# Skoptsy · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/023-skoptsy/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 023 · Christian-Derived
Skoptsy
The Castrates
c.1770 – c.1970s · Russia; exile communities in Romania and Siberia
II. MEDIEVAL — HERESY, DUALISM AND THE MILLENNIUM
Fully religious — ascetic Christian sect
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- c.1770 Selivanov breaks with the Khlysty and begins performing castrations.
- 1775 Arrested, knouted and exiled to Irkutsk.
- 1802–1820 Lives semi-openly in St Petersburg, visited by aristocrats and officers; sect spreads into the money-lending and commercial classes.
- 1820 Confined to the Suzdal monastery, where he dies in 1832 aged about 100.
- 1869 The Morshansk trial exposes a wealthy Skoptsy network.
- 1929–1930 Mass Soviet show trials in Leningrad and Moscow; sect broken.
- 1970s Last known adherents die in Romanian and Russian exile communities.
### Its people
### Kondraty Selivanov
the Redeemer; Tsar Peter III
Founder, the Skoptsy · c.1730 – 1832 · active c.1770–1820
Before the law. Repeatedly arrested, flogged and exiled by the Russian state.
Where things stand. Deceased 1832. Sect extinct by the 1970s.
- c.1770 Breaks with the Khlysty; begins performing castrations.
- 1775 Arrested, knouted, exiled to Irkutsk.
- 1802–1820 Lives semi-openly in St Petersburg.
- 1820 Confined to the Suzdal monastery.
- 1832 Dies aged approximately 100.
Checked 2026-08-24
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