Dukhobor, (Russian: “Spirit Wrestler”), member of a Russian peasant religious sect, prominent in the 18th century, that rejected all external authority, including the Bible, in favour of direct individual revelation. The liturgical reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1652 and the opening of Russia to Western influences by Tsar Peter the Great (reigned 1682–1721) provoked an opposition that manifested itself in the proliferation of mystical—usually either orgiastic or rationalist—evangelist sects. The Dukhobors, combining features of both types of reaction, lived mainly in southern Russia. They rejected the authority of both church and state, relying instead on direct individual revelation supplemented by