Crypto-Mormons or Pseudo-Mormons?

19 See Alexander 1995: 175-78, 186-202.

20 For an overview of anti-Mormon fiction of the time, see Arrington and Haupt 1968:243-60; and Givens 1997:97-120.

21 In fact, Russian academics twice lectured us on how Western literary scholars do not fully appreciate the genius of Doyle and that we should include him in our literary canon where he belongs.

22 While actual documentation of this rhetorical move has been hard to come by, a similar invocation of the United States as example happened as Old Believers pushed for legal bans on tobacco after the passage of the Act of Toleration in 1905. "If Michigan, Texas and Illinois can ban smoking, why can't we in Russia?" argued one writer (Bv. 1910).

23 The oral tradition among Filippov's followers suggests that he began his ministry in 1645 but available historical documents suggest a later date (Clay n.d.).

24 Bulgakov [1913] 1993:1671. Butkevich 1910:597-600, also concludes the Samara "Mormons" had nothing to do with Joseph Smith.

25 Latter-day Saints, Khlysty, and Samara "Mormons" are just a few of many Christian groups to have engaged in religiously motivated sexual arrangements other than monogamous marriage. See, for example, Foster 1981; Melton 1993; and The Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America 1986.

Though nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints are arguably the bestknown polygamists, plural marriage inspired by biblical patriarchs is not unique to Latter-day Saints. A small movement among Evangelical Protestants claims the practice of polygamy is still valid today. See "Christian Polygamy: Marriage Authorized by God" n. d.; and "The Truth Bearer" 1994-2000.

26 The first offcial translation of the Book of Mormon into Russian appeared in 1980.

27 The Khlysty schismatics, the Skoptsi, were aware of, and approved of, the comparison of their own movement to that of the Shakers, who were also known for their dualism, renunciation of sex, ecstatic forms of worship, following of modern prophets, and reputation for simple industriousness (Iadrintsev 1872:257, as qtd. in Engelstein 20).

28 Eric Eliason's idea of a tacitly sovereign autonomous zone emerged as a reaction to radical aesthetic philosopher Hakim Bey's notion of a "temporary autonomous zone." While Bey explains his notion as an ultimately indescribable area of creative chaos apart from everyday rules and authority, the tacitly sovereign autonomous zone is an island or nexus of order and authority within a larger context of chaos and competing authority claims (Bey 1991).

29 More new information about Russia's indigenous Mormons continues to become available to Western researchers. One year after our visit, James Scott returned to the Samara area and was able to access archival materials that provide a more fleshed-out historical context for ongoing rumors of Mormons in Mekhzavod, Bogdanovka, and Orenburg. Scott's research shows that at least two distinct "Mormon" groups emerged in the Samara region in the nineteenth century. Both groups prospered and attracted considerable followings in about forty villages. These groups reached their peak around 1900.