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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

KONDRATY SELIVANOV (c.1730–1832), a Khlyst who declared himself both the returned Christ and Tsar Peter III. Later leader KUZMA LISIN.

What it worshipped and taught

Literal reading of Matthew 19:12 — those who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Taught that Adam and Eve's sin was sexual and that its physical traces (the genitals, the female breasts) are the marks of the fall grafted onto the body. Removal, called the FIERY BAPTISM, restored the sinless state. The lesser seal was castration; the greater seal added removal of the penis. Women underwent mastectomy and sometimes genital cutting. Held that when 144,000 had been sealed, Selivanov would return in glory.

Who was in it

Kondraty Selivanov; Alexander Shilov; Kuzma Lisin; Tsar Alexander I, who reportedly met Selivanov; the Plotitsyn family of Morshansk, wealthy Skoptsy financiers tried in 1869.

How it ended, or where it stands

Persecuted continuously; extinct.

The dead

Deaths from botched castrations are undocumented. ON MEMBERSHIP THE RECORD IS UNUSUALLY GOOD IN PLACES AND USELESS IN OTHERS. Official counts: an estimated 10,000–15,000 by 1826, and a precise 5,444 in 1866 (3,979 men and 1,465 women). By 1929, after Soviet collectivisation, about 2,000 remained. The frequently quoted peak of 100,000 sits alongside other estimates ranging from 6,000 to a million; THE PRECISE OFFICIAL FIGURES SUGGEST 100,000 IS INFLATED. The spread reflects a persecuted, clandestine sect that had every reason not to be counted

Of note

The most extreme documented case of permanent, irreversible bodily commitment demanded by a religious group.

Its timeline

  1. c.1770 Selivanov breaks with the Khlysty and begins performing castrations.
  2. 1775 Arrested, knouted and exiled to Irkutsk.
  3. 1802–1820 Lives semi-openly in St Petersburg, visited by aristocrats and officers; sect spreads into the money-lending and commercial classes.
  4. 1820 Confined to the Suzdal monastery, where he dies in 1832 aged about 100.
  5. 1869 The Morshansk trial exposes a wealthy Skoptsy network.
  6. 1929–1930 Mass Soviet show trials in Leningrad and Moscow; sect broken.
  7. 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

A peasant who broke from the Khlysty and taught that the marks of the Fall were physical and could be cut away. He declared himself simultaneously the returned Christ and the murdered Tsar Peter III. He performed the 'fiery baptism' — castration — on followers, and the practice spread into Russia's merchant and money-lending classes, producing a wealthy and highly secretive network. Knouted and exiled to Siberia in 1775, he returned to live semi-openly in St Petersburg for nearly twenty years, receiving aristocrats and army officers, before being confined to a monastery where he died at around 100.

Before the law. Repeatedly arrested, flogged and exiled by the Russian state.

Where things stand. Deceased 1832. Sect extinct by the 1970s.

  1. c.1770 Breaks with the Khlysty; begins performing castrations.
  2. 1775 Arrested, knouted, exiled to Irkutsk.
  3. 1802–1820 Lives semi-openly in St Petersburg.
  4. 1820 Confined to the Suzdal monastery.
  5. 1832 Dies aged approximately 100.

Checked 2026-08-24

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