Julie Rak's Annotated Doukhobor Bibliography

Resources & Overviews | Collections and Studies | Contemporary and Eye-Witness Accounts | Doukhobor Literature

General Resources, Archives and Overviews

British Columbia Archives, Vancouver, BC Canada.

• Contains a collection of photographs and some documents pertaining to Doukhobor issues in British Columbia.

The Doukhobor Archives, Special Collections, University of British Columbia Library. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada. Slavic Archivist: Jack McIntosh.

• The most complete archival collection in North America, with many Russian-language source documents.

Horvath, Maria. A Doukhobor bibliography based on material collected in the University of British Columbia Library. Vancouver:  University of British Columbia Library. 2 vols. Revised second edition, 1972.

• The most recent finding aid for the Doukhobor archival collection at UBC Special Collections. A 1986 revised version by Jack McIntosh is also available in photocopy form.

Canadian Museum of Civilization Doukhobor archive. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

• Contains an updated list of recordings, documents and finding aids in the museum collections, as well as an account of the 1997 Doukhobor exhibition The Doukhobors: Spirit Wrestlers at the CMC.

Iskra. Periodical Published by the USCC. Grand Forks, British Columbia. 1940s to the present.

• The largest and longest-running bilingual Doukhobor publication. Produced under the auspices of the USCC, but non-member Doukhobors and non-Doukhobors also contribute.   Archived at the University of British Columbia and at the USCC Headquarters, Grand Forks, British Columbia.

The National Archives of Canada.  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

• The Doukhobor files include audio visual material, the Fred Davidoff papers, some photographs of early settlement, and documents pertaining to the migration of the Doukhobors to Canada.

Ryan Androsoff's Doukhobor Home Page

• A large site with information about Doukhobor life and history, with many sound files, photographs and fact sheets.

Doukhobor Historical Attractions

• A site by Larry Ewashen with pages about Doukhobor history, museums, links and other issues connected to Doukhoborism.

Doukhobor Genealogy Website

• The primary internet resources connecting research of Doukhobor genealogy.  This site is dedicated to the reclamation, discovery, collection, preservation and free sharing of information related to Doukhobor family history. Site designer: Jon Kalmakoff. The site also has an excellent collection of further links for research.

Lapshinoff, Steve, ed.  Research Notes on Doukhobor Documents at the Archives. 1995.

• A privately-published list of files with notes on contents from the BC Archives, the National Archives of Canada and from the Nelson Court house about a variety of issues, including depredations, court testimony, immigration, and land allocation. Many of the archives referred to have restrictions on their access.

Stupnikoff, Sam George. Historical saga of the Doukhobor faith, 1750-1990s. Saskatoon: Apex Graphics, 1992.

• A short history of the Doukhobors with a special stress on the Doukhobor groups in Saskatchewan.  Contains reprints of  some primary documents about land allocation and community reactions to early Doukhobor groups.

Tarasoff, Koozma J. Plakun Trava: the Doukhobors. Grand Forks, BC: Mir Publication Society, 1982.

• An overview of Doukhobor history with many excellent photographs.

Woodcock, George and Ivan Avakumovic. The Doukhobors. Toronto: McClelland &  Stewart, 1976, 1977.

• This remains the most detailed general historical overview on the Doukhobors, although the account ends in 1967 and research on the Doukhobors previous to migration was carried out before the opening of important archives in Russia

More Specialized Studies and Collections

Breyfogle, Nicholas B. "Building Doukhoboriia: Religious Culture, Social Identity and Russian Colonization in Transcaucasia, 1845-1895." Canadian Ethnic Studies XXVII: 3 (1995): 24-51.

• A historical study which examines the reasons why the Russian government sent the Doukhobors to Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century.

Donskov, Andrew, Ed.  Sergej Tolstoy and the Doukhobors:  a Journey to Canada. Trans. John Woodsworth. Ottawa: Slavic Research Group, 1998.

• A bilingual edition of Sergej Tolstoy's diary, letters and additional documents from the Tolstoy archive about the migration and early settlement of the Doukhobors.

Doukhobor Research Committee. The Doukhobors of British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia and J. M. Dent & Sons, 1955.

• Harry Hawthorne's 1952 report on the Doukhobors which was intended to investigate difficulties between Doukhobors in British Columbia and the BC authorities and make suggestions for ending conflict.

Friesen, John W. and Michael M. Verigin. The Community Doukhobors: a People in Transition. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1989.

• A study of the Doukhobors who are or were members of the centrist USCC Doukhobor organization. Includes an extensive survey of  Doukhobors about identity issues which reveals a widening generation gap.

Holt, Simma. Terror in the Name of God: the Story of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors. Toronto; Montreal: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1964.

• The most widely-known book about a Doukhobor group to date. It is an inaccurate and sensationalized account of Freedomite protest and Doukhobor history--the author, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun at the time of publication, exhibits little compassion for her subject. Relies heavily on police reports and photographs, and presents a detailed picture of the RCMP's erroneous belief  in a vast Freedomite "conspiracy" to commit depredations in British Columbia during the 1950s and 1960s.

