CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM 
 m RUSSIA 
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 (OR DOUKHOBORTSI) IN THE CAUCASUS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 VLADIMIR TGHERTKOFF 
 
 Containing a concluding Chapter and Letter 
 
 BY 
 
 LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 LONDON: 
 THE BROTHERHOOD PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1897 
 
>■ / 
 
 ^^K'on^^ 1/ 
 
 The readers of this book will see that the suflFer- 
 ing Spirit-Wrestlers have at the present moment 
 been bi<ught to the last extremity of need, their 
 own means being by this time entirely exhausted. 
 Every donation, therefore, on their behalf, would 
 now be specially acceptable, and may be sent to 
 
 VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF, 
 
 Broomfield, Dufpas Hill, 
 
 CROYDON. 
 
 The profits from this edition will he added to the 
 general fund for the help of the Spirit-Wrestlers. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I'AOR 
 
 PREFACE. By J. C. Kenwoutiiy. 
 
 Vll 
 
 IX 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE FOR RUSSIAN READERS. By 
 
 VlADIMIU TCIIKIITKOFF .... 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Si'irit-Wrestlees .... 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Spirit- Wrestlers One Hundred Years ago . 16 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Character and Principles of the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers To-day ..... 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Military Prisoners Lebedeff and Companions . 50 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Buenino of Arms, June 1895, and "The Execution" 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Conscription, Arrests, Imprisonments, Exile . . 65 
 
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Present Condition of those who weuk Banished, etc. 79 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 Conclusion by Leo Tolstoy . . . . .92 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Letter from Peter Vebigin to the Empress Alexandra 
 
 Feodorovna . . . . . .101 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 Letter from Leo Tolstoy to the Commander of the 
 
 Ekaterinoobad Penal Battalion . . . 104 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 Extract from Letter from Vladimir Tchertkoff to 
 
 THE Same . . . . . .107 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 I AM asked to write some words to English readers, by way 
 of preface to this book. 
 
 What feeling would I most wish to awaken in the mind of 
 an English reader, before he reads? Certainly, the feeling 
 that these Russian Doukhobortsi (Spirit- Wrestlers), persecuted 
 and martyred simply because they are too good to be under- 
 stood by the mass of their fellowmen — are of the reader's 
 own llesh and blood. Their sufferings and their needs ought 
 to call upon each of us, as would the sufferings and the needs 
 of our own brothers and sisters. 
 
 It is true the Doukhobortsi are, or until recently have been, 
 quite obscure, an unknown peasant sect of the Caucasus. 
 But why have they been obscure ? For the same reason that 
 the present life and past history of all such people is made 
 obscure ; because they are men of sincere religion, who 
 esteem ii their duty to live by those Christian principles 
 which the most of us profess with our lips, and entirely 
 violate in our lives. They are a light shining in darkness — 
 in darkness which moves actively to hide and smother the 
 light. 
 
 It will seem incredible to many of us that the things here 
 recorded can by any possibility be true^ in this the nineteenth 
 Christian century. Men, women and children have been 
 beaten, imprisoned, abused, robbed, exiled, starved to death, 
 by scores and thousands. The perpetrators of these — shall 
 we say " crimes " or " excesses " ? — are men who help to form 
 the government of an empire which calls itself "holy" — 
 Holy Russia, — in the Christian sense. The victims are people 
 
 • • 
 
 Vll 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 whose sole fault is the practice of the Cliristian virtues of a 
 pure worship of God, coinniunism of goods, and peace — "non- 
 resistance to evil," All these circumstances are attested in 
 this book, by the direct and indirect evidence of men, w^hose 
 honesty of purpose and scrupulous exactitude are shown by 
 the very manner of their speaking. 
 
 Surely the modern State condemns itself immediately and 
 completely, when it thus brings itself into direct and destruc- 
 tive enmity with people whose beliefs and lives are precisely 
 calculated to promote the ends which the State so hypocriti- 
 cally assumes to serve — the ends of social justice and 
 well-being. This book should be received by us as a record 
 of the deeds and sufferings of people, who, in another country, 
 are casting their lives against that common enemy, the rule of 
 brute force in society. Those who sincerely and intelligently 
 desire the passing away of "the kingdom of this world," and 
 the coming of " the kingdom of heaven," will acknowledge the 
 Doukhobortsi as their brethren, martyrs in the cause. 
 
 And such people will not be slow to help. Food, clothing 
 and shelter are needed for the remnant of the suflferers ; those 
 who have it in their hearts to give will give. 
 
 But let it be remembered that no appeal for help has been, 
 or is, made by the Doukhobortsi themselves. They say that 
 God, Who is their life, will send what they need, and they 
 are content to suffer, if it be His will, in the persuasion that 
 all the persecution in the world cannot take from them the 
 eternal life, which is theirs through obedience to the truth. 
 They say that the best thing a man can do is to give his life 
 to the service of the spirit shown forth by Jesus, who said, 
 " Love one another. Love your enemies." 
 
 All those who are concerned in the production of this book, 
 from Leo Tolstoy to the last of the peasants whose letters are 
 quoted, would join in so saying ; feeling that the first mission 
 of the book is, to let the world know how the life of truth is 
 growing by suffering in its midst. 
 
 JOHN C. KENWOETHY. 
 
 London, August 1897. 
 
PKEFATORY NOTE FOE RUSSIAN READERS 
 
 As this book will probably be read, not only by English- 
 men, but also by Russians, I should like, in a few introductory 
 remarks, to remove a misunderstanding which is likely to 
 arise in the minds of some Russian readers concerning the 
 motives which have prompted its publication. 
 
 The contents of this book may produce upon a certain class of 
 my countrymen the unpleasant impression that, by publishing 
 it abroad and in a foreign language, I am seeking, as it were, to 
 discredit the Russian Government in the eyes of foreigners, 
 — a thing which, in the opinion of these readers, a man who 
 was really attached to his country would never do. 
 
 In answer to this, I can only say that I have been exiled 
 from my country for being a friend and co-worker of Leo 
 Tolstoy, and xor attempting to disclose the truth concerning 
 certain abuses by the Russian Government, as well to help its 
 innocently-persecuted victims, as for the sake of those 
 representatives of the Government itself, who know not what 
 they do. Since then, living here in exile, I am experiencing 
 the pain inevitably caused by compulsory separation from 
 those of my countrymen who are nearest to my heart, and from 
 the people to whose interests the last fifteen years of my life 
 have been devoted. Finding myself in this position, I am 
 naturally not able — notwithstanding all my desire to admit 
 my mistakes and failures — in sincerity to convict myself of 
 indifference to my country. 
 
 But neither can 1 identify with my country that govern- 
 mental system which is causing it to suffer so severely. 
 
 And, indeed, why should I conceal from myself and others 
 the fact, acknowledged by all except the deluded or prejudiced 
 
 ix 
 
X PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 upholders of the State organisation of Russia, that it is 
 difficult to imagine a system more soulless, senseless and 
 savage, more cowardly, deceitful and cruel, than the present 
 Russian Government, together with the mercenary Church 
 which supports it? ^ 
 
 Wishing my country true welfare, I cannot but hope and 
 look for the coming of that day when the representatives of the 
 Government, on the one hand, will awaken to the conscious- 
 ness of the moral unlawfulness of that arbitrary system of 
 uncontrolled brute force in which they now participate ; 
 and, on the other hand, the Russian people and society will 
 realise the truth, that the first and most sacred duty of every 
 man, before God and before his fellow-creatures, is to cease 
 to fulfil those demands of Church and State which are 
 contrary to his conscience. 
 
 My native country I love, because I cannot help loving it. 
 But I love it not with that blind prejudice which seeks to 
 justify all its dark and humiliating iniquities ; I love it with- 
 out shutting my eyes to all the atrocities perpetrated in it and 
 to all the sufferings of its oppressed masses. Such prejudice 
 would not be love, but patriotic vanity, — a sentiment which 
 always does immeasurable harm to the nation towards which 
 it is directed. Loving my country, I try to love and appreciate 
 in it that which is highest and best. 
 
 And this highest manifestation of truth and righteousness 
 in my country, I cannot fail to see in that revival of pure 
 Christianity which is now taking place in various corners of 
 the land, and which is undergoing the most cruel persecution 
 
 1 I feel it necessary to remark that, in thus alluding to the Russian 
 Government, I in no wise have in view its nominal directors, the 
 Emperors, — men often remarkably conscientious and well-intentioned, 
 but who in reality belong to the category of victims of the Government, 
 being, in consequence of their peculiar position, deprived of the 
 possibility of free and independent action. Of all the unfortunate 
 dupes of the Government, they are the most deluded, and therefore, in 
 a certain sense, of all its represent aiives the least influential and the 
 most helpless. And indeed it car not be otherwise as long as the so- 
 called autocratic form of government is maintained in Russia, with its 
 necessary absence of publicity and of freedom of speech. 
 
FOR RUSSIAN READERS xi 
 
 at the hands of a Qovernment, desirous of systematically 
 wiping off the face of the earth thousands of human beings, 
 whose only crime is that they acknowledge all men to be their 
 brothers, regard no one as their enemy, and therefore refuse 
 to kill anyone. 
 
 At the same time, I am firmly convinced that for the 
 welfare of humanity it is important that all should know of 
 these bright examples of true Christianity, however remote 
 and inaccessible may be the locality in which they are mani- 
 fested. It is such examples alone that will effectively promote 
 international peace and universal disarmament, which are, in 
 words at least, so generally desired, and the possibility of 
 which is doubted by those only whose lives are founded upon 
 that same general armament and violence, which render the 
 perfect development of love and goodwill among men im- 
 possible. 
 
 Firmly believing that the conduct of the Spirit-Wrestlers 
 is furthering the coming of the Kingdom of God upon earth, 
 and at the same time knowing that the more widely the 
 truth is spread concerning the condition of these brothers of 
 mine, who are being martyred for conscience' sake, so much 
 the more difficult will it become for the local authorities to 
 continue their atrocities and murders, — could I refrain from 
 sharing with as many people as possible the information I 
 have succeeded in collecting concerning this matter ? 
 
 And is it surprising that, having been forced to leave my 
 country precisely for having attempted to express aloud the 
 truth in Russia, and in Russian, I, who believe in the mutual 
 brotherhood of all nations, have, for the attainment of my 
 aim, profited by the liberty of conscience and of speech enjoyed 
 by the country which at present affords me hospitality ? 
 
 VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF. 
 
 Croydon, August 9th, 1^97. 
 
CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM 
 IN RUSSIA 
 
 THE SPIEIT-WEESTLEES 
 
 A TEERIBLE cruelty is now being perpetrated in the 
 Caucasus. More than four thousand people are 
 suffering and dying from hunger, disease, ex- 
 haustion, blows, tortures, and other persecutions 
 at the hands of the Eussian authorities. 
 
 These suffering people are the Doukhobortsi 
 (or " Spirit- Wrestlers ") of the Caucasus. They are 
 enduring persecution, because their religious con- 
 victions do not allow them to fulfil those demands 
 of the State whi^;h are connected, directly or 
 indirectly, with the killing of, or violence to, their 
 fellow-men. 
 
 [Thus ran the introduction to an Appeal signed 
 by Paul Birukoff, John Tregouboff, and Vladimir 
 Tchertkoff, and issued in Eussia 12th December 
 1896. The Appeal continues : — ] 
 I 
 
t THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 Brief and fragmentary notices of these remarkable 
 people have not unfrequently appeared of late in 
 the Russian and foreign press. But all that has 
 been published in the Russian newspapers has been 
 either too short, or in a mutilated form, — whether 
 intentionally, unintentionally, or as a concession to 
 the requirements of the Russian censor, — while 
 what has been printed abroad is, unfortunately, little 
 accessible to the Russian public. Hence it is that 
 we consider it our duty in this Appeal to give a 
 general view of the events that are now taking 
 place, and a brief sketch of the circumstances 
 which preceded them. 
 
 [The same also is the object of this book, there- 
 fore we cannot do better than give the Appeal in 
 full.] 
 
 The Spirit-Wrestlers first appeared in the 
 middle of last century. By the end of the last 
 century or the beginning of the present, their 
 doctrine had become so clearly defined, and the 
 number of their followers had so greatly increased, 
 that the Government and the Church, considering 
 this sect to be peculiarly obnoxious, started a cruel 
 persecution. 
 
 The foundation of the Spirit- Wrestlers' teaching 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 3 
 
 consists in the belief that the Spirit of God is present 
 in the soul of man, and directs him by its word 
 within him. 
 
 They understand the coming of Christ in the 
 flesh, His works, teaching, and sufferings, in a 
 spiritual sense. The object of the sufferings of 
 Christ, in their view, was to give us an example of 
 suffering for truth. Christ continues to suffer in us 
 even now, when we do not live in accordance with 
 the behests and spirit of His teaching. The whole 
 teaching of the Spirit-Wrestlers is penetrated with 
 the gospel spirit of love. 
 
 Worshipping God in the spirit, the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers affirm that the outward Church and 
 all that is performed in it and concerns it has no 
 importance for them. The Church is where two or 
 three are gathered together, i.e. united, in the name 
 of Christ. 
 
 They pray inwardly at all times ; while, on fixed 
 days (corresponding for convenience to the orthodox 
 holy-days), they assemble for prayer-meetings, at 
 which they read prayers and sing hymu'', or psalms 
 as they call them, and greet each other fraternally 
 with low bows, thereby acknowledgmg every man 
 as a bearer of the Divine Spirit. 
 
 The teaching of the Spirit-Wrestlers is founded 
 on tradition. This tradition is called among them 
 the " Book of Life," because it lives in their memory 
 
4 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 and hearts. It consists of psalms, partly formed 
 out of the contents of the Old aad New Testaments, 
 partly composed independently. 
 
 Tiie Spirit- Wrestlers found alike their mutual 
 relations and their relations to other people — and 
 not only to people, but to all living creatures — 
 exclusively on love ; and, therefore, they hold all 
 people equal, brethren. They extend this idea 
 of equality also to the Government authorities ; 
 obedience to whom they do not consider binding 
 upon them in those cases when the demands of 
 these authorities are in conflict with their con- 
 science ; while, in all that does not infringe what 
 they regard as the will of God, they willingly 
 fulfil the desire of the authorities. 
 
 They consider murder, violence, and in general 
 all relations to living beings not based on love, as 
 opposed to their conscience, and to the will of God. 
 
 The Spirit - Wrestlers are industrious and 
 abstemious in their lives, and always truthful 
 in their speech, accounting all lying a great sin. 
 
 Such, in their most general character, are the 
 beliefs for which the Spirit- Wrestlers have long 
 endured cruel persecution. 
 
 The Emperor Alexander i., in one of his re- 
 scripts concerning the Spirit- Wrestlers, dated the 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 5 
 
 9th December 1816, expressed himself as follows : — 
 " All the measures of severity exhausted upon the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers during the thirty years up to 
 1801, not only did not destroy this sect, but more 
 and more multiplied the number of its adherents." 
 And therefore he proposed more humane treatment 
 of them. But, notwithstanding this desire of the 
 Emperor, the persecutions did not cease. Under 
 Nicholas i. they were particularly enforced, and 
 by his command, in the years '40 and '50 the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers were all banished from the govern- 
 ment of Tauris, where they were formerly settled, 
 to Transcaucasia, near the Turkish frontier. " The 
 utility of this measure is evident," says a previous 
 resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the 
 Gth February 1826, "they [the Spirit- Wrestlers] 
 being transported to the extreme borders of 
 the Caucasus, and being always confronted 
 by the hillsmen, must of necessity protect their 
 property and families by force of arms," i.e. they 
 would have to renounce their convictions. More- 
 over the place appointed for their settlement, the 
 so-called Wet Hills, was one (situated in what is 
 now the Ahalkalaky district of the Tiflis govern- 
 ment) having a severe climate, standing 5000 feet 
 above the sea-level, in which barley grows with 
 difficulty, and where the crops are often de- 
 stroyed by frost. Others of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 
6 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 were planted in the present government of 
 Elisavetpol. 
 
 But neither the severe climate nor the neighbour- 
 hood of wild and warlike hillsmen shook the faith 
 of the Spirit-Wrestlers, who, in the course of the 
 half-century they passed in the Wet Hills, trans- 
 formed this wilderness into flourishing colonies, and 
 continued to live the same Christian and laborious 
 life they had lived before. But, as nearly always 
 happens with people, the temptation of the wealth 
 which they attained to in the Caucasus weakened 
 their moral force, and little by little they began to ie- 
 part somewhat from the requirements of their belief. 
 
 But, while temporarily departing, in the external 
 relations of life, from the claims of their conscience, 
 they did not, in their inner consciousness, renounce 
 the basis of their beliefs ; and, therefore, as soon as 
 events happened among them which disturbed their 
 outward tranquillity, the religious spirit which had 
 guided their fathers immediately revived within them. 
 
 In 1887, universal military service was intro- 
 duced in the Caucasus ; and even those for whom 
 it was formerly (in consideration of their religious 
 convictions) replaced by other service or by banish- 
 ment, were called upon to serve. This measure 
 took the Spirit- Wrestlers unawares, and at first 
 they outwardly submitted to it; but they never 
 in their consciences renounced the b'^lief that 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 7 
 
 war is a great sin, and they exhorted their sons 
 taken as recruits, though they submitted to the 
 various regulations of the service, never to make 
 actual use of their arms. Nevertheless, the intro- 
 duction of the conscription among people who 
 considered every murder and act of violence 
 against their fellow-men to be a sin, greatly 
 alarmed them, and caused them to think over the 
 degree to which they had departed from their belief. 
 
 At the same time, in consequence of an illegal 
 decision of the Government departments and officials, 
 the right to the possession of the public property 
 of the Spirit-Wrestlers (valued at half a million 
 roubles) passed from the community to one of 
 their members, who, for his own personal advantage, 
 had betrayed the public interest. This called forth 
 the protest of the majority of the Spirit-Wrestlers 
 against this individual and his party, who had thus 
 become possessed of the public property, and ag.'dnst 
 the corrupt local administration, which had been 
 bribed to give an unjust decision in the case. 
 
 When, besides this, several representatives of the 
 majority, and among them the manager elected to 
 administer the communal property, were banished 
 to the government of Archangel, this awakening 
 assumed a very definite character. 
 
 The majority of the SpirT j- Wrestlers (about 
 twelve thousand in number) resolved to hold fast 
 
8 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 to the traditions left them by their fathers. They 
 renounced tobacco, wine, meat, and every kind of 
 excess, divided up all their property (thus supplying 
 the needs of those who were then in want), and 
 they collected a new public fund. 
 
 In connection with this return to a strictly 
 Christian life, they also renounced all participation 
 in acts of violence, and therefore refused military 
 service. 
 
 In confirmation of the sincerity of their decision 
 not to use violence even for their own defence, in 
 the summer of 1895 the Spirit-Wrestlers of the 
 " Great Party," as they were called, burnt all their 
 arms which they, like all the inhabitants of the 
 Caucasus, kept for their protection, and those who 
 were in the army refused to continue service. By 
 general resolution they fixed on the night of 28 th 
 June for the purpose of burning their arms, which 
 were their own property and therefore at their 
 absolute disposal. This holocaust was accompanied 
 by the singing of psalms, and was carried out 
 simultaneously in three places, namely : — in the 
 governments of Tiflis and Elisavetpol and in the 
 territory of Kars. In the latter district it passed 
 off without interference ; in the government of 
 Elisavetpol it resulted in the imprisonment of 
 forty Spirit- Wrestlers, who are still in confinement ; 
 while in the government of Tiflis the action taken 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 9 
 
 by the local, administration resulted in the perpetra- 
 tion by the troops of a senseless, unprovoked, and 
 incredibly Davage attack on these defenceless people, 
 and in their cruel ill-treatment. 
 
