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RE: Secret Societies #7: Skoptsy - Castrators of Russia [One Bizarre Tale]
There were a lot of religious experiments around that time, many in America, and many almost that crazy. Shakers were celibate, which you would also think would limit the appeal of the sect. At their max they only had 6,000 members, though. How sure are you about that 100k number for this group?
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/shakers/shakers/
When I dig into these groups there is rarely any hard info. Most of the time they were active they had to hide from the authorities, so that normally keeps information about them somewhat hidden as well. This one was more difficult because most of the main info is still in Russian. Luckily I had a bit of help with some info by @xanoxt . The highest estimate that I found during my research was the 100k number, now any number that is rounded like that is most likely not accurate.
In your example were there exactly 6,000 Shakers, or did someone estimate somewhere? Probably an estimated number. Record keeping back in the day was usually never fully accurate, just because of the times and all that. So I put a disclaimer of estimated that Skoptsy numbered as high as. I agree that it was probably not 100k, but that is a plausible number. What was their total number really? No one knows. They sent thousands to Siberia and areas like that to get rid of them. Others left to Romania. Both continued to convert others.
Thanks for taking an interest in my article, and I hope to have further discussions with you again. :)