Preserving and Celebrating Doukhobor Culture in Art

Vera Polonicoff

I am a Doukhobor. I was born in Grand Forks in 1940 and raised there. My paternal grandfather came to Canada in 1899, at the age of 12, aboard the SS Lake Huron with Doukhobors from Russia. The Doukhobors were pacifists and left Russia because of religious persecution. When I was born, Grand Forks had a large Doukhobor population, with communal villages on the hillsides of West Grand Forks. Their big brick buildings dotted the countryside. While my mother was raised in one of the villages, my father's family had a general store in West Grand Forks. I had the best of both worlds. There was a dignity and peaceful grace about the elders of that first generation in Canada, and an unparalleled resilience and fortitude. Their lives were not…

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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 57.1 Spring 2024

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