Khlysts
The beliefs and practices of its members included ecstatic rituals, worship of charismatic leaders, and a rejection of the priesthood and holy books.
They believed in direct communication with the Holy Spirit and practiced the ritual of radenie [ru] ("rejoicing"), which was characterized by dancing, speaking in tongues, and prophesying.
It is probably a corruption of the group's aforementioned self-designation of Khristy, but may also allude to the sect's practice of ritual self-flagellation; the Russian word khlyst means a "whip" or "thin rod".
[4] According to its own oral tradition, the sect was founded in 1645 by Danilo Filippov (or Daniil Filippovich), a peasant of Kostroma and a runaway soldier.
Suslov, transformed by Filippov into a "new Christ", acquired a following of twelve apostles, along with a woman who was given the title of "Mother of God".
The first historical references to the Khlysty are found in the writings of the Old Believers, a Christian community which resisted the 17th-century reforms of the Russian State Church.
[8] Lupkin was a trader, and made use of his frequent journeys to places such as Uglich and Venev to organise secret assemblies for his followers.
He encouraged his followers to worship in the manner of the Old Believers, such as by making the sign of the cross with two fingers instead of three,[9] but he also instructed them to attend the State Church and take communion.
Russian author Edvard Radzinsky has described a radenie ritual which he witnessed on the island of Chechen in 1964:[14] In white flaxen shirts worn over naked bodies they went down into the cellar of a peasant lodge.
After that a little old man with joyful, light-coloured eyes – the local Christ – began to chant a Khlyst prayer in the flickering candlelight.
"[14] Radzinsky claims that in some arks, the Khlysts would at this point engage in "group sinning" – a frenzied sexual orgy, which they believed would purify them from the lusts of the flesh.
[15] Similarly, C. L. Sulzberger, in his book The Fall of Eagles, writes that the Khlysty's "foremost idea was that salvation could be attained only by total repentance and that this became far more achievable for one who had truly transgressed.
Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare, referencing a study by Karl Konrad Grass, writes:[17] [The Khlysty] have been accused of ending their radenia or religious dances with wholesale debauchery, the lights being first put out.
The only thing that gives it colour is that often, when the ecstasies are over, the exhausted votaries drop down on the floor and sleep till dawn, the men on one side of the apartment, the women on the other.
[21] From 1733 to 1739, a specially-formed government commission arrested hundreds of suspected Khlyst members, charging them with participation in sexual orgies and ritual infanticide.
They handed out sentences of hard labour, beatings, and mutilation of the nostrils and the tongue, and sent many of the prisoners into exile in Siberia or Orenburg.
[23] This commission, although eliciting false confessions of sexual deviation and cannibalistic communion, and sending another 200 people into exile, likewise failed to stamp out the movement.
It was no longer considered possible for ordinary members to receive the Holy Spirit during radenie, although the ritual still held a central position in their worship.
[30] The factual accuracy of this book has been called into question,[31] and according to Brian Moynahan, Maria's story is the only evidence that Rasputin had any Khlyst connections.
