OPEN EDITION GALLERY

The Doukhobors have left Russia since Tsar Nicholas I exiled them in the 1840s. They settled their community in remote Georgian villages among the border with Armenia at almost 2500 meters of altitude. They are a Christian sect that believed God resides within every person, rendering the need for the church and all its trappings—icons, buildings, rituals, even priests—unnecessary. They believe in a native pacifism and ecological behaviuors. Altough the long and cold winters, Doukhobors’ have created a fairy tale land with tidy towns of sod-roofed homes and carved wooden shutters painted in blue. In Gorelovka,once their spiritual center, there are 145 left. Their ineluctable exodus north could spell the end of an entire culture.

The Doukhobors have left Russia since Tsar Nicholas I exiled them in the 1840s. They settled their community in remote Georgian villages among the border with Armenia at almost 2500 meters of altitude. They are a Christian sect that believed God resides within every person, rendering the need for the church and all its trappings—icons, buildings, rituals, even priests—unnecessary. They believe in a native pacifism and ecological behaviuors. Altough the long and cold winters, Doukhobors’ have created a fairy tale land with tidy towns of sod-roofed homes and carved wooden shutters painted in blue. In Gorelovka,once their spiritual center, there are 145 left. Their ineluctable exodus north could spell the end of an entire culture.