Peter Verigin
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Peter Vasilevich Verigin () often known as Peter "the Lordly" Verigin ( - 29 October 1924) was a
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
philosopher, activist, and leader of the Community
Doukhobors The Doukhobors ( Canadian spelling) or Dukhobors (; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are known for their pacifism and tradition of oral history, hymn-singing, and verse. They reject the Russian Ortho ...
in Canada. The perpetrators of his assassination in 1924 have never been identified.


Biography


In Transcaucasia

Peter Vasilevich Verigin was born on in the village of Slavyanka in
Elisabethpol Governorate The Elizavetpol Governorate, also known after 1918 as the Ganja Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yelisavetpol (present-day Ganja). The area of the governorate s ...
of
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 ...
. The village, located in the north-west of what is today the Republic of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
, was one of the settlements founded by the Doukhobors, a large sect of communally living peasants, exiled to the
Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...
from
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
and southern
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
in the 1840s.J. Kalmakoff
Doukhobor Historical Maps
, with maps of settlement
in Azerbaijan
an
Georgia
His father, Vasily Verigin, was an illiterate, but reportedly rich peasant, who, once elected a village headman, "showed himself a real despot". Vasily Nikolaevich Pozdnyakov
"Story of a Spiritual Upheaval"
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 1908. (Doukhobor Genealogy Website)
is the
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul or Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is a liturgical feast in honor of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June. The celebration is of ancient Chri ...
. Although the Doukhobors do not traditionally venerate saints, this day is known as St. Peter's Day () is still a traditional day of celebration. It is possible that Verigin was named after
St. Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...
. Koozma J. Tarasoff
The Doukhobor Peace Day
(Doukhobor Genealogy Website)
Peter was one of seven brothers. Peter and two other brothers, Vasily and Grigory, were
home-schooled Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...
, at least to the extent of learning to read and write. There were no formal schools in Doukhobor villages at the time, and his four older brothers did not study. In his early 20s, Peter Verigin married Evdokia Georgievna Kotelnikova. In 1882, soon after his marriage, his wife was expecting their first child ( Peter P. Verigin), and Verigin started working as a secretary and administrative assistant for the leader of the Transcaucasian Doukhobors, Lukerya Vasilyevna Gubanova (born 18??; died 15 December 1886: ). Lukerya Gubanova was the widow of the community's previous leader, Peter Kalmykov, and was also known as Kalmykova, by her late husband's surname.Daniel H. Shubin, "A History of Russian Christianity". Volume III, pgs. 141-8. Algora Publishing, 2006;
On Google Books
/ref> The Kalmykov family resided in the village of Gorelovka, one of Doukhobor communities in Georgia (shown on one of J.J. Kalmakoff's maps.), in the ''Sirotsky Dom'' (), or "The Orphanage" - the facility serving as the Doukhobor headquarter and a home for orphans and the aged.Hedwig Lohm, "Dukhobors in Georgia: A Study of the Issue of Land Ownership and Inter-Ethnic Relations in Ninotsminda rayon (Samtskhe-Javakheti)". November 2006. Available i
English
an
Russian
Lukerya was respected by the provincial authorities, who cooperated with the Doukhobors on various matters. While working for her and living at her residence, Verigin received an extensive religious education, and was prepared by the childless Lukerya to become her successor as the leader of the Doukhobors. He became acquainted with the Doukhobor ideas of administration which rejects
secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
government. The
Doukhobors The Doukhobors ( Canadian spelling) or Dukhobors (; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are known for their pacifism and tradition of oral history, hymn-singing, and verse. They reject the Russian Ortho ...
also rejected the holiness of
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
and the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
, and were naturally
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
s and
conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
s who refused to participate in wars and battles. The death of Lukerya in 1886 was followed by a leadership crisis. A portion of the community known as "the Large Party" () accepted Peter Verigin as her designated successor and leader. Others, known as "the Small Party" (Малая сторона), sided with Lukerya's brother, Michael Gubanov, and the village elder Aleksei Zubkov. While the Large Party was in the majority, the Small Party had the support of the older members of the community and the local authorities. On 26 January 1887, at the community service where the new leader was to be acclaimed, the police entered and took Verigin away. He was to spend the next 16 years in government custody. The Large Party Doukhobors maintained contact, and continued to consider him their spiritual leader.