 The burning of arms in the Tiflis government 
 was appointed to take place near the village of 
 Goreloe, inhabited by Spirit-Wrestlers belonging to 
 the " Small Party," in whose hands was the public 
 property they had appropriated. This party having 
 learnt the intention of the " Great Party " to burn 
 their weapons, were either afraid of such an 
 assembly, or wished to slander them, and informed 
 the authorities that the Spirit-Wrestlers of the 
 " Great Party " were devising a rising and pre- 
 paring to make an armed attack upon the village 
 of Goreloe. The local authorities, then, without 
 verifying the truth of this iiirormation, ordered 
 out the Cossacks and infantry to the place of the 
 imaginary riot. The Cossacks arrived at the place 
 of assembly of the Spirit-Wrestlers in the morning, 
 when the bonfire, which had destroyed their arms, 
 was already burning out, and they made two cavalry 
 attacks upon these men and women, who had 
 voluntarily disarmed themselves and wcx-e singing 
 hymns, and the troops beat them with their whips 
 in the most inhuman manner. 
 
 After this, a whole series of persecutions was 
 commenced against all the Spirit- Wrestlers belong- 
 
lo THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 ing to the " Great Party." First of all, the troops 
 called out were quartered " in execution " on the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers' settlements, i.e. the property and 
 the inhabitants themselves of these settlements 
 were placed at the disposal of the officers, soldiers, 
 and Cossacks quartered in these villages. Their 
 property was plundered, and the inhabitants 
 themselves were insulted and maltreated in every 
 way, while the women were flogged with whips and 
 some of them violated. The men, numbering 
 about three hundred, who had refused to continue 
 in the army service, and about thirty who had 
 refused active service, were thrown into prison or 
 sent to a penal battalion. 
 
 Afterwards more than four hundred families of 
 Spirit - Wrestlers in Ahalkalaky were torn from 
 their prosperous holdings and splendidly cultivated 
 land, and after the forced sale, for a mere trifle, 
 of their property, they were banished from the 
 Ahalkalaky district to four other districts of 
 the Tiflis government, and scattered among the 
 Georgian villages, from one to five families to each 
 village, and there abandoned to their fate. 
 
 As early as last autumn, (epidemics, such as 
 fevers, typhus, diphtheria and dysentery, appeared 
 among the Spirit-Wrestlers (scattered as above 
 stated), with the result that the mortality in- 
 creased largely, especially among the children. 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS tl 
 
 The Spirit-Wrestlers had been exiled from a 
 cold mountain climate and settled in the hot 
 Caucasian valleys, where even the natives suffer 
 from fevers ; and consequently nearly all the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers are sick, partly because (not 
 having dwellings of their own) they are huddled 
 together in hired quarters ; but chiefly because 
 they lack means of subsistence. 
 
 Their only earnings are from daily labour among 
 the population amidst whom they have been thrown, 
 and beyond the bounds of whose villages they are not 
 allowed to go. But these earnings are very small, 
 the more so that the native population suffered this 
 year both from a bad harvest and from inundations. 
 Those who are settled near the railway pick up 
 something by working there, and share the wages 
 they get with the rest. But this is only a drop 
 in the ocean of their common want. 
 
 The material position of the Spirit-Wrestlers is 
 getting worse and worse every day. The exiles 
 have no other food than bread, and sometimes 
 there is a lack of even this. Already among the 
 majority of them certain eye diseases, which are 
 the sure harbingers of scurvy, have appeared. 
 
 In one place of exile situated in the Signak 
 district, 106 deaths occurred among 100 families 
 (about 1000 people) settled there. In the Gory 
 district, 147 deaths occurred among 190 families. 
 
12 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 In the Tionet district, 83 deaths occurred among 
 100 families. In the Diishet district, 20 deatlis 
 occurred among 72 families. Almost all aie suICer- 
 ing from diseases, and disease and mortality are 
 constantly increasing. 
 
 Besides these deaths there have been others (due 
 to actual violence) among the Spirit-Wrestlers in 
 prison and in the penal battalion. 
 
 The first to die in this way, in July 1895, waa 
 Kirill Konkin, the cause of death being blows 
 received as corporal punishment. He died on the 
 road, before reaching the place of his exile, in a 
 state of hallucination, which commenced while he was 
 being flogged. Next, in August 1896, died Michael 
 Scherbinin in the Ekaterinograd penal battalion, 
 tortured to death by flogging, and by being thrown 
 with violence over the wooden horse in the gym- 
 nasium. Among those confined in the prisons, 
 many have already died. Some of them, while 
 dying, were locked up in separate rooms, and 
 neither their fellow-prisoners, nor parents, wiveo and 
 children who had come to bid them farewell, were 
 allowed even to enter the room where the dying 
 lay, alone and helpless. More deaths are to be 
 expected both among the population suffering from 
 want in exile and in the prisons.^ 
 
 ^The information here briefly summarised upon this subject 
 can, in case of need, be supplied in detail, and confirmed 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 13 
 
 Tlie Spirit-Wrestlers themselves do not ask for 
 help — neither thone who are in exile with their 
 families, famished, and with starving and sick 
 children, nor those who are being slowly but surely- 
 tortured to death in the prisons. They die without 
 uttering a single cry for help, knowing why and for 
 what they suffer. But we, who see these sufferings, 
 and know about them, cannot remain unmoved. 
 
 But how to help them ? 
 
 There are only two means to help people 
 persecuted for faith's sake. One consists in the 
 fulfilment of the Christian commandment, to 
 welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit 
 the sick and imprisoned, and feed the hungry, 
 which is prescribed to us both by our own 
 hearts and by the Gospel ; the other consists 
 in appealing to the persecutors, both to those 
 who prescribe the persecutions and to those who 
 allow them to take place when they might 
 stop them ; and also to those who, without 
 sympathising with the persecutions, participate in 
 them and become their means, — appealing by laying 
 
 by the most irrefragable proofs, destroying the whole of 
 the monstrous libels against the Spirit- Wrestlers contained 
 in such statements as the "Confidential Report of Prince 
 Shervashidze, Governor of Tiflis, to General Sheremetieff, the 
 Viceroy of the Caucasus," extracts from which have appeared also 
 in the papers. We keep the whole of the material carefully 
 collected by us, from which the absolute accuracy of our stato- 
 meuts may be verified. (Note in the original Appeal.) 
 
14 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 bare before these persecutors the sin, the cruelty, 
 and the folly of their acts. 
 
 Having been in a position sooner than others 
 to know what has here been set forth, we 
 appeal alike to Kussians and to non-Russians to 
 help our brethren in their present sore distress, 
 both with money offerings to relieve the suffer- 
 ings of the aged, sick, and children, and by 
 raising their voices on behalf of the persecuted. 
 
 The most important and grateful means of 
 expressing sympathy with the persecuted, and of 
 softening the hearts of the persecutors, would 
 be personally to visit the victims, in order to see 
 with one's own eyes what is being done with 
 them now, and to make the truth about them 
 generally known. 
 
 The expression of sympathy is dear to the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers, because, although they do not 
 ask for help, they yet have no greater joy than 
 to see the manifestation of love and pity to 
 them on the part of others — of that same love 
 for the sake of which these martyrs are sacrificing 
 their lives. 
 
 The making publicly known of the truth about 
 the Spirit - Wrestlers is important, because it 
 cannot be that the Russian State authorities 
 really desire to exterminate these people by 
 the inexorable demand from them of that which 
 
THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 15 
 
 their conscience does not allow them to do, and 
 the ceaseless persecution and torture of them on 
 this account. There is probably here some mis- 
 understanding, and therefore it is that the pro- 
 mulgation of the truth which may remove this 
 is specially important. 
 Help! 
 
 [This Appeal attained its purpose by drawing the 
 attention both of the public and of the higher 
 authorities to what was being done to the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers by the local authorities of the Caucasus. 
 But for the three friends who signed it, the result 
 was their banishment — two of them, P. Birukoff 
 and J. Tregouboff — to small towns in the Baltic 
 provinces ; while V. Tchertkoff was given the 
 choice between the same sentence and being 
 altogether exiled from Kussia. He chose the 
 latter as affording him the possibility of helping, 
 from abroad, his persecuted friends, which would 
 have been impossible under the conditions of strict 
 police supervision under which those banished to 
 Kussian towns have to live.] 
 
i6 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 II 
 
 THE SPIKIT - WRESTLERS ONE HUNDRED 
 
 YEARS AGO 
 
 A Paper written in 1805^ 
 
 In the second half of tue last century there arose 
 in Eussia a Society the existence of which would 
 have seemed impossible in our country. Suddenly 
 there appeared people who not only repudiated all 
 the religious ceremonies and outward ritual of the 
 Greek-Russian Church, but even did not accept the 
 outward baptism by water, and the communion of 
 the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine. 
 
 ^ The text is translated froni the Russian of an old MS. 
 lately republished in a monthly periodical called Russian 
 Antiquity. We have translated it almost in full, as being evidently 
 written by an individual well acquainted, am"* himself in perfect 
 sympathy, with the religious movement in question. It gives a 
 very fair idea of the life and teaching of the Spirit- Wrestlers at 
 the time indicated, and indeed at the present time. The remark- 
 able events which have happened among this people during the 
 last few years are, in reality, but the result of a revival of their 
 ancient spiritual tenaencies, for which they have suffered persecu- 
 tion at the hands of the Church and the Grovemment from the very 
 first— (Ed.) 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO tf 
 
 It was natural that such men could not have 
 been left in peace, either by their neighbours or by 
 the Government itself, the more so that no one 
 knew or understood their spirit. From every side 
 they suffered almost incessant persecution ; every 
 encounter with a priest, police agent, or magistrate 
 caused them to be brought before the law and 
 imprisoned ; every opposition from the neighbour- 
 ing population was accompanied with dreadful abuse 
 and outrage ; their every action rendered them, in 
 the eyes of others, monsters and breakers of the 
 general peace. The higher Government formed its 
 opinion about them principally from the reports of 
 the lower authorities, and they were often sent off 
 into exile as State offenders. 
 
 Thus, the persecution of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 endured until the mild and peaceful reign of 
 Alexander i.^ 
 
 In 1801, the Senators Lopoukine and Neledinski, 
 who were sent to examine two of the provinces 
 
 ^ The persecution of the Spirit-Wrestlers commenced in 1792, 
 when the governor of Ekaterinoslaff reported to Petersburg that 
 "all those infected by this movement merit no mercy" ; the sect 
 being represented as particularly dangerous and enticing to ad- 
 herents, because "the mode of life of the Spirit- Wrestlers is 
 founded on the most honest observances, and their greatest care 
 is the general welfare, and they find salvation in good works." 
 The Spirit-Wrestlers were condemned to be burned, but that 
 sentence was remitted, and they were exiled to Siberia. (Note in 
 the original MS. ) 
 
 2 
 
i8 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 in which the Spirit-Wrestlers lived, were the first 
 to exhibit this people to the Tzar in their true 
 character; and, owing to the report of these 
 examiners. His Majesty, wishing to isolate the 
 Spirit - Wrestlers, graciously allowed them to 
 emigrate to the so-called " Milky - Waters " in 
 the Taurid province. 
 
 At the end of the year 1804, the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 living in the provinces of Tamboff and Ekaterinoslaff 
 asked and obtained permission also to be allowed to 
 emigrate to the same place. But before explaining 
 what these people now are, it is necessary to examine 
 their origin, their mode of life, and their teaching. 
 
 The Origin of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 
 The name " Spirit- Wrestlers " was given as far 
 back as 1785, probably by the then Bishop of 
 Ekaterinoslaff. It was at the time evidently 
 intended to distinguish, by this name, those hold- 
 ing this teaching, just as the repudiation of ikons 
 (images) was in its time called " Ikon- Wrestling." 
 But the Spirit- Wrestlers themselves, giving their 
 derivation of the name from " spirit," say that 
 they in the spirit strenuously serve God. Thus, 
 following their explanation, the term ought to be 
 understood. The populace called them by various 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 19 
 
 abusive names, such as " milk-men," because they 
 did not fast, but took milk during Lent. 
 
 As to themselves, they always called, and call, 
 themselves merely " Christians," whilst others they 
 call " men of the world." 
 
 Their origin is unknown, even to themselves ; 
 for, being common people and illiterate, they have 
 no written history ; neither has tradition preserved 
 amongst them any information upon the subject. 
 
 The Society of the Spirit-Wrestlers was originally 
 a dispersed one. Nowhere did they at first form 
 communities, but they lived, a few families in various 
 villages. They were dispersed not only through 
 certain provinces where they were specially strong, 
 but also through almost the whole of Eussia. 
 They even affirm that many of their brethren are 
 to be found in Germany and Turkey, but that in 
 Germany they are more severely persecuted than 
 by the Mohammedans.^ 
 
 ^ This calls to our mind a circumstance in the present life of the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers which came to our notice, corroborating the fact 
 that the spirit of the Christian teaching is by nature common to 
 every human being, and that non-Christian peoples are sometimes 
 more sensitive to it than nominal Christians, whose appreciation is 
 so often blunted by too much familiarity with the lifeless letter of 
 the gospel. When the Spirit-Wrestlers were brought into inter- 
 course with the Mohammedan tribes of the Caucasus, these last, awed 
 by the moral purity and elevation of their conduct, came to the 
 conclusion that the Spirit- Wrestlers had in some way got hold 
 of and put into practice the ancient prescriptions of their own 
 Mohammedan faith, which were practically disregarded by the 
 Mohammedans themselves. — (Ed.) 
 
30 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 Communication among the Eussian Spirit- 
 Wrestlers takes place when occasion offers, for 
 example, when the brethren have to travel upon 
 business; but, when necessary, special messengers 
 are sent. 
 
 Their Mode of Life and Organisation 
 
 Apart from the question of the peculiarities of 
 their religious faith, the Spirit- Wrestlers may be 
 regarded as affording the model of well-organised 
 family and social peasant life. In 1792, Kohovsky, 
 the governor of Ekaterinoslaff, in his report to the 
 higher authorities, said, amongst other things, that 
 the Spirit- Wrestlers are of exemplarily good con- 
 duct, and, avoiding drunkenness and idleness, are 
 continually occupied with the welfare of their homes, 
 leading a moral life. They have always regularly 
 paid the State taxes, and fulfilled their other social 
 duties, often even to excess, as compared with the 
 other peasants, owing to the oppression to which 
 they are always subject from the local authorities. 
 
 But as soon as question is raised as to principles 
 and actions of theirs which in any way touch their 
 religious faith, there is immediately disclosed a 
 complete difference from, and even opposition to, 
 other peasantry. 
 
 The Spirit- Wrestlers never frequent the churches ; 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 21 
 
 they do not worship images ; during prayer they do 
 not make the sign of the cross ; they do not keep 
 the ordinary fasts, and they take no part in the 
 recreations and loose pleasures of worldly people. 
 There are many such circumstances which com- 
 pletely separate them from all ordinary society of 
 peasants, and which have always been a cause of 
 unceasing persecution against them. 
 
 The Spirit-Wrestlers deem that all externalism 
 in the work of salvation is utterly useless, and that 
 the external Church, owing to the lapse of true 
 Christianity, has become a den of robbers ; and 
 they therefore acknowledge one sacred, universal 
 and apostolic Church, which the Lord by His coming 
 has assembled, consecrated and replenished by the 
 gifts of the Holy Ghost, and which is, of course, 
 the union of all faithful and true Christians. 
 
 In this persuasion, they often have meetings of 
 the brethren ; yet they have not for this purpose 
 any specially appointed place, as they do not see 
 any sanctity in locality ; but they meet at each 
 other's houses without any distinction. They do 
 not even fix any special days for their meetings, 
 deeming all days equal, and having no holy-days : 
 any free day is a day for their meetings. These 
 meetings, however, in most cases, for convenience' 
 sake, take place during the ordinary Church or 
 national holy-days. Thus, any of them may 
 
23 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 arrange a meeting at his house by inviting all the 
 brethren. If such a meeting is held at the house 
 of a poor brother who cannot provide food for 
 those who have assembled, then the others pre- 
 viously contribute the necessary food, or else bring 
 it with them ; for at these meetings they have 
 supper. Entering the meeting, the men greet the 
 men, the women the women, by grasping each 
 other's right hands, bowing three times and kissing 
 each other. At the commencement, each one says 
 a prayer. The three bows and kisses are intended 
 to signify the cleansing of the body and the re- 
 pulsion of pride ; they take each other's hands as a 
 sign of union and love, kindly expression, good 
 understanding, the sense of a God revered in their 
 souls. 
 
 During the meetings, one after another recites 
 the prayers he knows; they together sing psalms 
 and explain to each other the Word of God. As 
 almost all are illiterate, and therefore without 
 books, all this is done from memory. They have 
 no priests in the ordinary sense of the word ; they 
 acknowledge as priest the one just, holy, true 
 Christ, uplifted above sinners, higher than the 
 heavens ; He is their sole teacher. Thus at their 
 meetings they hear the Word of God from each 
 other; each one may express what he knows or 
 feels for the benefit of his brethren ; the women 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 23 
 
 are not excluded from this, for, as they say, women 
 also have understanding, and light is in under- 
 standing. They pray either standing or sitting, as 
 the case may be. 
 
 At the end of the meeting they again kiss each 
 other thrice as at the beginning, and then the 
 brethren return home. 
 
 The virtue most highly respected among the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers is mutual love. They have no 
 personal property ; but each regards his property 
 as belonging to all. After emigrating to the 
 Milky-Waters, they proved this in practice ; for 
 there they stored up all their property in one place, 
 so that at present they have one common treasury, 
 one common flock or herd, and in each of their 
 villages is a common granary. Each brother takes 
 from the common property that which he needs. 
 Hospitality also is not the least virtue among them, 
 for they take nothing from travellers who stop at 
 their houses, either for lodging or food. However, 
 in order that the brethren may not in time be 
 depraved by casual visitors, they have built in the 
 Milky- Waters a special lodging-house, where such 
 travellers must put up. Here also are received 
 and entertained the Government officials, and here 
 the common treasury is kept. 
 
 The Spirit- Wrestlers are compassionate towards 
 their fellow-men. The local authorities themselves, 
 
24 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 notwithstanding all the calumny they spread against 
 these people, have more than once witnessed before 
 the higher Government to the fact that the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers give help and do acts of great charity to 
 their fellow-men in need. They are compassionate 
 even to household animals, and almost entirely 
 refrain from killing them. 
 
 Kespect from children to their parents is also 
 strictly observed, and in general from younger men 
 to those older ; though the latter, and even parents, 
 do not appropriate to themselves any ascendency 
 over the younger ones, regarding themselves as 
 spiritually their equals. 
 
 There exist no punishments among the 
 brethren. As soon as any brother thinks an- 
 other has behaved improperly, he, according to 
 the precise gospel instruction, reminds him that 
 he is acting wrongly ; if the one in fault will 
 not take consideration, he is admonished in the 
 presence of two or three of the brethren ; if he 
 does not take heed of them, he is invited to appear 
 before the general assembly. 
 
 There have been cases, though very seldom, in 
 which some of the brethren have left the Society, 
 doubtless in order to live at liberty according to 
 their own unrestricted desire. It has even some- 
 times happened that wives have deserted their 
 husbands. The husbands, in such cases, do not 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 25 
 
 detain their wives, but give them liberty, at the 
 same time giving them means to live upon as far 
 as possible. 
 
 Deserters may, however, be again accepted into 
 the Society if they completely repent and leave 
 their immoral life ; of which there have also been 
 examples. 
 
 The general round of occupations is filled by 
 each taking a calling. Thus the tradesman does 
 the commercial business, and the agriculturist 
 works on the land. But the majority of them are 
 agriculturists, as they give preference to this noble 
 occupation. 
 
 In their Society there are no elders who rule or 
 administrate, but rule and administration are by 
 all and each. Written regulations or rules they 
 also have none, and one might suppose that there 
 ought therefore to be disagreement and disorder 
 amongst them. Yet no such disorder has ever been 
 noticed. In the Milky- Waters, three, and even five 
 families, live peacefully together in one large 
 cottage. 
 
 As to the management of the families separately, 
 the weakness and dependence of the female sex, the 
 inexperience of youth, and the education of the 
 children, naturally require another system. In 
 every family there must of necessity be an elder 
 one, and the father in the flesh is this elder one. 
 
