Brooklyn, New York (VICE) -- In the middle of Siberia's Taiga forest, east of Abakan and down an unmarked dirt road stretching across the Kuraginsk district of Krasnoyarsk territory, there is a place where many have found salvation. It is known as Petropavlovka, the home of the Church of the Last Testament, which has attracted at least 5,000 followers since its establishment in 1990. Last summer, after years of unanswered emails to the church's press department, I was finally invited to visit.
The church's leader is known as Vissarion, a.k.a. the Teacher. In another life he was Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop and served as a patrol officer in Minusinsk until the late 1980s. Then, on August 18, 1990, he experienced a revelation: His was the word of God. He began sermonizing in and around his hometown and soon, with a handful of newly converted followers by his side, he retreated to the ancient Taiga and...