Northern exile

Verigin was first sent to
Shenkursk Shenkursk () is a town and the administrative center of Shenkursky District in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Vaga River. Population: Geography Climate History Shenkursk was first mentioned in documents of N ...
, in
Arkhangelsk Governorate Arkhangelsk Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. Its seat was in Arkhangelsk. The governorate was located in the north of the Russ ...
(now
Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast ( rus, Архангельская область, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz ...
), in the Russia's north, arriving in October 1887. In the summer 1890, he was transferred to
Kola unit was the big kola int eh Kola may refer to: People * Koła, a Polish noble family * Kola (name), people with the given name/surname Kola * Kola (singer), Ukrainian singer, songwriter and performer of her own songs * Kola people, Gabonese p ...
, on the
Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...
. At that time Kola was Russia's northernmost town, as
Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...
and Polyarny were not yet built. In November 1894, he left Kola for Obdorsk, now
Salekhard Salekhard ( ; Khanty language, Khanty: , ''Pułñawat''; , , formerly Obdorsk) is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town lies on the Arctic Circle, ...
, in north-western
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. In Shenkursk, Verigin and several exiled Doukhobor elders, shared two houses. When this small band of Doukhobor exiles was visited by Peter Verigin's brother, Grigory, in September 1888, he was impressed with their complete
vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
, as Grigory's family in
South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...
was still eating meat. In November 1894, as he was being transferred from Kola to Obdorsk, Verigin wrote a message to the Doukhobors, asking them to obey God's commandment, "Thou shalt not kill", to destroy their weapons, and refuse military service. His message was taken to the Caucasus by his brothers Grigory and Vasily, who spread it throughout the Doukhobor communities. Soon, the confrontation between pro-Verigin Pacifist Doukhobors ("the Large Party") and the government drafting their youth came to head. On
Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
Sunday 1895, eleven Doukhobor conscripts refused to do military training. In following days more conscripts laid down their arms and refused further service, and reservists were returning their registration papers to the draft boards. Finally, on the night of 28–29 June (10–11 July
New Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various Europe, European countrie ...
) 1895, the night before St. Peter's Day (Verigin's birthday), the Large-Party Doukhobors of Transcaucasia assembled in three villages to burn the weapons they owned, commemorated since as "the Burning of the Arms". Arrests and beatings by government
Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...
s followed. Soon, Cossacks were billeted in many of the Doukhobors' houses, with the original inhabitants dispersed through remote villages in the region.John Ashworth
Doukhobortsy and Religious Persecution in Russia
, 1900 (Doukhobor Genealogy Website)


