Teetotallerism

Subject / Religion. Church
Teetotalism, religious - moral movement. It was disseminated among workers and craftsmen mainly who had the country origin. It was founded by I.А. Churikov who organized the society ""Sober Life"" in St Petersburg in 1906-1907 and the ""Agricultural Working Commune of Teetotallers of brother Ioann Churikov"" in the settlement of Vyritsa of the Tsarskoye Selo District in 1908 . Several thousands men were included in the movement. 30 men constantly lived in the commune and about 200 men were periodically relieved. About 1,000 pilgrims came to listnen to the preachings of Churikov in Vyritsa. Main parts of the Orthodox Church were preserved in the Churikov movement with exeption of the communion. Some members of the movement did not recognize the liturgical rules, the non-Orthodox men were adopted. The Centeral Council of the Society was placed in Obukhovo near St Petersburg: preachers were instructed and the magazine ""Sober Dawn"" was published here. In 1919 ""People Teetotaller Community, Members of the Movement of Brother Ioann Churikov"" was registered in Petrograd. 184 members were in the Vyritsa Commune in the beginning of 1929 . In March 1929 the religious-educational work of the Churikov Movement was banned and the heads were sentenced to three years in prison, in 1932 the sentence was increased by three years. 40,000-100,000 teetotallers (about 10,000 men in Leningrad and in the Leningrad Guberniya), 80 per cent of numbers of the Churikov Society were workers, were during the maximum activity of the Churikov Society in the middle of the 1920s. From 7 to 11 branches of the Churikov Society worked in different times. In the 1920s other teetotaller organizations worked also. In 1920 the Petrograd Soviet gave the permission to A.I. Smirnov on the organazing of the religious conversations, he was the preacher from 1905; in 1922 the ""All Russian Society of the Spiritual-Moral People Teetotallers"" having 60 members was registerd by A.I. Smirnov. From 1924 the ""Society of the Spiritual-Moral People Teetotallers of Brother Mikhail Mironov"" existed in the Leningrad Guberniya. In July 1928 administration of the Mikhail Mironov organization was prosecuted for the anti-Soviet and anti-people activity, other society members were taken the engagements on the stopping of the religious-teetotalism activity. The teetotalism movement was stopped finally in the end of the 1930s. The followers of Churikov resumed the legal work in the end of the 1980s. Vyritsa is the centre of their activity and ""House of Brother Ioann"" , with the prayer hall for 300 men, works in Vyritsa from 1989. Now there are several thousands followers of the Churikov Movement in Russia and abroad. Shkarovsky, Mikhail Vitalyevich
Churikov, Ivan Alekseyevich
Mironov, Mikhail
Smirnov, A.I.
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the/Tsarskoye Selo Uyezd/Vyritsa
Элиашевич И.Я. Правда о Чурикове и чуриковцах. Л., 1928
Санкт-Петербургский мартиролог. СПб., 2002., С.290-291
Крапивин М.Ю., Лейкин А.Я., Далгатов А.Г. Судьбы христианского сектанства в Советской России (1917 – конец 1930-х годов). СПб., 2003., С.239-252, 259-260