Defiant Russian cult holed up in cave for end of the world - Independent Online Edition > Europe

Defiant Russian cult holed up in cave for end of the world
By David Randall
Published: 18 November 2007

Members of a doomsday cult that believes the world will end next May and that barcodes are a sign of the Antichrist are holed up in a cave in south-east Russia and threatening to blow themselves up if the authorities try and eject them.

Yesterday, priests and officials were trying to talk to the 29, mainly female, followers of "Father" Pyotr Kuznetsov, founder of the "True Russian Orthodox Church" sect. Inside the cave near Nikoskoye, a village about 400 miles south-east of Moscow, the cult has stockpiled food and 100 gallons of kerosene. There were also reports that when an approach was made a few days ago, gunshots came from the cave. Its inhabitants include four children, one only 16 months old.

Negotiations with the cult members seem to be distinctly one-way. On Thursday, black-clad Russian Orthodox monks carefully descended into a snow-covered gully near the Volga river to try to make contact with the cult. But members refused to speak with clergy, and instead exchanged letters with Mr Kuznetsov. He is not in the cave, but is undergoing psychiatric evaluation after being charged with setting up a "religious organisation associated with violence". His followers were, however, in contact with doctors and officials, who promised food or medical supplies if needed.

Mr Kuznetsov is a trained engineer from a deeply religious family, who declared himself a prophet several years ago, left his family and began writing books and recruiting followers. His group believe that, in the afterlife, they will judge whether others deserve heaven or hell. Followers are not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money. Mr Kuznetsov has been known to sleep in a coffin.

Russia is home to a bewildering array of sects, at least 10 of which have members living in isolation. Many of them are led by the most unlikely of characters, including one, in Siberia, headed by an ex-traffic policeman who has managed to persuade 5,000 devotees that he is the son of God.

Honestly? Let them. Can it seriously do any harm?

yeah, i'd leave em to it, but there were a few little details that made me giggle

amazing what poverty and isolation will do to some people.
Give em all a mansion and a fast car and they'd quickly forget the world is going to end.

that's probably true.
has anyone ever considered setting up their own cult? i mean,m gven some of the people who do it, it seems remarkably easy. id like to try it as a piss take just to see how far i could take it.

My thoughts exactly, though I guess you could say that they were endangering the children who didn't have much of a choice whether or not they wanted to be in the cave. However, that's a fairly minor point, since it's clearly not why the authorities are trying to flush them out, which sounds more like fear of religious unorthodoxy. And of course, if all their producers made up new eschatologies then their economy & country would be even more screwed than it already is.

L Ron Hubbard and Marshall Applewhite weren't exactly strapped for cash.

I'm talking about followers, the leaders' faith half the time isn't as strong as their followers and will bend or break the rules to their advantage behind closed doors. Plus Ron's was money making and hinted at what a great business enterprise scientology was.

I'd say "hinted" is far too weak a word; he's quoted as saying that setting up a religion would be the best way for anyone to make money. I mean, maybe he wasn't talking about Scientology, but he was and he was and he clearly fucking was.

And to be honest, cults are pretty similar to religions in their tendency for the upper eschelons to be corrupted.

A Russian cult huh? It sounds kinda fun, all that vodka and those fur hats. And I love potatoes.

this is, after all, the land of rasputin.

It's a cult, not a theme bar.

Really? Well thats lame then. Forget it.

Ya I have, ya ... website asking for donations and that. The big thing is the donations ...... sell T-shirts, mugs ... uhm ... free newsletter I guess. Uhm ... when things get rolling, maybe holy water in phials (water that I bathed in) ... mats I wiped my shoes on ... uhm ... towels I wiped my brow with .... mirrors I kissed ... painted nail clippings ... CDs (with me dancing on it) ... audio tapes (me singing on it) ... cruises to the holy site named after me (some exotic fun spot which I haven't selected as yet) ...