26 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 His duty is to care for the needs of his family, to 
 watch the conduct of the children, correct their 
 faults, and teach them the law of God. When 
 the father dies, his place is taken by the elder 
 of the brothers ; and in the case of incapacity 
 of the latter, his place is taken by the one most 
 capable. 
 
 The system of education among the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers is most simple and uniform. As soon as 
 the child begins to speak and understand, his 
 parents commence verbally to teach him prayers 
 and psalms, and to tell him something out of the 
 Holy Writings ; and they thus continue to instruct 
 him in the Christian doctrine. When the children 
 have learnt a few prayers and psalms they ac- 
 comT^any the elders to the meetings, recite in their 
 turn the prayers they have learnt, and sing psalms 
 together with the others. Not only the parents, 
 but every Spirit-Wrestler regards it as his duty 
 to teach every child something useful whenever he 
 has the opportunity to do so, and to keep him from 
 evil whenever he has occasion. 
 
 Owing to such education, the spirit of the 
 parents by degrees passes into the children ; their 
 ways of thinking take deep root, and the tendency 
 towards good is most strongly encouraged by good 
 examples. It is said, and indeed seems quite natural, 
 that amongst a number of children, one can distinguish 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 17 
 
 Spirit-Wrestlers* children from the rest, like ears of 
 corn among oats. 
 
 Their Teaching. 
 
 1. The chief article in the Spirit -Wrestlers* 
 profession of faith is the service and worship of 
 God in the spirit and in the truth. 
 
 2. They know no creed, and only say of them- 
 selves that they are of the faith of Jesus. The 
 creed which is recognised in our Church, they 
 accept as true in everything, but they regard it as 
 one of the ordinary psalms. 
 
 3. They acknowledge God as being in three 
 personifications of the One and Unutterable. They 
 believe that through the memory we assimilate our- 
 selves with God the Father, through the under- 
 standing with God the Son, through the will with 
 God the Holy Ghost; also that the first person of 
 the Trinity is the light — the Lord our Father ; the 
 second person is the life — the Son our Lord ; and 
 the third person is peacs — the Holy Spirit our 
 God. 
 
 4. The conception they have of Christ is based 
 on the teaching of the gospel: they acknowledge 
 His coming in the flesh, His works, teaching, and 
 suffering ; but chiefly they accept all this in the 
 spiritual sense, and affirm that all contained in the 
 
28 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 gospel should be accomplished in ourselves. Thus 
 Christ must in us be begotten, born, grow up, teach, 
 suffer, die, revive and ascend ; and it is thus that 
 they understand the process of the new birth, or 
 renovation of man. They say that Jesus Himself 
 was and is the Gospel eternal and living, and 
 has sent it forth, preached in the Word. He 
 Himself is the Word, and can be written only on 
 our hearts. 
 
 5. They believe that, except through God and 
 His Christ, there is no salvation ; but if God is 
 invoked without a pure heart, He Himself cannot 
 save man. 
 
 6. For the salvation of man, indubitable faith 
 in Christ is necessary ; but faith without works is 
 dead, as also are works without faith. The only 
 living faith is the hearty acceptance of the gospel. 
 
 7. Concerning baptism, they say that they are 
 baptized into the Word through the Father, Son and 
 Holy Spirit, as Christ taught the apostles, saying : 
 Go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
 This baptism takes place when a man repents with 
 a pure and willing heart, and calls upon God, and 
 then his sins are remitted, and he turns to God, 
 and not to the world. This is the only baptism 
 for the remission of sins which they profess. 
 
 The new birth and baptism, according to their 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 29 
 
 understanding, are one and the same. The means 
 of attaining the new birth are living faith in God 
 and prayer. The signs of the newly bom, or 
 baptized, are the works of the new man. 
 
 The consummation of baptism or new birth, they 
 say, a man attains when he is united to God ; and 
 such a man may see God with his spiritual eyes. 
 External baptism they regard as useless, saying 
 that water only washes off the uncleanness of the 
 external body. 
 
 8. They confess their sins in prayer to the 
 heavenly God, good and merciful, who forgives all 
 our sins. If they sin against their brethren, they 
 confess before all, and ask their brethren to forgive 
 them. 
 
 To deny one's sins when others remark them, is 
 regarded by the Spirit- Wrestlers as a great wrong. 
 They also condemn the practice of calling one- 
 self a sinner, and making this a kind of boast, a 
 sham meekness, to excuse one from trying to 
 correct one's errors. When a man has fallen he 
 should immediately recover himself, ask God's 
 forgiveness with humbled heart, and with all 
 his might strive not to fall again into a similar 
 sin. 
 
 9. As to the Communion, they partake at all 
 times of the sacred, life-giving, eternal sacraments, 
 in the forgiveness of their sins spiritually, through 
 
30 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 the inward acceptance of the Word of God, which 
 is Christ ; and such a communion, they say, 
 penetrates the understanding of man, as it were, 
 to the marrow of the bones. 
 
 The communion of the body and blood of Christ 
 in the form of bread and wine they do not accept ; 
 saying that bread and wine enter into the mouth 
 like ordinary food, and are of no avail to the soul. 
 
 10. Fasting they regard as a matter not of kind 
 or quality of food, but of abstinence from gluttony 
 and other vices, of purity, meekness and humility 
 of the spirit. Mere outward abstinence from food 
 does not, according to them, yield any good to the 
 soul. 
 
 11. They respect the saints, but do not call for 
 their help, saying that they — the saints — have 
 pleased God on their own behalf, and that we must 
 simply imitate them. 
 
 They do not, however, indiscriminately count as 
 good all the deeds of the so-called saints ; thus 
 they deem that when St. Nicholas, during a Church 
 Council, hit Arius on the cheek, the Word of God 
 had then deserted him. 
 
 12. Marriage amongst them is not regarded as 
 a holy sacrament, and is accomplished merely by 
 the mutual consent of the young couple. As, 
 among the Spirit- Wrestlers, no preference is given 
 to wealth or rank, the parents do not at all 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 31 
 
 interfere in the marriages of their children. There 
 are also no marriage rites or ceremonies ; the mere 
 consent of the two, and a promise to live together, 
 suffices. 
 
 Abstinence from marriage for the sake of purity 
 is regarded amongst them as a high virtue. 
 
 13. The dead they commemorate by good deeds, 
 and in no other way. God Himself, they say, will 
 remember the righteous in His kingdom. There- 
 fore they do not pray for the dead, deeming it 
 useless. The death of a Christian they do not call 
 deathy but change ; therefore they do not say " our 
 brother has died," but " our brother has changed." 
 
 14. Concerning the state of the righteous in 
 heaven, they say that the kingdom is in man's 
 will, and that heaven is in the soul; that the 
 souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and, 
 therefore, no torments of hell can touch them. As 
 to the torments of the unrighteous and hell, they 
 believe that unrighteous souls walk in the dark, 
 expecting soon to perish, and that hell consists in 
 evil feeling. 
 
 As to the transformation of souls after death, 
 they believe that man is either justified by deeds, 
 or by deeds is condemned ; that the deeds of each 
 man take him to his true place, and that after 
 death there is no repentance. 
 
 15. As to the general resurrection of the 
 
32 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 righteous and unrighteous, the Spirit- Wrestlers do 
 not enter into discussion, leaving this in the care 
 of God. 
 
 16. For a man to save his soul, they do not 
 think it necessary for him to belong to their 
 Society. They say that conduct brings a man 
 salvation, and that for this it is only necessary to 
 understand the way of God, and to follow it. 
 
 17. The Spirit- Wrestlers are careful as to the 
 neatness of their houses, and say that for a 
 Christian it is proper to live cleanly and tidily 
 (in this they have always been distinguished 
 from the other peasants in the same village), and 
 that it is only necessary to take care that the 
 spirit be not set upon these things. 
 
 They think in the same way about pictures in 
 their rooms, portraits of remarkable men, and even 
 of saints. They say that such pictures serve to 
 ornament the house, and are pleasant for the eye ; 
 but they should in no case be worshipped, for that 
 is a deadly sin. 
 
 18. The Spirit- Wrestlers like to express their 
 religious thoughts and feelings in the form of 
 allegories. Thus, for example, they speak of seven 
 heavens, the first being humility ; the second, 
 understanding ; the third, abstinence ; the fourth, 
 brotherly love ; the fifth, compassion ; the sixth, 
 good counsel ; the seventh, love, where God lives. 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 33 
 
 In a similar way they denote twelve Christian 
 virtues, under the guise of twelve friends, 
 thus — 
 
 1. Truth : which delivers man from death. 
 
 2. Purity: which brings man to God. 
 
 3. Love : where love is, there God is also. 
 
 4. Labour : honourable for the body and helpful 
 for the soul. 
 
 5. Obedience : a quick way to salvation. 
 
 6. Not judginig : salvation without labour. 
 
 7. Beasondbleness : the highest of virtues. 
 
 8. Mercy : of which Satan himself is afraid. 
 
 9. Self-Control : the work of Christ our God 
 Himself. 
 
 10. Prayer and fasting: unite man with 
 God. 
 
 11. Repentance: there is no higher law or 
 commandment. 
 
 12. Thanksgiving: gladsome to God and His 
 higher angels. 
 
 We will give, as examples, two of the prayers 
 which are recited at the Spirit - Wrestlers' 
 meetings — 
 
 To whom shall I go from Thee, my God ; from 
 Thy face to whom shall I run ? If I were to 
 ascend to heaven, Thou art there ; if I descend into 
 3 
 
34 THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS 
 
 hell, Thou art there ; if I had wings to fly to the 
 farthest seas, there would Thy arm reach me, and 
 Thy right hand hold me. To whom shall I go, 
 and where shall I find eternal life, if it be not in 
 Thee, my Creator ? To whom shall I go, and 
 where, to find consolation, joy, a home, peace for 
 my soul? To whom shall I go from Thee, my 
 Lord God, for Thou hast in Thee the words of life ? 
 Thou art the source of life, the giver of all 
 blessings. My soul is thirsting after Thee, my 
 heart is thirsting after Thee, the God of my life ! 
 Let us rejoice in Thy sacred name, Lord Jesus, 
 full of blessing ; let my soul be pierced by it, let 
 my heart be penetrated by it, so that nothing in 
 all my life be dearer to me than Thy sacred Spirit. 
 Let Thy words be sweeter to me than honey, let 
 Thy ways of salvation be dearer to me than gold. 
 
 II 
 
 How shouldst Thou be loved, O God? For 
 Thou art my life. Thou art my salvation, glory, and 
 praise ; for Thou art my wealth, my eternal 
 treasure ; for Thou art my hope and my trust ; for 
 Thou art my joy, my eternal peace. Is it better 
 for me to love emptiness, or the unknown, or that 
 which is perverse, perishable, or untrue, more than 
 Thee, my true life ? Thou art my life, my 
 salvation ; and therefore in Thee alone do I place 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 35 
 
 all my hope, my faith, my desire. To Thee, Lord, 
 will I call with all my heart, all my soul, all my 
 thoughts ; deep into Thee shall I penetrate ; to 
 Thee alone shall I pour forth my soul ; I shall 
 wholly be in Thee, and Thou in me. I shall see 
 and know in Thee the true and only Lord God, 
 Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. In Thy light 
 shall we see light, by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit. 
 
 The Spirit- Wrestlers who, at the end of the year 
 1804, came to St. Petersburg to ask permission 
 for their brethren to emigrate to the Milky-Waters, 
 when they were leaving Petersburg just before 
 Christmas, were asked whether it would not be 
 better for them to pass the festival in Petersburg, 
 and after that, undertake the journey. They 
 answered : " It is all the same to us, because the 
 festival is in us, within ourselves." 
 
 And when, on settling in the Milky- Waters, 
 they were enjoined to live quietly and modestly, 
 and not to endeavour to bring others into their 
 sect, they answered that all that was needed had 
 been already sown ; they need no more trouble 
 about that, for now the time was come for the 
 harvest, not the sowing. 
 
 [Such is the account given of the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers at the beginning of this century.] 
 
36 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 III 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND PKINCIPLES OF 
 THE SPIRIT- WRESTLERS TO-DAY 
 
 We have seen what the belief and practice of the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers were a hundred years ago. The 
 vitality and validity of their belief and life are 
 shown by the fact that both survive to this day. 
 The following extract from a letter from one of 
 them speaks for itself as to the spirit in which 
 they live and endure persecution : — 
 
 "January 2nd, 1896. 
 
 "The concern of most importance to me when thinking 
 of my fellows is, that they might as far as possible try to 
 become humble and meek, which is indispensable for entering 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 " I think that when they have begun to be worried, and 
 their material state to be ruined, they must be very careful 
 not to be tempted. I hold that anxiety for material well- 
 being constitutes already a great stumbling-block and injury 
 to the soul. ... I ask that you will advise all who know 
 me not to be angry, not to grumble at the Government 
 because it oppresses them. But let them bear, with God's 
 help, any trial which befalls them. Let them only remember 
 what Christ, and afterwards the apostles, had to suffer for 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 37 
 
 the truth. It is important to bear, without complaint, scorn 
 for the truth, but it is still more important, when suffering 
 for truth's sake, to bear that patiently. 
 
 " Peter Verigin." ^ 
 
 A brief sketch of the foundation principles of 
 the Spirit- Wrestlers written by one of themselves 
 is here subjoined : — 
 
 "Our brethren are called 'Christians of the Universal 
 Brotherhood' because all men are equal, children of one Father, 
 God ; and those who love in deeds and not only in word may 
 belong to it and be members of this universal body. To 
 belong to this Community one has to prove in practice one's 
 love for one's fellow- man, and so a man is able to adopt the 
 essence of Christ's teaching without any external forms or 
 rites. Our brethren having recently adopted this name, try 
 to justify it in practice, and thus to help the human race to 
 adopt the teaching of the Saviour who was, and is still 
 persecuted. Sometimes weakness overcomes us, but this is 
 only the result of habitual evil tendency which shuts out 
 heaven, and there is no more dangerous thing can happen 
 than that. But with God's help there will be men who will 
 conquer their passions and carnal desires, and will serve the 
 living and true God. 
 
 " The rules of life of the ' Christians of the Universal Brother- 
 hood' and its general views (at least some of them) are as 
 follows : — 
 
 " 1. The members of the community revere and love God as 
 the Source of all being. 
 
 ^ This same Peter Verigin, from his place of exile, wrote a letter 
 to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which is given in the 
 Appendix. He there asks the Empress to intercede in favour of 
 his persecuted brethren for whom he desires permission to 
 emigrate. — (Ed.) 
 
38 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 " 2. They respect the dignity of man both in themselves and 
 in their fellow-men. 
 
 " 3. The members of the Community regard everything that 
 exists with love and admiration, and they try to bring up 
 tlieir children in the same tendency. 
 
 " 4. By the word * God' they understand, — the power of love, 
 the power of life which is the Source of all that exists. 
 
 " 5. Life is progress and everything tends towards perfection, 
 in order that the seed received should be returned to the 
 Source of life in the form of ripe fruit. 
 
 " 6. In everything that exists in our world we see consecu- 
 tive stages towards perfection, — thus, beginning with a stone 
 and passing over to plants, we come to animals, the fullest 
 development of which is man, regarding him from the point 
 of view of life and of a conscious being. 
 
 " 7. The members of the Community hold that to destroy or 
 hurt any living thing is blameworthy. In every separate 
 being there is life and hence God, especially in a human 
 being. To deprive a man of life is in no way permissible, 
 
 " 8. The members accord full freedom to the life of man, and 
 therefore all organisation founded on violence they regard as 
 unlawful. 
 
 " 9. The basis of man's existence is the power of thought — 
 reason. 
 
 " 10. It is recognised that the communal life of man is based 
 on the moral law, which has for its rule, ' What I do not wish 
 for myself, that I must not wish for anyone else.' 
 
 " These ten clauses we hold to be the fundamental rules of 
 Christian life, or the ten commandments of the ' New 
 Testament.' 
 
 " December I2th, 1896." 
 
 A friend in Tiflis, who has watched carefully the 
 progress of events during the last persecution, 
 thus describes the first impressions made upon him 
 by his intercourse with Spirit-Wrestlers : — 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 39 
 
 ^^TiFi.m, NovemherVth, 1895. 
 
 " I learned that about twenty Spirit- Wrestlers had come to 
 Tiflis for a few days. T was glad of this opportunity for 
 making their acquaintance. Moreover, I wished to acquaint 
 them with the newspaper article describing the persecutions 
 to which they were subjected during the summer of the last 
 year.i 
 
 " Having made my way to the inn where they were staying, 
 I found them dining in a small poorly-furnished room. 
 They sat round a simple table, dressed uniformly in long 
 blue coats. Their food consisted of boiled eggs, bread, and 
 grapes. 
 
 " After dinner they rose from their seats, and in a low voice 
 offered up a prayer, the words of which I was unable to dis- 
 tinguish. When they learned the purpose of my visit, they 
 were very glad to hear the contents of the article concerning 
 them ; they gathered round me and listened with great 
 attention, interrupting me only now and then with exclama- 
 tions : 'Quite true,' 'This is just what did take place.' 
 After the reading I told them that the article had been 
 published in an English newspaper, and that Leo Tolstoy 
 had also written an article about them. Then I told what I 
 knew of other cases of refusal of military service. They were 
 very anxious to know whether refusals of military service 
 take place also in other countries. Seeing in me a man who 
 sympathises with them, they behaved towards me very 
 cordially, and we parted as friends, sincerely bidding each 
 other good-speed. I had no other opportunity of meeting 
 them, as they returned home early the next morning. They 
 
 ^ This is an article written by P. BirukofF, who was the first of our 
 friends to go down to the Caucasus, in order to visit the persecuted 
 Spirit-Wrestlers. His correspoudence on the subject, accompanied 
 by an introductory letter by Leo Tolstoy, was inserted in the 
 Times, October 23rd, 1895, and followed up by an article by Leo 
 Tolstoy in the Cmitemporary Review for November in the same 
 year.— (Ed.) 
 
40 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 made a very good impression upon me by their real Christian 
 views and candid, honest and strong characters. 
 
 " But a specially strong impression was made upon me by 
 those who have been imprisoned for the refusal of military 
 service. Thanks to an acquaintance of mine, I succeeded 
 not only in gaining admission into the prison, but also in 
 conversing with the imprisoned Spirit- Wrestlers, although 
 unfortunately in the presence of two soldiers, who attentively 
 listened to our conversation. However, I was able to inform 
 them of the above-mentioned article, though there was no 
 possibility of handing it over for them to read. 
 
 " I went to these prisoners hoping to encourage them by the 
 information that their noble Christian acts did not remain 
 unknown, and that their example is bound to call forth many 
 followers. And indeed this caused them much joy, but they 
 had no need at all of encouragement ; on the contrary, they 
 greatly encouraged me, strengthening in me the wish for a 
 moral Christian life. Instead of unhappy men, I found 
 spiritually healthy and vigorous men awaiting future tortures 
 with gladness. * It is not for robbery or murder that we are 
 here,' they said to me, 'and therefore one must not grieve at it, 
 but rejoice ; Christ Himself suffered.' When I was told that 
 two of them were sentenced to the penal battalion, I could not 
 help exclaiming that it would be hard there. 'We do not 
 care for our flesh, and no one can take away from us our 
 soul,' was their answer, which was uttered in a tone of deep 
 conviction, clearly showing me the sublimity of these true 
 Christians of modern times. 
 
 " I felt (myself) as if I had been brought back to the first 
 centuries of Christianity, to the times of persecution of 
 Christians by heathens. Before me stood men who, like the 
 early Christian martyrs, were ready to go to the stake and to 
 suffer any other tortures with joy, ready for any sufferings 
 for the cause of the Christian teaching which they profess. 
 How inferior seemed to me our whole cultured life in com- 
 parison with the deep faith and unshaken strength of will of 
 these simple and candid men. 
 
