FOR THREE DAYS IN OCTOBER 1999, delegates gathered at the University of Ottawa to exchange ideas on the hundred-year history of the Russian Doukhobors on Canadian soil, as well as the events leading up to the arrival of some 7,500 of their ancestors from the Caucasus.  The gathering was sponsored jointly by the SLAVIC RESEARCH GROUP and the INSTITUTE OF CANADIAN STUDIES (ICS) at the University of Ottawa, under the direction of an organising committee chaired by SRG Director Andrew Donskov, including ICS Director Chad Gaffield and John Woodsworth (SRG's Administrative Assistant), as well as fourth-year Russian student Lindsay Kent. 
   By the time the opening session began shortly after 18h00 on Friday 22 October, all major participants from afar had arrived, including three from Russia, one from Britain, two from America and nine from Western Canada.  All were formally presented, along with those individuals who had contributed to the conference's organisation.  The hundred or so people attending the conference included two American Molokan representatives ó Ethel Dunn from California and Andrew Conovaloff from Arizona; Lou Ann Ha'aheo Guanson ó the director of the Centre for Global Non-Violence in Honolulu, Hawai'i; Vadim Koloneko, a specialist in Canadian history with the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow; as well as Nicholas Tolstoy, a distant relative of the great writer living in Canada.
   The opening session, chaired by Andrew Donskov, began with a welcoming mot d'accueil by Robert Major, Associate Dean of Research of the Faculty of Arts.  The first keynote address was given by Svetlana Inikova of the Ethnographical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, considered the world's foremost authority on the Doukhobors; her paper revealed many new insights into the spiritual origins and the early beginnings of Doukhobor history.  The second keynote speaker was Eli Popoff, a prominent Doukhobor historian with the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ in Grand Forks, B.C., who discussed the "enigma" and the reality of the Doukhobor movement during their first hundred years in this country.
   The Saturday and Sunday daytime sessions were devoted to an overview of the two Doukhobor homelands and the role of Leo Tolstoy and his followers in the emigration process, as well as aspects of Doukhobor language, literature and culture.  These sessions were chaired by SRG members Mark Stolarik, Corinne Gaudin, Richard Sokoloski and John Woodsworth.  A conference highlight was the Saturday evening OPEN FORUM, moderated by Chad Gaffield, at which eight panellists presented their perceptions of Doukhobors at the threshhold of the 21st century.
   The other Russian presenters at these sessions were Lidia Gromova of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Galina Alekseeva of the Tolstoy Museum at Yasnaya Polyana.  Michael Holman joined us from Leeds University in Britain, while America was represented by Nicholas Breyfogle of Ohio State University and Charles Frantz of the State University of New York at Buffalo. 
   From Western Canada we were joined by Larry Ewashen, John Friesen, Jack McIntosh, Nina Olson, Shirley Perry, Julie Rak, Günter Schaarschmidt and Myler Wilkinson.  Speakers from Ontario universities were J.L. Black, George Bolotenko, Nicole Bourbonnais, Cornelius Jaenen, James Kolesnikoff and Arkadi Klioutchanski; we also heard from Doukhobor ethnographer Koozma Tarasoff.
   (For a complete listing of papers and presenters, please click here to go the webpage devoted to the published Proceedings of the conference, which also include a paper by Josh Sanborn of Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and an additional contribution by Koozma Tarasoff.)
   At the closing banquet on Parliament Hill Lidia Gromova received a special honour for her unique contributions to the University of Ottawa while Svetlana Inikova and Eli Popoff were presented with certificates of recognition from the Institute of Canadian Studies.  In turn, Andrew Donskov, on behalf of the SRG,  accepted a gift painting from the Doukhobor community of British Columbia.
   In December a ten-minute video clip on the Doukhobors (filmed mostly at the conference) was broadcast on the national Vision-TV network in one if their Skylight episodes, while the Russian-language Morning Waves programme from Toronto featured a special half-hour report on the event, including interviews with several of the conference organisers and participants.
   We are deeply grateful for the financial support of the University of Ottawa's Research Services and the Faculty of Arts, the International Academic Relations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Trade and the Ministry of Canadian Heritage, as well as the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

A NUMBER OF OUR PUBLICATIONS are devoted to or relate to Doukhobor issues; in addition to the Conference Proceedings, you might also wish to see information on Sergej Tolstoy and the Doukhobors: a journey to Canada (1999) and Russian roots & Canadian wings: Russian archival documents on the Doukhobor emigration to Canada -- the latter book published by Penumbra Press for the Canada-Russia Series, of which the SRG is a co-sponsor, along with Carleton University's CRCR.  In addition, the Molokans, whose religious views and history share much in common with those of the Doukhobors, are the focus of the book L. N. Tolstoj i F. A. Zheltov: perepiska (Tolstoy's correspondence with Molokan writer-philosopher Fedor Zheltov), which is now available in English translation.  For more information of ISKRA, please see our Canadian Liaisons Page; see also the heading Doukhobor links on our Links Page.
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