About the doukhobors:

Doukhobor:    A way of life that has united thousands of people over hundreds of years…….

It was in 1651 that a Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Nikon, introduced reforms in the rites of the church.  A large number of clergy as well as lay members didn’t accept those reforms and there was a division and great turmoil.  Those who didn’t accept these reforms became known as Old Believers and were savagely persecuted.  Some were burned at the stake, flogged, exiled; thousands fled into the hinterlands of Russia or to adjoining countries.  The schism made people question their own beliefs and there arose many freethinkers and dozens of sects.  There is no evidence of a direct connection between the schism and the Doukhobors, except that it was in those years that there appeared people who simply called themselves Christians, and who in 1785 Archbishop Ambrosias called Doukhobors, that is Spirit Wrestlers.  He meant to convey that those people wrestled against the Holy Spirit of the Orthodox Church.  Accepting the name, the Doukhobors gave it a different meaning, saying:  We do not wrestle against the Holy Spirit, but being pacifist, wrestle against injustice, not by the power of carnal weapons, but by the power of the spirit of love and goodness.

Peter P Legebokoff

Photo:  ISKRA February 26, 2003
Iskra Editor  1952 -1972
Curator, Doukhobor Discovery Center
Toil and Peaceful Life
Sound Heritage Volume VI Number 4 page 12

Such a belief, as it implies today, the complete rejection of the idea of a mediatory priesthood, and, in this and other respects, the Doukhobors stand on the extreme left of the theological spectrum.  From the traditional churches they differ in having no liturgy and no icons, no fasts and no festivals, nor churches and no priests.  …They believe heaven and hell to be states of mind, and for this reason they bury their dead without ceremonial; they regard marriages as free unions between individuals, not contracts bound by laws of church and state.  Finally, they are marked off among modern Christians from all but a few similarly exclusive millenarian sects by their rejection of the Bible as the ultimate source of inspiration.  The only visible symbols of their faith are the loaf of bread, the cellar of salt, and the jug of water that stand on the table in the middle of their meetinghouses, symbolizing the basic elements of existence. 

George Woodcock & Ivan Avakumovic
The Doukhobors
Oxford University Press 1968
Page 19

George Woodcock: (May 8, 1912,
Winnipeg, MB – January 28, 1995,
Vancouver, BC) A Canadian Writer
of political biography and history,
an anarchist thinker, a philosopher,
an essayist and literary critic.

Ivan Avakumovic:: (August 22, 1926,
Belgrade Belgrade  July 16, 2013
Vancouver, BC)  A SerbianCanadian historian who was Professor Emeritus
of History at the University of British
Columbia, Canada

From the Common Views of the Christian Community of a World Brotherhood

  1. Members of the community respect and love God,  as the beginning of all existence.
  2. They respect the dignity and honor of humanity, both within themselves and in others.
  3. Members of the community view all existing things with love and admiration. They strive to raise children in this way.
  4. By the word God, members of the community understand the power of love, the power of life that gave rise to all existence.
  5. The world consists of movement; everything strives for perfection and through this process seeks to unite with its origin, as if returning the matured fruit also becomes the seed.
  6. In everything that exists in our world, we see transitional stages towards perfection, as for example,  starting with stones, transitioning to plants, then to animal life, with humans being considered the furthest in terms of life, as thinking beings.
  7. Destroying or causing harm to anything is considered unacceptable by the community. There is life in every single think, and consequently, there is God, especially in humans. Depriving a person of life is not permissible under any circumstances.
  8. Members of the community believe in complete freedom for all that is, inclusive of  humans. Any organization established through violence is considered unlawful.
  9. The main basis of human existence is to serve: the energy of thought — reason. Material sustenance consists of: air, water, fruits, and vegetables.
  10. It is understood that communal life among humans is based on the strength of the moral law which states:  “What I do not wish for myself, I should not wish for

Photo:  Letters of a Doukhobor Leader By A Tchertkoff, Christchurch,
Hants, England 1901

Peter “the Lordly” Verigin(July 12, 1859,
October 29, 1924 Slavyanka, Azerbaijan)
was a philosopher, activist, and leader of
the Community Doukhobors in Canada

V A Sookarev
Publisher: J Regehr, North Kildonan,
Manitoba, Canada

Из Общих Взглядов Христианской Общины Всемирного Братства

  1. Члены общины уважают и любят Бога, как начало всему существующему.
  2. Уважают достоинство и честь человека, как в самом себе, также равно в себе подобных.
  3. Члены общины смотрят на все существующее любовно и с восхищением. В этом направлении стараются воспитывать детей.
  4. Под словом Бог, члены общины разумеют силу любви, силу жизни, которая дала начало всему существующему.
  5. Мир состоит из движения, все стремится к совершенству и через этот процесс старается соединиться со своим началом, как бы возвратить созревший плод семени.
  6. Во всем существующем нашего мира, мы видим переходные ступени к совершенству, как например, начинается с камня, переходит к растениям, потом жизнь животных, из которых самым крайним можно считать человека, в смысле жизни, в смысле мыслящего создания.
  7. Уничтожать, разрушать чтобы то ни быль, чтены общины считают предосудитебным. В каждом отдельном предмете есть жизнь, а следовательно и Бог, в особенности же в человеке. Лишать жизни человека ни в каком случае непозволительно.
  8. Члены общины в своем убеждении допускают полнейшую свободу всему существующему, в том числе и человеку. Всякая организация, установленная насилием, считается не законной.
  9. Главной основой существования человека служить: энергия мысли – разум. Пищей вещественной служат: воздух, вода, фрукты и овощи.
  10. Допускается общинная жизнь в человеках, держащаяся на законе нравственной силы, правила которого служат: Чего себе не хочу, того не должен желать другому

Петр Господний
Сентября месяца, 1896
История Духоборцев pages 216, 217