concept
Khlysts
also: хлысты, Khlyst, хлыстовка, Christ-faith, Khristovshchina
A Russian ecstatic Spiritual Christian sect (properly khristovshchina, "Christ-faith"; "khlysty" is the outsiders' nickname, popularly but inaccurately linked to "whip" and "flagellant") whose clandestine worship involved fasting, all-night singing, and radenie -- ecstatic collective dancing and whirling held to induce prophetic trembling and visions. Aglaya Terekhova is rumored to have secretly remained a Khlyst since her youth, and Matvei's own earlier religious mania, with its fasting circle of women and collective ecstatic dancing until collapse, closely mirrors Khlyst radenie practice.
Reading notes
- The Murder §47 the Khlysts
The Khlysts (properly khristovshchina, "Christ-faith"; "khlysty" is an outsiders' nickname, not the sect's own term, and is popularly but inaccurately associated with flagellation) practiced clandestine ecstatic worship -- fasting, all-night singing, and radenie, collective whirling and dancing believed to induce prophetic trembling. Aglaya's rumored membership, signaled by her white kerchief, and Matvei's own earlier account of women dancing and trembling around him until collapse (section 31) both draw on the same recognizable pattern of Khlyst-adjacent ecstatic practice, without the story ever stating outright that either is authentically Khlyst.
- In the Ravine §49 Khlysts
Members of the khristovshchina, a clandestine ecstatic Spiritual Christian sect nicknamed "Khlysts" by outsiders; the detail marks the dressmakers as religious outsiders in the village's eyes.