and if she is taking this step of her own free will and under no compulsion, not even that of her parents. When the bridegroom has answered similar questions a hymn is sung and a prayer is spoken. Then the elder tells the couple to embrace each other and to grasp the right hands. This ends the ceremony. ... This ceremony is not recognized by the law of Russia, as only the Russian Church can legally perform this ceremony. The Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and writer Sergey Stepniak described his impressions of their "religious doctrine" that he witnessed while growing up in Ukraine: Much like the Baptists or the Anabaptists of Reformation times, they baptize only adults, re-baptizing those to whom this sacrament was administered in babyhood. Instead of the sacrament of communion they have what is called simply "the breaking of bread," accompanied with singing of hymns. Both communion and baptism are viewed by the Shtundists, not as sacraments, but as "rites performed in commemoration of Christ, and for a closer union with Him." They consider icons as no better than pictures and do not keep them in their houses. They formally recognize only the Lord's Prayer. Prayers [in general] are left to the personal inspiration of the believers. At their meetings they sing hymns of their own composition, as well as Psalms. It is prohibited among them to mistreat even dumb creatures. There is no conscious leaning towards collective ownership of land. All earthly goods are lent by God to men, who will be held responsible before Him for the use they have made of their worldly possessions. To prove faithful these men are bound to come to the assistance of their neighbours when they are in need, sickness, or affliction. [They also exhibit a] perfect absence of national and religious intolerance. The Stundist catechism is simply a translation of the catechism of the Tiflis Baptists. In the 1890s, Pobedonostzev, supervisor of the Russian Orthodox Church, ordered all heretics and sectarians, non-Orthodox faiths of ethnic Russians (raskolniki and sectarians), to be reformed or punished. During this time many were persecuted, arrested, beaten and thousands were exiled to Siberia and the Caucasus. Unification of related denominations A revival led to the formation of a denomination known as the Evangelical Christians (, Yevangel'skiye khristane) which first appeared in 1909 when a British missionary, Granville Radstock, started preaching among the imperial Russian