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they had increased to 1329, and at the present day there
are probably not less than about 1600. As there is
of course no natural increase of population among these
sectarians, it is evident from the above figures that the
number of them annually sent into exile is considerable.
The members of this sect are total abstainers, and by
that fact alone have risen far above the level of the
Russian mujik, slave as he is to vodka. By their care and
patience and thriftiness they soon succeed in producing
good crops on their land, and have acquired considerable
property, especially in the colony of Marscha, which, in fact,
feeds the whole city of Yakutsk, and has on two occasions
saved it from famine. Before they introduced agriculture,
the price of flour in Yakutsk was five to seven roubles a pood
of 36lb., now it costs at the most one rouble. Together
with other sectarians they have, in more senses than one,
been promoters of culture in Yakutsk as well as in Siberia
at large, having taught the Yakuts agriculture and
otherwise exerted a civilising influence on them by their example.
The Skoptsi number at present about 7 per cent. of the
Russian population in Yakutsk and about ½ per cent. of
the entire population, but more than 15 per cent. of all
the cultivated land in the province belongs to them.
Like so many other Russian sects, that of the Skoptsi
derives its origin, at least in its present shape, from the
great separatist movement in the Russian Church which
followed upon the revision of the liturgy by the patriarch
Nikon in the 16th century. Within the separatist party
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