 " It is a great sin, said they to me, to lift up one's hand 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 41 
 
 against one's fellow-man. It is a great pity to kill even a very 
 small bird. Why should we care for our flesh ? To-day I 
 am alive and to-morrow I am dead, but my soul is eternally 
 alive ; is it not better, then, to let our bodies be injured and 
 to preserve our eternal soul ? 
 
 " Then the conversation turned to a case which happened 
 not long ago, when a soldier, although recognising the sin of 
 military service, could not make up his mind to refuse it, being 
 afraid to break the oath. This oath, said they, is of no 
 importance. What value has it, if it is taken under compul- 
 sion ? 
 
 "They complained of nothing, but that was certainly 
 because of their convictions. In reality their prison-life is 
 very painful. Their food consists only of bread and water ; 
 they are not allowed to write letters freely, and those which 
 are addressed to them go through the censorship of the 
 prison authorities. They are allowed to read only the Gospels 
 and the Old Testament, and this gives them much joy." 
 
 In this connection may be given the account 
 received from a military officer, of perfect reliability, 
 who sympathises with the Spirit-Wrestlers, dated 
 7th March 1897: — 
 
 "Having heard that some of the Spirit- Wrestlers were 
 being transferred from the Elisavetpol prison to that of 
 Nukhin, I went out to meet them at the posting station. I 
 shall never forget the look of this ' etape.' Along the high 
 road, muddy with the melting snow, moved a crowd of well- 
 grown, hale people, in so-called ' clean ' clothes. They were 
 going along as they pleased with their sacks and cloaks slung 
 soldier-fashion over their shoulders, and but for the escort of 
 soldiers with rifles which surrounded this group of people, 
 and the four natives in irons walking in front (I remembered 
 the words about Christ, * He was numbered with the trans- 
 gressors '), one might have fancied they were free travellers. 
 
42 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 Their faces were calm and good-tempered, their movements 
 measured, their voices resonant, and their conversation 
 peaceful. 
 
 " There were thirty-six of them in all, for the most part 
 middle-aged, though some were quite old and grey, and others 
 quite young beardless lads. The expanse of steppe and fields 
 which for a long time they had not set eyes on, the bright 
 sunshine, the open air, and the sight of other men and of ' free 
 life' evidently had a cheering effect on the captives. The 
 stifling city prison was forgotten for the moment, and each 
 was glad merely to breathe fully and freely, to stretch his 
 cramped limbs, to enjoy the new scene, with no longer around 
 him the walls of the prison court. 
 
 " It was just this that made my heart contract painfull}'- as 
 I looked at them. Among them was John Verigin, the father 
 of a young Spirit-Wrestler whom I knew well, and oldest 
 brother of Peter Verigin. He was a tall, handsome old 
 man, very attractive by reason of his intelligence, judgment, 
 and communicative disposition. At my request his com- 
 panions called him, and we began a conversation, like old 
 friends of long date. Others joined us, and amongst them I 
 recognised a handsome young fellow, who was particularly 
 glad to see me. He had come from Slavianka with a 
 companion to accompany the brotherhood to its destina- 
 tion, and help them to settle down. 
 
 " Talking thus, we reached the station, Haldan, where there 
 was a fair that day. The people stared at the new-comers in 
 astonishment and consternation as they approached the ' etape,' 
 for all the people in that part of the world know the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers well. They kept asking each other in an audible 
 tone, ' Why are they taking such people to prison ? ' ' What 
 have they done ? ' ' What is their crime 1 ' 
 
 "While the party was resting, and the carts with their 
 belongings being reloaded, I spent more than an hour talking 
 with them, standing in the midst of the crowd, and this still 
 more increased the general astonishment. 
 
 " The soldiers of the escort apparently behaved in a very 
 friendly manner to the sectaries, and seemed to keep their 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 43 
 
 pest at the side of the road merely for form's sake. The 
 sergeant of the detachment had got up a religious discussion, 
 so my friend*^ told me, trying to prove that God had sanctioned 
 and even sanctified war, in proof of which he pointed to the 
 ' Soldier's Pocket Book ' of General Dragoniiroff, in which we 
 are reminded that there is ' no greater love than this, that a 
 man lay down his life for his friends,' and was greatly 
 astonished to learn that this was somewhat more than a free 
 interpretation of the words of the Bible. 
 
 " I went another stage with the convoy and spent the 
 night at the sta+^.ion where it halted. The talk of the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers was ot things gone by, of the last persecutions and 
 acts of violence, but chiefly of people in whom they took interest 
 and who shared their religious views. Having accompanied 
 them along the valley half-way through the next stage, I took 
 leave of them and returned home pensive and sorrowful." 
 
 The following are conversations related by 
 prisoners in Tiflis which took place between them 
 and the authorities : — 
 
 They were asked — 
 
 " What are you ? " 
 
 " We are Christians." 
 
 " What sort of Christians ? " 
 
 " Do you not know what Christians are ? A 
 Christian is one who believes in Christ Jesus and 
 fulfils the commandments of God." 
 
 " Whose subjects are you ? The Turkish Sultan's 
 or the Emperor of Russia's ? " 
 
 " As a matter of form we pay tribute to the 
 Czar of Russia, but we are the subjects of Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
44 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 " And on whose land do you live ? " 
 
 " We live on God's earth." 
 
 " And whom do you obey ? " 
 
 "We obey Him on whose land we live." 
 
 " As you live on God's earth and obey 
 Him, I suppose you do not acknowledge the 
 Emperor ? " 
 
 " We do not take the Emperor's title from him ; 
 as he has been emperor in the past, so let him be 
 in the future. But God created the earth and all 
 that live on the earth." 
 
 " Then as you do not refuse to recognise the 
 Emperor, why do you renounce your duties as 
 soldiers ? " 
 
 " It is not in our power to serve as soldiers, 
 because we are Christians, and a Christian ought 
 not to do violence to his enemies, but to give full 
 liberty to every living being, and not to kill his 
 brother." 
 
 " Where did you get this from ? Did someone 
 teach you so ? " 
 
 " We got it from the commandments of God, for 
 the Sixth Commandment says, * Thou shalt not 
 kill' " 
 
 " And who wants you to kill anybody ? " 
 
 " How can you say that no one wants us to kill 
 anybody, when you teach the soldier how to kill ? 
 We who are Christians cannot kill anybody under 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 45 
 
 any circumstances, because we consider a man the 
 living temple of God." 
 
 " Oh yes, it is sinful to kill a man without 
 cause ; but what harm is there in killing him 
 in war, when the enemy is coming to plunder 
 us ? We are bound to defend ourselves against 
 our enemies, so that they may not plunder 
 us." 
 
 " Yes, it is true it is necessary to defend our- 
 selves against our enemies, that the enemy may 
 not be able to enter into a man, and implant evil 
 in him. But we believe that God is our defence 
 and our protector." 
 
 " Well, you trust in God, but we will put you 
 in prison, and then we shall see whether God will 
 save you. That is what you get for taking such 
 nonsense into your head as to refuse to serve the 
 Emperor. You might have lived peacefully but for 
 that." 
 
 "Why, that is all we wanted, to live peaceably, 
 but it is you who have begun to oppress and compel 
 us." 
 
 " Who is oppressing you ? You have brought 
 your discomfort on yourselves. Your fathers served 
 the Emperor, but you refuse to do so." 
 
 " How can we serve him when he teaches 
 men to kill, and we as Christians are not 
 allowed under any circumstances to kill a man ? 
 
46 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 We consider it wicked. To us all men are 
 brothers." 
 
 " What sort of brother is a man to you when he 
 wants to plunder you ? " 
 
 " We are not allowed to judge a man. We have 
 one Judge, who is able to save or to condemn us ; 
 who are we to judge another ? We look on all 
 those who live on the earth according to the word 
 of the Lord, as children of one Father, and our 
 brothers." 
 
 " So then you decline to obey the Emperor under 
 any circumstances ? " 
 
 " We will obey him only in what is not contrary 
 to the will of God." 
 
 In conversation with another official, they were 
 asked : — 
 
 " What sort of a brother is a man to me when 
 he wants to kill me ? " 
 
 They answered with another question — 
 
 " In what way do you regard the people whom 
 you fight with ? " 
 
 " We look on them as enemies," the official 
 replied 
 
 " And what are you to them ? " they asked. 
 
 " Why, we are enemies to them," he answered. 
 
 " Well, brother, you say that both parties become 
 mutually enemies. Why should you consider 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 47 
 
 yourself an enemy ? Would it not be better to 
 look on yourself as the son of the Almighty 
 Creator ? " 
 
 " Well, of course, everyone would wish to be a 
 son of the Almighty Creator, but it is necessary to 
 deserve it." 
 
 " But if you serve God, you will win His 
 approbation. And if you serve man, you will 
 receive approbation from man. Now the applause 
 of man is fatal ; it is impossible to serve two 
 masters." 
 
 This answer made him very angry, and he 
 retorted — 
 
 " I will pull out a revolver, and put a bullet in 
 your forehead, and then you will argue with me no 
 longer." 
 
 " Well, if you have the power, kill me. It is 
 written in the teaching, it is impossible to do any- 
 thing unless God wills it ; we cannot make one hair 
 black or white. And we ought not to kill or 
 destroy anything." 
 
 " It is so written," he said, " but there is 
 scarcely one of us who can fulfil it." 
 
 "How can you say that, when we take such 
 pleasure in endeavouring to fulfil the com- 
 mandment of God, while you will not let 
 us do so, and do not want to fulfil it your- 
 self ? " 
 
48 THE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 " Yes, brothers," he replied, " that is the way 
 of God, but few choose to walk in it, though 
 you, when you have once entered on it, stick 
 fast to it. May God help you to hold fast to 
 it, and not let you wander from it. But mind 
 you don't talk my soldiers over to think as you 
 do." 
 
 The men who record these conversations were 
 imprisoned first of all at Kars, for giving back their 
 cards of enlistment, and then they were removed to 
 Tiflis. 
 
 We will close this section with an extract from a 
 letter from Gregory Verigin, another brother of 
 Peter Verigin, imprisoned in the Tiflis Metekh 
 Castle — the severest civil place of detention in the 
 Caucasus : — 
 
 " I have been told that recently a good many friends and 
 mothers have come to see our brethren in this prison, but 
 to my great regret I could not see them. However, one 
 cannot recall the past — may the will of the Lord be done. 
 I was at the time sitting in solitary continement in a dark 
 and cold cell in which I passed four days in great suffering. 
 But this is of no consequence, and may be for the best, as it 
 is a good discipline, otherwise man forgets his position on 
 earth ; but when he has to undergo such sufferings it reminds 
 him of the eternal life. 
 
 " They did not give me any hot food, but I myself decided 
 to pass the time in prayer and fasting. The room was a 
 very small one, and I was given no covering, and had to 
 suffer from cold. When I asked them for a bit of old blanket 
 
OF THE SPIRIT-WRESTLERS TO-DAY 49 
 
 they alluded to Bome law or other, and said that this law did 
 not allow it. I told them, ' I am dying from cold and you are 
 talking to me about a law ; give me first a blanket, and to- 
 morrow we will discuss the law.' But they shut the door 
 and went away. Oh, hard-hearted men ! may God forgive 
 them ! '' 
 
50 MILITARY PRISONERS 
 
 IV 
 
 MILITAEY PRISONEES LEBEDEFF AND 
 
 COMPANIONS 
 
 As has been stated, the recent persecutions of 
 Spirit-Wrestlers commenced in 1895, immediately 
 on the revival among them of ancient principles 
 and practice. 
 
 The first to suffer were Matthew Lebedeff and 
 eleven other soldiers, who had given way after the 
 universal conscription in 1887, and for a time 
 outwardly submitted to enter the military service. 
 When conviction wrought upon them, and they 
 openly renounced the position into which they had 
 reluctantly, in time of weakness, been dragged, the 
 persecution which fell upon them was more severe 
 than that which came upon those who were called 
 out for the first time. 
 
 They were judged by court-martial, and con- 
 demned to confinement in the Ekaterinograd penal 
 battalion, where, according to the regulations, they 
 were expected every day and hour to comply with 
 
LEBEDEFF AND COMPANIONS 51 
 
 the demands of military discipline, whereas not 
 having accepted the military service they could not 
 with a clear conscience conform to this. On the 
 other hand, the prison authorities had not the right 
 to desist from enforcing these demands ; and the 
 consequence was that the Spirit- Wrestlers were 
 subjected to an incessant series of punishments, 
 consisting of flogging, confinement in a cold, dark 
 cell on a diet of bread and water, prolongation of 
 their sentence, etc., which converted their imprison- 
 ment into a slow martyrdom, — until, in the autumn 
 of '96, there was issued an order from the Govern- 
 ment that those who refused the military service 
 upon religious grounds were not to be imprisoned 
 in military places of detention. 
 
 We find in letters many allusions to them and 
 the sufferings they have passed through in the 
 battalion. One Spirit- Wrestler from Signak writes, 
 4th March 1896 — 
 
 " They are so wasted in body that one can hardly recognise 
 them." 
 
 Others from the district of Gory write — 
 
 "We visited Lebedeff and comrades who are in the 
 Ekaterinograd penal battalion ; beside these there are eleven 
 other men who have been enlisted recently. We saw them 
 by permission of the colonel, who asked us, ' Where are you 
 from, and what did you come here for ? ' We answered, ' We 
 came from the province of Tiflis to visit our brethren.' He 
 
52 MILITARY PRISONERS 
 
 said, * Only relatives are allowed to see the prisoners, and 
 that only for a short time, not more than an hour.' And 
 the meeting was under restraint, but still, thank God, we 
 were able to know about their cruel and unmerciful punish- 
 ments. Their persecutors cut thorny rods, five or six in one 
 bundle. The men were laid down, and on each side of them 
 were placed drunken men, who began to flay thei.. like 
 ferocious wild beasts which tear asunder meek gentle sheep. 
 Each received thirty strokes.^ After this they were placed 
 in a solitary and cold cell for a day, and the next day they 
 were taken out and guns were given to them, and they 
 were led out for drill. They said, like Christians, 'We 
 cannot fulfil what is against God's commandment.' But, in 
 spite of their answer, they were again beaten and abused. 
 After this drilling came dinner-time for all the prisoners ; 
 other prisoners were fed well, but our brethren did not 
 receive even sufficient bread, and yet they were asked, ' Are 
 you satisfied, or do you wish more?' They, in their 
 innocence, said, ' Give us more bread.' But they received 
 instead — blows, such blows that they could hardly stand on 
 their feet." ^ 
 
 These tortures were repeated several times and 
 under great physical exhaustion. Of the twelve, 
 three had not the power to remain steadfast. The 
 fortitude they manifested at the beginning of their 
 imprisonment temporarily gave way, and when 
 guns were given to them, they consented to hold 
 them — also, while faint and weak they took meat 
 
 ^ Others write : " The blood splattered in all di sctions ; the 
 prickles entered into the flesh, and when they were pulled out, bits 
 of flesh fell down. " 
 
 ^ Being vegetarians they could not take the soup which was 
 given to the other prisoners. — (Ed.) 
 
LEBEDEFF AND COMPANIONS 53 
 
 which was contrary to their principles. For this 
 they sorely reproached themselves, the more so 
 because when some of their brethren in prison with 
 them were transferred from the prison to Siberia, 
 these three who thus gave way in weakness were 
 left behind and treated as soldiers. They still remain 
 in the Ekaterinograd penal battalion. They feel 
 their position keenly, but endure with patience, 
 though very weak and ill, and manifest much tender- 
 ness of spirit. A visit paid to them in December 
 '96 is thus described by a correspondent: — 
 
 " January 1897. 
 
 " Anthony Fofanoff from Elisavetpol went to see the 
 brethren who were left behind in the penal battalion — 
 Matthew Lebedeff, Nicholas Fofanoff, and KalmikofF. He 
 went there on the 25th December 1896. He visited them, 
 and talked with Lebedeff, who, in reply to Anthony's question, 
 why he stayed there in that murderous place, said that he 
 had been the object of a severe attack on the part of the 
 authorities. 
 
 " His story was as follows : — * They sent letters addressed to 
 me from the brethren, the purport of which was to beg me to 
 fortify the brethren who were in the battalion. The colonel 
 was furious with me, and had me repeatedly flogged for it, 
 for such letters always pass through his hands.' 
 
 " He begged me to give this message to all the brethren and 
 his mother. : — 
 
 " ' Please God, I shall recover. My heart is very sore that I 
 could not hold out against the whole of the punishment ' ; and 
 again, * I shall get over it, I am very grieved myself about 
 it.' 
 
 "When Anthony gave them bread and provisions, Lebedeff 
 
54 MILITARY PRISONERS 
 
 was much touched, and exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, * I 
 thought you had forgotten all about us, and that we had 
 forfeited your affection by our want of fortitude.' " 
 
 Previous to this, in November 1896, Leo Tolstoy 
 wrote a letter to the colonel of the penal battalion, 
 and near the same time V. Tchertkoff also wrote to 
 him.^ These letters appear to have s-^mewhat 
 softened the heart of the colonel, to judge by the 
 following account from a friend in Tiflis : — 
 
 " Tiflis, December 1896. 
 
 "An old Spirit- Wrestler, Tcheveldayeff, has just returned 
 to Tiflis from the Ekaterinograd penal battalion. He had gone 
 to visit his son for the second time. The first time he had 
 been there in the spring of 1895. The commander of the 
 battalion had a little time before received letters from 
 some friends of ours which acquainted him with the real 
 nature of the Spirit- Wrestlers' teaching, with the reason why 
 they were punished, and which asked him to treat them as 
 kindly as possible. This is what Tcheveldayeff related to me 
 about his interview with the commander : — 
 
 " Upon receiving me the commander said, ' Ah, old man ! 
 you came in spring, and now here you are again ! ' 
 
 " ' Yes,* said I, ' I have come again ; I feel for my 
 children.' 
 
 "'Why do you say your children? You have only one 
 son here, have you not ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, but I regard them all as my children.' 
 
 "When I was there in spring he was hard-hearted, but 
 this time he was much kinder. I used to go and see him 
 every day, and when I did not come he sent a soldier for me. 
 We used to sit down on a bench outside his house and chat. 
 
 ^ Both these letters are given in the Appendix. — (Ed.) 
 
LEBEDEFF AND COMPANIONS 55 
 
 "'Now, if they were to submit theinaelves to our law, I 
 should let them go home to see their friends,' says he. 
 
 " ' One should serve one Master only,' says I. 
 
 " * And what master 1 ' 
 
 " ' We have one Master — the Lord — Him do we serve.' 
 
 " ' Why did you not accept the guns ? ' 
 
 " ' How can we kill our friends 1 ' 
 
 " ' And an enemy ? ' 
 
 " ' If one were to kill an enemy, one would become an 
 enemy oneself. The Lord has created all in the same image.' 
 
 " * But if someone were to meet you and take your horse ? ' 
 
 " ' I would earnestly ask him not to take it. But if I 
 should not persuade him ; then let him take it. I will not 
 take sin upon me. As I was coming here with a young friend 
 of mine, we met an Ocetin [one of the native tribes of the' 
 Caucasus] who untied my cape and took it ; we prayed him 
 earnestly to return it. He did not, but rode away with it. 
 He will be uneasy. The cape will cause his soul much 
 trouble.' 
 
 "The commander asked me, 'What is this command of 
 yours, "Love thy neighbour as thyself"? You have no 
 books, where then did you find it?' 
 
 " ' We received it from our Father and Friend. It is in 
 our " Book of Life," which contains all our commandments.' 
 
 " He made me repeat them to him. Then he asked me to 
 repeat to him one of our psalms. 
 
 " ' Where do you learn all this ? ' he asked. 
 
 " ' From our parents.' 
 
