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Guide XIV-134

Church of the Last Testament (Vissarion)

Sergei Anatolyevich Torop (Vissarion)1990Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia
A 33 · L 55 · M 1220 interventions in the Trinity explorer3 described for recognition only
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Church of the Last Testament (Церковь Последнего Завета; also called the Single or Unified Faith, «Единая вера», the United Family or Common Family) as it existed in southern Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, from 1991 to the liquidation of its registered local organisation (in force 15 February 2023) and the criminal verdict of 30 June 2025. Its self-description is taken from accounts that relay the church's own teaching (Introvigne 2025; reporting from the community); the founder's multi-volume scripture, the Last Testament, is summarised only as these sources report it [uncertain: not verified against the church's own texts].

This is a religious organisation and residential community, not a therapy. It was founded by Sergei Anatolyevich Torop (born 1961, Krasnodar), a former traffic-police officer who took the name Vissarion. Reported milestones: an interest in ufology and in Agni Yoga (a Theosophical offshoot); a declaration in 1990 that he was the Son of God; a first sermon on 18 August 1991, kept as "Announcement Day"; registration in 1994; first priests in 1995; first church in 1996 [source: Introvigne 2025, Bitter Winter; Lobanov 2020, RTVI]. From 1994 followers built an eco-settlement on about 250 hectares near Lake Tiberkul and Mount Sukhaya, Kuragino district. The settlement is called the Abode of Dawn (Обитель Рассвета) or Sun City (Город Солнца), with further members in surrounding villages [source: Lobanov 2020; Yasenitskaya 2020, Mediazona; Tarasov 2023, Novaya Gazeta].

Core idea of change, as the movement holds it. Followers regard Vissarion as Christ returned, "the Teacher", whose word completes the Gospel. Members are taught to change themselves morally and spiritually in a shared life of work, prayer, vegetarian diet and mutual correction, as a "School of Life" before a coming world catastrophe. The community is taught to be the ark that will survive it [source: Nemtsova 2012, Daily Beast via Pulitzer Center; Lockhart 2020, CenSAMM]. Its teaching is described as a single Unifying Principle that creates through an energy (named with the terms Qi or Prana). It includes karma-like laws (the "Law of the Boomerang"), a "Law of Return" (sharing what one receives), reverence for the Earth as a living being, and ecology [source: Introvigne 2025]. Scholars place it within post-Soviet Russian messianism and Russian "New Age" religion. It blends Orthodox Christian, Buddhist, Theosophical, ufological and folk elements [source: Lockhart 2020, citing Krumina-Konkova 1999; Lobanov 2020, quoting historian K. Mikhailov]. Healing claims and energy concepts are the movement's own; the evidence status of such claims is that no controlled evidence supports spiritual or energetic healing [synthesis].

Size and spread. Estimates vary widely and are not independently verified [uncertain]. They include about 3,000 followers in about 40 communities (Lockhart 2020, citing Lavrentieva et al. 2020), 2,000–5,000 (Meduza 2020), over 4,000 (Mediazona 2020), 5,000–10,000 (Tarasov 2023), and about 80 communities in Russia plus groups in Bulgaria, Germany, the Baltic states and the United States (Introvigne 2025).

Legal status. On 22 September 2020 the founder and two senior figures, Vladimir Vedernikov and Vadim Redkin, were detained by the Investigative Committee and the FSB. On 30 June 2025 the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Novosibirsk sentenced Torop and Vedernikov to 12 years and Redkin to 11 years in a strict-regime colony [source: Mediazona 2025; Novaya Gazeta Europe 2025; Kommersant 2025]. Details are in the Harm account. The human-rights centre Memorial and the scholar Massimo Introvigne regard the prosecution as part of the Russian state's suppression of "non-traditional" religions, and Memorial lists the three as political prisoners [source: Memorial 2026; Introvigne 2025]. The therapist should know both the court findings and this contested context.

2. Framework

The church publishes no therapy framework. Two frameworks matter clinically: the movement's own path of involvement as reported, and the therapist's phases of work with someone affected.