The exodus

Horrified at the plight of his followers, in August 1896 Verigin wrote to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, the wife of
Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...
, making a number of proposals to resolve the conflict, such as the resettlement of the Large-Party Doukhobors to some remote province of Russia (assuming that an exemption from military service could still be granted), or emigration to Britain or Canada.
Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...
and his associates addressed Russian and international public with letters and articles about the persecution of the Doukhobors. In 1898, an agreement was reached with the Czar's Minister of the Interior, Ivan Nikolayevich Durnovo, to allow the Doukhobors to leave for Canada. Between 1898 and 1899 around 7,500 Doukhobors from Transcaucasia did so. Of them, some 3,300 were the members of the Large Party; the rest belonged to the Small and the Middle Parties. Among them was Verigin's mother, Anastasia Verigina, around 80 years of age at the time. Smaller numbers of Doukhobors, directly from Transcaucasia or from various places of exile, continued moving to Canada in the years to follow. In autumn 1902, after 16 years in exile, Verigin was released from
Obdorsk Salekhard ( ; Khanty: , ''Pułñawat''; , , formerly Obdorsk) is a town and the administrative centre of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town lies on the Arctic Circle, with the town centre being about south and suburbs stretching to ...
. He visited Leo Tolstoy in October, and joined his people in
Yorkton Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about north-west of Winnipeg and south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. Yorkton was founded in 1882 and incorporated as a city in 1928. ...
(present-day
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
) in December 1902. Verigin was to visit Russia again, only once. He came in 1906, leading a delegation of six Doukhobors, to investigate a possibility of the return of the Doukhobors to Russia, now that, as a result of
Russian Revolution (1905) The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...
, religious tolerance has been legislated. Verigin's delegation met with
Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Аркадьевич Столыпин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Russia, prime minister and the Ministry ...
and other ministers, who made an offer of land in the Altai (south-western Siberia) and an exemption from the conscription. Although the offer was personally confirmed by Nicholas II, Verigin felt that, no matter what, the Doukhobors' situation in Russia would not be as secure as in Canada. In March 1907 his delegation went back to Canada.


In Canada

Verigin established his first Canadian residence at the Doukhobor village of Poterpevshie (, 'The Victims', or perhaps 'The Survivors'), some 15 km northwest of
Kamsack, Saskatchewan Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, is a town in the Assiniboine River Valley, where the Whitesand River joins the Assiniboine River. It is northeast of Yorkton. Highway 8 and Highway 5 intersect in the town. Coté First Nation is north and Ke ...
. On the joyful occasion of reuniting with their leader, the villagers renamed the place Otradnoye (, 'the place of rejoicing'). Otradnoye continued to be Verigin's headquarters until 1904 or 1905Otradnoye
(Doukhobor Genealogy Website)
The nearby village of Nadezhda was the site of annual general meetings of the Doukhobor community chaired by him. When the new
Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonto ...
line crossed the Doukhobor reserve in 1904 some 10 km south of Otradnoye, a small station named after the Doukhobor leader (misspelled, initially, "Veregin Siding", and after 1908, Veregin Station) was built there around 1904 to serve the needs of the Doukhobor community of the area. A village, also named Veregin (sometimes spelled ''Verigin'', at least on Verigin's own CCUB letterhead) was built next to the station, and Veregin's headquarters was shifted there. In 1905, the exiled Doukhobors rejected the newly enforced requirements of the federal ''
Dominion Lands Act The ''Dominion Lands Act'' () was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of the Canadian Prairies and to help prevent the area being claimed by the United States. The Act was closely based on the U.S. '' Homestead Act of 186 ...
'', which attempted to register their communal lands under individual ownership and rebelled against the request. Following this in 1907 the communal land system was abolished and in 1908 Verigin led around 6,000 of his group (
Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood (CCUB) () was the main spiritual and economic organization of the majority of Doukhobors from Russia in Canada, followers of Peter Verigin, Peter V. Verigin, from its incorporation in 1917 until its bankr ...
, CCUB) to
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. CCUB still continued to own some properties and industrial facilities in Saskatchewan, and its headquarters remained in Veregin for some years to come. Verigin had another residence built for himself near
Grand Forks, British Columbia Grand Forks is a city in the Boundary Country of the Kootenays, West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Granby River, Granby and Kettle River (Columbia River tributary), Kettle Rivers, the latter ...
, spending the rest of his life sharing his time between the two provinces.


