Who are the Old Church be livers ,the Doukabours?

Question

Who are the Old Church be livers ,the Doukabours?

Answer 1

The history I found is almost entirely anecdotal:

The earliest inhabitants in the area (of Buchanan, Canada) were squatters and ranchers from Upper Canada, arriving in 1887. The first settlers to arrive were the Doukabours from Russia in 1899, followed by the Ukrainians in 1902-03.

http://www.buchanan.sasktelwebsite.net/h...

My husband and I spent seven years in Grand Forks B.C. when 40 % of the population, were Russian Doukabours, although many born in Canada. My husband was broadcaster in the local radio station. Each day, his news was given to Luba and Fred Rezanzoff who translated the news into Russian for the benefit of some of the older residents, who still were not conversant in the English language.  My teaching position in the schools was to teach the teachers how to teach and use the French second Language program. In order for the French to be allowed in the schools, the Doukabour people who were on the School board stated that French was to be allowed, and only allowed, if B.C. Dept. of Education permitted Russian to be taught. This was a sensible move with the high percentage of Russian - speaking folks in the town, as there was only one French family. Two of the teachers who were teaching Russian, returned to Russia for a summer semester at the University in Moscow. They found that their Russian, brought over by their Russian ancestors of the Doukabour sect, was an older version of the Russian language.  My husband and I both made friends with many of these people who attended the U.S.C.C.(United Society of Christian Communities) which was a modern Doukabour assembly, under the leadership of John J. Veregin,  their spiritual leader. Although they no longer live in their "communities", many of the older people were raised there, and told us about what it was like in the olden days. However, there are still a few of the block houses in which they lived, present in the Kootenays of British Columbia.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th...

The Doukabours got their name - which means "spirit wrestlers"- in the late 1700s with the spread of a religious movement opposing the teachings of the Orthodox Church. Renouncing the institution's ceremonies, structure and public Bible reading, they instead passed on their teachings orally by memorizing Psalms.  Looked upon as heretical, the growing group was persecuted and forced to move from homes in the Don and Cossack regions to the more remote Tavriheskoj area, where many members were killed or imprisoned.  Subsequently a splinter group emigrated to Canada where, now known as the Union of Spiritual Communities, they presently number around 20,000 and hold to their traditional doctrines of pacifism and vegetarianism.  Those who remained in Russia resettled again in the 1920s, moving near to the city of Rostov-on-Don where some 6,000 now live in small outlying villages. These Russian Doukabour maintain their own traditions and culture, which include "the gathering" - where members swap a special greeting and recite their teachings.

http://www.ywam.org/news/rus_796.html

Grand Forks:  This area is a former mining town, a lot of people of Russian descent live and here they practice the Doukabour religion. They left Russia under the Czars because part of their belief is that they don't take up arms. Some went to areas of Europe, some to Canada. In Canada they came to Saskatchewan; they settled in Verigan Buchanan and Kampsack. They lived in colonies. They then moved to British Columbia and set up colonies here. There was a sect of Doukabours called Sons of Freedom. They are also known as Barn Burners because they burnt down barns and houses to cleanse them. In the 1950's, when they were being charged for arson by the BC government, they would strip naked in court as a form of protest. They also walked the streets naked to protest. Their children were taken away because they refused to send them to school. The Sons of Freedom don't really exist anymore, but on our drive this afternoon, we saw dilapidated housing where some people still live.

http://midnightsun21.blogspot.com/2006_0...

There are a group of religious exiles that came to North America to escape Russian prejudice in the 1880’s called the Doukabours. The Doukabours were promised by the Canadian government that they would have complete freedom to practice their religion. They were a hard working people, farmers, and Canada needed all the immigrants it could attract.  When I moved to B.C. in the late 70’s I was introduced to the Doukabour people by news reports about an older woman, Mary, who had been jailed for protesting government by torching government buildings. While in jail she was fasting in order to continue her protest and the authorities were trying to force feed her.  It wasn’t until years later during a visit to the town of Grand Forks in the interior of the province that I learned more of Mary and the Doukabour story. I discovered that Doukabours had always found innovative, effective ways to protest government interference in their religious practices. For example, they considered tearing up railroad tracks, burning government buildings including schools a form of non violent protest. I didn’t. When I heard of women, mostly elders, stripping naked to march and protest I became deeply interested in the details of this group of people.

http://onenessisus.blogspot.com/2007/10/...

We had no problem with the Doukabours.  They lived up the valley, they’d get all emotional and keep the kids home from school and burn their house down after breakfast and chant and strip their clothes off and throw them in the fire. One time I remember they had a big religious do and took all their cars, piled them up and burned them. Some of the wrecks are still there, I hired a lot of the Doukabours, and they were the only help I could get at that time. They wouldn’t join the army and they would be ranting around and carrying out their beliefs. They’d be working for me on the timber lane and they were all Doukabours and they were all from here. There was a guy here name Johnny… and he had heard that I was going to start a saw mill and he said “ For God’ sake. Hire some of these Doukabours, these trouble makers” and I did. I never did have any trouble, not one bit. They did their own cooking and everything and I had all the bad ones they wanted to get them out of town. I had no trouble at all. I hired the guy that cut the cable and that went across the river and took the power out.  They wouldn’t let them go to school and after the war they settled down. When they really settled down was when they disbanded the communities and they took the government land and bought their own land and houses and insured them. Then their fires ceased.  The government owned all their property and it couldn’t control them, so they decided to sell them the property and the problem stopped.  

http://www.stationmuseum.ca/interviews/l...

A distinction should be drawn between human rights and privileges. This was clearly spelled out when, in the early twentieth century, devout Doukabours took to burning their homes when faced with the requirement that their children attend state schools.

http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1262pa...

Veregin, Saskatchewan owes what little traffic it has to the Doukabour sect. In the early 1900’s, the Doukabours established a settlement here after political problems forced them to leave Russia. From this small village, this religious group seeped out across the prairies, with many settling in British Columbia. Aside from that religious connection, Veregin resembles many other prairie towns that draw no visitors at all.

http://www.snyder-gallery.com/SearchDeta...

Saskatchewan's largest tree is a very old and stately cottonwood growing at David Ferry, on the North Saskatchewan River due east of the lake.  This monster has a circumference of nearly 5 meters. It's actually a natural hybrid of plains cottonwood and balsam popular, and is the last and largest of a stand that was young long before the first white settlers arrived in the area. Doukabours settlers, fleeing religious persecution in Czarist Russia, were awed by the big cottonwoods, and made temporary homes in caves cut out of the river bank nearby. The tree is accessible along the "tree road", which runs east from Route 12, about 10 km south of the town of Blaine Lake.

http://coop.fotopages.com/