 " * And thus you teach your children ? ' 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 "And so we went on chatting together. At last he said, 
 ' Yes, all this is correct ; and one should live so.' " 
 
 Of those Spirit-Wrestlers who were transferred 
 from the penal battalion and other prisons to 
 Siberia, several became ill and died, from the hard- 
 
56 MILITARY PRISONERS 
 
 ships they endured in prison and on the way. 
 The following is a short account, from a friend of 
 ours, of one of them who died in the Moscow 
 prison : — 
 
 " At the present moment there lies in the Moscow Prison 
 Hospital a Spirit- Wrestler, one of the recalcitrant soldiers. 
 He was in confinement about a year, and was deported with 
 others to the Yakutsk district, but left behind at Moscow 
 owing to illness. I have been to see him twice. He has 
 consumption, and looks very bad, and will not long hold out 
 against the fever, the perspirations, and the cough. In mind 
 he is quite at rest, and says he is satisfied with everything, 
 and only complains of his disease, though he bears even that 
 with complete equanimity. 
 
 "Marc/il897." 
 
THE BURNING OF ARMS, JUNE 1895 57 
 
 THE BUENING OF ARMS, JUNE 1895, 
 AND "THE EXECUTION" 
 
 We must now turn to what occurred in June 
 1895, when the Spirit - Wrestlers, by common 
 agreement, went to the place appointed near 
 the village of Goreloe, carrying the arms which 
 were to be committed to the flames. (It needs to 
 be clearly understood that these arms were not the 
 property of Government or landlords, but simply 
 the few weapons they, like the surrounding natives, 
 had been accustomed to keep for self-defence 
 against robbers, wild tribes of hillsmen, and wild 
 animals ; they now became conscious that even 
 to keep these weapons in their houses was a 
 yielding to weakness, and contrary to their 
 principles.) Without inquiry or waiting for 
 evidence, the Cossacks were quickly called out 
 to suppress what was falsely reported to be a 
 rebellion, and very violent was their attack upon 
 the inoffensive people. 
 
58 THE BURNING OF ARMS, JUNE 1895 
 
 Wliile these Spirit-Wrestlers were being driven 
 away to the village of Bogdanovka to appear before 
 the Governor of Tiflis, this is what they sang: — 
 
 " For the sake of Thee, Lord, I loved the narrow gate ; 
 I left the material life ; I left father and mother ; 
 I left brother and sister ; I left my whole race and tribe ; 
 I bear hardness and persecution ; I bear scorn and slander ; 
 I am hungry and thirsty ; I am walking naked ; 
 For the sake of Thee, Lord." 
 
 And the Cossacks tried to drown their voices 
 with obscene songs. Then these Cossacks were 
 quartered on the villagers, who received much 
 rough treatment from them. 
 
 Helen Nakashidsy of Tiflis,^ who from the first 
 has been in warm sympathy with the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers, and who is now in England, thus 
 describes what she was told of the cruelty 
 practised : — 
 
 "July 1895. 
 
 " I heard the following account from Akcenia 
 Strelaeva, a woman no longer young : — , 
 
 " * Four of us — women — were going from Spaski 
 to Bogdanovka On the road we were overtaken 
 by a hundred Cossacks, who brought us into 
 Bogdanovka. They there placed us in a coach- 
 
 ^ By birth Princess, which title, however, her present convic- 
 tions do not allow her to accept. — (Ed.) 
 
AND ''THE EXECUTION" 59 
 
 house, and then led us out one by one into the 
 yard. Then they stripped us in the yard 
 (throwing our skirts over our shoulders), and 
 flogged our bare bodies. In the yard stood some 
 Cossacks and many other people. There were only 
 a few of our own people. They flogged us so, you 
 could not count the strokes ; two of them held us 
 and four flogged ! Three of us stood through it, 
 but one they dragged about so that she could not 
 stand. We received many insults.' 
 
 " Nastasia Tchernenkova, a very aged woman, 
 spoke as follows : — 
 
 " ' A whole platoon and two sotnias ^ of Cossacks 
 lived in our yard at Bogdanovka. They lived in 
 the coach-house. One nisjht we sat down to 
 supper — I, my husband, our two sons (one nine- 
 teen, the other seventeen years old), and our 
 daughter-in-law, who had be >n confined only fifteen 
 days before. The Cossacks came up. " You are 
 having supper ? " they asked. — " Yes, sit down and 
 join us." — " The commander has ordered us to 
 arrest the master of the family." — " If you arrest 
 him, you must take us as well." Then they began 
 to drag the master along; we clung to him and 
 would not let go ; and, my God, what happened ! 
 We cried out, " Help, brothers ! — who believes in 
 
 * Sotnia — a detachment of Cossacks, corresponding to about a 
 squadron. Sotnik — commander of a sotnia. — (Ed). 
 
6o THE BURNING OF ARMS, JUNE 1895 
 
 God, help ! " They dragged us in this manner 
 round the yard — they dragging the master and we 
 clinging to him ; then they tore him away from 
 us, and locked him in the storehouse. There they 
 beat him so, they scarcely left him alive. The 
 shrieks were dreadful ! 
 
 " * They locked me in the hut, and left my 
 daughter-in-law in the yard I escaped from the 
 hut through the window, and a neighbour hid 
 me. They took my daughter-in-law into a room 
 and tortured her for three hours. They abused 
 her, and said, " Where is your God ? He will not 
 save you." The sotnik came, and would also have 
 abused her, but when she said to him, " I shall 
 remain alive, thou shalt perish ; I shall die, thou 
 shalt perish," he rushed out into the yard, and 
 then back into the hut. Then he again wished 
 to abuse her; thought she would yield and be 
 submissive, but she said the same thing to him : 
 " I shall remain alive, thou shalt perish ; I shall 
 die, thou shalt perish." At last the sotnik ordered 
 the Cossacks to retire, as she did not yield to 
 them. 
 
 " * In the morning they let the master go, and 
 we went to him and wept. He also wept, and said, 
 " What shall we do ? Let us pray to God ; we 
 have done no wrong, have robbed no one, have not 
 disgraced ourselves."' 
 
AND **THE EXECUTION" 6i 
 
 " She told me this weeping all the time — the 
 old women were all bathed in tears ; there were 
 in all fifteen men there, and they wept likewise. 
 
 " ' Then,' she continued, ' the^ went into the 
 village. They went to Thena Saprikina's, where 
 she was with an old man and her daughter, and 
 abused them in the same way. 
 
 " ' Then they abused Tania Posniakova. Her 
 husband was not at home, but her cousin was 
 spending the night there. They locked him in 
 the stable. 
 
 " * It was just the same at Mitro Malakhoff' s — 
 they locked him up, and abused his wife to tiieir 
 heart's content.' 
 
 " And this is what Anna Posniakoff, a very old 
 woman, told me : — 
 
 " * They [the Cossacks] came to us during the 
 day— -twenty of them. They called my son, Vassia, 
 twenty-four years old, into the yard, and set him 
 to sweep up the rubbish into a small bag. He 
 made signs with his hands and stood back. They 
 brought a whip to him. Then they seized him 
 and put him in the coach-house. When it was 
 growing dusk, i/hey brought him out into the yard, 
 and flogged him as much as they wished. After 
 they had flogged him three times, they raised him 
 up ; he breathed, so they went on again. When 
 they stopped he was barely alive, his whole body 
 
62 THE BURNING OF ARMS, JUNE 1895 
 
 hacked. They then flung him into the coach- 
 house. 
 
 " * At midnight they came to arrest another son. 
 We said, " We are all the same ; arrest us all ! 
 We will not let him go alone." Two of the women 
 had little children whom they took up in their 
 arms, the little ones clinging tightly to them ; they 
 almost stifled the children trying to tear us from 
 them. They dragged him along, and us with him. 
 Then the Cossacks got frightened for the children, 
 and tried to tear us away. They went into the 
 coach-house where my son was whom they had 
 flogged ; there they kindled a light, and then all 
 approached us. " Spare me, an old woman," I 
 cried ; " take whatever you like, ^^ut do not insult 
 us ; I am really like a mother to you all." Then 
 one of them came and asked them not to alarm us. 
 They took us into a room where the sergeant-major 
 was lying on a bed. We all fell on our knees 
 before him. " May God pardon you for tormenting 
 us so," we cried. They then turned us out of the 
 village, and in the morning we got up and went 
 away. All our property was gone, and there was 
 no one to whom we could go. In three days we 
 returned, to find empty boxes and nothing in the 
 house. 
 
 " ' They also flogged Vassia Kolesnikofif. They 
 flogged him so that his boots got full of blood. 
 
AND "THE EXECUTION" 63 
 
 They did not flog anyone else, but there was scarcely 
 a man whom they did not beat/ 
 
 " Nicholas Posniakoff said : — 
 
 " ' They [the Cossacks] came running to my place 
 one night. They yell, " Open ! " I reply, " We have 
 no lodgin^^s for the night." Then they began 
 knocking at. the door. I found some way of hiding 
 my two daughters in the hut, and ran myself into 
 the coach-house by secret doors. They dragged 
 the mistress and the little one off the stove on to 
 the grmmd. When she cried, " Piotka [her six- 
 teen-year-old son, who happened to be there], 
 knock at the window ; Nicholas is in the yard, and 
 will come and help us," they threw her down and 
 ran out. There was no further violation of the 
 women, but they beat them dreadfully.' " 
 
 This is what Posniakoff sang three times while 
 he was being flogged : — 
 
 " Lord, my Saviour, Thou art my light ! whom 
 shall I fear ? The Lord Himself watches over my 
 life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? Though they 
 bring my flesh to harm, my enemies shall be put 
 to shame. Let mine enemies rise up against me, 
 yet will I not fear this ; though a host should rise 
 up against me, my trust is in the Lord. My 
 father and my mother deserted me in my infancy. 
 My Saviour took me up, and gave me life and 
 prosperity. Place me, Lord, in the way of truth 
 
64 THE BURNING OF A vMS, JUNE 1895 
 
 by Thy holy law. Let not mine enemy trorble 
 me ! I trust in the life to come, but do not leave 
 me in this life, Lord, to the hands of the un- 
 godly. Cover me, Lord, with Thy right arm 
 from all lying slanderers. Let my head now be 
 lifted up against all terrible enemies. I offer 
 with my heart a sacrifice. I call upon Thee, 
 Lord, in the psalms of those that serve Thee. 
 With my heart and soul I cling to Thee ; let me 
 in truth not be confounded, for my trust is in 
 God ! To our God be glory 1 " 
 
CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 65 
 
 VI 
 
 CONSCKIPTION, ARRESTS, IMPRISONMENTS, 
 
 EXILE 
 
 From this time a long history of arrest, imprison- 
 ment and banishment begins. A friend before 
 alluded to in Tiflis writes : — 
 
 " From the accounts of the Spirit-Wrestlers, among other 
 things, this very characteristic fact becomes clear : the 
 military authorities have no desire whatever to listen to 
 their explanations as to the causes of their refusal to engage 
 in military service, and they even peremptorily prohibit 
 them from talking about it. The Spirit-Wrestlers of the 
 ' Great Party' w^re summoned to the recruiting offices in the 
 following places, ii. Suram, Dushet, and Signak, and every- 
 where they finally refused to draw the lots, although every 
 one of them appeared at the recruiting stations. 
 
 ■ •••••«• 
 
 " The General Surovtzeflf, in conversation with them, said, 
 ' You do not fulfil the law of the Emperor ' ; they answered, 
 *As for this la^/, we are only told about it, but for some 
 reason or other we do not see it. What is the use of a law 
 if it can be bought ? Here is the chief of the Kars district, 
 Shegoubatoff, who took a thousand roubles from a man, who 
 applied for a certificate, excusing his son from military 
 service.' And Shegoubatoff himself was present, and stood 
 
 5 
 
66 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 there turning quite pale, but did not utter a single woid, 
 because it was true, and the man who gave the thousand 
 roubles was also there." 
 
 The following is from a letter from the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers in the Elisavetpol prison : — 
 
 *^ November 29th, 1895. 
 
 " Dear brother in the Spirit, — We greet thee, and in the name 
 of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ wish thee to have 
 life and health, and send thee a low salutation. 
 
 " We have for some time heard about our brethren living 
 in different parts of the Russian State. Not knowing where 
 they live, it is difficult for us to have earnest mutual inter- 
 course with them, which brings consolation in our earthly 
 life, and helps in gaining the knowledge of the way to 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 " Now, dear brother, iwe desire to make thy closer acquaint- 
 ance. We have seen thy letter of Nov. 11th, in which thou 
 askest one of our brethren concerning the life of the banished 
 Spirit- Wrestlers in the Caucasus. Concerning this we will 
 tell thee, dear brother, that when we lived according to our 
 own fleshly lusts, and served our own pleasure and lived in 
 compliance to those around us, then the Caucasian officials 
 liked us ; especially when we gave to every government 
 official in our towns every kind of bribe. They then called 
 us a well-meaning people, and said that there was no people 
 better than the Spirit- Wrestlers. But when the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers began to accomplish the will of God and to serve 
 the only Lord, at the same time ceasing to give bribes, the 
 officials immediately changed their opinion about us, and 
 now say, 'You are criminals against the Emperor.' But 
 if the Emperor knew who are the real criminals against the 
 law, he would put them under a special judgment." 
 
 Here is a letter from a Spirit-Wrestler from the 
 district of Kars: — 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 67 
 
 "On the 15th November 1895 there was a conscription 
 by casting lots. Our young men refused to take part in it. 
 One of the officials drew lots for them ; the lot fell to five of 
 them, whereas in all there were thirty-two of ours. The 
 others had to take tickets for the reserve, but they refused. 
 They were all put in prison. 
 
 " Two days previously, there came to us a general and a 
 colonel in order to ascertain why the Spirit- Wrestlers refuse 
 the military service. Four elders from each village were 
 called to the house where these officials put up. 
 
 " The officials asked : ' How is it that the Spirit- Wrestlers, 
 who formerly lived quietly and were in repute all over the 
 Russian Empire for their good life, at the present time have 
 grieved the higher authorities by refusing to acknowledge 
 any authority ? ' 
 
 " Then they asked, ' Why do you not accept the military 
 service ? ' 
 
 " It was answered them : * We cannot kill nor use 
 violence, according to the Word of God, towards our brothers 
 who are created in the image of the Lord.' 
 
 " ' But how is it you did not know this formerly ? ' 
 
 "'Formerly we also well knew the Lord's law, but did 
 not profess it, living disorderly and giving way to drunken- 
 ness.' 
 
 " Then they said, * Perhaps here you are oppressed, or the 
 land is not good ? If you were transferred on to good land, 
 would you accept the military service ? ' 
 
 " ' We cannot leave the law of the Lord.' 
 
 " Then they said, ' Well, you will be banished to Siberia, 
 and there you will suffer every kind of misery.' 
 
 " ' Whatever is done to us, we cannot leave the law of the 
 Lord and fulfil the law of man.' 
 
 " Then they said, ' We will restore to you your houses and 
 the common treasury you formerly possessed ; will you then 
 serve ? ' 
 
 " It was answered them, ' We cannot desert our Lord. '" , 
 
 And again, this is from a letter from some 
 
68 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 Spirit-Wrestlers while on their way under escort 
 to prison from Kars to Tiflis : — 
 
 *^ December Ist, 1895. 
 
 " Dear brother in the Lord Jesus Christ and kind sister, — 
 
 " We testify to you that, according to the grace of our Lord 
 God, we are in health and welfare. Glory to Him for His 
 care and guidance over us. And you, dear brother and 
 sister, are you in health and welfare ? 
 
 " To-day we have received a letter from J. Tregouboff, in 
 which he greets us with brotherly good wishes and salutation, 
 the Lord save him ! He writes that he has * heard that I and 
 Verestchagin are condemned to be hanged, and that he and 
 V. Tchertkoff have written to the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Caucasus, asking for a remand. I do not know how such a 
 rumour reached them ; as yet we have not heard anything 
 about it. Perhaps, indeed, this is being perpetrated against 
 us. This evil is their affair. Our business is to fulfil the 
 work of the Lord, who has given us life and light. We are 
 of course thankful to these our brethren, that they from the 
 overflow of love in their hearts are caring about us, the Lord 
 save them : but according to our understanding it is not 
 proper for a Christian to bow his neck before men and ask 
 for mercy. We for such deeds expect mercy from the Lord, 
 who is merciful to, and saves His people when they truly 
 serve Him in His law, and we wish to attain the honour of 
 being His servants.' 
 
 " He further writes : ' The teaching of your brethren is 
 near to us. Can you send us an account of your faith ? ' I 
 would be glad to write a letter, but while travelling under 
 escort you yourself know how difficult it is. In connection 
 with the work we have begun, I think that not much verbal 
 explanation is necessary. In what our faith consists, I may 
 briefly say : in two commandments brought us by the Saviour 
 of the world, as to loving Him, and loving our neighbour as 
 ourselves. 
 
 " We took leave of our parents when on our way, and also 
 of the brethren and sisters who accompanied us some distance. 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 69 
 
 with a feeling of brotherly love, and who with joy cried to 
 God asking Him to give us the welfare of firmly standing on 
 the word of God, and of conquering the spirit of evil by 
 patience. 
 
 "On the 14th, General Surovtzeff and Colonel Grebenst- 
 chikotf, both from Titiis, visited the village of Spasovka, in 
 the district of Kars. Four of the brethren from each village 
 were called, and questioned as to how it was they had in so 
 short a time changed their mode of life. They answered all 
 the questions with reason in a Christian way. May the Lord 
 Jesus Christ send peace and grace into their hearts that they 
 may live according to His covenant." 
 
 Our friend in Tiflis writes with regard to the 
 recruiting : — 
 
 "It is evident the military authorities did all in their 
 power to conceal, not only the causes of the opposition [to 
 military service], but even the very existence of such refusal. 
 [Men who had been distributed among the detachments were 
 not even compelled to take the oath, nor led out to drill.] 
 And the local papers are prohibited from printing any articles 
 whatsoever on the Spirit- Wrestlers. But 'the light shines 
 even in darkness, and the darkness cannot conceal it,' and 
 there is nothing in secret which will not become known, and 
 therefore all the endeavour to hide the truth came to nothing, 
 and only proved that the persecutors themselves at the 
 bottom of their soul do not hold themselves right, although 
 they feign to look upon the persecuted with contempt." 
 
 With regard to the Commission alluded to in 
 one of the foregoing letters, the same friend writes : — 
 
 " The Commission has been constituted exclusively of 
 military men ; but one must do it justice by saying that one 
 investigation was done thoroughly, and the information was 
 
70 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 collected carefully. This Commission went round the whole 
 district inhabited by the Spirit-Wrestlers of the ' Small ' as 
 well as of the * Great Party.' 
 
 " First of all, the Commission arrived in Signak, where the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers were summoned from the neighbouring 
 Georgiau settlements. They appeared at once, according to 
 the invitation, and were treated very civilly. It is said, for 
 instance, that first of all they were asked to sit down, and 
 were even told they are looked upon as brethren (though I 
 think such behaviour of the military class doubtful). But 
 this is certain, that the chairman of the Commission said to 
 them, ' I ask you to tell the whole truth quite freely, because 
 we are sent by the Emperor to learn the whole truth.' 
 
 "From Signak the Commission went to the village of 
 Slavianka in the province of Elisavetpol, thence to the 
 villages of Kirilovka, Terpayne, and others in the province of 
 Kars, then to villages in the district of Ahalkalak, and every- 
 where made circumstantial inquiries, pecially about the 
 ' execution.' 
 
 "As to the violation of young girls, they did not at first 
 wish to believe the facts, and sought out the victims, who 
 affirmed them. One of the latter who was examined became 
 angry, and said to them, ' Why do you worry me ? For the 
 fourth time you are asking me the same questions, i tell you 
 the truth, why then do you annoy me further ? ' Generally 
 speaking, the Spirit- Wrestlers of the ' Great Party ' told the 
 Commission everything. One of them said to the general, 
 ' You wish to compel us to fulfil the laws, but you yourselves 
 commit iniquities.' The general answered nothing, but 
 afterwards he remarked to the colonel, who stood near him, 
 ' That Spirit- Wrestler was right.' 
 
