Jesus of Siberia, the traffic cop turned cult leader who claimed to be the son of God, will now serve 12 years in jail.
A group of hooded men swarmed the City of the Sun, a deeply devout village in the Krasnoyarsk area, deep in Siberia’s far north.
Russian security forces arrived in September 2020 to capture the so-called Jesus of Siberia, a former traffic cop known as ‘Vissarion’ who some saw as the reincarnation of Christ. The religious leader, whose true name is Sergei Torop, was accused of extorting money and inflicting bodily and psychological abuse on his 10,000 followers worldwide.
Torop’s time as a cult leader came to an end on Monday, nearly five years later, when he was convicted in a Siberian court and sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security prison camp, along with two other sect leaders, Vladimir Vedernikov and Vadim Redkin.
The 64-year-old bearded and long-haired mystic, who led the Church of the Last Testament, claimed he had been “reborn” to spread God’s word over the world. Many of Torop’s adherents gathered in the community known as ‘Abode of Dawn’ or ‘Sun City’ to learn about reincarnation, veganism, and peaceful human interactions.
“It’s all very complicated,” he told a reporter from The Guardian in 2002. “But to keep things simple, I am Jesus Christ.” I am not God. And it is a mistake to regard Jesus as God. But I am the living Word of God the Father. “Everything that God wants to say comes through me.”
Torop instructed his followers not to eat meat, smoke, consume alcohol, or swear—and to quit using money. They would frequently hold prayers in his honor, gazing up at his large hilltop home in the City of the Sun.
However, it was the darker, secret aspect of life in Vissarion’s commune that led to his incarceration.
His apparent rebirth was followed by decades of psychological manipulation of his followers, who were exploited for labor and money between 1991 and 2020. According to authorities, Torop exercised control over his followers, causing “moral harm” to 16 people and leaving six with “serious health problems”.
“There were these ridiculous situations when adults and children died because they didn’t receive medical assistance,” Elena Melnikova, one of at least eight persons who testified against Vissarion and his lieutenants in the year following his arrest, told MSN.
Vissarion established a number of prohibitions, including an anti-medical commandment, that proved disastrous to his adherents. “Know yourself. Starting now, the flesh must heal itself. “In most cases, illness is a punishment for the inability to keep one’s flesh in harmony with nature,” Ms. Melnikova added, recalling his words.
Community leaders would beg for funds for the community, she claimed. Alexander Staroveroc, the City of the Sun’s publicity secretary, stated that in certain circumstances, people donated all of their funds.
Torop, along with Vedernikov and Redkin, who were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, denied all involvement and have yet to file an appeal. Following their conviction, the court awarded the victims 45 million rubles (£417,000) in damages.
Torop’s career as a spiritual leader began at the age of 29 in 1990, when he claimed to have been reborn as Vissarion, a reincarnated Jesus Christ.
Torop was born in 1961 in Krasnodar, then part of the Soviet Union, and his life was filled with hardship until he discovered religion. Stints in the Red Army, on construction sites, in factories, and as a traffic cop eventually led to terrible sorrow when he was laid off from his most recent position after five years of service.
Torop began drawing on components of numerous religions, including the Russian Orthodox Church, Buddhism, and apocalypticism, as he launched on a spiritual journey following his redundancy. He embraced veganism and began to accept socialist and ecological beliefs.
It would only be two years before he established the Church of the Last Testament in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, only months before the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Torop warned his early disciples that the end of the world was nigh. Only those who followed his stringent instructions could be spared.
“He radiates incredible love,” Hermann, 57, told The Guardian. “I met Vissarion last August. He told me that we had to observe two laws. “It felt like an electric shock, like bells ringing.”
Denis, a 21-year-old Australian, replied, “No doubt about it, dude. Definitely the Son of God.
An entirely new calendar was established based on events in Vissarion’s life: Christmas was replaced with a feast day on Vissarion’s birthday, 14 January, while the largest feast day, August 18, arose from his first sermon in 1991.
However, after decades of worshipping a self-proclaimed messiah, his thousands of followers in a remote part of Siberia are now without a spiritual leader. He is not scheduled to be released until he is 76 years old.