2a. The movement's path of involvement (as reported)

  • Contact. The founder preached widely across Russia in the 1990s. Recruits included professionals, officers, artists and academics from Moscow and St Petersburg drawn by the creative and ecological life [source: Nemtsova 2012; Lobanov 2020].
  • Sacramental belonging. Full community life was not required. Baptism and marriage, however, had to be performed by the church's priests [source: Introvigne 2025].
  • Relocation. Many sold city flats and moved to the villages or the Abode of Dawn; money brought in went into a common budget [source: Nemtsova 2012; Lobanov 2020].
  • Community life. Villages were organised as collective "families" with shared work, prayer, diet rules and meetings at which members discussed one another's faults [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Scholars describe this "United Family" as an alternative, possibly utopian, society that rejects money-based relations and idealises members' roles [source: Pranskevičiūtė 2008, abstract].
  • Leaving. No one was reported to be held by force. Leavers, however, often lacked a home, job, savings, relationships or health, and some could not afford the journey back [source: Lobanov 2020].
  • After 2023. The local registered organisation was dissolved, but followers were reported to keep living much as before [source: Tarasov 2023].

2b. The therapist's phases of work [synthesis]

No source gives session counts or durations for this population; pace is set by the client.

  1. Engagement and safety. Goals: a non-judgemental alliance; screen for immediate risk (suicidality, malnutrition, untreated illness, pregnancy without care, child safeguarding, housing). Move on when the client feels the therapist will not mock or prosecute their faith and urgent risks are routed.
  2. Assessment and formulation. Goals: the Cultural Formulation Interview including its spirituality, religion and moral-traditions questions; history of involvement; losses (money, property, schooling, health); differential diagnosis. Move on when there is a shared formulation in the client's language.
  3. Stabilisation and practical recovery. Goals: medical, nutritional, financial, legal and social-security routing; sleep and anxiety management; reconnection with family. Move on when daily life is safe enough for reflective work.
  4. Meaning, identity and religious-trauma work. Goals: the client's own appraisal of the faith, the founder and the verdict; grief for the community and lost years; shame and guilt; rebuilding values. The client may stay a believer, reshape their faith, or leave it.
  5. Consolidation and ending. Goals: support networks, relapse signs (pull back to high-control settings, renewed apocalyptic fear), and an open door for return.

The phases overlap. Return to phase 1 at any new risk.

3. Guiding principles

  • Neutrality about belief, clarity about harm. Do not argue doctrine; do name concrete harms (coercion, unpaid labour, withheld care) when the client describes them [synthesis].
  • Attribute, never assert. Say "the church teaches…" or "the court found…"; do not state that Vissarion is or is not Christ [synthesis].
  • Hold the contested context. A conviction exists, and so does credible criticism of Russian religious prosecutions [source: Memorial 2026; Introvigne 2025]. Practical meaning: do not use the verdict to pressure a believer, and do not dismiss a former member's suffering as state propaganda.
  • Members are not one group. Experiences range from fulfilling to harmful, and many members deny any harm [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Practical meaning: assess each person.
  • Client autonomy over affiliation. The goal is the client's freedom to choose, not exit [synthesis].
  • Medicine first for the body. Route every concern about diet, illness, pregnancy, vaccination or a child's growth to medical care; never advise on medicines [synthesis].
  • No dual roles. The therapist is never a spiritual teacher, healer, "exit counsellor" or witness-gatherer for any party in therapy [synthesis].
  • Language matters. Avoid the word "cult" and avoid pathologising terms for the faith; use the client's own words ("the Teacher", "the Family") when reflecting [synthesis].
  • Name no one the client has not named. Protect other members' and victims' privacy in notes and supervision [synthesis].
  • Competence and consultation. Seek supervision in religious and spiritual competence. Ethics points here are general good practice [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A describes the community's own practices as reported, in public outline only, so the therapist can understand what a client lived. They are not for use in therapy. Part B gives the therapist's procedures, most of which are [synthesis] because the sources describe no clinical method.