 " Generally the Spirit- Wrestlers assert that they are ready 
 to obey kind and just authorities, i.e. when the claims of 
 the authority do not contradict the law of God. But 
 certainly they cannot obey the authorities unconditionally. 
 In regard to this they point out Christ's words that one 
 'cannot serve two masters.' One of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 jokin .y remarked that some of their well-wishers are 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 71 
 
 probably not pleased because they (the Spirit-Wrestlers) do not 
 clean the boots of the officials. In this was expressed the fact 
 that the Spirit-Wrestlers of the ' Great Party ' behave them- 
 selves towards any authority with marked independence, which 
 naturally does not give satisfaction. Holding all men to be 
 brethren, they do not recognise any difference in the social 
 position of men. The Spirit- Wrestler will not, like the 
 orthodox peasant, stand at the door of a so-called gentleman, 
 bowing low, but will freely shake hands and sit down, side 
 by side, unconcerned with any surroundings, or the title, 
 rank, or position of his companion, which behaviour naturally 
 grates upon the officials. Moreov^er, the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 speak candidly, and are not afraid to tell men the truth to 
 their face, which is especially displeasing to those who are 
 used to conventional lies." 
 
 The same writer continues his account : — 
 
 " TiFLis, January 18th, 1896. 
 
 "The Spirit-Wrestlers who have recently visited me in- 
 formed me of new persecutions which have been taking place 
 quite lately. It had seemed as though one might expect a 
 change for the better towards the Spirit- Wrestlers, but by 
 the information I have received I am terrified, and convinced 
 that the struggle of ' darkness against light ' is raging with 
 new force. 
 
 " Now, imagine, in the province of Kars during December 
 27th, 28th, and 29th of last year there were many arrests in 
 the villages of Kirilovka, Spasovka, Terpayne, and Gorelovka, 
 and one hundred men of those arrested were sent to the mili- 
 tary prison of Kars. Then on January 8th fifty-seven Spirit- 
 Wrestlers of Kars were removed from the Kars military 
 prison to the prison castle of Tiflis behind the Metekh 
 prison, on the outskirt of the city, and no one is admitted to 
 see these prisoners. 
 
 "Following them came their relatives, who, during the 
 winter frosts, crossed the r:ountain ridges to visit the 
 prisoners, to say to them a vord of comfort, and perhaps 
 
72 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 to part with them for life. But they were driven away 
 from the prison, and were not allowed even to have a 
 glance at the unhappy prisoners, who are shut up in such a 
 way that it is quite unknown how they are dealt with there. 
 
 "Not long ago letters have been received from Spirit- 
 Wrestlers, who, after refusing military service, were sent to 
 the penal battalions in the province of Tersk. They write 
 that they are treated most cruelly; they are beaten and 
 starved, not receiving even sufficient bread, and at the same 
 time compelled to do work beyond their strength. Evidently 
 every kind of ferocity of the authorities against the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers is growing more and more. It is indeed 
 said that Shervashidze [the governor of Tiflis] prepared for 
 his own justification a pamphlet about them, and I believe 
 that, wishing to clear himself, he did not spare the colours in 
 denouncing the Spirit-Wrestlers persecuted by him." 
 
 "Tiflis, June 20th, 1896. 
 
 "Concerning the material wants of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 I have learned the following : In the district of Signak they 
 almost starve from hunger, there is no bread at all ; in the 
 district of Gory there is a little, but many people die here 
 and suffer from sickness on account of the change of climate. 
 Their food consists of bread only. They have received bread 
 from the province of Elisavetpol, and money from Kars. 
 During the winter tliey received from the Spirit- Wrestlers of 
 Kars more than 10,000 roubles. They need help — and that 
 considerably. One of the Spirit-Wrestlers of Kars told me 
 yesterday that they [i.e. the Spirit- Wrestlers of Kars] intend 
 to help them, and that they are collecting accurate informa- 
 tion "concerning their needs. ^ All this information will be 
 sent also to you. 
 
 " Not long ago a Spirit- Wrestler, BarabanofF, died in the 
 Metekh prison from rapid consumption. He was buried by 
 
 * They did help to the utmost of their ability, and now these 
 resources are exhausted. — (Ed.) 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 73 
 
 the brethren, and on the tombstone the following epitaph 
 was engraved : ' Eternal memory to the Christian D. T. B., 
 who by God's will died in, chains for truth ! ' " 
 
 The prisoners in Elisavetpol received a visit from 
 a missionary of the Synod, with regard to which one 
 of them writes : — 
 
 " V. Skvortsoff has not visited us much, and when he came 
 his conversation was about the Emperor. He said that as a 
 priest is responsible for the sins of his parishioners, so is the 
 sovereign for the sins of the soldiers. Then he added that 
 we must defend our fatherland from foes ; but we answered 
 to this that our fatherland is in heaven, and we are pilgrims 
 on the earth. And he said, ' But if a horde of Turks came 
 to conquer you, what would you do then ? ' We answered, 
 * It is all the same to us ; we are all created in the same image.' 
 He said, ' Is the Turk also created after the image of God ? ' 
 He said it deridingly, and added, ' It will be difficult for you to 
 suffer so heroically.' He is of middle size, with a little blackish 
 beard, and seems to be thirty-five or forty years old. In 
 conversatiDn he is very cunning and quick. He visited at 
 Kars and the province of Tiflis, among the settlers, and 
 questioned them all." 
 
 A detailed letter about other conversations with 
 Skvortsoff was taken away from V. Tchertkoff 
 by the authorities, together with many other 
 valuable papers, when his house was ransacked 
 by the police, previous to his exile. 
 
 The following are some more letters from 
 Spirit-Wrestlers. 
 
 From the Spirit- Wrestlers in the Elisavetpol 
 prison : — 
 
74 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 " June 8th, 1896. 
 
 "Dear friend and brother in Christ Jesus, — We inform 
 thee that, according to the mercy and grace of our God and 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we are all in peace and welfare. We heartily 
 greet thee and thy brethren, and wish you welfare in your 
 lives. May God sustain thee, dear brother. 
 
 " Though we are strictly watched in order that we might not 
 be in communication with you and the other brethren, yet we 
 cannot be silent. 
 
 " When we lived in the flesh, according to our lusts, we 
 conformed to the ways of the world, we were the slaves of 
 sin, we pleased the carnal man which leads into pride and 
 perdition of pride, through the love of money and lust, 
 through fornication, intoxication, superstition, murder, and 
 the shedding of the blood of one's brothers ; when we broke 
 the law of God and His commandments, when we lived 
 according to the world, — then we were loved and called good 
 men ; but when we turned away from the ways of the world, 
 when we began to fulfil the law of God, the commandments 
 of Jesus Christ and of our conscience, — then we became hated, 
 slandered, and put into prison on the pretext that we do not 
 acce])t the power of the Emperor. 
 
 " Dear brother, can the power of man have authority over 
 men when it cannot make one hair white or black, and, 
 contrary to the will of God and the teaching of Jesus Christ, 
 compels people to take oaths and fulfil the military service, — 
 when it teaches to kill, to sustain bloody wars, and to call 
 one's brethren foes and enemies ? What a great mistake this 
 is ! Are we not all the children of the same Father ? . . . 
 He is the King of all kings and the Lord of lords. His 
 reign is without beginning and without end. . . . But men 
 have turned away from the works of God, have forgotten the 
 God who sustains them, have followed t\3 flesh according to 
 their lusts, have 'loved darkness rather than light because 
 their deeds were evil.' They have hated each other, the 
 father has turned against his son, and the son against his 
 father ; they bring their own brethren before the judgment 
 of men ; they put people into prisons and penal battalions 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 75 
 
 and torture them for their refusal to accept the military 
 service, and for their knowledge of the truth. A true 
 Christian cannot make war and shed the blood of his brother, 
 but, on the contrary, he loves him more than himself ; for 
 this our brethren are dispersed in painful and distant exile, 
 in order to prevent the spreading of the knowledge of the 
 truth and of the teaching of Jesus Christ, which is contrary 
 to the ways of the world, to ' Babylon and her adultery.' 
 
 "Dear brother, one looks at such rulers and on their 
 unmerciful actions, and one wonders how it is they are not 
 conscious of the higher power of the Lord over them. Every 
 living creature calls forth unto the Lord expecting a speedy 
 deliverance ; especially do the sons of God expect redemp- 
 tion from the slavery of the son of sin. Let us ask God to 
 give us patience in meekness to endure these persecutions, 
 calumny, insult, blows, humiliations, suffering and illness, 
 for this will obtain the love of God. 
 
 " Dear friend, they know not what they do. They think 
 that by such unreasonable, self-willed, unmerciful tortures 
 they please God. Forgive us. Lord ! us sinners and our per- 
 secutors ! Turn them away. Lord, from the way of iniquity, 
 and teach them the way of truth ! May the Lord God hear 
 the groans, wailing, and cries, the voice of prayer of His 
 servants ; may He liberate from servitude His people and save 
 them from the nets thrown over them ! The net will be 
 dissolved, then the sinners will cry and wail on account of 
 their wrong deeds, and the righteous will rejoice in the salva- 
 of their souls in the kingdom of God." 
 
 From Spirit- Wrestlers in the Elisavetpol prison, 
 in response to a greeting from some members of 
 the Society of Friends : — 
 
 "May 1th, 1896. 
 "Dear brother and friend in the faith of Jesus Christ, 
 the merciful Saviour of the world, — Thy letter of April 6 
 and the extracts from the English letters we have received, for 
 
76 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 which we thank thee much. God save thee for thy earnest 
 and simple-hearted love. We also thank the English brethren 
 in the faith of Jesus Christ. The Lord save them with His 
 eternal salvation for their faith in God the Father and Son 
 and Holy Ghost. Dear brother, we ask thee, if possible, to 
 transmit from us our sincere and hearty feeling of love, with 
 entire good wishes to the brethren who are in England ; may 
 God send them health and steadfastness in faith. 
 
 " Portions of our correspondence with thee have fallen 
 into the hands of the authorities. The colonel of the 
 gendarmes has read them to us, and we are deprived of free- 
 dom in answering thee ; they are now strictly watching our 
 correspondence. 
 
 " Be of good cheer and strong in the Spirit ! May the Lord 
 liberate all who live on the earth from servitude. 
 
 " Thy Brothers," etc. 
 
 We will close this section with a striking 
 illustration of how conviction works sometimes in 
 the minds of the authorities, when they are con- 
 fronted with the faithful testimor- and clear 
 reasoning of the Spirit-Wrestlers, and the great 
 difficulty they have in knowing how to deal with 
 them. The friend who writes the following letter 
 took down the history of the conversation from the 
 lips of an eye-witness, " a young man who had 
 already served his time as a soldier, sprightly, 
 enterprising and clever." 
 
 " To the conscription of the year 1895, in the district town 
 of Dushet, there were aummoned seven of the Spirit- Wrestlers 
 who were exiled to the Gory district. They were all 
 entitled to exemption owing to their domestic circumstances. 
 They obeyed the summons, but declined to draw lots, and 
 
IMPRISONMENTS, EXILE 77 
 
 the village alderman was told to draw for them. A report was 
 drawn up of their refusal, and they were sent home again. 
 The judge determined that they were to appear before the 
 Court on the 14th of November, and served them with 
 notices to do so on the spot. 
 
 " They appeared at the Court at nine a.m. The judge said, 
 * Are you the men who refused to draw lots ? ' 
 
 "'We are.' 
 
 " ' And why do you refuse ? ' 
 
 " GlagoliefF : ' Because we do not wish to enter the military 
 service, knowing beforehand that such service is against our 
 conscience, and we prefer to live according to our conscience, 
 and not in opposition to it. Although by the military law 
 we are entitled to exemption, we would not draw lots because 
 we did not wish to have any share in a business which is 
 contrary to the will of God and to our conscience.' 
 
 " The Judge : ' The term of service is now short : you can 
 soon get it over and go home again. Then they will not 
 drag you from court to court, and from prison to prison.' 
 
 " Glagolieff : ' Mr. Judge, we do not value our bodies. 
 The only thing of importance to us is that our conscience 
 should be clear. We cannot act contrary to the will of God. 
 And it is no light matter to be a soldier, and to kill a man 
 directly you are told. God has once for all impressed on the 
 heart of each man, " Thou shalt not kill." A Christian will 
 not only not learn how to kill, but will never allow one of 
 God's creatures to be beaten.' 
 
 " Then said the judge, ' But, nevertheless, we cannot do 
 without soldiers and war, because both you and others have 
 a little property, and some people are quite rich ; and if we 
 had no armies and no soldiers, then evil men would come, 
 and thieves, and would plu:ader us, and with no army we 
 could not defend ourselves.' 
 
 " Then Glagolieff replied, ' You know, Mr. Judge, that it is 
 written in the Gospels, " Lay not up to yourselves treasure 
 upon earth." We have obeyed this injunction, and will hold 
 to it, and therefore shall have no need of defending anything. 
 Why, ask yourself, Mr. Judge, how we can keep our money 
 
78 CONSCRIPTION, ARRESTS 
 
 when our brothers need it ? We are commanded to help our 
 neighbours, so that we cannot find rest in our souls when we 
 see them in want. Christ when He was on earth taught that 
 we should " feed the hungry, give shoes to those who have 
 none, and share with those who are needy. " ' 
 
 " Then the judge began to inquire into our circumstances, 
 and asked how we were getting on, and how the country suited 
 us, all about the distraint, and the Cossacks striking the 
 women and old men, and their outraging the young women, 
 and expressed great astonishment that soldiers, wliose duty it 
 was to protect us, could turn themselves into brigands and 
 murderers. 
 
 " Then said GlagoliefF, ' We see from this, Mr. Judge, that 
 an army does not in the least exist for the protection of our 
 interests, but in order that our savings may be spent on 
 armaments, and is no use in the world, but to cause misery, 
 outrage, and murder.' 
 
 "Then the judge, who had listened to it all attentively, 
 was greatly moved and distressed by all the cruelties which 
 had been practised on the Spirit- Wrestlers. He condemned 
 them, in virtue of some section or other of the Code, to a fine 
 of three roubles, and himself advised them not to pay it. 
 
 " He talked a great deal more to us, and questioned us, and 
 said, as he dismissed us, ' Hold fast to that commandment of 
 the Lord's.' 
 
 " We went to the inn to dine, and see our friends, and 
 before we had had any dinner, the judge came to see us, and 
 brought us two roubles, in case we had nothing to eat. We 
 endeavoured to decline the money, saying, ' We d 3 not want 
 it. Thank God, to-day we shall have enough.' But he 
 begged us to accept it as the offering of a pure heart, and 
 made in sincerity, and then we took it, as from a brother, 
 and after thanking him, and bidding him farewell, went 
 away. He showed us where he lived, expressed a wish to know 
 more of us, and begged us to come and talk with him." 
 
CONDITION OF THOSE BANISHED 79 
 
 VII 
 
 PEESENT CONDITION OF THOSE WHO 
 WEEE BANISHED, ETC. 
 
 So much for the history of some of the prisoners. 
 Those who were banished have not fared much 
 better. Out of sixteen villages (containing in all 
 about 1886 men), 287 adults and 112 children, 
 visited this year, were found to be suffering from 
 hemeralopia, or hen-blindness ^ ; 113 adults and 40 
 children were suffering from other eye diseases, and 
 a few were quite blind ; 5 7 adults and 3 1 children 
 suffered from dysentery ; 86 adults and 22 children 
 were seriously ill. Almost the whole population 
 suffered more or less from fever. Their earnings 
 are very small, in some villages nothing at all, and 
 yet in most places they have rents to pay. But 
 the picture is by no means entirely a dark one. 
 Notwithstanding the fact that such an increase of 
 population must be a considerable burden upon an 
 already poverty-stricken district, there are many 
 
 1 See note, p. 81. 
 
80 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 indications that the Spirit- Wrestlers are winning 
 the respect and love of those among whom they 
 are settled. As early as 6th February 1896 one 
 of them wrote: — 
 
 " Some Molokans [a Eussian Evangelical peasant 
 sect] have begun to afford help to people ; they 
 bring bread and money to the prisons. Glory be 
 to God ! And some of the natives have begun to 
 consider our conduct and many of them approve it, 
 and thank the Lord God for it." 
 
 And on 28th December 1895 our friend in 
 Tiflis wrote: — 
 
 " Eecently I have heard that the ideas of the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers have begun to spread among the 
 Georgians in the villages where the Spirit-Wrestlers 
 have been settled. It is said that the Georgians 
 were impressed by the fact that the Spirit-Wrestlers, 
 in spite of their own great poverty, began to help 
 them with their work. They sometimes even gave 
 away to the poor Georgians the wages which they 
 received from the landlords." 
 
 On the other hand, they have often been very 
 roughly treated, especially by officials. The same 
 writer says, 24th January 1896 : — 
 
 " From the Spirit-Wrestlers who are settled in the 
 Georgian villages come sad news of the continuous 
 oppressions on the part of the authorities, and of 
 iniquitous impositions, because these authorities, 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 8i 
 
 availing themselves of the fact that the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers are recognised as criminals, do not think 
 it necessary to be ceremonious towards them, and 
 draw off from their bodies the last shirt, take away 
 the last bit of bread, and only the strongly-developed 
 sense of mutual help among the Spirit-Wrestlers 
 preserves them from complete destitution." 
 
 The following letters (one from a friend who 
 visited them before he himself was banished to 
 Courland, and the other from a friendly local land- 
 owner) further describe the present state of affairs 
 amongst them : — 
 
 [From J. TregoubofF, at the present time in exile at 
 Goldingen in Courland, Russia, about 12th April 1897.] 
 
 " I have seen the sufferers in the three districts of Tionet, 
 Gory, and Doushet. They were all very glad to see me, and 
 asked me to transmit their greetings to all their brethren. 
 
 " There are the most cases of illness in the Gory district, and, 
 I hear, in that of Signak. Almost all suffer from hen-blind- 
 ness,^ and they become so accustomed to it that they do 
 not regard it as a disease. But they are also suffering from 
 another most dreadful eye disease ; their eyes at first become 
 red and are very painful, then they become covered with a 
 white film, and at last quite blind. Such cases are numerous, 
 and are becoming more and more so. 
 
 " I saw one girl who was all the time sitting with her face 
 covered. "When I approached her and asked her to lift her 
 handkerchief, I saw a white face and white (very slightly 
 
 ^ This term is used in Russia to indicate a state of periodical 
 blindness which comes on daily towards sunset, and is in Russia 
 one of the most frequent effects of insufficiency of suitable 
 
 nourishment. — (Ed.) __ 
 
 6 _-.-..--^---^ -—-' 
 
82 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 greyish^ moving eyes, and I was startled, — it was as if I saw a 
 statue. She does not see objects. The film had been removed 
 at Tiflis, and she began to distinguish light from darkness, 
 but she cannot distinguish objects. Another girl whom I 
 saw has one eye already white and blind and the other red. 
 She also sits continually. I was also told about a boy whose 
 eyes got covered with a white film and then burst and ran 
 out.i 
 
 "Besides this dreadful and strange disease they are exceed- 
 ingly exhausted by fever, dyspepsia, cough, pain in the legs, 
 swelling of the legs and other parts of the body. In one village 
 I found a prostrate invalid in almost every habitation ; other 
 invalids could stand on their feet. Many of them die. They 
 subsist on bread and a little quantity of salted cabbage.^ 
 Many prepare for themselves a soup made from kvas ^ and 
 horse-radish. A very few make their scup of millet, cheap 
 rice, or buck wheat. 
 
 " As you know, on the 10th December they decided to sell a 
 part of their horses and carts, and they left themselves from 
 two to three horses and one cart for every twenty men, as they 
 will have to emigrate to the place of their permanent establish- 
 ment when the Government has decided that question. The 
 money obtained by this sale, together with that which was in 
 the hands of private members of their community and offered 
 by them to the common treasury, composed at the end of 
 1896 a capital of 15,000 roubles.* Of these, 9000 are already 
 spent, and the other 6000 will not, according to their calcula- 
 tion, last for more than two months longer.* For every man 
 (including also the expense upon the horses) about two roubles ^ 
 
 ^ We have information from various sources that there are many 
 precisely similar cases. — (Ed.) 
 
