page_title: Doukhobors
section_title: Canadian prairies
hierarchical_section_title: Doukhobors / History / Canadian prairies
caption_attribution_description: Doukhobor women are shown breaking the prairie sod by pulling a plough themselves, Thunder Hill Colony, Manitoba. c 1899
context_page_description: The Doukhobours or Dukhobors are a Spiritual Christian religious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia, often categorized as "folk-Protestants", Spiritual Christians, sectarians, or heretics. They are distinguished as pacifists who lived in their own villages, rejected personal materialism, worked together, and developed a tradition of oral history and memorizing and singing hymns and verses. Before 1886, they had a series of single leaders.
  The ancient origin of the Doukhobors is uncertain. The first written records of them are from 1701, although some scholars suspect earlier origins.
  They rejected the Russian Orthodox priesthood, the use of icons, and all associated church ritual. They came to believe that the Bible alone was not enough to reach divine revelation, and that doctrinal conflicts can interfere with their faith. Their goal was to internalize the living spirit of God so that God's spirit would be revealed within each individual. Bible teachings are evident in some published Doukhobor psalms, hymns, and beliefs.
context_section_description: In accordance with the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, the Canadian government would grant 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land, for a nominal fee of $10, to any male homesteader able to establish a working farm on that land within three years. Living on single-family homesteads would not fit Doukhobors' communitarian tradition. Fortunately, the Act contained the  "Hamlet Clause", adopted some 15 years earlier to accommodate other communitarian groups such as Mennonites, which would allow the beneficiaries of the Act to live not on the actual land grant, but in a village ("hamlet") within 3 miles (4.8 km) from their land.  This would allow the Doukhobors to establish a communal lifestyle, similar to the Hutterites.
  Even more importantly, by passing in late 1898 Section 21 of the Dominion Military Act, the Canadian Government exempted the Doukhobors from military service.
  The land for the Doukhobor immigrants, in the total amount of 773,400 acres (3,130 km²), came in three "block settlement" areas ("reserves"), plus an "annex", within what was to soon become the Province of Saskatchewan:
  The North Colony, also known as the "Thunder Hill Colony" or "Swan River Colony", in the Pelly and Arran districts of Saskatchewan. It became home to 2,400 Doukhobors from Tiflis Governorate, who established 20 villages on 69,000 acres (280 km²) of the land grant.
  The South Colony, also known as the "Whitesand Colony" or "Yorkton Colony", in the Canora, Veregin and Kamsack districts of Saskatchewan. Some 3,500 Doukhobors from Tiflis Governorate, Elisabethpol Governorate, and Kars Oblast settled there in 30 villages on 215,010 acres (870.1 km²) of land grant.
  The Good Spirit Lake Annex, in the Buchanan district of Saskatchewan, received 1,000 Doukhobors from Elisabethpol Governorate and Kars Oblast. Russia settled there in eight villages on 168,930 acres (683.6 km²) of land grant. The annex was along the Good Spirit River, flowing into Good Spirit Lake (previously known as Devil's Lake).
  The Saskatchewan Colony, also known as the "Rosthern Colony", "Prince Albert Colony" or "Duck Lake Colony", was located along the North Saskatchewan River in the Langham and Blaine Lake districts of Saskatchewan, north-west of Saskatoon. 1,500 Doukhobors from Kars Oblast settled there in 13 villages on 324,800 acres (1,314 km²) of land grant.
  Geographically, North and South Colonies, as well as Good Spirit Lake Annex (Devil's Lake Annex, to non-believers) were around Yorkton, not far from the border with today's Manitoba; the Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony was located north-west of Saskatoon, quite a distance from the other three "reserves."
  At the time of settlement (1899), all four "reserves" formed part of the Northwest Territories: Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony in the territories' provisional District of Saskatchewan, North Reserve, straddling the border of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia districts, and the other two entirely in Assiniboia. After the establishing of the Province of Saskatchewan in 1905, all reserves found themselves within that province.
  Verigin convinced his followers to free their "brethren" (animals) and pull their wagons and plows themselves.  On the lands granted to them in the prairies, the settlers established villages along the same lines as back in the old country. Some of the new villages received the same Russian names as the settlers' home villages in Transcaucasia (e.g., Spasovka, Large and Small Gorelovka, Slavianka); others gained more abstract, "spiritual" names, not common in Russia: "Uspeniye" ('Dormition'), "Terpeniye" ('Patience'), "Bogomdannoye" ('Given by God'), "Osvobozhdeniye" ('Liberation').
  The settlers found Saskatchewan winters much harsher than those in Transcaucasia, and expressed particular disappointment that the climate was not as suitable for growing fruits and vegetables. Women greatly outnumbered the men. Many women worked on the farms tilling the land, while many men took non-farm jobs, especially in railway construction.
  The earliest arrivals came from three different backgrounds and had varying commitments to co
caption: Doukhobor women pulling a plow, Thunder Hill Colony, Manitoba
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