Simma Holt investigates the radical Freedomite sect, a breakaway faction of the Doukhobors that emerged in Saskatchewan in the early 1900s.
Drawing on Holt’s 1958 investigation into leader Stefan Sorokin in Uruguay and years of further research, the book traces the group’s roots from Russia to Canada. It details their communal lifestyle, rejection of government authority, public nude protests, property burnings, and bombing campaigns.
Holt argues the Freedomites were not merely persecuted religious dissenters, but a coercive and violent movement that caused deaths, destruction, and long-term harm within their own community and beyond.
