The Doukhobors were pacifists who lived communally, rejected private ownership of land, and who rejected military institutions and war. For this, they were oppressed in Imperial Russia. Many fled to Canada in the late 1800s. The cost of their resettlement in Canada was funded by the Quakers, as well as by individuals, including Tolstoy and Kropotkin. Many worked as loggers, lumbermen, and carpenters. In Canada, they continued their passivism and activism, including demonstrations in the nude against militarism and conscription. From World War I until the 1970s, a faction known as Sons of Freedom carried out nude marches, night-time arson attacks and vandalism to protest militarism, compulsory education (where there was a history of abuse of Doukhobor children) and modern technology. In 1932, Canada criminalized public nudity in response to Doukhobor protests, arresting over 300 Doukhobor men and women, with average prison sentences of three years each.

In 1962, folksinger Malvina Reynolds, composed the song, “The Doukhobor Do,” about protesting in the nude. Pete Seeger covered the song.

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