The Doukhobor Marseillaise: Revolutionary songs of religious dissidents in light of everyday literacy practices

Abstract

“The Peaceful Marseillaise”, also known as “The Song of Freedom”, is an anarchist and pacifist poem by Alexander Khiryakov, which was appropriated as a spiritual hymn by the Doukhobor community, resettled to Canada at the turn of the 20th century. This article aims to trace the history of the song considering the interrelation of the ideologists and followers of the Tolstoyan movement with the Doukhobor tradition. The characteristics and implications of this contact are supposed to be revealed by examining the poetics and rhetoric of “The Peaceful Marseillaise”, on the one hand, and its reception and pragmatics among Doukhobors, on the other hand. The revolutionary topoi of “The Peaceful Marseillaise” and other songs of peaceful struggle, mastered by the Doukhobor poets and ascribed with commemorative and representative meanings, turned out to be an important part of the Canadian ritual assembly gatherings. While left behind as a revolutionary hymn, Khiryakov’s song gained a lasting place in the Doukhobor song tradition - moreover, it foreshadowed significant changes that occurred to it in Canada over the decades to follow, from the boom of Doukhobor poetry to the demonstrations of the Sons of Freedom. This article also attempts to define the role of the Tolstoyan folklore studies campaign in the formation and development of the Canadian Doukhobor song tradition by addressing the concept of vernacular literacies.