Freedomites

Freedomites, also called Svobodniki (Russian: "free people"), later called the Sons of Freedom, first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and later in the Kootenay and Boundary Districts of British Columbia (BC), as zealots who separated from Doukhobors. Of about 20,000 active Doukhobors in Canada today, ancestors of about 2,500 were Freedomites, of which very few today identify with or practice zealous protesting, and many joined Community Doukhobors.

Confusion concerning Doukhobors arose because they all moved to Canada together to escape religious persecution in Russia, and seek land and freedom, but a few, unsatisfied with broken promises by the Canadian government, attempted to trek back to Russia. This split the community. Journalists later used the term "Sons of Freedom" to identify the group.

Freedomite meetings were similar to other spiritual Christian Protestants from Russia. They met in simple buildings, sat on benches, prayed in Russian, sang religious hymns and songs in Russian, and spoke about matters of religious and community interest mostly in Russian. The ideals of the Freedomites emphasized basic traditional Russian communal living and action—growing food, building homes, living a peaceful rural life, ecstatic religious doctrine when agitated for protest, and anarchic attitudes towards external regulation.

Although Canada at first provided a more tolerant religious environment than the Russian Empire, conflict soon developed, most importantly over the schooling of children and land registration. These Svobodniki (Russian: free people) generally refused to send their children to government-run schools. The governments of Saskatchewan and later British Columbia did not heed reports by sociologists to appease the concerns of parents, and chose to legally charge many of the parents for not sending the children to school.

The Svobodniki became famous for various public protests—sometimes publicly burning their own money and possessions and parading nude in public. There was a doctrinal justification for nudity: that human skin, as God's creation, was more perfect than clothes, the imperfect work of human hands. The public nudity has generally been interpreted as a form of protest against the materialist tendencies of society.

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