 ^ This kind of cabbage is commonly used by the peasants with 
 their food. 
 
 ' A common Russian beverage. 
 
 * About £1500. 
 
 * This fund is now completely exhausted. — (Ed.) 
 " About 4s, 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 83 
 
 a montli are neces'"ary. As in some places (namely, in the 
 Gory and Doushet districts) small earnings are obtainable, 
 they do not quite spend the two roubles per man. At all 
 events, for two months they will have some food, though 
 insufficient and unsuitable. 
 
 " Their further' fate they commend into the hands of God, 
 and are ready to suffer all." 
 
 A local landowner of the Gory district, upon 
 whose estate upwards of thirty families of exiled 
 Spirit-Wrestlers have been established, has given 
 the following information concerning these Spirit- 
 Wrestlers and those who are living in the 
 neighbourhood : — 
 
 " At first the sufferers were in a dreadful condition ; thev 
 had to live in little huts, about thirty men in each ; the 
 absence of fuel, the want of food, and close atmosphere told 
 upon them most severely ; about half of them then died out. 
 The native peasants, Georgians, at first did not pay any 
 attention to them, and the rougher ones oppressed them — 
 stole their horses and other property ; but when the natives 
 found out that the Spirit - Wrestlers established amongst 
 them live according to the gospel, do not resist evil, but 
 willingly give all they have to those in need, and to those 
 who take it from them with violence, they themselves began 
 to protect them from unkind men, and now help them in 
 every way they can, regarding them as righteous men. 
 
 " At first when the Spirit- Wrestlers had just settled down, 
 the natives used their labour almost gratuitously, and it was 
 well if their most strenuous exertions, altogether unfamiliar 
 to the natives, were paid for by a pieje of bread. The 
 Spirit- Wrestlers did not complain, and were satisfied with 
 that which was given them. At the present time the natives 
 endeavour to surpass each other in affording earnings to the 
 Spirit-Wrestlers. 
 
84 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 " As at first, so also now, the district overseers, following 
 the orders of the local lay and clerical authorities, do not 
 allow the Spirit- Wrestlers to bury their dead, neither in the 
 cemeteries nor in anyone's land. There have been, for 
 instance, cases where the Spirit- Wrestlers, while travelling 
 to the places of their exile, have, many of them, died on the 
 way from hunger and illness, and those who survived were 
 obliged to take the corpses along with them, as they were 
 nowhere allowed to dig graves for their interment. At 
 present the natives, both nobles and peasants, ask the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers to bury their dead in their private gardens, which 
 neither the local administrative nor the clerical authorities 
 are able to forbid. 
 
 " In general the native Georgians, having come to know 
 the Spirit- Wrestlers, do not know why these righteous people 
 are being exterminated, are indignant against the authorities, 
 and are doing their best to help and protect the sufferers, 
 though this ' best ' is more valuable spiritually than materi- 
 ally, for it is so little they can do, owing to their own 
 poverty and subjection." 
 
 One typical case of starvation and suffering may 
 be given — 
 
 "Avdotia Dubinkin, a widow, exiled to the district of 
 Gory, and living there with five children, and her brother- 
 in-law and his wife with four children, lost in the course of 
 one year four children, while four more fell seriously ill ; 
 the brother-in-law and his wife died. H. N." 
 
 There is not space to tell all that one would. 
 We have a letter from John Sherstobetieff (a 
 Spirit-Wrestler) telling how some members of the 
 " Small Party " side with the authorities in oppress- 
 ing the others. Also how Government officials 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 85 
 
 distrain for debt, taking away clothes, etc., far in 
 excess of the amounts owing. 
 
 On 6 th May an exile from the Signak district 
 wrote : — 
 
 "Not long ago I was in Tiflis, and we went to the 
 Commander - in - Ghief, Prince Golitzin, on 30th April, 
 expressly to learn about how our affairs, i.e. our exile, stood. 
 His answer to us was, ' Your exile is unlimited, because you 
 will obey no one.' We could not refrain from telling him 
 God's truth — that we did obey, only we could not become 
 soldiers." 
 
 ["On this," says another witness, "he instantly replied, 
 * That is just what you are suffering for. You have nothing 
 left because you risked all to have your own way. Now you 
 must get your food as best you may.' "] 
 
 The letter continues — 
 
 " It was plain that he did not want to libutin to us. 
 
 "There is no work here except mowing, which will last 
 for another month. Materially we are as badly off as ever. 
 Not long ago a friend from Russia came to see us, but he was 
 not allowed to do so, and was sent back at his own expense. 
 
 " There are many sick and dying among us, but we will 
 endeavour to approach spiritual perfection. . . . 
 
 " I remain your brother in Christ, who loves you from the 
 bottom of his heart, Vasili Potapoff." 
 
 The same writer wrote on 10th April: — 
 
 " Medicines and doctors may, to our minds, stay where 
 they are. They are difficult to get and cost much money. 
 If it is in your power to give material help, then send us as 
 much as you can, for all of us exiles are in want of the same 
 thing. In all the four districts there are about 6000 roubles 
 
86 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 to 3500 souls. 1 According to our calculation, 20 persons 
 and 3 horses cost 40 roubles a month. There is most 
 sickness in the Siguak district, and some in Gory and 
 Doushet. The complaints are fever, oedema, internal in- 
 flammation, and dysentery. There are also bad coughs, and 
 people suffer from their eyes. All the money we have put 
 into one fund, even that which the brethren sent us. In 
 some parts they are working for what they can get — in the 
 Gory district about the railway fere is a little work to 
 be had, but nowhere else is there aiy. The total number 
 who have died in the four districts, that is since our exile 
 in 1895, is 470 persons [which number has considerably 
 increased since April]. 
 
 "The total number of the living is 3500. I cannot tell 
 how many are sick, but really in the present state of affairs 
 not above one in a hundred is quite well." 
 
 One of the last accounts we have from a friend 
 in Tiflis, who says — 
 
 ''May 20th, 1897. 
 
 "I cannot report anything of an encouraging nature 
 with regard to the present condition of the Spirit- Wrestlers. 
 They live as before, scattered in different villages ; their 
 earnings are extremely small — the great majority earn nothing 
 at all ; they sicken and die, but not to the same extent as in 
 winter, which is easily understood, for the vivifying power 
 of spring-time has a beneficial effect on their health. 
 
 " Their position of uncertainty binds them hand and foot ; 
 they cannot take land on lease from proprietors and sow it so 
 as to have corn and forage for themselves and their horses 
 for winter, for there is risk at any time that they may be 
 driven elsewhere, and all their labour and expense lost. 
 
 [Here follows an account of the visit to Golitizin told 
 elsewhere.] 
 
 " Evidently the Government desires to keep them in this 
 
 ^ All spent some time ago. — (Ed.) 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 87 
 
 stat J of material uncertainty, so that they may be obliged by 
 sheer force of hunger to fall in with the proposals of the 
 Government, But this calculation is erroneous, for the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers stand by their principles with amazing staunchness. 
 * We will all perish,' say they, * but will not desert our faith.' 
 " The money they have in hand amounts only to one thou- 
 sand five hundred roubles, which will be exhausted in a verv 
 short time. Their position has become exceedingly critical. 
 If you can obtain anything in the way of pecuniary help for 
 them, please do so with all speed." 
 
 There was a notable trial in the Tiflis District 
 Court on 9 th April. A group of Spirit-Wrestlers 
 of Slavianka in the Elisavetpol government were 
 charged with " resistance to the authorities." In 
 reality they had not only offered no resistance to 
 the authorities, but the latter had acted in a 
 revoltingly arbitrary and cruel way towards them, 
 without succeeding in exciting the slightest revolt 
 on the part of the victims. The true circumstances 
 of the case were disclosed very clearly during the 
 trial, but the Court was so biassed by the influence 
 of the local authorities, that, contrary to all 
 evidence, it condemned the Spirit-Wrestlers to 
 severe punishments, thereby arousing the extreme 
 indignation of the public present at the trial. 
 
 It is well worth remarking how the spiritual re- 
 vival before alluded to, which took place among the 
 Spirit -Wrestlers after their disasters suffered from 
 the Government, reacted upon their practical conduct. 
 
88 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 In the autumn of 1893, at a general meeting 
 of the elders, they decided to cease using intoxi- 
 cants, these being liable to lead men into tempta- 
 tion ; to cease smoking, and thus avoid luxury ; and 
 to cease eating meat, confessing it a great sin to 
 take away the life one cannot give. In this they 
 resumed the practice of their fathers. 
 
 Another most important principle which they 
 revived, was the communal ownership of property, 
 thus returning to that practice of the first followers 
 of Jesus, which has been so soon, so entirely, and 
 for so long forgotten by all who call themselves 
 Christian. This remarkably illustrates the simple 
 way in which certain reforms, representing the 
 highest aspirations of the most advanced portions 
 of so-called civilised humanity, — generally so much 
 and so fruitlessly discussed and quarrelled over, — 
 are quietly realised in practice, as the natural 
 result of an inner sense of brotherhood, when this 
 feeling is indeed genuine and has developed in a 
 given body of people, upon a true spiritual basis. 
 
 Let us describe how this took place in the words 
 of one of the Spirit-Wrestlers themselves : — 
 
 " In the summer of 1894 we liberated ourselves from the 
 evil of the division of property. We called to mind the 
 words of the Lord as to the first commandment being, to 
 ' love God with all one's heart, mind and strength,' and the 
 second one like unto it, to ' love one's neighbour as oneself.' 
 Upon these two commandments stands the law of God. And 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 89 
 
 my spirit wishes to fulfil God's law. That which I do not 
 desire for myself, I do not desire for my ])rother. We, the 
 elders, therefore, met in the village of Orlovka, worshipped 
 God, and decided to divide a^ our property equally amongst 
 us. After that, in every village the money owned privately 
 was brought to one place and put into the hands of the local 
 elders. It was not only the poor brethren who agreed to 
 this, but also the rich ones. Tchernenko, for instance, had a 
 fortune of 25,000 roubles [about £2500], and he gave all up. 
 Other rich brethren did the same. 
 
 " No moral pressure was brought to bear upon anyone, for 
 it was desired that the sacrifice should only be made 
 voluntarily and with love. If such deeds as these are done 
 with effort and pain of heart, it is better to refrain from 
 them.^ 
 
 " The elders, having collected the money, first of all paid 
 the private debts which were owing, and the rest of the 
 money they divided equally amongst all. Each one received 
 about ten roubles [£1], including women and children. The 
 cattle and all other farming accessories were also equally 
 divided among all ; and the hired Armenian labourers were 
 discharged. 
 
 " After this, those who came to be in need received what 
 they wanted gratuitously from those who possessed more, 
 without being ret^uired to return it. 
 
 " We began to plough and mow in common. We would 
 gather together about one hundred and fifty of us, anri mew the 
 fields, first here, then there, as rapidly as if they had been burnt 
 by fire. The corn and hay we divided according to the number 
 of consumers in each family. The workshops also became 
 
 1 In this case, a certain number of individuals, in various families 
 ■ and villages, amounting, together with the women and children, to 
 about three thousand, not being prepared to participate in this division 
 of property, had the share of the family wealth proportionately due to 
 them settled upon them, and thus formed a third party, who though 
 sympathising with the remaining twelve thousand of the "Great Party" 
 were not ready to go so far as them in their self-renunciation. — (Ed.) 
 
90 PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 communal : large rooms or barns, full of people, some coming, 
 others going, old men, young ones, boys, — each doing some 
 work or other, necessary for himself or for others, and no 
 question of payment for the work. 
 
 " When we began to live in this way we all felt ourselves 
 quite other men, as if we had afresh been born into God's 
 world. Even the most decrepit old men, who formerly 
 could do no work owing to their weakness, even they revived 
 in spirit, and took to working with the rest, if it were only 
 at somethin^r unimportant, as, for instance, the twisting of 
 ropes, in order that they might not find themselves alone and 
 inactive." 
 
 Since the first division of property, above 
 described, which took place about three years ago, 
 the Spirit- Wrestlers of the " Great Party " have 
 several times repeated the same method, whenever 
 the inequality of property in private hands became 
 sufficiently pronounced. And it is only this remark- 
 able practice of mutual brotherly solicitude, together 
 with the help they have received from outside, 
 which has enabled them to support so effectively 
 those of their brethren who have been utterly 
 ruined and exiled by the Grovernment. 
 
 One may say, without exaggeration, that this 
 uncultured and almost illiterate people manifest 
 in all their practical proceedings the most perfect 
 exactitude of organisation ; such as might be 
 envied by many of those much more intellectually 
 developed, who nevertheless so often fail in this 
 respect. And indeed this could not be otherwise, 
 
OF THOSE WHO WERE BANISHED 91 
 
 for the spirit itself of true Christian relationship 
 is after all the only condition requisite for the 
 attainment of all necessary practical purposes. 
 
 So, for instance, in the case of affording material 
 help to the starving exiled brethren. The overseers 
 elected by the Spirit-Wrestlers from amongst 
 themselves, for the purpose of distributing relief, 
 had before them a task exactly opposite to what is 
 usually the case in similar circumstances. Generally 
 such overseers have to take great care that the 
 help distributed should not get into the hands of 
 those less needy but more presumptuous ; whereas 
 in this case the overseers have to search for the 
 needy ones, as many of those in the worst condition 
 prefer to remain at home without food for several 
 days rather than apply for help, which they think 
 is as much needed by other brethren as by 
 themselves. 
 
 With regard to such true Christian conduct, 
 the life of the Spirit- Wrestlers, under their present 
 condition of spiritual enlightenment and fervour, 
 affords innumerable illustrations, the description 
 of which would in itself form another volume. 
 Such a record would certainly serve as a startling 
 condemnation of the coldness and selfishness of 
 formal Christianity. 
 
9a CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 VIII 
 CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 The facts related in this Appeal/ composed by 
 three of my friends, have been repeatedly veri- 
 fied, revised, and sifted ; the Appeal itself has been 
 several times recast and corrected ; everything 
 has been rejected from it which, although true, 
 might seem an exaggeration ; so that all that is 
 now stated in this Appeal is the real, indubitable 
 truth, so far as the truth is accessible to men 
 guided only by the religious desire, in this revela- 
 tion of the truth, to serve God and their neigh- 
 bour, both the oppressors and the oppressed. 
 But, however striking the facts here related, their 
 importance is determined, not by the facts them- 
 selves, but by the way in which they will be 
 regarded by those who learn about them. And 
 I fear that the majority of those who read this 
 Appeal will not understand all its importance. 
 
 ^ See Chapter I. 
 
CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 93 
 
 " Why, these fellows are a set of rioters ; 
 coarse, illiterate peasants ; fanatics who have 
 fallen under evil influence. They are a noxious, 
 anti - governmental sect, which the Government 
 cannot put up with, hut evidently must suppress, 
 like every movement injurious to the general welfare. 
 If women and children, innocent people, have to 
 sutler thereby, well, what is to be done ? " This 
 is what, with a shrug of the shoulders, people 
 who have not penetrated the importance of this 
 event will say. 
 
 On the whole, this phenomenon will, to most 
 people, seem devoid of interest, like every 
 phenomenon whose place is strongly and clearly 
 defined. Smugglers appear — they must be 
 caught ; anarchists, terrorists — society must get 
 rid of them ; fanatics, self-mutilators — they must 
 be shut up, transported ; infringers of public 
 order appear — they must be suppressed. All 
 this seems indisputable, evident, decisive, and 
 therefore uninteresting. 
 
 And yet such an attitude towards what is 
 related in this Appeal is a great error. 
 
 As in the life of each separate individual (I 
 know this in my own life, a..d everyone will find 
 similar cases in his own), so also in the life of 
 nations and humanity, events occur which con- 
 stitute turning-points in their whole existence ; 
 
94 CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 and these events, like the " still small voice " (not 
 the " great and strong wind ") in which Elijah 
 heard God, are always not loud, not striking, 
 hardly remarkable; and in one's personal life one 
 always afterwards regrets that at the time one 
 did not know and did not guess the importance 
 of what was taking place. " If I had known it 
 was such an important moment in my life," one 
 afterwards thinks, " I would not have acted thus." 
 It is the same in the life of mankind. A Eoman 
 Emperor enters Kome in noisy, pompous triumph — 
 how important this seems ; and how insignificant, 
 it then seemed, that a Galilean was preaching a 
 n^w doctrine, and was executed therefor, just as 
 hundreds of others were executed for similar, as 
 it seemed, crimes. And so now, too, how 
 important, in the eyes of refined members of 
 rival parties of the English, French, and Italian 
 Parliaments, or of the Austrian and German 
 Diets, and in the eyes of all the business men 
 in the city and of the bankers of the whole 
 world, and their press organs, are the questions 
 as to who shall occupy the Bosphorus, who shall 
 seize some patch of land in Africa or Asia, who 
 shall triumph in the question of Bimetallism, 
 and so on ; and how, not only unimportant, but 
 even so insignificant that they are not worth speak- 
 ing about, seem the stories which tell that some- 
 
CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 95 
 
 where in the Caucasus, the Russian Government 
 has taken measures for crushing certain half- 
 savage fanatics, who deny the obligation to submit 
 to the authorities. And yet, in reality, how not 
 merely insignificant, but comic, beside the pheno- 
 mena of such immense importance as are now 
 taking place in the Caucasus, is the strange anxiety 
 of people, full grown, educated, and illuminated by 
 the teaching of Christ (or at least acquainted 
 with this teaching, and capable of being illumin- 
 ated by it), as to which country shall have this 
 or that patch of land, and what words were uttered 
 by this or that erring, stumbling mortal, who is 
 merely a production of the surrounding conditions. 
 
 Pilate and Herod, indeed, might not understand 
 the importance of that for which the Galilean, 
 who had disturbed their province, was brought 
 before them for judgment ; they did not even 
 think it worth while learning wherein consisted 
 his teaching; even had they known it, they 
 might have been excused for thinking that it 
 would disappear (as Gamaliel said) ; but as for us, 
 we cannot but know the teaching itself, as well as 
 the fact that it has not disappeared in the course of 
 eighteen hundred years, and will not disappear 
 until it is realised. And if we know this, then, 
 notwithstanding the insignificance, illiterateness, 
 and obscurity of the Spirit-Wrestlers, we cannot 
 
96 CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 but see the whole importance of that which is 
 taking place among them. Christ's disciples were 
 just such insignificant, unrefined, unknown people, 
 and other than such the followers of Christ cannot 
 be. Among the Spirit - Wrestlers, or rather, 
 " Christians of the Universal Brotherhood," as 
 they now call themselves, nothing new is taking 
 place, but merely the germinating of that seed 
 which was sown by Christ eighteen hundred years 
 ago, the resurrection of Christ himself. 
 
 This resurrection must take place, cannot but 
 take place, and it is impossible to shut one's 
 eyes to the fact that it is taking place, merely 
 because it is occurring without the firing of guns, 
 parade of troops, planting of flags, illuminated 
 fountains, music, electric lights, bell-ringing, and the 
 solemn speeches and the cries of people decorated 
 with gold-lace and ribbons. Only savages judge 
 of the importance of phenomena by the outward 
 splendour with which they are accompanied. 
 
 Whether we wish to see this or not, there has 
 now been manifested in the Caucasus, in the life of 
 the " Christians of the Universal Brotherhood," 
 especially since their persecution, a demonstration 
 of that Christian life towards which all that is 
 good and reasonable in the world is striving. 
 For all our State institutions, our Parliaments, 
 societies, sciences, arts, — all this only exists and 
 
CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 97 
 
 operates in order to realise that life which all of 
 us, thinking men, see before us as the highest ideal 
 of perfection. And here we have people who 
 ha'^e realised this ideal, probably in part, not 
 wholly, but have realised it in a way we did not 
 dream of doing with our complex State institu- 
 tions. How, then, can we avoid acknowledging 
 the importance of this phenomenon ? For that is 
 being realised towards which we are all striving, 
 towards which all our complex activity is lead- 
 ing us. 
 