Verigin's death

Verigin was assassinated in a still-unsolved
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
train explosion on 29 October 1924, on the
Kettle Valley Railway The Kettle Valley Railway was a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated across southern British Columbia, west of Midway running to Rock Creek, then north to Myra Canyon, down to Penticton over to Princeton, Coalmont, B ...
(now known locally as the
Columbia and Western Railway The Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) was a historic, and initially narrow gauge, railway in southern British Columbia. Heinze ownership Proposal and planning Fritz Augustus Heinze, who opened a smelter at Butte, Montana, in 1893, was seeking in ...
) line near Farron, between Castlegar and
Grand Forks Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the state, after Fargo and Bismarck. Grand For ...
, which also killed his 17-year-old secretary Marie Strelaeff, member of the provincial legislature John McKie, P.J Campbell, Hakim Singh, Harry J. Bishop, W. J. Armstrong, and Neil E. Armstrong. The government initially (during investigation) had stated the crime was perpetrated by people within the Doukhobor community, while the Doukhobors suspected
Canadian government The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes ministers of the Crown ( ...
involvement. To date, it is still unknown who was responsible for the bombing. Verigin's grave is located near Brilliant, a historically Doukhobor village outside
Castlegar, British Columbia Castlegar is a community in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. In the Selkirk Mountains, at the confluence of the Kootenay River, Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, it is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local eco ...
.


Successors

After Verigin's murder in 1924, the majority of the community Doukhobors proclaimed his son Peter P. Verigin, who was still in the USSR, as his successor. However, several hundred Community Doukhobors recognized P. V. Verigin's widow, Anastasia F. Golubova (1885–1965; also spelt Holuboff), who had been Verigin's wife for some 20 years, as their leader. In 1926 Anastasia's followers split from CCUB, forming a breakaway organization called "The Lordly Christian Community of Christian Brotherhood". They left British Columbia for
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
, where they set up their own village at Shouldice, near
Arrowwood, Alberta Arrowwood is a village in Vulcan County, Alberta, Canada. It is located on Highway 547, approximately east of Okotoks. The community takes its name from nearby East Arrowwood Creek. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted ...
, which existed until 1943. In the meantime, Verigin's son, Peter Petrovich Verigin, arrived from the USSR and assumed the leadership of CCUB in 1928. After the bankruptcy of CCUB, he reorganized as the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC) in 1938, headquarters in Grand Forks, British Columbia. When Peter Petrovich Verigin died in 1939, the Community Doukhobors proclaimed his son, Peter Petrovich Verigin II as their new spiritual leader. Since he was confined to Soviet prisons at the time, his son (and Peter Vasilevich Verigin's great-grandson), John J. Verigin, who was 17 at the time, became the de facto leader of USCC.Iskra: Life in Canada
/ref>


Published works by Verigin

* "Pisʹma dukhoborcheskago rukovoditeli︠a︡ Petra Vasilʹevicha Verigina" (Письма духоборческаго руководителя Петра Васильевича Веригина : Letters of the Doukhobor Leader Peter Vasilievich Verigin), published by Anna Chertkov, 1901. No ISBN
Google eBook


See also

*
List of unsolved murders These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances. * List of unsolved murders (before 1900) * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) * List of unsolved murders (1980–1999) * List of unsol ...


References


Further reading

* Morrell, Kathy. "The Life of Peter P. Verigin". ''Saskatchewan History'' (2009) 61#1 pp 26–32. covers 1928 to 1939. about his son * Thorsteinson, Elina. "The Doukhobors in Canada", ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' (1917) 4#1 pp. 3–4
free in JSTOR
* .


Primary sources

* Donskov, Andrew, and Peter Verigin. ''Leo Tolstoy-Peter Verigin Correspondence'' (New York; Ottawa: Legas, 1995)


External links


Doukhobor Collection of Simon Fraser University on Multicultural Canada website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verigin, Petervasilevich 1859 births 1924 deaths People murdered in 1924 Doukhobors Canadian Christian religious leaders Russian Christian religious leaders Canadian Christian pacifists Russian Christian pacifists 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian philosophers People from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Canadian murder victims Russian murder victims Assassinated religious leaders Unsolved murders in Canada Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Canada People murdered in British Columbia October 1924 in North America