If you displeased the Doukhobors, you most likely were going to see their genitals. The anarchic religious sect, established in 17th-century Russia, was a serious lot that practiced Spiritual Christianity, pacifism and vegetarianism, and would accept the rules of no government. When they felt they were being encroached upon by ordinances not their own, off went the pants. A trio of stories follow about the mass-nudity protests of some of the Doukhobors who emigrated to Canada.

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“Doukhobors Burn Clothes,” August 13, 1905, New York Times:

Winnipeg, Manitoba–Thirty Doukhobors, a Russian religious sect, marched to within half a mile of Yorkton yesterday, stripped, and burned their clothes. The police arrested all the men, women and children in the party and wrapped them in blankets. The Doukhobors had intended to march through the streets of Yorkton.

They refused all nourishment but raw potatoes. They said they were looking for Christ. Another party is reported to be heading or Yorkton from the Northeast.•

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From the July 4, 1910 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Winnipeg–The mounted police at Kamsizk, Sask., yesterday went to Veregin to quiet some Doukhobors who are on a rampage. When police were half a mile from the settlement they met thirty-five almost nude religionists. They chanted hymns for several days and yesterday in the center of the settlement took off their clothes, piled them in a heap with all their money and jewels and burned them.

The police locked them up while they made a search for more clothes. These the Doukhobors refused to wear and force will be necessary.•

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“Do Nude Dance As Protest” December 2, 1921 New York Times:

Vancouver, B.C.–Three men from the Doukhobor, or Russian non-conformist, settlement, near Nelson, B.C., discarded all their garments in a waiting room at the Canadian Pacific Railway station here yesterday and paced off a protesting war dance when they were refused admittance to the United States. They were later arrested by the police for disorderly conduct.

United States immigration Commissioner Zurbrick had questioned them as to their fitness to proceed on their journey to the State of Washington as prospective settlers. He found their views coincided with the accepted definition of “philosophical anarchy” and declined them the hospitality of his Government.

They are said to have threatened an undress parade in Vancouver by a large number of their fellow Doukhobors in protest against their arrest.•