Doukhobors

Along the roads & highways around Grand Forks, BC and further north in the West Kootenays, one can not help noticing all the mailboxes, stores, lumber yards and other businesses with Russian names like Rilkoff, Popoff,....

a little surprising at first, then extremely interesting as you learn about the Doukhobors, a quite remarkable communitarian Christian group, similiar in some ways to the Quakers[e.g. god is within, the ultimate source of wisdom is to be found in direct "living experience" and not in any book, an absolute rejection of the use of violence in human affairs, simple living, ...]. Indeed, the Quakers were instrumental in helping 4800 persecuted & impoverished Doukhobors migrate to Canada from Russia in 1898 where they were given land to homestead in Saskatchewan, then many of them moving in 1908 to the West Kootenays & Grand Forks area of southern British Columbia. Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi`s spiritual father, was also one of their main benefactors and friends in Russia. Across from the airport in Castlegar, BC, behind the Doukhobor Village Museum overlooking the Columbia River, there`s a statute of Tolstoy [on the right] ...another nice place to visit is the Mountain View Doukhobor Museum , a restored Doukhobor communal home along the Hardy Mountain road just west of Grand Forks.

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The following Text is an Excerpt from the Grand Forks Hotel & Restaurant menu:

Settlement of Doukhobors in the Grand Forks area has had a tremendous impact on the cultural and physical landscape of the valley. The Doukhobors have their origins in early 17th century southern Russia, where they suffered persecution and exile for their religious beliefs, particularly for their belief in pacifism and their refusal to take up arms for the Czar.

The first Doukhobors arrived in Canada (Saskatchewan) in 1899, and moved westward to B.C. in 1907, where they purchased 2,700 acres of farm land west of town. These lands were named by the Doukhobors 'Fructova', which means 'Valley of Fruit'. [Fructova today on left]

Within a month of the purchase of the land, a party of workers arrived from Saskatchewan to clear the land and build houses.
Settlers began arriving in 1909, and within a few years the Doukhobor population had increased to almost 5,000.
The early years of Doukhobor settlement in Grand Forks are marked by great industry and diversification. A brick-works powered by steam was established, and at its peak produced about 24,000 bricks per day. Besides being used extensively in construction of Doukhobor buildings, bricks were sold outside the community.

A stone-ground flour mill [on the left], still operating today and producing 'Pride of the Valley" flour, began production in 1915. A packing house and cannery was built in the '20s. Hundreds of colonies of bees were established. A reservoir and a network of irrigation pipelines was constructed. Orchards and vineyards were planted on the gentle slopes and hill sides, and grain was grown both on the flatlands and on the higher elevations.

More land was acquired over the years and at a North Fork village, flax was cultivated for linen, to be used for clothing and fabrics. In B.C. the Doukhobor people lived communally and at one time over 50 villages were established. Today, less than 20 remain.The best preserved is the Ozeroff Village, just west of Grand Forks on the west side of the highway [on the right]

The operated on a money less system - trading commodities outside their communities. All workers were provided with all their needs- food, shelter, clothes, kerosene - and participated in the production of goods. They had their own tannery, shoe factory, jam factory, blacksmith shops, sawmill and weaving production.
Doukhobor men served in labor pools where their services were developed as construction workers, farm hands, and general laborers. At a time when casual hands were scarce in the B.C. interior, 'working-out' provided and important source of revenue to the community. At this time women played an important role in the day-to-day operations of the households and farms.
Supplies were traded with both the outside world as well as with other Doukhobor communities still in Saskatchewan. They shipped and received goods through a central supply house, which is still standing on Donaldson Drive next to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) station (now the CPR station is the 'Grand Forks Station Pub').
Doukhobor villages were largely organized according to family groupings, sometimes with two or three extended families sharing one village. Families were assigned to villages according to the needs of the community and the specific skills of the members.

A typical village contained a pair of brick two story houses made of wood construction, with brick veneer.[on the right] These were joined by a horseshoe-shaped one story series of buildings, which formed a central courtyard.

These one story buildings usually contained bath houses (also used for laundry), blacksmith shops, storage and implement sheds, and a room for guests which also doubled as a sickroom when needed. Barns, graineries and other out buildings were built depending on the specific needs of the village. Livestock was seldom kept, except as needed for farm purposes, and as a result stables were scarce.
Bake houses were built to accommodate large wood-fired stone ovens. These ovens were an integral part of the large communal kitchens in the two story houses. Benches and long tables lines the walls. As many as eight bedrooms were located upstairs. Each family occupied on bedroom, with mother and father in one bed and younger children in the other.
The population of each house varied between 30 and 50; the population of each village numbered between 60 and 100. Each village had its own name, often derived from characteristics of its inhabitants, or reminiscent of a village in Saskatchewan or Russia.
Between 1924 and 1940, the Doukhobor community met with numerous setbacks and upheavals, which eventually led to its economic collapse. Communal living came to an end, with most Doukhobors assimilating with the non-Doukhobor population.
The Doukhobors are mainly vegetarian and are known for their fabulous gardens - both vegetable and flower. Doukhobor cuisine - most notably borsch, a cabbage-based soup, flavoured with dill and rich cream and butter - is now world famous.
The Grand Forks area has become a major tourist center because of the influence of the Doukhobor community.

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Two views of the Orthodox Dukhobor Community Centre along BC 3 with Boundary Mountain in the background
	"Toil and Peaceful Life"

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some Doukhobor links: The Canadian Doukhobor Society Homepage and The Doukhobor Homepage

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