Part A. The community's practices (public outline)

A1. The Sacred Circle and common prayer

  • Purpose (as the movement holds it): shared prayer that binds the community and orients the day [source: Introvigne 2025].
  • Outline: In the Abode of Dawn, a senior priest gathered the men each morning on the central square. They prayed standing in a circle holding hands, and supervisors then assigned the day's work [source: Nemtsova 2012]. Outdoor sung services and a choir are also reported. Wording and inner content are not given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did the morning circle give you? Was there anything about it you felt you could not say?"
  • Watch for: Prayer is often a positive memory and a real loss after leaving; do not frame it as the harm. Note whether prayer was fused with work assignment and supervision, since this can link spiritual worth to labour output.

A2. Blessing of food and the diet rules

  • Purpose (as held): purity, non-violence towards animals and harmony with the Earth [source: Introvigne 2025].
  • Outline: Food is blessed. Meat and fish are forbidden; dairy, honey and eggs were later allowed, and earlier rules were stricter [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Alcohol and smoking are not used [source: Nemtsova 2012]. Further reported restrictions included sugar, vegetable oil, tea and porridge, and a teaching that diet causes mental disorders [source: Lobanov 2020; uncertain: single outlet, period not stated]. No quantities or schedules are given here.
  • Risk flag: Investigators alleged that restrictions on animal protein contributed to health disorders, and a child's death was medically attributed to enteritis and protein-energy deficiency (see Harm account) [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Can you walk me through what you, and the children, actually ate on an ordinary day? I ask so I can make sure everyone's health is looked after, not to judge the rules."
  • Watch for: weight loss, fatigue, amenorrhoea, slowed child growth, pregnancy on a restricted diet. Route to a physician, paediatrician or dietitian. Do not give dietary advice yourself, and respect vegetarianism as a legitimate choice [synthesis].

A3. Feast days and sacred time

  • Purpose (as held): to mark the founder's life as sacred history.
  • Outline: Christmas was replaced by 14 January, the founder's birthday, and years are counted from his birth [source: Nemtsova 2012; Lockhart 2020]. 18 August marks the first sermon ("Announcement Day") [source: Introvigne 2025]. Pilgrims come to large festivals [source: Lockhart 2020].
  • Example language (illustrative): "January must feel different now. How would you like to mark that time this year?"
  • Watch for: anniversary reactions (grief, guilt, pull to return) around these dates, and around the dates of the arrest (22 September) and the verdict (30 June).

A4. Communal labour and the common budget

  • Purpose (as held): shared work as spiritual service in the "School of Life", and freedom from money-based relations [source: Nemtsova 2012; Pranskevičiūtė 2008].
  • Outline: In the Abode of Dawn, cash was banned and money from outside went into a common budget. Members received a modest monthly food allotment and grew their own food [source: Nemtsova 2012]. Many worked in timber and log-house building. Former members said they were expected to donate and to work unpaid on community projects [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Prosecutors described the community as set up to profit from members' money and unpaid labour [source: Mediazona 2025; Kommersant 2025]. An anti-sect activist alleged that tithes exceeded 10% [source: Lobanov 2020, quoting A. Dvorkin; uncertain: partisan source].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did you hand over when you joined, and what do you have now? Let's write it down together so we know what help to look for."
  • Watch for: destitution, no pension record or work history, no documents, debts. Route to social-security, housing and legal advice.

A5. Mutual correction in community meetings

  • Purpose (as held): moral self-improvement in a shared "family".
  • Outline: Members discussed one another's faults at meetings [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. The prosecutor alleged that free thinking and expressing one's own wishes were discouraged under threat of public shaming and expulsion; the liquidation court described fear and guilt among the methods used [source: Tarasov 2023].
  • Example language (illustrative): "When your faults were discussed in the meeting, what happened inside you? What did you learn to do so it would not happen again?"
  • Watch for: chronic shame, self-monitoring, difficulty stating preferences, and fear of criticism in groups (including group therapy).

