the article. It is noted that the Dukhobors arrived in Amur Oblast mainly from Yeniseysk Province and Transbaikalia. The Dukhobors resettled alongside with the Molokans, but the flow of the Dukhobors was not so mass, and they settled predominantly in the rural terrain. Villages Andreevka, Astrakhanovka, Pokrovka, Novo-Troitskoe, Gil'chin, Tambovka, Gomelevka, Vvedenovka and town Blagoveshchensk were places where the sectarians (their names are specified in the article) settled. The role of L.N. Tolstoy in helping Yakutsk Dukhobors is noted in the article. The contribution of spiritual Christians in the development of the Russian Far East in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries is highlighted. The causes of the crisis of the religious movement in the 1920s are analyzed.

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