# Doukhobors — Sons of Freedom · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/039-doukhobors-sons-of-freedom/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 039 · Christian-Derived
Doukhobors — Sons of Freedom
Svobodniki; Freedomites
1902 – 1970s · Saskatchewan and British Columbia, Canada
IV. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Fully religious — radical splinter of a Russian pacifist 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
- 1899 About 7,500 Doukhobors emigrate to Canada with Tolstoyan and Quaker assistance.
- 1902 First nude pilgrimage in Saskatchewan.
- 1923–1924 School burnings begin. 29 October 1924: Peter the Lordly killed by a bomb on a CPR train — never solved.
- 1929–1932 Mass nude protests; roughly 600 Sons of Freedom imprisoned on Piers Island.
- 1953–1959 THE NEW DENVER DORMITORY. British Columbia seizes about 200 Sons of Freedom children and holds them at New Denver, in a converted tuberculosis sanatorium, for up to six years, with parental visits through a chain-link fence. Many were physically and emotionally abused there. An ombudsman's report in 1999 called for redress; the province issued a STATEMENT OF REGRET in 2004, which was not an apology.
- 1958–1962 Peak of the bombing campaign — over 250 incidents of arson and dynamiting in the Kootenays.
- 1970s Violence largely ends; the community ages out.
- FEBRUARY 2024 BRITISH COLUMBIA APOLOGISES — SEVENTY YEARS ON. The province acknowledges the seizures and the fines and property confiscations imposed for civil disobedience, and announces a 10 MILLION DOLLAR package: 3.75m for health and wellness, 5m for a legacy fund, 1.25m for research and archives. Survivors of school age at the time receive 18,000 dollars each; those too young for school receive 5,000 plus 1,000 a month detained, capped at 10,000.
- 2024–2026 SURVIVORS AND FAMILIES SAY IT FALLS SHORT. The BC OMBUDSPERSON welcomes the payments but notes they were RECOMMENDED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER, and criticises the government for poor communication with survivors and for vague eligibility criteria and deadlines.
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