A6. Family life, marriage and gender roles

  • Purpose (as held): a large, harmonious community family.
  • Outline: Marriage required a church priest [source: Introvigne 2025]. The founder taught that women should serve men as men serve God. A polygamous arrangement ("Triangles") was permitted from 1999, introduced to address a surplus of women [source: Nemtsova 2012; Lobanov 2020]. Former members alleged that children were kept out of school [source: Lobanov 2020; uncertain: not verified by a court]. The community also built its own schools and kindergartens [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How were decisions made in your household? Did you feel free to say no?"
  • Watch for: coercion in marriage, women's economic dependence, gaps in children's education and documents. Follow safeguarding procedures (see B8).

A7. The apocalyptic teaching

  • Purpose (as held): urgency for spiritual preparation. The founder said there is "no free time" in the School of Life; no date for the catastrophe was set [source: Nemtsova 2012].
  • Outline: A coming flood or catastrophe ("End of Light") is expected, with the community as the surviving ark [source: Nemtsova 2012; Lockhart 2020]. Interest in joining reportedly rose during the COVID-19 outbreak [source: Lockhart 2020].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How much does the thought of the End sit with you these days? What happens in your body when it comes?"
  • Watch for: intrusive fear, insomnia, hypervigilance, and urgency to return to the community during world crises.

Part B. The psychotherapist's procedures

All of Part B is [synthesis] unless a source is named. It is general good practice applied to the facts reported above.

B1. Client-led exploration of meaning

  • Purpose: to learn what the faith, the founder and the community mean to this client before any judgement. Use it first with every current or former member and every relative.
  • Steps: (1) Ask consent to talk about faith. (2) Use open questions about what drew them, what was good, and what was hard. (3) Reflect in the client's own terms ("the Teacher", "the Family", "the Abode"). (4) Summarise both the gains and the costs the client names. (5) Ask what they want from therapy regarding faith: nothing, understanding, or change.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many people found real beauty and purpose there, and some were badly hurt. I'd like to hear your own story, in your own words."
  • Watch for: guardedness after police contact or media attention; testing whether you share the prosecution's view. It is working when the client speaks freely about both sides.

B2. Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality module

  • Purpose: a structured cultural and religious formulation for assessment and treatment planning.
  • Steps: (1) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview core questions: the client's definition of the problem, causes, stressors and supports, the role of cultural identity, coping and help-seeking, and expectations of the clinician. (2) Add the supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: DSM-5-TR wording not verified]. (3) Paraphrase questions in your own words, and in Russian where needed, ideally with a non-affiliated interpreter. (4) Record whether distress is framed as karma, "boomerang", spiritual failure, or harm by leaders.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your faith, how would someone explain what you're going through now?"
  • Watch for: self-blame framed as spiritual law ("I brought this on myself"). Note "Religious or Spiritual Problem" (Z65.8) where it fits [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Unbound Medicine].

B3. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose: to separate shared religious belief from disorder. The liquidation and criminal proceedings relied on findings of mental-health harm, including sleep and anxiety disorders in former members [source: Yasenitskaya 2020; Tarasov 2023].
  • Steps: (1) Treat beliefs shared by a community (Vissarion as Christ, the coming catastrophe) as cultural, not delusional. (2) Screen for depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD and complex PTSD, insomnia, eating disorder or malnutrition effects, psychosis and mania with standard instruments and clinical interview. (3) Ask about suicidal thoughts directly, using standard risk assessment. (4) Get a collateral history with consent.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some of what you describe sounds like it belongs to your faith, and some sounds like exhaustion and fear that we could treat. Can we look at both?"
  • Watch for: idiosyncratic beliefs beyond the shared doctrine, which suggest psychosis; malnutrition-related cognitive or mood changes, which need a medical work-up first.

