New Israel (Новый Израиль) was one of the Sektanstvo (sectarian)

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

s that grew and expanded in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in the late 19th to early 20th century, a branch of the ''

Postniki The Postniki (постники "fasters") were a millennial sect of 19th century Southern Russia, a branch of the Khlysty (flagellants) movement, founded by Abbakum (or Avvakum) Ivanov Kopylov (Аббакум / Аввакум Копылов, 1756� ...

'' (fasters). The movement was the result of the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

s that split the "Old Israel" (''

Staroizrail Old Israel (''Staroizrail'') was a 19th-century sect founded in the 1830s by Perfil Katasonov, a disciple of Abbakum Kopylov, the founder of the Postniki (Fasters) sect, as the result of a schism. Its adherents considered themselves to be the Chosen ...

'') sect after the death of Perfil Katasonov. Its founder was a peasant named Mokshin, but it rose to notability only under Mokshin's successor, Vasiliy Semionovitch Lubkov (Василий Семенович Лубков, born December 24, 1869). In the 1910s, members of the sect emigrated to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, where they founded the town of San Javier. New Israel was strongly influenced by the '' Dukhovnye Khristiane'' movement, and in turn gave rise to two new religious sects called ''Noviy soyuz duhovnovo Israilia'' (Новый союз духовного Израиля) and ''Novohristianskiy soyuz'' (Новохристианский союз). Although persecuted in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, the group continues to this day.

Religious views

The New Israel religion believes that there is only one living true God. The sect rejects the typical view of Mystery in God, and therefore rejects most of traditional practices, while keeping only some. Therefore, the consumption of any type of food including meat is acceptable. Church marriages are replaced with civil marriages. The civil marriage allows the selection of a partner ''duhovnitsu'' (духовницу) by the will of God or a leader (prophet), in this case family ties are not considered.

History

In 1891, Lubkov, who was 22 at the time, declared himself to be the living God and took control over the New Israel. In 1905, under the leadership of Lubkov, the church moved its center of operations to

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

. The church later spread its influence over the south of Russia. In 1911, Lubkov visited the United States to seek refuge for his followers; however, he did not find the country suitable for his followers. At the same time he met with an Uruguayan consul, Hose Richlingom. In 1912, two representatives of the Uruguay president, Jose Batlle y Ordoñez, visited the Caucasus to visit the potential immigrants. They so highly appreciated their workmanship and skill that in July 1913 two ships "18 de Julio" and "Taongarupa" brought 300 families to the coast of the river Uruguay 164 kilometers from Montevideo. From 1913 to 1914, about 2,000 followers (10%) under the leadership of Lubkov immigrated to

and established a farming town

San Javier, Uruguay San Javier (''Сан-Хавьер'') is a town situated on the east bank of the river Río Uruguay in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It was founded in 1913 by a Russian group of settlers, members of the New Israel religious sect, who migr ...

. There Lubkov set up his very restrictive rules. He confiscated all the possessions of his followers and turned them into essentially one family. If anyone went against him he was told ''Za okolitsu!'' (За околицу!), which meant that he was supposed to get his personal belongings and leave the town. The problem was that none of the immigrants, except for Lubkov, knew the local language or socialized with the local people, and therefore had a strong dependence on Lubkov. In the end of the 1920s, Lubkov arranged for a land grant in eastern

Rostov oblast Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblast, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast has an area of and a populati ...

, north of other

Spiritual Christians Spiritual Christianity (russian: духовное христианство) is the group of belief systems held by so-called ''folk Protestants'' (), including non-Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that emerge ...

(''Dukhobortsy'', ''Molokane'', ''Pryguny'') in the

Tselinsky District Tselinsky District (russian: Цели́нский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #340-ZS and municipalLaw #253-ZS district (raion), one of the forty-three in Rostov Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the d ...

. An about 300 people moved from Uruguay to the Soviet Union, to their village commune along the

Manych River The Manych (russian: Маныч) is a river in the Black Sea–Caspian Steppe of Southern Russia. It flows through the western and central part of the Kuma–Manych Depression. In ancient times, it was known as the Lik. A tributary of the Don, it ...

which they called New Israel. During

Collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...

Soviets renamed it Red October
Krasnyy Oktyabr'
. Some families arrived later from Uruguay but settled in other areas of Northern of the Caucasus. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the New Israel immigrants sent aid in the form of sweaters through the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

back to the Soviet Union. In 1972, the Uruguay government repressed the town of San Javier by destroying the local library named after

Maksim Gorkiy Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and sociali ...

and burned all the books both in the library and in all the houses. They also arrested many of the graduates from Russian universities. These repressions however did not impact the Uruguay-Moscow relationship, as seen from the fact that Moscow in 1979 put 14 turbines of 135,000 kilowatts each onto the Salto-Grande Power Plant.

References

*Petrov, Sergey.
New Israel: Transformation of a Branch of Russian Religious Dissent
, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, 29 February 2008. *Daniel H. Shubin,
The History of Russian Christianity, Volume III: The Synodal Era and the Sectarians, 1725 to 1894
', Algora Publishing (2005), {{ISBN, 978-0-87586-426-6, pp. 154ff.

External links

(Russian) *http://mirslovarei.com/content_rel/Novyj-Izrail-512.html Khlysts Heresy in Christianity