The Doukhobor Canadians Centennial: 1899-1999.

by Lawrence Klippenstein

Doukhobor Canadians are among the minority ethnic groups which form important segments of the national society. In Manitoba the group is not known as well as in the other three western provinces. Saskatchewan was the initial location of their settlements after the first families arrived in Canada in 1899. Circumstances brought on several moves so that major additional settlements, totalling around 30,000 persons today, have emerged in Alberta and especially B.C., with others scattered across the entire nation.

Doukhobors are an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church, formed under certain western influences along with indigenous impulses in the Russian part of their story. The immigration to Canada of nearly 8000 persons at the turn of the century involved about a third of their Russian membership at the time.

The militant pacifism of this group has given them kinship with Mennonites in certain ways. A June, 1982, meeting known as the International Doukhobor Intergroup Symposium and held at Castlegar, B.C., included invitations to Mennonites along with Quakers, Molokans, and the Doukhobors themselves. The issue of disarmament and peace was an important agenda item for these sessions. Doukhobor peace manifestation, as they are called (we might call them demonstrations), have also included Manitoba locations in the past.

Russian Mennonite learned to know Doukhobors as neighbours when Alexander I allowed a group of them to settle in nine villages along the right bank of the Molotschna around 1802. Occasional frictions and some harassment led them to appeal to Johann Cornies for help on several occasions. Internal migrations and forced resettlements by the Russian government took them to new communities in the Northern Caucasus region, for one, and then more recently to regroup in the Tula area just south of Moscow.

A formative event in the renaissance of the Russian Doukhobor community came with the "burning of arms" incident on July 11-12 (NS) 1895, when about 7000 Doukhobor soldiers burned their arms in protest against military service. Harsh punishments and exile for many followed. A long series of celebrations in 1995 in various Canadian Doukhobor communities highlighted this important point in the struggles of their history.

A similar list of celebrations can be found for what has already taken place in 1999, with a final event scheduled for Dec. 31 at the Grand Forks Community Centre in Grand Forks, and the Brilliant Cultural Centre in Castlegar, both in B.C.

Publications form a significant aspect of these celebrations. The periodical, Canadian Ethnic Studies, published an entire volume under the title From Russia with Love: The Doukhobors in its No.3 issue of 1995. More recently Koozma Tarasoff and Robert B. Klymasz (both of Ottawa now) edited Spirit-Wrestlers: CentennialPapers in Honour of Canada's Doukhobor Heritage, in 1995 and then Tarasoff alone compiled and edited Spirit-Wrestlers' Voices. Honouring Doukhobors on the Centenary of Their Migration to Canada in 1899 in 1998.

The two latter titles are excellent sets of essays on various Doukhobor-related themes. One may note that the 1995 volume included an essay by Dr. Bill Janzen of Ottawa, entitled "The Doukhobor Challenge to Canadian Liberties" based on parts of his earlier publication Limits on Liberty: The Experience of Mennonite, Hutterite and Doukhobor Communities in Canada (Toronto: U of T Press, 1990).

Further information on the above-mentioned Doukhobor volumes, or the 1999 celebrations, may be obtained from Koozma Tarasoff, ph/fax 613-737-5778, or email tarasov@igs.net