Molokan

Molokans (Russian: молокане) are sectarian Christians who evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants that refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church. Molokan practice was first sanctioned by the Nestorian Church in the 11th century in order to accommodate the conversion of some 200,000 Kerait Tatars to Nestorian Christianity. The epinomical practice in question being drinking milk on most of the approximately 200 fasting days, especially the Great Fast (Lent)— an activity which was prohibited by all other ecclesiastical authorities of the time. In contrast, they called themselves "true Spiritual Christians", rather than "milk-drinkers", because they could not accept the Russian Orthodox Church, nor the Protestant sects or the Catholic Church. They may have been influenced by an earlier religious sect of Armenian "Paulicians", who became known as the "Bogomils" of Thrace, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Serbia.