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To Honor My Pacifist Grandparents as Russian Immigrants to Canada
“God lives inside you. You make your own heaven or hell.” My Grandfather
Does it really matter who your ancestors were or the values they passed on to their generations? They are part of humanity that has learned though a rugged civilization process that cooperation and peace have lasting eternal virtues.
Then why have wars prevailed through the centuries where current brutal, merciless military forces are invading and destroying neighbors, a brotherhood and a civilized nation?
My grandparents left their villages in southern Georgia as part of the 7500 Doukhobor emigration in 1899; first to the Canadian prairies and then to the valleys of British Columbia.
A quick background describes the Doukhobors as Russian Christian peasants who objected to the excessive rituals of the Orthodox Church. The Czarist government persecuted them because they adopted pacifism, renounced militarism and burned their guns in a huge pile refusing to fight in one of their wars. They were able to emigrate to Canada where they were granted conscientious objector status and were exempted from military service.
Soon enough the group established dozens of communal village settlements often cultivating the land by…
