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Jan. 24, 2025, 7:37 p.m.

The Secret World of Bessarabia's Sects: The History of the Whips and the Innocenti

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V. Konovalov. The whip sect. Image: album-online.com

V. Konovalov. The whip sect. Image: album-online.com

Areas remote from large settlements become fertile ground for various sects. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bessarabia and Lower Transnistria became an ideal environment for the development of such structures. Taking advantage of political anarchy, cultural illiteracy, and ethnic divisions, some sects gained the de facto status of a "second power." After the Skopians andthe Spiritual Sisters, an exclusive story about the Whips and the Innocentists.

The Whips

In Bessarabia, the Khlysty sect was called the Shalaputy, and they considered themselves "God's people." The Khlysts had a negative attitude toward marriage and were most disgusted by the birth of children, whom they called puppies, toys, and demons. They actively used various folk methods to induce abortions in women who became pregnant.

This heretical movement had peculiar rituals for accepting new members into the sect. Some whips demanded renunciation of the world, renunciation of father and mother, while others forced them to renounce the Savior and the Mother of God. To confirm his initiation into the sect, the recruit had to write an oath in blood from the little finger of his right hand.

Orthodox missionaries reported that the Khlysts outwardly behave exemplary in their moral life, and their community resembles a monastery in the countryside. Khlysty men often wear beards, considering it an important tradition because all the saints had beards. However, more significant signs were the refusal to participate in weddings, christenings, and funerals.

Young boys and girls who belonged to the whips usually lost their cheerful appearance, became withdrawn, silent, and unwilling to marry.


A ritual service of the Khlysts. Image by Wikipedia

One of the oldest Khlystiv "boats" or "gray doves" (another name for Khlystiv) in the Bessarabian province was a community in the village of Semenivka, Akkerman district. Another well-known Khlystov "boat" was a sectarian community that formed in the town of Shabo.

The fact is that the very influential leader Antonii Makarenko chose Shabo as his residence. This young man lived for half a year in the Lower Dniester region, in his native village of Troitske, Odesa district, Kherson province, where he led a rather large "boat," and spent the second part of the year in the Bessarabian settlement of Shabo, where he had his own vineyards.

The high status of Antonii Makarenko in the Khlystiv community is evidenced by the fact that his photograph was printed in the book of the Odesa missionary Mykhailo Kalnev. We can assume that Antonii Makarenko led several "boats" from a distance and was probably perceived by his followers not as a prophet but as Christ himself.


Antonii Makarenko

The strength of the Shabian circle is evidenced by the fact that from this post Khlystov's teachings were brought to neighboring settlements.

The most important feature of this sect was secrecy. The Whips did their best to remain as invisible as possible to the outside world. As of 1914, missionaries in Bessarabia were able to identify only 7 obvious Whips and 12 suspicious individuals.

Mystic sectarians did not constitute a single organized community, and connections between them were limited. Usually, one community was located within the same settlement, although some sectarian groups maintained close ties with co-religionists living in neighboring provinces, indicating their integration into larger Khlystov movements. However, most Bessarabian communities of "gray doves" were of local importance. At the same time, Khlystovism is one of the most interesting and mysterious phenomena of folk mysticism.

The Orthodox Church in Bessarabia and Lower Dniester actively fought against whipping, receiving support from secular authorities. However, it is worth noting that Orthodox experts on sectarianism tended to pay attention only to obvious khlysts, probably overlooking those who were better at hiding their sectarianism.

The fact that the number of "people of God" in the region was gradually decreasing may indicate, on the one hand, the effectiveness of the preventive work of the Orthodox mission, and on the other hand, a shift in attention to new targets. First of all, this concerned Baptists and Innocentists. It was to them that the priests often referred all those who resembled whippersnappers in their behavior.

The Innocentists

This sect had a regional character, with roots in Bessarabia, and left a significant impact on the religious life of this region. Its origin dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when its founder, Hieromonk Innocent (real name Ivan Levizor, 1875-1917), a native of the village of Koseuts in the Bessarabian province (now the territory of Moldova), appeared in the city of Balta.

Innocent's personality was complex and contradictory. In his younger years, he was expelled from the monastery for "unacceptable behavior toward women." However, his acquaintance with Grigory Rasputin was a turning point for him.

