New Israel () was one of the Sektanstvo (sectarian)

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part ...

s that grew and expanded in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in the late 19th to early 20th century, a branch of the ''

Postniki {{Short description, 19th Century religious sect in Russia The Postniki (постники "fasters") were a millennial sect of 19th century Southern Russia, a branch of the Khlysty (flagellants) movement, founded by Abbakum (or Avvakum) Ivanov Kopy ...

'' (fasters). The movement was the result of the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

s that split the "Old Israel" (''

Staroizrail Old Israel (''Staroizrail'') was a 19th-century sect founded in the 1830s by Perfil Katasonov, a disciple of Abbakum Kopylov, the founder of the Postniki (Fasters) sect, as the result of a schism. Its adherents considered themselves to be the Chos ...

'') sect after the death of Perfil Katasonov. Its founder was a peasant named Mokshin, but it rose to notability only under Mokshin's successor, Vasiliy Semionovitch Lubkov (Василий Семенович Лубков, born December 24, 1869). In the 1910s, members of the sect emigrated to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, where they founded the town of San Javier. New Israel was strongly influenced by the '' Dukhovnye Khristiane'' movement, and in turn gave rise to two new religious sects called ''Noviy soyuz duhovnovo Israilia'' (Новый союз духовного Израиля) and ''Novohristianskiy soyuz'' (Новохристианский союз). Although persecuted in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, the group continues to this day.

Religious views

The New Israel religion believes that there is only one living true God. The sect rejects the typical view of Mystery in God, and therefore rejects most of traditional practices, while keeping only some. Therefore, the consumption of any type of food including meat is acceptable. Church marriages are replaced with civil marriages. The civil marriage allows the selection of a partner ''duhovnitsu'' (духовницу) by the will of God or a leader (prophet), in this case family ties are not considered.

History

In 1891, Lubkov, who was 22 at the time, declared himself to be the living God and took control over the New Israel. In 1905, under the leadership of Lubkov, the church moved its center of operations to

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. The church later spread its influence over the south of Russia. In 1911, Lubkov visited the United States to seek refuge for his followers; however, he did not find the country suitable for his followers. At the same time he met with an Uruguayan consul, Hose Richlingom. In 1912, two representatives of the Uruguay president, Jose Batlle y Ordoñez, visited the Caucasus to visit the potential immigrants. They so highly appreciated their workmanship and skill that in July 1913 two ships "18 de Julio" and "Taongarupa" brought 300 families to the coast of the river Uruguay 164 kilometers from Montevideo. From 1913 to 1914, about 2,000 followers (10%) under the leadership of Lubkov immigrated to

and established a farming town

San Javier, Uruguay San Javier (''Сан-Хавьер'') is a town situated on the east bank of the river Río Uruguay in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It was founded in 1913 by a Russian group of settlers, members of the New Israel religious sect, who migr ...

. There Lubkov set up his very restrictive rules. He confiscated all the possessions of his followers and turned them into essentially one family. If anyone went against him he was told ''Za okolitsu!'' (За околицу!), which meant that he was supposed to get his personal belongings and leave the town. The problem was that none of the immigrants, except for Lubkov, knew the local language or socialized with the local people, and therefore had a strong dependence on Lubkov. In the end of the 1920s, Lubkov arranged for a land grant in eastern

Rostov oblast Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblastʹ, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast ...

, north of other Spiritual Christians (''Dukhobortsy'', ''Molokane'', ''Pryguny'') in the Tselinsky District. An about 300 people moved from Uruguay to the Soviet Union, to their village commune along the

Manych River The Manych () is a river in the Black Sea–Caspian Steppe of Southern Russia. It flows through the western and central part of the Kuma–Manych Depression. In ancient times, it was known as the Lik. A tributary of the Don, it is long, with it ...

which they called New Israel. During

Collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

Soviets renamed it Red October
Krasnyy Oktyabr'
. Some families arrived later from Uruguay but settled in other areas of Northern of the Caucasus. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the New Israel immigrants sent aid in the form of sweaters through the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

back to the Soviet Union. In 1972, the Uruguay government repressed the town of San Javier by destroying the local library named after Maksim Gorkiy and burned all the books both in the library and in all the houses. They also arrested many of the graduates from Russian universities. These repressions however did not impact the Uruguay-Moscow relationship, as seen from the fact that Moscow in 1979 put 14 turbines of 135,000 kilowatts each onto the Salto-Grande Power Plant.

References

*Petrov, Sergey.
New Israel: Transformation of a Branch of Russian Religious Dissent
, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, 29 February 2008. *Daniel H. Shubin,
The History of Russian Christianity, Volume III: The Synodal Era and the Sectarians, 1725 to 1894
', Algora Publishing (2005), {{ISBN, 978-0-87586-426-6, pp. 154ff.

External links

(Russian) *http://mirslovarei.com/content_rel/Novyj-Izrail-512.html Khlysts Heresy in Christianity