Freedomites

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It has been suggested that this article should be split into articles titled Sons of Freedom (Freedomites), Operation Snatch (Sons of Freedom) and New Denver Survivors. (discuss) (October 2023)

The Freedomite movement split-off from the Doukhobors, a community of Spiritual Christians who began a mass migration from Russia to Canada in 1898. The Freedomite movement first appeared in 1902 in what is now Saskatchewan, and later most moved to the Kootenay and Boundary Districts of British Columbia.

Freedomites began to divide from Doukhobors in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, self-named as "God's people" and Svobodniki (Russian: "sovereign/ free people"). The faction, later called "Freedomites", opposed land ownership, public schools, using work animals, etc. and are mainly known for protesting nude. By 1920 the common English term for them became Sons of Freedom.

Of about 20,000 active Doukhobors in Canada today, ancestors of about 2,500 were Freedomites,^[1] and many descendants have joined the USCC Community Doukhobors.^[2]