Doukhobor immigration

The Doukhobors, a Russian Christian sect of uncertain origin that rejected the Orthodox Church and held pacifist and egalitarian views, were severely persecuted by the tsarist government. During an era when everyone was invited to come to Canada and build the west, the Doukhobors were among the new settlers. During the early months of 1899, some 7,500 immigrants arrived in what is now Saskatchewan. After a dispute with the government over the community’s title to property, Peter Vasil’evich Verigin, the sect’s spiritual leader, left the prairies for British Columbia and the majority of his flock followed him there between 1908 and 1913.