In 1908, Innocent founded a new teaching in Balta, where he proclaimed himself a messenger of the Holy Spirit without undue modesty. He heralded the approaching end of the world, during which salvation awaited only his followers. The new "prophet" was openly inclined to suicide, which, in his opinion, could save the soul, and actively opposed medical care. In the secret "rooms of death" of his monastery, specific equipment was found that "accelerated the sinful life" of believers through torture or burying alive.


Innocent of Balta. Image: bessarabica.info

Innocent confirmed his sainthood with numerous miracles of healing and performed exorcisms. However, critics of the sect claimed that almost all of the alleged miracles were performed by straw men from among his sectarians. Specific rituals consisted of prayers, fits, orgies, and continued until one of the believers began to fall in convulsions.

All the sounds made by the one who fainted were interpreted as prophecies. After that, a group orgy with alcohol would begin. It was a great honor for the followers of the sect to receive "healing water" from the bathroom where "Father John" himself washed.

The prophet also had his own harem, which included both local girls and visiting pilgrims. In particular, one of them claimed that Innocent explained to her that there was no sin in carnal cohabitation. The "prophet" was especially fond of orgies on Good Friday, emphasizing that this was how he purified the world.

Anatolii Kotsovskyi, a doctor of psychiatry, even wrote a paper "On the Baltian Psychosis in Bessarabia," in which he called Innocent "a charlatan who did not disdain meager peasant offerings."

The growing popularity of Innocent began to disturb the bishop of Chisinau, Seraphim. He was especially unnerved by the services that were conducted in the Moldovan language. The imperial government reacted quickly, sending the preacher in 1909 to spread his ideas in the shadows of first the Kamianets-Podilskyi and later the Muromskyi monasteries of the Olonets province.

Surprisingly, more than 800 followers of the "prophet"-men, women, and children-walked nearly 260 kilometers in the winter, dying of cold and typhus to follow their teacher. In addition, there was an unsuccessful attempt to free Innocent, which was quickly stopped by the troops.

However, the sect did not disappear after the arrest of its preacher. Not far from the village of Lipetske (modern Podil district of Odesa region), a secret underground monastery emerged, which Innocent called the "Garden of Eden." His supporters began to spread rumors in the villages about the new prophet. In January 1916, the priest of St. Nicholas Church in the village of Troitske, Odesa County, with the assistance of village tithers, brought three unknown persons to the police officer who were spreading false teachings about the Orthodox faith, preaching about the second coming of Jesus Christ and the Last Judgment. They incited the people, saying: "We don't need a king, we have our own prophets, like the prophet Innocent."

Unfortunately for them, the "prophet" attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies. The well-known occultist Volodymyr Bonch-Bruievych personally studied the materials of the imperial chancellery regarding this sect. He was interested in the mechanism of implementing the "people's church" project and methods of influencing the masses of peasants. Therefore, it is not surprising that the circumstances of Innocent's death remain unclear. The sectarians believed that he ascended to heaven, but in fact he was killed during a drunken brawl.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they did not accept new ideological rivals in the form of the Innocentists, so they quickly began arresting and executing sectarians. In 1925, fleeing persecution, members of the sect embraced the ideas of socialism and founded the commune "From Darkness to Light" in Lipetsk. However, the Soviet authorities did not believe in such a quick re-education and the commune was shot.

VChK agents reported that in 1929 all sectarians were destroyed. However, these expectations turned out to be a significant exaggeration. The activities of the Inkentievites were so active that in 1952 the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Moldavian SSR, Leonid Brezhnev, appealed to the central authorities to deport the sectarians. However, the deportation only contributed to the spread of their teachings in Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Despite years of persecution and negative attitudes, the Innocent sect still exists today. The movement now has several thousand supporters, mostly residents of Odesa region, ethnic Moldovans, as well as citizens of Moldova and Romania. In 2013, journalists found out that Innocent's followers are trying to fully restore their Garden of Eden shrine in the Odesa region, where they plan to wait out the end of the world. After all, "when the sea floods Odesa and sulfur flares up over the city, then all nations will gather here to receive the third testament from God."

The sects of whips and Innocentists exist today, adapting to modern conditions. This allows them to remain popular even in the modern world. Their activities are no longer always manifested in traditional forms of religious worship or rituals, as they used to be, but often take on more hidden or even legitimized forms.

It is likely that there are secret followers of these religious movements among ordinary people, such as doctors, teachers, salespeople, or other professions. They may go about their daily lives while maintaining a covert loyalty to the sects' ideology, waiting for the right moment to openly express their beliefs.

Андрій Шевченко

Євген Забіянов

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