B4. Medical and nutritional routing (risk flag)

  • Purpose: the alleged harms included restriction of animal protein and of medical care in illness, pregnancy, childbirth and vaccination [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about current health, last medical contact, vaccinations, pregnancy care and children's growth. (2) Refer to a GP or physician, obstetric or paediatric services and a dietitian. (3) Never advise on diet details, supplements or medicines; respect the client's vegetarian practice. (4) In an emergency, use emergency services.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your faith asks you to eat a certain way; that's yours to decide. I'd still like a doctor to check that your body is getting what it needs."
  • Watch for: refusal grounded in fear of the outside world; shame about past refusals of care; children's growth faltering.

B5. Coercive-control and dependency assessment

  • Purpose: to map how control operated in this client's experience.
  • Steps: (1) Ask about money and property given, unpaid labour, permission needed for decisions, public criticism, threats of expulsion, contact with outsiders, information access (the settlement had no mobile coverage) [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. (2) Ask what happened to people who questioned or left. (3) Rate current dependence: housing, income, relationships and identity tied to the group.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Who decided where you worked, what you ate, and whom you married? What happened if you disagreed?"
  • Watch for: minimising ("I chose everything freely"). Accept the client's account and revisit later; do not pressure them to relabel their experience.

B6. Practical recovery: money, documents, housing and legal matters

  • Purpose: leavers often lost homes, jobs, relationships and health, and some could not pay for the journey back [source: Lobanov 2020].
  • Steps: (1) List losses and current needs. (2) Refer to social-work, housing, debt, pension and legal advice. (3) If the client was a recognised victim or witness in the Russian proceedings, or wants to claim compensation, refer to a lawyer. The first-instance court awarded over 45 million rubles to victims and the state; the appeal court varied the awards, and a cassation appeal was pending in August 2026 [source: Mediazona 2025; Interfax 2026]. (4) Keep therapy separate from evidence-gathering.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we work on the feelings, let's make sure you have somewhere safe to live and enough to eat. Who can help with that?"
  • Watch for: fear of authorities; reluctance to be seen as testifying against friends still in the community.

B7. Religious-trauma, shame and identity work

  • Purpose: to address shame from public correction, guilt about leaving or about lost years, and an identity built around the Teacher.
  • Steps: (1) Psychoeducation on how group pressure, fear and guilt shape behaviour, without labelling the client "brainwashed". (2) Use trauma-focused methods (trauma-focused CBT, EMDR, compassion-focused work) for PTSD symptoms, with standard consent and stabilisation first. (3) Rebuild values: what the client keeps (ecology, simplicity, service) and what they leave. (4) Practise stating preferences and disagreement in session.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You gave years to something you believed in with your whole heart. That says something good about you, even if parts of it hurt you."
  • Watch for: flooding during trauma recall; slow down and return to stabilisation. It is working when the client can hold mixed feelings about the community without collapse.

B8. Children and safeguarding

  • Purpose: the charges included group psychological violence affecting children [source: Kommersant 2025]. Reported risks include restricted diet, delayed care and gaps in schooling [source: Yasenitskaya 2020; Lobanov 2020].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about each child's health, growth, vaccination, schooling and documents. (2) Arrange paediatric and educational assessment with parental consent and the child's assent. (3) Follow local safeguarding procedures where there is risk of significant harm. (4) Support the young person's own voice about faith.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd like your children to have a check-up and a school assessment, as any child new to the area would."
  • Watch for: adolescents caught between parents who left and parents who stayed; suicidal ideation (assess directly with standard risk assessment).

B9. Work with family members

  • Purpose: relatives often fear for a member who sold property or moved to Siberia.
  • Steps: (1) Validate fear and loss. (2) Discourage ultimatums, deception or forced removal. (3) Encourage warm, steady contact that is not about doctrine. (4) Plan what practical help (ticket, room, money) they would offer if the member chose to leave.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Arguing about whether he is Christ tends to close the door. Staying in touch about ordinary life keeps it open."
  • Watch for: relatives using the verdict as a weapon; their own grief and depression.

B10. Work with a client who remains a member

  • Purpose: to treat the presenting problem while respecting affiliation.
  • Steps: (1) Agree goals that do not require leaving. (2) Monitor health, finances and children's welfare. (3) Discuss with the client, only if they wish, how they process the verdict and the founder's imprisonment. (4) Offer referral to a priest or community elder only at the client's request.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to choose between your faith and getting better from this anxiety."
  • Watch for: distress about the leader's imprisonment, which can intensify apocalyptic or persecution themes; acute crisis after legal news.