Inikova, Svetlana A., trans. and ed. Koozma J. Tarasoff. vol. I History of the Doukhobors in V.D. Bonch-Bruevich's Archives (1886-1950s). Ottawa: Legas, 1999.

• Essays by Inikova, in English only, based on the V.D. Bonch-Bruevich fonds in the Russian State Library, Moscow. It deals with information about Doukhobors from the 1880s, and includes hard-to-find information about the Tolstoyan activists among the Doukhobors, about Doukhobor life and history generally and about the Soviet government's treatment of Doukhobors during the 1920s and 1930s, among other topics.

Inikova, Svetlana A., trans. and ed. Koozma J. Tarasoff. vol. II Doukhobor Incantations Through the Centuries. Ottawa: Legas, 1999.

• The second publication of material from the V.D. Bonch-Bruevich Archives by Inikova and Tarasoff.  This is a bilingual edition of folk incantations with explanatory prefaces by Inikova.

Janzen, William.  Limits on liberty: the experience of Mennonite, Hutterite and Doukhobor communities in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.

• A comparative history study with a chapter on Doukhobor land disputes in Saskatchewan.   Contains some primary source material from the period before migration to British Columbia in 1913.

Larry Ewashen's Materials List

• An ordering list of  Doukhobor printed and audio visual materials (including a long list of recordings and videos) which can be purchased from Larry Ewashen.

Maude, Aylmer, 1858-1938. A peculiar people: the Doukhobors. New York: AMS Press, 1904; 1970.

• A study of the Doukhobors by a Quaker who worked with them during the early years of settlement.

McLaren, John. "Wrestling Spirits: the Strange Case of Peter Verigin II". Canadian Ethnic Studies 32: 3 (1995): 95-130.

• A historical study of the arrest and attempted deportation on rather shaky charges of Peter P. Verigin (Chistiakov) by Canadian authorities during the 1930s, and of his subsequent rescue from a warehouse. McLaren details the conspiracy theories which caused the RCMP to attempt to send Peter P. Verigin back to Russia.

Spirit-Wrestlers.com

--Koozma Tarasoff's website with promotional information for his books, articles about the Doukhobors and a
a newletter about recent events of interest to members of the Doukhobor communities.

Tarasoff, Koozma J. "One Hundred Years of Doukhobors in Retrospect", Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. XXVII, No.3 (1995): 1-23.

• A shorter version of Tarasoff's approach in Plakun Trava. This issues of Canadian Ethnic Studies was a special issue devoted to the Doukhobors.

Tarasoff, Koozma J. and Robert Klymasz, eds. Spirit Wrestlers: Centennial Papers in Honour of Canada's Doukhobor Heritage. Hull, PQ: The Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1995.

• A collection of scholarly and personal articles by Doukhobors and non-Doukhobors about Doukhobor history, literature, music, religious practices and social organization.   Papers were given at a conference celebrating the centenary of the Burning of Arms. Some articles in translation. Contains an updated finding aid for the Doukhobor Archives at UBC by archivist Jack MacIntosh.

Tarasoff, Koozma J., ed. Spirit-Wrestlers’ Voices. New York, Ottawa, Toronto: Legas, 1998.

• A second collection based on the centenary conference held in 1995. This collections features more contributions by Doukhobors, including the first study ever of Doukhobor women from all Doukhobor groups.

Tracie, Carl J. "Toil and peaceful life": Doukhobor village settlement in Saskatchewan, 1899-1918. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1996.

• A geographic study of village settlement patterns.

Woodsworth, John, Ed. and Trans.  Russian Roots & Canadian Wings: Russian Archival Documents on the Doukhobor Emigration to Canada. Canada/Russian Series. Vol. I. Toronto: Penumbra Press, 1999.

• Primary sources, translated into English and annotated, about the Doukhobors before and after migration.

Yerbury, J.C. "The ‘Sons of Freedom’ Doukhobors and the Canadian State." Canadian Ethnic Studies XVI:2 (1984): 47-70.

• A discussion of Freedomite protests with a historical focus.

Contemporary Resources and Eye-Witness Accounts

Bodianskii, A.M., ed. Dukhobortsy: sbornik razskasov, pisem, dokumentov i statei po reliioznym voprosam. [The Doukhobors: Collection of Narratives, Letters, Documents and Articles on Religious Questions.] Kharkov, 1908. Special Collections. University of British Columbia Library.

• This Russian-language collection includes contemporary resources related to Doukhobor life, history and thought just before and during migration.  Material was generally collected by V.D. Bonch-Bruevich, a Bolshevik who accompanies the Doukhobors to Canada in order to assist them. Bodianskii, a Tolstoyan, published this collection.

Bonch-Bruevich, Vladimir Dmitrievich. The Book of Life of the Doukhobors. Trans. Victor O. Buyniak. Doukhobor Societies of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Blaine Lake: Blaine Lake, Sask., 1978. Originally Zhivotnaia kniga Dukhobortsev. St. Petersburg, 1909; Union of Doukhobors of Canada: Winnipeg, 1954.

