Russia under the Old regime

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double soul tax, many Old Believers turned to commerce and industry at which they proved extremely adept. They enjoyed the reputation of being the most honest businessmen in Russia.

The Sectarians sought not so much to defend the old ways as to formulate new answers to religious questions. Sectarianism was a logical outgrowth of Old Belief, especially of its more radical Non-Priestly wing. Most sects issued from this source, although it appears that some antedated the Schism and represented a revival of heresies dormant since the Middle Ages and believed extirpated, such as that of the Judaizers. The basic quality common to the sects was the turning away from church tradition, books and rituals in quest of a 'Spiritual Christianity' based on an inner faith. Once the tie with the official church had been broken it was inevitable that many spontaneous religious trends would emerge. The process has by no means run its course as the contemporary Russian press reports time and again the discovery of some new sect. Most sects have had an ephemeral existence, revolving around a single inspired leader and falling apart upon his imprisonment or death. Some, however, established themselves more solidly. Among the better known are the following:

The Khlysty or Flagellants, a word which seems to be a corruption of 'Khristy' or 'Christs', for the members of this sect did not practise flagellation. The sect originated in the central black earth region, apparently in the late seventeenth century. Its central idea held that Christ reincarnated himself by entering living individuals who thereby became 'Christs'; upon their death the spirit passed on to others. Many groups were formed under the inspiration of peasants seized by the spirits who would wander from village to village gathering followers. Meetings were held to the accompaniment of singing and dancing which often degenerated into mass hysterics. The Khlysty occasionally engaged in sexual orgies. They opposed marriage and engaged in free intercourse which they called 'Christ's love'. Persecuted for their activities they operated in great secrecy.

The minuscule sect ofSkoptsy (from the word skopets meaning eunuch) were a late eighteenth-century offshoot from the Khlysty. They maintained that woman with her beauty was the main obstacle to salvation and to resist her temptations they castrated themselves.

The Dukhobortsy or 'Fighters for the Spirit' emerged in the second half of the eighteenth century, also probably from the Khlysty. Their theology was vague. They taught that human souls had been created before corporal bodies. Some, having sinned before the creation of the world, were punished by being cast into the material world without recollection of what had gone on before. All rituals and all institutions are. the products of original sin. The Dukhobors also believed in Christ 'entering'