B11. Grief for the community

  • Purpose: leaving means losing a whole social world, landscape, music, ritual and sense of purpose.
  • Steps: (1) Name the losses. (2) Allow mourning of good memories. (3) Build new belonging (secular or religious communities, nature, creative groups).
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's possible to miss the choir in the snow and still be glad you left."
  • Watch for: prolonged grief, isolation, and drift into another high-demand group.

B12. Apocalyptic fear and uncertainty

  • Purpose: to reduce intrusive end-time fear in clients who no longer want it to rule them.
  • Steps: (1) Establish whether the client still holds the belief; work on distress, not on the belief. (2) Use CBT for worry and intolerance of uncertainty, and grounding for panic. (3) Any graded exposure to feared thoughts needs consent, stabilisation first, and is contraindicated in acute PTSD, psychosis or high suicide risk.
  • Example language (illustrative): "We don't need to settle what will happen to the world. Let's work on how much space the fear takes in your day."
  • Watch for: a spike in fear during world crises.

B13. Boundaries, roles and referral

  • Purpose: to keep therapy safe and within competence.
  • Steps: (1) Do not act as a spiritual guide, healer or exit counsellor. (2) Keep any personal spiritual practice out of sessions; limit self-disclosure. (3) Seek supervision in spiritual and religious competence (Vieten et al. 2013 competencies) [uncertain: not verified]. (4) Refer for medical, legal, psychiatric and safeguarding needs. (5) Do not share notes with authorities except as law or valid consent requires.
  • Example language (illustrative): "My role is to help with how you are feeling and living now. Questions about doctrine are yours, or for whoever you trust in your faith."
  • Watch for: the client seeking a new Teacher in the therapist.

5. Handling problems

The sources do not address therapy, so all responses below are [synthesis] unless a source is named.

  • The client defends the founder and calls the case persecution. This view is shared by Memorial and by some scholars [source: Memorial 2026; Introvigne 2025]. Do not debate it. Respond with: "Whatever the court got right or wrong, I'm interested in what happened to you." Return to the client's own experience and goals.
  • The client wants you to confirm they were "brainwashed". The liquidation court used terms such as NLP and "conversational hypnosis" [source: Tarasov 2023]. Prefer descriptive language (pressure, fear, guilt, dependence) that restores agency. Avoid confirming a mechanism the evidence cannot show.
  • Stuck in ambivalence about returning. Use motivational-interviewing style decisional balance, without steering towards either outcome. Make sure practical options (housing, income) exist for both, so the choice is not forced by poverty.
  • Overwhelm during trauma recall. Stop and ground the client, return to stabilisation, and shorten exposure. Address sleep first, since insomnia was among the documented harms [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Non-adherence to medical referral. Explore fears (of the outside world, of betraying the teaching, of shame). Offer to help book the appointment or attend with an advocate. Escalate only for imminent risk or child-protection concerns.
  • Rupture over the word "sect" or "cult". Russian media and courts often use "sect" and "totalitarian". If you or a referrer used such words, acknowledge it and repair: "I used a word that hurt you; I'll use the words you prefer."
  • Fear of the state or of testifying. Explain confidentiality and its legal limits clearly. Do not collect evidence for any party; refer legal questions to a lawyer.
  • Pull to a new high-demand group or teacher. Name the pattern gently and explore which needs (meaning, belonging, certainty) the new group meets. Help the client find lower-control ways to meet them.
  • Apocalyptic panic during world events. Use grounding and the worry plan in B12; limit news intake if the client wishes; check suicidal thoughts.
  • Grief and anger at the founder's imprisonment (current members): treat as grief, offer support at hearing dates, and watch for escalation of persecution or end-time thinking.
  • Family conflict between members and leavers. Offer separate sessions first; use family sessions only when everyone consents and no one is pushed to renounce or adopt faith.
  • Language and interpreter problems. Use professional interpreters not linked to the community or to anti-sect organisations.
  • Suicidal thoughts. Assess with standard structured risk assessment, make a safety plan, and use crisis services (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US; Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland; local crisis lines elsewhere). Former members alleged adolescent suicides in the community [source: Lobanov 2020; uncertain: not verified by a court]. Ask young people directly.

