Toil and Peaceful Life: Doukhobor Village Settlement in Saskatchewan, 1899-1918

Joseph Leydon teaches geography at the University of Toronto.

Like many other immigrants, the Doukhobors were attracted to Canada by
the settlement initiatives of the Canadian government. But, unlike most
others, they sought to live in communities where their beliefs could be
protected from outside influences. This book describes and analyses the
initiation, development, and decline of the cultural landscape created
by the Doukhobors. Specifically, it examines the factors influencing the
location of settlements, the form and pattern of villages and fields,
and patterns of migration between settlements and provinces.

The Doukhobor settlements reached their zenith in 1905, but within 10
years they had been abandoned, largely as a result of internal discord,
conflict with the Canadian government, and a system of economic
communalism that ran counter to the mainstream belief in economic
individualism. Tracie’s failure to adequately explain the origins of
the Doukhobors in Russia deprives readers of the context needed to
appreciate the Doukhobors’ commitment to communal living, their
suspicion of government, and their opposition to the oath of
allegiance—all of which contributed to the demise of their
settlements. Without this background material, we cannot confirm the
author’s claim that the Doukhobors replicated in Canada the cultural
landscape of their homeland. Further confusion emerges with the
revelation that the settlers emigrated from quite distinct regions in
Russia and thus from distinct cultural landscapes. Similarly, key issues
of group cohesion, commitment to central beliefs, community leadership,
and the migration of many Doukhobor settlers to British Columbia are
scarcely addressed. Overall, these omissions seriously detract from the
book’s effectiveness.