Castlegar BC Canada

Kekuli	Kekuli	Kekuli	Stump Woman	Chapel House
Chapel House	Susp. Bridge	Cemetery	Vat	Medicine Rock
Zuckerberg	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor
Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor
Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor	Doukhobor

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Zuckerberg Island Futures

Chapel House: A russian Orthodox country chapel and built to live on it, it was his art studio, classroom, and home.
Suspension Bridge: Built as a field exercise project in 1984 by the 44th Field Engineer Squadron, the bridge was allowed to remain in place as a connection to the island. The 473 foot bridge was erected that spring with donated materials and won the coveted Canadian Militia Hertsberg Award.
Kekuli: The island served as a winter base to a Lakes band of interior Salishan people from at least 3500 years ago to recent times. The pit house has the entrance through the center of the roof.
Stump Woman: A seated woman carved from a tree stump the Zuckerberg's best known work.
Cemetery: Alexander Zuckerberg (1880-1961) and Alicia Zuckerberg (1896-1960)
Medicine Rock: A big stone with magic healing powers for the Salishan people.
Hiroshima Memorial: Garden memorial placed to remember the 40th anniversary of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

Dukhobors

The Doukhobors originated in Russia over three hundred years ago during the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first Doukhobors were simple, illiterate peasants. The name `Doukhobor' or `Doukhobortsi' means `Spirit Wrestler" and was given in anger as a derogatory label in 1785 by the Ekaterinoslav Archbishop Ambrosius Serebrennikov of the Russian Orthodox Church. He claimed the Doukhobors wrestled against the Holy Spirit and should be shamed and classed as heretics. Doukhobors adopted the name saying that they wrestle with and for the Spirit of God against all injustices, and in struggle for a better life they would use only the spiritual power of Love.

The Doukhobors are pacifists. They believe each human being is a living temple in which lives the Spirit of God. This is why the Doukhobors believe it is wrong to kill. The Doukhobors rejected the Russian Orthodox Church, which was the state church of Russia , and refused military service. As a result, the Doukhobors endured centuries of persecution by church and state, which only strengthened their faith. Inspired by the high ideals and dynamic leadership of Peter Lordly Verigin, the Doukhobors made a decisive stand against militarism and all forms of violence. On June 29, 1895 , in three central areas of the Caucasus Mountains , the Doukhobors burned all of their weapons as a symbolic act. From that day forward they refused to take human life for any reason.

For their refusal to bear arms and serve in the military, many Doukhobors were exiled to remote, barren regions of Georgia or Siberia , and families were split up. This was a time of great hardship. During a three year period nearly one thousand Doukhobors did not survive the harsh conditions under which the Tsar forced them to live. With the help of the famous writer and humanitarian, Leo N. Tolstoy, and his colleagues, the Society of Friends (Quakers) and others, the Doukhobors were allowed to move to Canada .

Between 1908 and 1915 approximately six thousand Doukhobors relocated to the Kootenay and Boundary region of Southeastern British Columbia. Under the exceptional guidance of Peter Lordly Verigin and his slogan of "Toil and Peaceful Life", the Doukhobors established a communal way of life know as the Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood Ltd. (CCUB): This communal enterprise, the largest of its kind ever attempted in North America, spanned the three western provinces, from the interior of B.C. across the Prairies to Manitoba. The Doukhobors built sawmills, flour-mills, brick and jam factories, grain elevators, a wooden pipe factory, roads, and bridges, and irrigation systems; in addition they cultivated crops, gardens and orchards.

A typical Doukhobor selo (village) consisted of two double-story buildings and a U - shaped annex. Behind the annex stood a large barn for horses and a cow. Next to the barn was the blacksmith shop, and quite often one blacksmith shop served the needs of the two to three neighbouring villages. Behind the barn was a banya or steam bathhouse with and adjoining laundry room. On the other side of the barn stood a woodshed large enough to store sufficient wood year round for the entire selo. A total of 90 communal villages flourished at the height of the CCUB era.

Verigin & Natalie Lucas

The Doukhobor Village Museum

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Photos Castlegar, Zuckerberg Island, Doukhobor Museum, Kootenays, BC Canada   [Back to Top]