Harm account

This account follows court decisions and Russian and international news reporting. The defendants pleaded not guilty [source: Kommersant 2025], many members deny any harm [source: Yasenitskaya 2020], and human-rights monitors contest the prosecution [source: Memorial 2026]. Victims are not named.

What was actually done

  1. Recruitment and relocation (1990s onward). The founder, Sergei Torop ("Vissarion"), preached across Russia from 1991 as the returned Christ. Followers, many of them educated city professionals, moved to southern Krasnoyarsk Krai. Many sold flats and gave the proceeds or other money to the community; one reported case involved a flat given up in 1994 plus a cash donation, another the proceeds of a Moscow flat [source: Lobanov 2020; Nemtsova 2012].
  2. Life in the settlements. In the Abode of Dawn, cash was banned and outside money went to a common budget, with members living on a monthly food allotment and their gardens. Supervisors assigned daily work after morning prayer [source: Nemtsova 2012]. Former members described expected donations and unpaid work on community projects [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Visitors had to buy a ticket; there were no power lines and no mobile coverage [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  3. Control of thought and behaviour. Members' faults were discussed at meetings [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. The prosecutor in the liquidation case alleged that free thought and expression of one's own wishes were forbidden under threat of public shaming and expulsion [source: Tarasov 2023].
  4. Restrictions affecting health. Investigators alleged that the community promoted restrictions on animal protein and on medical care in illness, pregnancy and childbirth, and on vaccination [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. Former members said seeking medical help was forbidden [source: Lobanov 2020]. Members said Vissarion advised consulting official doctors and that children never went hungry [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  5. Investigations, 2017–2020. A child's death in 2017 was investigated as negligence. The cause was reported as enteritis and protein-energy deficiency, with the child brought to the local medic late; that case was closed for lack of a crime [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. A criminal case under Article 239 was opened in 2019 [source: Memorial 2026]. On 22 September 2020 the Investigative Committee and FSB detained Torop, Vladimir Vedernikov and Vadim Redkin in Kuragino district and searched the settlement [source: Meduza 2020; Lockhart 2020; Kommersant 2025]. Investigators alleged that the leaders took members' money and used psychological violence against them from 1991 to 2020 [source: Meduza 2020; Lobanov 2020].
  6. Liquidation (civil case). On a suit by the Krasnoyarsk regional prosecutor, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court dissolved the church's Kuragino local religious organisation. The Fifth Court of Appeal in Novosibirsk upheld this on 15 February 2023. As reported, the court found indoctrination, dependency, emotional regression and "psychological and physical violence" by leaders, using fear and guilt [source: Tarasov 2023].
  7. Criminal trial and verdict. The trial ran behind closed doors from 1 September 2022 [source: Tarasov 2023]. On 30 June 2025 the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Novosibirsk convicted all three. The charges were: creating a religious association whose activity involved violence against citizens or infringed their rights (Art. 239 part 1); intentional grave harm to health (Art. 111 part 3, clauses a and b); and intentional medium harm to health (Art. 112 part 2, clause g). Vedernikov was also charged with fraud (Art. 159 part 4) over a regional school subsidy [source: Mediazona 2025; Kommersant 2025; uncertain: one report names the Central District Court]. Torop and Vedernikov received 12 years and Redkin 11 years in a strict-regime colony. Prosecutors described the community as created to profit from members' money and unpaid labour, with group psychological violence applied to followers, including children [source: Mediazona 2025; Kommersant 2025]. International reports described money and labour extracted under coercion [source: SigmaLive 2025].
  8. Victims and compensation. Twenty-three people were recognised as victims: 16 for moral harm, and 7 for health harm (6 grave, 1 medium) [source: Mediazona 2025; Kommersant 2025; Novaya Gazeta Europe 2025]. The court awarded over 45 million rubles in total to victims and the state. The Novosibirsk Regional Court later varied the compensation but left the prison terms unchanged. In August 2026 a cassation appeal was pending before the Eighth Cassation Court in Kemerovo [source: Interfax 2026].
  9. Healing claims. Accounts circulate that the founder claimed to cure cancer or AIDS by touch [uncertain: not verified]. No practice of this movement treats any physical disease.

