Subbotnik Jews

Subbotnik Jews (Russian: Субботники, from Subbotnik literally, Sabbatarians) are one of the Russian religious bodies known under the general name of "Judaizing Christian sects". On the whole, the Subbotniks probably differed little from other Judaizing societies in their early years. They first appeared toward the end of the 18th century during the reign of Catherine II. According to official reports of the Imperial Russian government, most of the sect's followers circumcised their boys, believed in a unitary God rather than in the Christian Trinity, accepted only the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), and observed Sabbath on Saturday rather than on Sunday as in Christian practice. (Some were called sabbatarians for that practice.) There were variations among their beliefs in relation to Jesus Christ, the Second Coming, and other elements of Orthodox Christian doctrine.

Prior to the First Partition of Poland in 1772, few Jews had settled in the Russian Empire. The Subbotniks were originally Christian peasants of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the reign of Catherine the Great (1729-1796), they adopted elements of Mosaic law of the Old Testament and were known as sabbatarians, part of the Spiritual Christianity movement.