Dukhobors move from Georgia
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Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 21:40:35 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Dukhobors move from Georgia
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>
Dukhobors move from Georgia
Dukhobors move from Georgia
GEORGIA TOO RESTRICTIVE
by Mikhail Vignansky
Segodnia, 27 January 1999
Dukhobors quit the transcaucasian republic
On Saturday another 56 members of the religious society of Dukhobors
will leave Georgia for good, where their ancestors settled a century
and a half ago. On that day a motorcade will cross the
Russian-Georgian border at Verkhny Lars and travel toward Briansk
province. Up to the Russian border they will be accompanied by the
Department of Emergency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of
Georgia, and they will move to their new place of settlement under the
protection of the "Leader" center of Russia.
Before Georgia gained its independence, about 6,000 Dukhobors lived on
the territory between the lakes Parvana and Khanchala in the
Ninotsmindi province (approximately 200 km. from Tbilisi). They had
arrived here more than 150 years ago, persecuted by the official
Orthodox church. The Dukhobors engaged mainly in farming. Here they
operated the cooperative farm "Dukhobor" in which there was a stock
farm, with dairy and swine products, as well as a juice unit. The
exodus of the Dukhobors from Georgia into Russia and Canada started at
the time of the ascendancy to power in Georgia of the adherents of the
former president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who propounded the principle of
"Georgia for the Georgians." And although the government of Georgia
changed subsequently, the departure of the Dukhobors continued. In
all, in recent years 4,000 Dukhobors have quit the republic. It is
true that Georgia has tried to represent the resettlement of Dukhobors
as a "natural process." The aide to the Georgian president for
international affairs, Alexis Gerasimov, has stated: "The action
planned for Saturday demonstrates the possibility of productive
cooperation between the two countries." (tr. by PDS)
DUKHOBOR SECT MEMBERS EMIGRATE TO RUSSIA AND CANADA
MOSCOW, Jan. 28, 1999 - (Agence France Presse) More than 4,000 members
of the Protestant Dukhobor sect have left Georgia to settle in Russia
and Canada in recent years, the Russian daily Segodnya said Wednesday.
A group of 60 people is expected to leave Saturday to settle in the
Bryansk region of central Russia, leaving only 2,000 Dukhobors in
Georgia, the paper said.
The Dukhobors were prominent in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries,
before fleeing to escape Orthodox Church persecutions. Some of them
sought refuge in Georgia and Armenia, while others emigrated to
Canada, aided by a campaign run by the author Leo Tolstoy.
In the two-year period 1898-1899 alone, over 7,000 Dukhobors moved to
Saskatchewan and later spread to the western province of British
Columbia.
In doctrine, the Dukhobors are somewhat like the Quakers, completely
rejecting priesthood, the sacraments and other outward symbols of
Christianity.
According to a UN committee on human rights and ethnic relations, the
Dukhobors have now almost entirely disappeared from Georgia.
The current exodus from Georgia began after the former Soviet republic
won independence in 1991, because of the deterioration of the economic
situation and an increase in what they call anti-Russian sentiment.
(c) 1998 Agence France Presse
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