The Chlysty who practised the attainment of divine grace through sin in ecstatic rituals that sometimes seem to have turned into mass orgies. Flagellation, on the other hand, was also a frequent practice. Secret Chlysty cells existed throughout pre-revolutionary Russia; they were most common in the factories of the Perm[?] district. Each cell was normally led by a male and a female leader, who were called the "Christ" and the "Mother of God" respectively.
Grigori Rasputin was reputed to have, at some stage, been a Chlyst, and to have led some sort of secret Chlysty cell among the society ladies of Saint Petersburg
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