 It is generally said, that such attempts at the 
 realisation of the Christian life have been made 
 more than once already ; there have been the 
 Quakers, the Menonites, and others, all of whom 
 have weakened and degenerated into ordinary 
 people, living the general life under the State. 
 And, therefore, it is said such attempts at the 
 realisation of the Christian life are not of im- 
 portance. 
 
 To say so is like saying that the pains of labour 
 which have not yet ended in birth, that the >7arm 
 rains and the sun-rays which have not as yet 
 brought spring, are of no importance. 
 
 What, then, is important for the realisation of 
 the Christian life ? It is certainly not by diplo- 
 matic negotiations about Abyssinia and Constan- 
 tinople, papal encyclicals, socialistic congresses, 
 7 
 
98 CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 and so on, that mankind will approach to that 
 for which the world endures. For, if the 
 kingdom of God, i.e. the kingdom on earth of 
 truth and good, is to be realised, it can be 
 realised only by such attempts as were made by 
 the first disciples of Christ, afterwards by the 
 Paulicians, Albigenses, Quakers, Moravian Brethrei:, 
 Menonites, all the true Christians of the world, 
 and now by the " Cliristians of the Universal 
 Brotherhood." The fact that these pains of 
 labour continue and increase does not prove 
 that there will be no birth, but, on the contrary, 
 that the birth is near at hand. People say that this 
 will happen, but not in that way, — in some other 
 way, by books, newspapers, universities, theatres, 
 speeches, meetings, congress 3S. But even if it 
 be admitted that all these newspapers and books 
 and meetings and universities help to the realisa- 
 tion of the Christian life, yet, after all, the 
 realisation must be accomplished by living men, 
 good men, with a Christian spirit, ready for 
 righteous comraon life. Therefore, the main 
 condition for the realisation is the existence and 
 gathering together of such people who shall 
 even now realise that towards which we are all 
 striving. And behold, these people exist ! 
 
 It may be, although I doubt it, that the move- 
 ment of the " Christian Universal Brotherhood " will 
 
CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 99 
 
 also be stamped out, especially if society itself does 
 not understand all the importance of what is taking 
 place, and does not help them with brotherly aid ; 
 but that which this movement represents, that 
 which has been expressed in it, will certainly not 
 die, cannot die, and sooner or later will burst forth 
 to the light, will destroy all that is now crushing 
 it, and will take possession of the world. It is 
 only a question of time. 
 
 True, there are people, and, unfortunately, 
 there are many, who hope and say, " But not 
 in our time," and therefore strive to arrest the 
 movement. Yet their efforts are useless, and 
 they do not arrest the movement, but by their 
 efforts only destroy in themselves the life which 
 is given them. For life is life, only when it is 
 the carrying out of God's purpose. 33ut, by oppos- 
 ing Him, people deprive themselves of life, and 
 at the same time, neither for one year, nor for 
 one hour, can they delay the accomplishment of 
 God's purpose. 
 
 And it is impossible not to see that, with the 
 outward connection now established among all the 
 inhabitants of the earth, with the awakening of 
 the Christian spirit which is now appearing in 
 all corners of the earth, this accomplishment is 
 near at hand. And that obduracy and blindness 
 of the Kussian Government, in directing persecution 
 
loo CONCLUSION BY LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 against the " Christians of the Universal Brother- 
 hood," a persecution like those of pagan timeS; and 
 the wonderful meekness and firmness with which the 
 new Christian martyrs endure these persecutions — 
 all these facts are undoubted signs of the near- 
 ness of this accomplishment. 
 
 And therefore, having understood all the im- 
 portance of the event that is taking place, both 
 for the life of the whole of humanity and for the 
 life of each of us, remembering that the oppor- 
 tunity to act, which is now presented us, will 
 never return, let us do that which the mer- 
 chant in the Gospel parable did, selling all he 
 possessed that he might obtain the priceless pearl ; 
 let us disdain all mean, selfish considerations, 
 and let each of us, in whatever position he be, 
 do all which is in his power, in order, — if not 
 to directly help those through whom the work 
 of God is being done, if not to partake in this 
 work, — at least not to be the opponents of the 
 work of God which is being accomplished for our 
 good. 
 
 Leo Tolstoy. 
 
 December Uth, 1896. 
 
APPENDIX I loi 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Letter fuom Peter Verigin to the Empress Alexandra 
 
 Feodorovna^ 
 
 May the Lord God preserve thy soul in this life, as well as 
 in the future age, Sister Alexandra. 
 
 I, a borvant of the Lord Jesus Christ, am living in the 
 testimony and glad tidings of His truth. I am in exile since 
 the year 1886, from the Spirit- Wrestlers' Community of 
 Trans- Caucassia. The word "Spirit-Wrestler" should be 
 understood thus : that we in the spirit and with our soul 
 profess God (see, — the Gospel ; the meeting of Christ with 
 the Samaritan woman at the well). 
 
 I implore thee, sister in Christ the Lord, Alexandra, pray 
 thy husband Nicholas to spare the Spirit- Wrestlers in the 
 Caucasus from persecution. It is to thee that I address 
 myself, because I think thy heart is more turned towards 
 the Lord God. And there are at this moment more -women 
 and children suffering : hundreds of husbands and parents 
 are confined in prisons, and thousands of families are 
 dispersed in the native villages, where the authorities incite 
 the population to behave coarsely with them. This falls 
 specially heavily upon the Christian women ! Lately they 
 have been putting women and children into prisons. 
 
 The fault on our part is that we, as far as it is possible to 
 
 1 This letter has on two occasions been placed in the hands of Court 
 ladies, who have near access to the person of the E.upress, but it is 
 unknown to us whether it was, by them, transmitted to the Empress. 
 -(Ed.) 
 
I02 • APPENDIX I 
 
 lis, endeavour to become Christiana. In regard to some of 
 our actions, our undtTstanding may not be sufHciently 
 enlightened. 
 
 Thou art probably acquainted with the teaching of 
 vegetarianism ; we are sharers in these humanitarian views. 
 Lately we have ceased to use flesh as food,^ and to drink 
 wine, and have forsaken much of that which leads to a 
 dissipated life, and darkens the light of the human soul. 
 Refusing to kill animals, we in no case regard it as possible to 
 deprive men of life. If we were to kill an ordinary man or 
 even a rob^^er, it would seem to us that we had decided to 
 kill Chris.. 
 
 The State demands that our brethren should learn the use 
 of the gun, in order to know well how to kill. The Christians 
 do not agree to this ; they are put into prisons, beaten and 
 starved ; the sisters and mothers are coarsely defiled as 
 women, very often with railing exclamations, " Where is your 
 God?" "Why does He not help you?" (Our God is in 
 heaven and on earth and fulfils all His will.) 
 
 This is sad especially because it is all taking place in a 
 Christian country. Our community in the Caucasus consists 
 of about twenty thousand men.^ Is it possible that such a 
 small number could injure the organism of the State, if 
 soldiers were not recruited from among them? At the 
 present moment, they are recruited, but uselessly : thirty 
 men are in the Ekatcrinograd penal battalion, where the 
 authorities are only tormenting themselves by torturing them. 
 
 Man we regard as the temple of the living God, and we 
 can in no case prepare ourselves to kill him, though for this 
 we were to be threatened by death. 
 
 ^ The Spirit- Wrestlers were vegetarians, at least as far back as the 
 beginning of this century ; towards the middle of the century they 
 had relaxed in this respect, as well as in regard to their other 
 principles. — (Ed. ) 
 
 2 In this number are also included the five thousand who have 
 betrayed their original principles, and whom we have described as the 
 "Small Party " in Chapter I.— (Ed.) 
 
APPENDIX I ,03 
 
 The most convenient manner of dealing with us would be 
 to estaiainh us in one place where we might live and labour 
 in peace. All State obligations in the form of taxes we 
 would pay, only we cannot be soldiers. 
 
 If the Government were to find it impossible to consent to 
 this, then let it give us the right of emigration into one of 
 the foreign countries. We would willirgly go to P^ngland or 
 (which is most convenient) to America, where we have a 
 great numl)er of brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 From the fulness of my soul I pray the Lord for the 
 welfare of thy family.— The servant of Christ, 
 
 Peter 
 (living in exile in the Government of Tobolsk). 
 
ro4 AIM^ENDIX H 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 Letter from Leo Tolstoy to the Commander op the 
 Ekaterinograd Penal Battalion 
 
 Sir, — Pardon me, please, for addressing you wityiout using 
 your Christian and parental names. I have not been able to 
 ascertain them ; but the matter of enormous importance, as 
 well for me as for you, concerning which I have to write to 
 you, does not bear delay. 
 
 This matter concerns the confinement in your battalion 
 
 of the Caucasian Spirit- Wrestlers who have refused military 
 service. 
 
 The military authorities, who have condemned them, and 
 you, who are executing on them the sentence of the Court, 
 evidently regard the conduct of these men as harmful, and 
 believe in the efficacy of those severe measures which are 
 directed against them. But there are people, and many (to 
 whose number I also belong), who regard the conduct of the 
 Spirit- Wrestlers as great heroism, most useful for human- 
 ity. In this light, such conduct was regarded by the ancient 
 Christians, and similarly it is, and will be regarded by true 
 Christians of the new time. 
 
 Thus the views concerning the conduct of the Spirit- 
 Wrestlers may be entirely opposite. In one point only all are 
 agreed, both those who regard this conduct as good and useful, 
 and those who believe it to be harmful : — on this point, 
 namely, that men who refuse the military sevice from re- 
 ligious conviction, and are ready to endure for this every kind 
 of suffering and even death, are not vicious, but highly moral 
 
APPENDIX II 105 
 
 men, who, owing merely to a luiHunderHtAnding of the 
 authoritieH (a misundorHUinding wliich will jiroltaMy soon be 
 corrccU'd), arc placed in the same position as tho most criminal 
 soldiers. 
 
 I understand that you cannot take upon yourself to correct 
 the mistake or misunderstanding of the higher authorities, 
 but that while on service you have to fulfil the duties involved. 
 This is certainly so ; but beside the duties of a service which 
 you have voluntarily biken upon yourself, duties obligatory 
 for you only during the small period of your life, — you have, 
 like every man, duties not temporary but eternal, which have 
 been laid upon you independently of your own will, and from 
 which you cannot liberate yourself. 
 
 You know who these men are and wherefore they are 
 .suffering ; and knowing this, you may, without overstepping 
 the limits of your rights and duties, refrain from leading them 
 into fresh disobedience, and from subjecting them therefore 
 to punishments ; you are in general able to have compassion 
 for them, and as far as possible to alleviate their lot ; as you 
 are also able voluntarily to shut your eyes to the distinction 
 between these men and the other prisoners, and to torture 
 them to death, as has been the case in the Voronege penal 
 battalion with an ex-schoolmaster, Drojin, whose case is now 
 generally well known, he dying a martyr to his Christian 
 convictions. 
 
 In the first case, you would receive the gratitude and 
 blessings of the sufferers themselves, of their mothers, fathers, 
 brothers and friends, and above all, you would find in your 
 conscience the incomparable joy of a good deed. In the 
 second case (I do not speak of the prisoners themselves, because 
 I know that they will find consolation in the consciousness 
 that by their death they are confirming their faith), what 
 dreadful accusations against yourself you will arouse by your 
 cruelty, from the parents, relatives and friends of those who 
 may perish under your command ; and above all, you would 
 yourself incur such rebukes of conscience as would no^ leave 
 you the possibility either of joy or peace. 
 
 You could indeed say : " I do not know, and do not wish 
 
io6 APPENDIX n 
 
 to kiiDW wherefore IheHC men are nnnt to nie, but Hinco they 
 arc Hent, they must fullil the hiwfitl (U^inandH etc.," if you 
 really did not know thin, liut you do know — if it wvre only 
 tlirough thiH my letter— that these men are Hent to you 
 because they wish to fulfil the law of (Jod, which is e<[ually 
 binding upon you as upon them, — the law of (Jod, which not 
 oidy forbidn us to kill or torture aich other, but eii joins us to 
 lielp and love each other. 
 
 And therefore, if you will not do all that is in yotir power 
 to alleviate the lot of these men, you will bring u]>on yourself 
 an invJHible but most heavy calamity in the consciousiK'ss of 
 the evident transgression of the will of (Jod, jw known to you ; 
 the coiiHciouaness of an irreparable, cruel, evil deed. 
 
 This is why the case I am writing to you about is of the 
 highest importance and urgency. As for me, the matter is 
 of great importance, because if I did not say all this, 1 should 
 feel myself in fault before you, before myself and before God. 
 
 Everything on earth can be corrected except an ungodly 
 and inhuman action, especially when one knows that it is 
 ungodly and inhuman, and nevertheless commits it. 
 
 Pardon me, i)lea8e, if I have said anything objectionable. 
 Tndy, before God, can I say that that which I have written, 
 I have written only because I regarded it as my duty to you 
 to do so. 
 
 I should be very grateful to you if you were to answer 
 me. — With respect, I remain, yours sincerely, 
 
 Leo Tolstoy. 
 
 November 1st, 1896. 
 
APPENDIX in 107 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 From VriADiMiii Tchertkopf'h Letter to the Commander 
 OF the Ekatkrinourad Penal Battalion 
 
 . . . From the encloHed pamphlet,^ if you will read it, you 
 will learn the object of the present letter. Notwithstanding 
 the complete dillerenco of our relations to this ([uestion, I 
 think you cannot but agree with the chief con8iderati(jna 
 contained in this paper. 
 
 At the J) resent time *herc is, in the penal battalion under 
 your command, a whole group of "Spirit-Wrestleis," who, on 
 account of their religious convictions, are unable to take part 
 in militiiry service, and therefore lind themselves in this 
 military place of confinement, in an exactly similar position to 
 those individuals concerning whom I have given information in 
 that paper. Even although one were to regard the convictions 
 of these men as erroneous, as you naturally cannot fail to 
 do, yet one cannot but admit that, in connection with their 
 views, they manifest remarkable conscientiousness and true 
 courage, in striving not to deviate from that which they for 
 themselves regard as the will of God, notwithstanding the 
 dreadful sufferings, and in some cases even death, to which 
 they are subjected in consequence. Therefore no honest man, 
 whatever his relation to the military service, can fail to 
 
 1 A pamphlet entitled " Unnecessary Cruelty," by V. Tchertkoff, in 
 which the author shows that, even from the point of view of the State, 
 it is neither necessary nor advantageous to make martyrs of those who, 
 owing to their religious convictions, cannot take part in the military 
 service. — (Ed.) 
 
io8 APPENDIX III 
 
 regard, at all events with respect and compassion, these 
 martyrs for conscience' sake, and desire, as far as it lies in his 
 power, to alleviate their sufferings. 
 
 I implore you, sir, carefully to investigate the conduct 
 of these men, and to enter into the motive which prompts 
 them to act as they do. If you will only do this, you will 
 immediately see for yourself that they radically differ from 
 all the other prisoners under your command, and that it 
 would therefore be too unjust and cruel to make the same 
 demands upon them as upon the other prisoners, and to 
 submit them to the same punishments for the non-accomplish- 
 ment of these demands. If an ordinary prisoner evades the 
 fulfilment of the official demands made upon him, he does so 
 in accordance with quite another kind of impulse, having no 
 connection with the demands of conscience ; whereas these 
 men arc in your battalion, placed in such a position that 
 many of the demands of the authorities, which in the eyes 
 of the other prisoners have nothing objectionable, are for 
 them contrary to the will of God, as they understand it in 
 relation to themselves. And just as no true Christian will 
 regard it as admissible to attempt to convert a heathen from 
 faith in idols to the true God by means of flogging, im- 
 prisonment and threats, so also those who do not share the 
 convictions of these men cannot conscientiously regard as 
 admissible the use of compulsory measures with a view to 
 forcing them to act contrary to their faith, before they are 
 inwardly convinced of the falsehood of that faith. 
 
 We all know what a dreadful responsibility is incurred, 
 before God, by him who, for whatever purpose, endeavours 
 to force a man to act contrary to his conscience. May God 
 help us to avoid that responsibility. "We all walk under 
 God,"i and very soon — much sooner than we generally 
 suppose — will come for each one of us the day of reckoning 
 before Him. And we all know that before that highest 
 tribunal, not human but divine, we have to answer, not 
 
 1 A Russian proverb implying that we are all responsible to and 
 dependent on Him, — (Ed.) 
 
APPENDIX III 109 
 
 for any digression from this or that official instruction, nor 
 for the violation of the conventional demands of human 
 public opinion, but for every deviation from the demands of 
 the inner voice of God, which are known and comprehensible 
 to ourselves alone — of that God from whom we have eman- 
 ated and to whom we shall return when we leave this life. 
 
 And in what light, before that court of eternal love 
 and truth, do those men appear, who are unable to go 
 against their consciences in taking part in military service, 
 and whose earthly lot is at the present time in your hands 1 
 To the God of love these men naturally appear as His most 
 faithful and obedient servants. They have believed with 
 simplicity and whole - heartedness in the truth and im- 
 mutability of those demands of love which He has Him- 
 self implanted in their hearts, and disclosed to them in the 
 life and teaching of Jesus. These men differ from others 
 only in having placed the divine love towards man higher 
 than everything else, and having become so penetrated with 
 its spirit and obligations that they can in no way consent 
 either to kill, or to learn to kill their fellow-beings. The 
 will of God has become more binding to them than anything 
 else in the world, and they have gone to prison, to martyr- 
 dom, to death — solely that they may not transgress the 
 demands of this divine love, by which they live. They cannot 
 enter the military service for the simple reason that already 
 they are in the service of Him who teaches them to love their 
 enemies, and who taught humanity that " no murderer hath 
 eternal life abiding in him " (Matt. v. 44 ; 1 John iii. 15). 
 
 And what is our position before this Supreme Court of 
 God in relation to these men 1 We can only, in the presence 
 of God, while humbly acknowledging the purity and saintli- 
 ness of the motives of these His children, thank them for the 
 light with which they illumine the darkness around us, for 
 the true love with which they warm our frozen hearts. In 
 the eyes of God these men manifestly suffer for us ; they 
 undergo torture for love of their n3ighbour, i.e. of me, of 
 you, of all who are dear to us. How then can we fail to 
 recognise our sacred duty before God, to do all in our power 
 
no APPENDIX III 
 
 to afford them that support wliich they, as men, cannot at 
 times but need, and to alleviate their sufferings, the weight 
 of which must sometimes be almost beyond their strength ? 
 
 That movement towards universal brotherhood in which 
 these men are taking part, is daily developing in breadth and 
 depth. From all sides — as from Russia so also from other 
 countries — ^joyous tidings keep reaching us of fresh cases of 
 similar refusals to perform military service, in consequence 
 of its incompatibility with the ripening demands of the 
 human conscience. Of the ultimate triumph of the Christian 
 ideal of love and goodwill between men I cannot doubt, and I 
 feel certain that, if not we oureslves, our posterity, is destined 
 to take part in the establishment of this new era in the life of 
 mankind. Those first intimations of the approaching dawn 
 at which we, with you, have the j')y to be present, bear 
 witness to the inevitable comirg oi the perfect day. And 
 succeeding generations, while enjoying the welfare of general 
 disarmament and peace, will bless the memory of the martyrs, 
 who are at this moment sacrificing themselves before our 
 eyes, in order to help forward the coming of that time. Let 
 us then be worthy of that which is taking place around 
 us — let us do the utmost in our power to mitigate the 
 martyrdom of these men who are announcing to us the 
 approaching amelioration of mutual human relations. And 
 above all, let us try to understand and accomplish that which 
 is, in the present case, demanded of us by God. 
 
 Pardon me, sir, for having, in appealing to you on behalf 
 of these men who, on account of their aspirations and their 
 position, have become infinitely dear to me, given free ex- 
 pression to that which fills my heart at the thought of their 
 condition. Knowing that at the present time their lot lies 
 directly in your hands, I could not refrain from writing this 
 letter, which I request you to accept in the same spirit of 
 sincere goodwill in which I write it. . . . 
 
 November Isi, 1896. 
 
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