White Brotherhood (Kiev)
The White Brotherhood (Ukrainian Біле братство) was a religious movement in Ukraine and other states from 1990 to 1996. In 1993 it occupied the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and warned of the impending end of the world.
history
The movement was founded by the cyberneticist Yuri Kriwonogow . In 1990 he presented Marina Zwigun as a divine incarnation to his followers . She took the name Mary the Virgin Christ . The movement spread very quickly in many cities in the Soviet Union.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate condemned her performance, backed by excommunication . Investigations against Yuri Kriwonogow and Marina Hwigun for fraud and illegal house building have been ongoing since 1992. Both went temporarily to Bulgaria and Poland.
In early 1993, Yuri Krivonogow called on the members to prepare for the coming end of the world on November 24th. He asked them to come to Kiev to commit suicide together. After the arrival of the supporters, large-scale arrests began in September with widespread coverage in both Ukrainian and Russian media. On November 10, 1993, 60 members of the White Brotherhood occupied the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev for a prayer. They were arrested, as were 650 other members.
In 1996 Yuri Kriwonogow was sentenced to 7 years in the camp and Marina Zwigun to 4 years in the most complex trial in early Ukrainian history. In 1997 she was released and tried to revive the movement. Several attempts to re-register failed between 1998 and 2001. In 2000, Yuri Krivonogow was released. He renounced Marina Zwiguna as Messiah and admitted his mistake regarding the end of the world.
Marina Zwigun has lived in Moscow as Viktoria Preobrazhenskaya since 2006 and continues to work religiously as an artist. Since 2013 there have been several attempts to revive the movement in Kiev.
Content and structures
The White Brotherhood combines elements of theosophy with forms of the Indian Krishna movement and Christian end-time ideas. Her followers followed the instructions of the leader Ioannes Swami (John the Baptist) and the statements of the divine incarnation of Mary the Virgin Christ .
Their structures remained unclear. The founder Yuri Kriwonogow and his wife Marina Zwigun owned a large estate in Kiev with rich possessions. The movement made considerable wealth through sales of valuables such as real estate, vehicles, and other items from new members. Other sources of finance are unclear and remain speculative.
The movement had supporters in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
criticism
Outsiders criticize that the members of the movement were brought to considerable personality changes, with personal self-abandonment and even mental illness. Many members were ready to follow an ordered suicide.
Web links
- The "living God" is in prison . religio.de, 1996 (German)
Individual evidence
- ^ Opium for the people . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1996 ( online ).
- ↑ В Киев вернулась скандальная секта «белое братство» . 2015 (Russian)