Churikov, Ivan Alekseyevich (1861-1933), preacher

Subject / Religion. Church/Personnel
Churikov, Ivan Alekseyevich (1861–1933), preacher, founder of the teetotaller movement. He graduated form the village school, then he was trader.After his wife committed suicide and after the fire destroyed his property, he distributed the survived movables and went to wander. From 1894 he made spiritual-moral speeches on the damage of heavy drinking in the private apartments in St Petersburg. He was exiled for the illegal preaching and interpretation of the Bible performed by a layman; in 1898 he was put into the mental hostital in Samara, in 1900 he was put into the arrest department of the Saviour-Evfimievsky Monastery in Suzdal. He was released due to the petitions of his followers and returned to St Petersburg. From 1906 to 1908 he formed the first teetotaller organizations in St Petersburg and the village of Vyritsa (v. Teetotalism). He settled in Vyritsa where he regularly conducted the meetings on "" Gospels about sobering up of people"". From 1910 he organized the preacher meetings in Obukhovo (now it is St Petersburg), where the stone house was built for these purposes; the Centeral Council of the Society was placed here. In 1913 Churikov was banned to organize the meetings, in 1914 Churikov and his followers are not admitted to the Communion according to the order of the Eparchy Administration of St Petersburg for ""sectarian delusions"". After the October 1917 Revolution he received the right to to preach. From 1918 to 1929 he lived mainly in Vyritsa: he was chairman of the agriculture commune that was organized by him. He practised as a mentor and a physician, sometimes he visited Obukhovo. The ban on the Communion for Churikov was reversed by the decision of the Renovated Eparchy Administration of Petrograd in December 1922. In 1927 he was arrested with his followers and 16 men were sentenced to three years in the concentration camp in 1928. Churikov was released due to ""old age"", but in 1929 he was arrested again and transported ro Moscow. More then 1,200 Leningrad workers signed the petition to the Central Committee of Comminist Party about the releasing of Churikov. He was sentenced to three years in prison and in 1932 the prison term was extended by three years. He died in the prison of the town of Yaroslavl. Shkarovsky, Mikhail Vitalyevich
Churikov, Ioann (Ivan Alekseyevich)
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
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.
Teetotallerism