Ivan Alekseevich Churikov ( January 15, 1861 , the village of Peredovoy Aleksandro-Gay volost, Novouzensk district , Samara province - October 8, 1933 ), also known as Brother John or John of Samara - the founder of the Russian religious movement known as Churikovtsy .
| Ivan Alekseevich Churikov | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Flow | Churikovtsy |
| Date of Birth | January 15, 1861 |
| Place of Birth | Samara province |
| Date of death | October 8, 1933 (72 years old) |
| A country |  Russian empire  the USSR |
Biography
From 7 to 14 years old Churikov lived in Samara , where he was brought up and was in the service of his uncle Nikolai, who traded in fish and groceries.
In childhood and adolescence Churikov repeatedly participated in “conversations” - religious gatherings of peasants on holidays (at that time such a religious trend as phrasebooks was widespread in the Volga region ). Subsequently, such conversations became the prototype of his own collections.
Churikov married, became the owner of a tavern , but his wife was mentally ill, and he almost went bankrupt. Churikov decided that this was God's punishment, in 1889 he sold the rest of the property, distributed the proceeds to the poor and went on a pilgrimage. In 1892, he began to wear vergi .
In 1884, Churikov settled in St. Petersburg , where he began to preach among the urban poor in the shoe shop on Ligovka , and the main motive for these sermons was the harm of drunkenness. Churikov had many followers.
Since the summer of 1893, Churikov lived for about a year in Kronstadt , where he was probably blessed by John of Kronstadt (at least, as Churikov’s followers say).
Churikov was repeatedly detained by the police, who demanded that he stop the sermon. In February 1897, Churikov was expelled to his homeland “for arranging conversations contrary to the spirit of the Orthodox faith,” as well as for speaking out against the general census of the population at that time (Churikov said that “every census brings disaster to the people, as it was in the times of the Old Testament under David and during the appearance of the Savior under Herod ”).
After being expelled from St. Petersburg, Churikov settled in Novouzensk , where he also had followers. He was again detained by the police, he was interrogated by the Samara governor, and then, on the recommendation of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Palladium, he was sent to the Samara hospital for the mentally ill, where he stayed for almost half a year, but after being examined by local doctors, he was recognized as a “pure swindler and quack” and discharged .
After that, Churikov returned to St. Petersburg, where, together with lawyers, he tried to create a "Society of Zealots of the Orthodox Faith." But while trying to register the company on May 10, 1900, Churikov was arrested and imprisoned for four months in the Suzdal Spaso-Yefimiev Monastery on charges of sectarianism. He was released from prison by decree of the emperor thanks to the intercession of liberal-minded Petersburgers and the priest of the Transfiguration Church on the Petrograd side of Fr. Vasily Lebedev.
After his release, Churikov went to work as a nurse in a shelter, where he engaged in sermons among its inhabitants. Petersburg merchants helped him buy a house on Petrovsky Island , where mass (up to 2,000 people) sober meetings were held on Sundays. Then Churikov organized the construction of a two-story mansion in Obukhov , which was called the “Prayer House of Brother Ivan Churikov.” Doctors noted the effect of Churikov’s activities, Dr. S. Trivus even sent his incurable alcoholics to Churikov.
In 1905, Churikov bought a plot of land in the sold estate Novo-Petrovskoye near Vyritsa to create a colony of teetotalers. In 1908, the colony was registered as a “Mutual Assistance Society”. It was a well-organized commodity farm for the production of meat and dairy products, half of the land was used for growing bread. The colony even acquired the first tractor in the Petersburg province . In 1910, the Churikites became vegetarians . On January 8, 1911, the Minister of Internal Affairs P. Stolypin approved the charter of the “All-Russian Labor Union of Christian-teetotalers”.
In October 1912, Churikov opened a school that lasted a year, but in 1913 the St. Petersburg mayor forbade him to conduct religious conversations. In March 1913, the missionary council announced to Churikov that if he did not repent of error until August 1, he would be deprived of the sacrament. On April 27, 1913, a stenographic conversation took place between Bishop Nicodemus [ what? ] with Churikov. In 1914, a decree was issued by the Petrograd Spiritual Consistory on the recognition of Churikov as a sectarian.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government allowed Churikov to continue conversations and sermons in his house in Obukhov. In 1918, the "Society of teetotalers" was transformed into the agricultural "Labor Commune of teetotalers Bratts Ioann Churikov" officially registered by the executive committee of the Petrosoviet.
In September 1923, the renovationist hierarchs A. I. Vvedensky and A. I. Boyarsky began negotiations with Churikov. In December 1923, Churikov and his supporters joined the renovationist Living Church. However, Churikov soon became disillusioned with modernism and broke off contacts with representatives of all Orthodox church structures.
At the regional agricultural exhibition of 1924, the community of Churikov was awarded a diploma for their achievements. When V. Lenin died in January 1924, a sermon was interrupted in the Churik community, and Ivan Churikov honored the memory of the departed leader with a speech, and then everyone sang together the deceased “Eternal memory”.
In 1928, the community house in Obukhov was closed and sealed by the police, and the land and communal inventory were transferred to the newly formed Krasny Semenovod state farm. Churikov and his remaining followers were again forced to relocate to Vyritsa.
Churikov’s sermons in Vyritsa lasted until April 1929, when he was arrested by the OGPU . In September 1929, he was sentenced by the Special Conference of the OGPU collegium to three years in prison on charges of counter-revolutionary agitation and placed in the Yaroslavl political prison. On March 7, 1932, his sentence was extended for another three years.
According to official information, Churikov died on October 8, 1933 when sent to Butyrskaya prison . The place of his burial is unknown.