Peter Verigin


Peter Vasilevich Verigin often known as Peter "the Lordly" Verigin was a Russian philosopher, activist and leader of the Community Doukhobors in Canada.

Biography

In Transcaucasia

Peter Vasilevich Verigin was born on, in the village of Slavyanka in Elisabethpol Governorate of Russian Empire. The village, located in the north-west of what is today the Republic of Azerbaijan, was one of the settlements founded by the Doukhobors, a large sect of communally living peasants, exiled to the Transcaucasia from Ukraine and southern Russia in the 1840s. His father, Vasily Verigin, was an illiterate, but reportedly rich peasant, who, once elected a village headman, "showed himself a real despot".
June 29 happens to be the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Although the Doukhobors don't venerate saints per se, this day - often known as St. Peter's Day is still a traditional day of celebration, and thus it may have been the case that young Verigin was named after St. Peter.
Peter was one of seven brothers. His four older brothers did not study anything at all, but Peter and two other brothers, Vasily and Grigory, were home-schooled, at least to the extent of learning to read and write. There were no formal schools in Doukhobor villages at the time.
At quite a young age, Peter Verigin married Evdokia Georgievna Kotelnikova. In 1882, soon after his marriage, while his wife was expecting their first child, he started working as a secretary and administrative assistant for the leader of the Transcaucasian Doukhobors, Lukerya Vasilyevna Gubanova.
Lukerya Gubanova was the widow of the community's previous leader, Peter Kalmykov and was also known as Kalmykova, by her late husband's surname.
The Kalmykov dynasty resided in the village of Gorelovka, one of Doukhobor communities in Georgia, in the Sirotsky Dom, or "The Orphanage" - the facility serving as the Doukhobor headquarter, as well as, indeed, home for orphans and the aged.
Lukerya was respected by the provincial authorities, who had to cooperate with the Doukhobors on various matters. While working for her and living at her residence, Verigin received an extensive religious education, and was prepared by childless Lukerya to become her successor as the leader of the Doukhobors. He became acquainted with the Doukhobor ideas of administration - rejecting secular government. The Doukhobors rejected the holiness of Jesus Christ and the Bible, and were naturally pacifists and conscientious objectors who refused to participate in wars and battles.
The death of "Queen Lukerya" in 1886 was followed by a leadership crisis. However, only part of the community accepted her designated successor, Peter Verigin, as the leader; others, known as "the Small Party", sided with Lukerya's brother, Michael Gubanov, and the village elder Aleksei Zubkov.
While the Large Party was a majority, the Small Party had the support of the older members of the community and the local authorities. So, on January 26, 1887, at the community service where the new leader was to be acclaimed, the police walked in and took Verigin away. He was to spend the next 16 years in government custody. Still, the Large Party Doukhobors maintained contact with him and continued to consider him their spiritual leader.

Northern exile

While in exile, Verigin got quite a tour of Russian North. He was first sent to Shenkursk, in Arkhangelsk Governorate, in the Russia's north, arriving there in October 1887. In the summer 1890, he was transferred to Kola, on the Barents Sea. It was then Russia's northernmost town, as Murmansk and Polyarny were to be built yet. In November 1894, he left Kola for Obdorsk in the north-western Siberia.
In Shenkursk, Verigin, along with several exiled Doukhobor elders, shared two houses between them. When this small band of Doukhobor exiles was visited by Peter Verigin's brother, Grigory in September 1888, he was somewhat surprised and impressed by their complete vegetarianism, as Grigory's family back in South Caucasus was still eating meat.
In November 1894, as he was being transferred from Kola to Obdorsk, Verigin wrote a message to the Doukhobors, asking them to obey God's commandment, "Thou shalt not kill", destroy their weapons, and refuse military service. His message was taken to the Caucasus by his brothers Grigory and Vasily, who spread it throughout the Doukhobor communities. Soon, the confrontation between pro-Verigin Pacifist Doukhobors and the government keen on drafting their youth came to head. On Easter Sunday 1895, eleven Doukhobor conscripts refused to do military training. As days went on, more conscripts laid down their arms and refused further service. Reservists were returning their registration papers to the draft boards. Finally, in the night of June 28–29, 1895, - the night before St. Peter's Day, and, incidentally, Verigin's birthday - the Large-Party Doukhobors of Transcaucasia assembled in three villages to burn the weapons they owned, in the event remembered ever since as "the Burning of the Arms".
Arrests and beatings by government's Cossacks followed. Soon, Cossacks were billeted in many of the Doukhobors' houses, and their original inhabitants were dispersed through remote villages in the region.