• Bonch-Bruevich's collection of Doukhobor psalms, songs, hymns and prayers which he collected from Doukhobors after they arrived in Canada.  This collection was the first large transcription of Doukhobor music lyrics ever made. Buyniak's translation is not always accurate, and it should be kept in mind that the actual Living Book is unwritten, since the lyrics were meant to be sung and not just read.

Chernenkoff, Mikhail i drugie. Tyuremni Dnevnik; sobuitie i perezhivanie v Gornoi Tyurmye Agassiz, B.C.1962-1969. Mike E. Chernenkoff and Friends. Prison Diary: events and experiences in Mountain Prison, Agassiz, BC 1962-1969. Crescent Valley, BC: Steve Lapshinoff, 1993.

• A self-published Russian-language account by Mike Chernenkoff and others about the Freedomite incarceration in Agassiz from 1962-1969. A copy is kept at the Doukhobor Archives, University of British Columbia.

Davidoff, Fred Nicolas. "Autobiography of Fred Nicolas Davidoff, Books I-VI, BC Penetentiary, Box ‘M’. New Westminster, B.C. 1966- " Unpublished manuscript. National Archives of Canada. vols I-IV.

• An autobiography presumably written by Davidoff as part of his parole application where he renounces Freedomite depredation activities and repudiates the version of his life which he wrote for Simma Holt's 1964 book on Freedomite activism, Terror in the Name of God. See disclaimer in the entry for Holt before consulting her work.

Joint Doukhobor Research Committee. Report of the United Doukhobor Research Committee in the Matter of Clarification of the Motivating Life-Concepts and the History of the Doukhobors in Canada (Symposium Meetings 1974-1982). Ed. and Trans., Eli Popoff. Castlegar, BC: Selkirk College, 1997.

• Extensive summaries and transcriptions of a series of symposia about Doukhobor identity and history issues held over eight years.  Representatives from all Doukhobor groups (with the exception of some Freedomite factions) participated.

Maloff, P[eter]. In Quest of a Solution (Three Reports on Doukhobor Problem). 2nd ed. Doukhobor Archives, University of British Columbia Library. 1950; 1957.

• Reports by Peter Maloff, a Doukhobor who had belonged to all major Doukhobor groups at different times, for a commission on Freedomite unrest run by Col. Meade.  Contains an autobiographical section by Maloff as well as his suggestions to Doukhobors and non-Doukhobors for ending the conflict.

Pozdnyakov, Vasya. "Vasya Pozdnyakov's Dukhobor Narrative". Peter Brock, ed. and Trans. Slavonic and East European Review vol. 43, 1965.

• An unsympathetic account of Peter V. (Lordly) Verigin's leadership in Transcaucasia and Siberia by one of his former aides and advisors.  Contains eye-witness information about Doukhobor life before migration to Canada.

Reibin, Simeon F. Toil and Peaceful Life: History of the Doukhobors Unmasked tr. John D. Buhr and Isaak A. Dyck., 1971. Doukhobor Archives, University of British Columbia.

• A memoir by Peter V. Verigin's advisor Simeon Reibin which provides an unsympathetic account of Verigin's leadership in Canada.

Soukorev, Gregory Ivanovich. "My Renunciation of Military Service." Parts 1 to 6. Trans.William Petrovich Sheloff . Iskra 1820-1826 (June 19, 1996-Dec. 18, 1996).

• An English-language translation from Iskra of Soukorev's description, originally printed in the Doukhobor magazine Iskra in Russian, of his torture and imprisonment after the 1895 Burning of Arms protest.

Sulerzhitskii, L. A. (Leopold Antonovich), To America with the Doukhobors. Trans. Michael Kalmakoff. Regina : Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1982.

• The diary kept by Sulerzhitskii, a Tolstoyan follower who went with the migrating Doukhobors in order to help them settle in Canada.  The diary covers the voyage in 1899 and early settlement activities.

USCC Kootenay Men’s Group. "Vechnaya Pamyat": a guide to traditional customs and procedures at Doukhobor funerals. Castlegar, BC: USCC Kootenay Men’s Group, 1995.

• A bilingual Russian/English account of Doukhobor funeral observances, including the words to appropriate psalms.

Doukhobor Literature (Excluding Psalm Collections)

Plotnikoff, Vi.  Head Cook at Weddings and Funerals and Other Stories of Doukhobor Life. Vancouver: Polestar Press, 1994.

• The first collection of Doukhobor short stories published and the first widely published literary writings by a Doukhobor woman.

Popoff, Eli. Tanya. Grand Forks BC: Mir Publication Society, 1975.

• The first Doukhobor novel.

Sysoev, Theodore, jr. Ivan Sysoev: Doukhobor Poet and Hymnist . A site about the best-known contemporary Doukhobor psalm and spiritual song composer, by his grandson.