Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale

by Laura Engelstein

Book Overview

Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on themselves to become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Convinced that salvation came only with the literal excision of the instruments of sin, they were known as Skoptsy (the self-castrated)...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801488796
• ISBN13: 9780801488795
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.1"