The exodus

Horrified at the plight of his followers, in August 1896 Verigin wrote to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, the wife of Nicholas, making a number of proposals to resolve the conflict, such as the resettlement of the Large-Party Doukhobors to some remote province of Russia, or emigration to Britain or Canada. Leo Tolstoy and his associates addressed Russian and international public with letters and articles about the persecution of the Doukhobors.
In 1898, an agreement was reached with the Czar's Minister of the Interior, Ivan Nikolayevich Durnovo, to allow the Doukhobors leave for Canada. Between 1898 and 1899 around 7,500 Doukhobors from Transcaucasia did so. Of them, some 3,300 were the members of the Large Party; the rest belonged to the Small and the Middle Parties. Among them was Verigin's mother, Anastasia Verigina, around 80 years of age at the time. Smaller numbers of Doukhobors, directly from Transcaucasia or from various places of exile, continued moving to Canada in the years to follow.
In the fall of 1902, after 16 years in exile, Verigin was released from Obdorsk. He visited Leo Tolstoy in October,
and joined his people in Yorkton in December 1902.
Verigin was to visit Russia again, only once. He came in 1906, leading a delegation of 6 Doukhobors, to investigate a possibility of the return of the Doukhobors to Russia, now that, as a result of Russian Revolution, religious tolerance has been legislated. Verigin's delegation met with Stolypin and other ministers, who made an offer of land in the Altai and an exemption from the conscription. Although the offer was personally confirmed by Nicholas II, Verigin felt that, no matter what, the Doukhobors' situation in Russia would not be as secure as in Canada. In March 1907 his delegation went back to Canada.

In Canada

Verigin established his first Canadian residence at the Doukhobor village of Poterpevshie, some 15 km northwest of Kamsack, Saskatchewan. On the joyful occasion of reuniting with their leader, the villagers renamed the place Otradnoye. Otradnoye continued to be Verigin's headquarters until 1904 or 1905
The nearby village of Nadezhda was the site of annual general meetings of the Doukhobor community chaired by him.
When the new Canadian Northern Railway line crossed the Doukhobor reserve in 1904 some 10 km south of Otradnoye, a small station named after the Doukhobor leader
was built there around 1904 to serve the needs of the Doukhobor community of the area.
A village, also named Veregin was built next to the station, and Veregin's headquarters was shifted there.
In 1905, the exiled Doukhobors rejected the newly enforced requirements of Dominion Lands Act which attempted to register their communal lands under individual ownership and rebelled against the request. Following this in 1907 the communal land system was abolished and in 1908 Verigin led around 6,000 of his group to British Columbia. CCUB still continued to own some properties and industrial facilities in Saskatchewan, and its headquarters remained in Veregin for some years to come. Verigin had another residence built for himself near Grand Forks, British Columbia, spending the rest of his life sharing his time between the two provinces.

Verigin's death

Verigin was assassinated in a still-unsolved Canadian Pacific Railway train explosion on October 29, 1924 on the Kettle Valley Railway line near Farron, between Castlegar and Grand Forks, which also killed his 17-year-old secretary Marie Strelaeff, member of the provincial legislature John McKie, P.J Campbell, Hakim Singh, Harry J. Bishop, W. J. Armstrong, and Neil E. Armstrong. The government initially had stated the crime was perpetrated by people within the Doukhobor community, while the Doukhobors suspected Canadian government involvement. To date, it is still unknown who was responsible for the bombing.
Verigin's grave is located near Brilliant, a historically Doukhobor village outside Castlegar, British Columbia.

Successors

After Verigin's murder in 1924, the majority of the community Doukhobors proclaimed his son Peter P. Verigin, who was still in the USSR, as his successor. However, several hundred Doukhobors recognized P. V. Verigin's widow, Anastasia F. Golubova, who had been Verigin's wife for some 20 years, as their leader.
In 1926 Anastasia's followers split from CCUB, forming a breakaway organization called "The Lordly Christian Community of Christian Brotherhood". They left British Columbia for Alberta, where they set up their own village at Shouldice, near Arrowwood, Alberta, which existed until 1943.
In the meantime, Verigin's son, Peter Petrovich Verigin, arrived from the USSR and assumed the leadership of CCUB in 1928. After the bankruptcy of CCUB, he organized USCC in 1938.
When Peter Petrovich Verigin died in 1939, the Community Doukhobors proclaimed his son, Peter Petrovich Verigin II as their new spiritual leader. But as he was in Soviet prisons at the time, his son, John J. Verigin, who was 17 at the time, who became the de facto leader of USCC.

Published works by Verigin