New Israel
Encyclopedia
New Israel was one of the Sektanstvo (sectarian) new religious movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...

s that grew and expanded in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 in the late 19th to early 20th century, a branch of the Postniki
Postniki
The Postniki were a millennial sect of 19th century Southern Russia, a branch of the Khlysty movement, founded by Abbakum Ivanov Kopylov , a peasant of the Tambov Oblast. Kopylov declared himself the living Christ and gathered a considerable following in the 1820s...

(fasters). The movement was the result of the schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...

s that split the "Old Israel" (Staroizrail
Staroizrail
Old Israel was a 19th century sect founded in the 1830s by Perfil Katasonov, a disciple of Abbakum Kopylov, the founder of the Postniki sect, as the result of a schism. Its adherents considered themselves to be the Chosen People establishing the Kingdom of God on earth...

) 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
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, where they founded the town of San Javier
San Javier, Uruguay
San Javier is a small town situated on the east bank of the river Río Uruguay in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It was founded by Russian settlers in 1913. It is located west of Route 24, north of the department capital Fray Bentos, west of Young and south of Paysandú, the capital of...

.

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
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, the sect persisted at least until the 1950s.

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
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...

. 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 a Uruguay consulate, 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 on 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 under the leadership of Lubkov immigrated to Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and established a farming town San Javier, Uruguay
San Javier, Uruguay
San Javier is a small town situated on the east bank of the river Río Uruguay in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It was founded by Russian settlers in 1913. It is located west of Route 24, north of the department capital Fray Bentos, west of Young and south of Paysandú, the capital of...

. 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 1920s, Lubkov gathered a few more loyal families and moved to the Soviet Union, to a city called Manich. Some other families later followed and settled north of the Caucasus.

During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the New Israel immigrants sent aid in the form of sweaters through the Red Cross back to the Soviet Union.

In 1972, the Uruguay government repressed the town by destroying the local library named after Maksim Gorkiy 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.

Some of the family names are: Smirnov (Смирнов), Lushkin (Лушкин), Kutsenko (Куценко), Pilipchuk (Пилипчук), Nikitin (Никитин), Puchkaryov/Puchkariov/Puchkarev (Пучкарёв).

External links

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