How it caused harm

  • Psychological harm. In the criminal case a psychology expert attributed a sleep disorder in one former member and an anxiety disorder in another to "persistent maladaptation" acquired in the community. Both described being unable to live normally outside [source: Yasenitskaya 2020]. The mechanisms the courts described were dependence, fear, guilt and public shaming [source: Tarasov 2023].
  • Physical harm. Six people were found to have suffered grave and one medium harm to health [source: Kommersant 2025]. The public reports do not detail the injuries [uncertain]. The mechanisms alleged were restricted diet and delayed or refused medical care, including in pregnancy and childhood [source: Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Economic harm. Giving up homes and savings, plus unpaid labour, left leavers without housing, work history or money, sometimes unable to pay the journey home [source: Lobanov 2020].
  • Social harm. Leavers lost their entire community, and sometimes their marriage and family relationships; isolation in remote villages limited outside support [synthesis, drawing on Lobanov 2020 and Yasenitskaya 2020].
  • Who was most at risk: children (diet, delayed care, schooling); pregnant women; people who sold their only home; older members without pensions; people with prior mental illness; women dependent within polygamous households [synthesis].

Recognising it today

  • The community continues. Followers were reported to live much as before after the liquidation, and groups exist abroad (Germany, Bulgaria, the Baltic states, the United States) [source: Tarasov 2023; Introvigne 2025].
  • Features and phrases: a living founder presented as Christ or "the Teacher"; "Single Faith", "United Family" or "Common Family"; "School of Life" and "no free time"; a community as the ark before catastrophe; ecological settlement as a spiritual duty; laws of "Boomerang" and "Return" used to explain suffering or to justify giving.
  • Red flags in any group: selling one's home to join; a common budget without published accounts; unpaid labour as spiritual duty; public discussion of personal faults; diet rules with discouragement of doctors, vaccination or antenatal care; children out of school; difficulty leaving because of poverty; leaders whose income is undisclosed [synthesis; partly from Nemtsova 2012].
  • Red flags in a colleague's practice: a therapist who also acts as spiritual teacher; advice to stop medical care; pressure on a client to stay in or leave a faith [synthesis].
  • How legitimate versions differ: vegetarian or ecological communities and religious orders can be healthy. They differ in having transparent finances, free exit with one's property, encouraged medical care and schooling, and room for dissent [synthesis].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Safer alternatives: for meaning and community, open congregations or ecological communities with transparent governance; for health, ordinary medical, obstetric and paediatric care, with a dietitian to support a vegetarian diet safely [synthesis].
  • Assessment: the CFI with spiritual module (B2), differential assessment (B3), medical and nutritional routing (B4), coercive-control mapping (B5), and a needs list (B6).
  • Treatment: stabilise sleep and anxiety; use trauma-focused therapy for PTSD; do shame and identity work (B7); grieve the community (B11); work with families (B9). Respect the client's faith decisions throughout [synthesis].
  • Children: paediatric and educational assessment and local safeguarding procedures (B8).
  • Ethical, reporting and legal duties: follow mandatory child-protection reporting; keep confidentiality within legal limits; avoid dual roles; refer legal and compensation questions to a lawyer; do not collect evidence for prosecution or defence in therapy; seek supervision [synthesis].
  • Cross-references: 130 (Aum Shinrikyo), 131 (Unification Church) and 135 (Grabovoi's teaching) for other high-control movements and leaving; Domain VI 110 where recovered memories or regression arise.

Sources

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