"In this past year, I have had the good fortune to correspond with a prominent researcher and dedicated Doukhobor in Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Koochin, who is struggling to have Doukhobor traditions stay alive in present day Russia. He places great value on Doukhobor psalm singing, and in general, his ardent wishes are that all of our unique and colourful traditions and Life-Concepts, including honesty, love of toil, our love of community and other virtuous aspects, would continue to be upheld by all of our younger generations."

   "In our correspondence he related to me a very interesting occurrence that the Doukhobors of the Don River area lived through during the last Wor1d War. The whole world is aware of the atrocities that Hitler's army committed in Russia, when countless villages were pillaged and razed to the ground. In their march into the interior of Russia, they also went through the Don River area, where about four and a half thousand Doukhobor souls lived. To the astonishment of all the surrounding areas, when these German armies marched into this Don River area, they specifically avoided going through the Doukhobor villages. Even though they were in their direct pathway, they went around every village, and as the saying goes "they did not even push over a leaning fence post that was in their pathway”. The Doukhobors attributed this to the fact that during these times they had mass prayer meetings every day, where they continually sang their beloved psalms. This all happened in the 1940s."  -   Eli Popoff, 2005