The small village of Verigin is NE of the city of Yorkton, between the towns of Canora and Kamsack on Hwy 5. The National Doukhobor Heritage Village is located here on the outskirts of the village. The heritage village was officially opened on June 29, 1980, the day that the Doukhobors celebrate annually as Peter's Day, a day that commemorates the burning of arms which led to the Doukhobor emigration from Russia to Canada seeking land and religious freedom.

A brief history: The Doukhobors, a small sect of Russian pacifist dissenters, encountered serious persecution from the official state church and the government in late nineteenth century Czarist Russia. With the assistance of Count/author Leo Tolstoy and British and American Quakers, over 7500 Doukhobors emigrated in 1899 to settle in what was to become Saskatchewan.

Initially they received concessions regarding education and military service, and were permitted to register for individual homesteads but chose to live communally. In 1905, however, most of their homestead entries were canceled when they refused to swear a mandatory oath of allegiance. Therefore, in 1908, their spiritual leader Peter V. Verigin led many of the Doukhobors to a new community in the Kootenays of southern British Columbia where the Homestead Act did not require an oath of allegiance. Today there are between 30,000 and 40,000 Doukhobors in Canada, and another 30,000 in Russia.

For an interesting, well-written, and in-depth history of the Doukhobors in Canada and Saskatchewan, check this excellent "Prairies North" magazine article: http://www.prairiesnorth.com/summer01/doukhobor.html

More great sources of information: http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/projects/Doukhobor-Collection/

http://www.ualberta.ca/~jrak/doukhobors.htm

The Quaker connection: http://www.afsc.org/about/hist/2002/doukhobor.htm