Editing Khlysts (section)

==Persecution==
Accusations of sexual immorality pursued the sect from its earliest days, and provoked numerous government investigations.<ref>{{harvnb|Clay|1985|pp=72–3}}</ref>

In 1717, Lupkin and twenty other Khlysty were arrested in [[Uglich]]. They were held for five months, during which time they were interrogated and beaten. While some of his followers remained in custody, Lupkin managed to negotiate his own release, with the help of a 300-ruble bribe.<ref>{{harvnb|Clay|1985|pp=82–4}}</ref> Despite officially repenting, he continued to lead the movement until his death in 1732.<ref>{{harvnb|Clay|1985|p=93}}</ref>

From 1733 to 1739, a specially-formed government commission arrested hundreds of suspected Khlyst members, charging them with participation in sexual orgies and ritual [[infanticide]]. These accusations were repeatedly denied, but the commission nevertheless convicted over three hundred people. They handed out sentences of hard labour, beatings, and mutilation of the nostrils and the tongue, and sent many of the prisoners into exile in [[Siberia]] or [[Orenburg]].<ref>{{harvnb|Clay|2017|p=129}}</ref>

However, the Khlysty were undeterred, and continued practising. Some of those who had been sent into exile began to spread the movement through Siberia. In 1745, therefore, a new commission was formed, this time using "far crueler methods of interrogation".<ref name=Clay130>{{harvnb|Clay|2017|pp=130–1}}</ref> This commission, although eliciting false confessions of sexual deviation and cannibalistic communion, and sending another 200 people into exile, likewise failed to stamp out the movement.<ref name=Clay130/>