Only in two provinces, Kherson and Kief, can we follow
with any degree of accuracy the course of this most
marvellous revolt. We have already sketched its growth in
Kherson; let us now turn to Kief. The first village affected
seems to have been Plosskoye. This was in 1868. Here,
as elsewhere, here as in Galilee, it was the homeless and
landless who first attached themselves to the new Evangel.
Tyshkevitch was one of the earliest pioneers of the faith in
this province. An able colleague of his was Pavl Zyboulski.
Tyshkevitch had lived for many years in Kherson, and had
married a Protestant wife there. He had been long under
the influence of Bonekemper and other pastors. Indeed, so
completely had German ideas penetrated and permeated him
that he is said to have worn his beard and his clothes in the
German fashion. Zyboulski was undoubtedly an abler man
than Tyshkevitch, a man with an extraordinary gift of lucid
and persuasive speech. Abjectly poor, totally without
means of support, he wandered about from village to village,
and was supplied by the brethren with the bare necessities
of life. He also had lived some time in Kherson, and his
native zeal had been shaped and directed by Bonekemper.
The meetings at Plosskoye were at first held secretly for fear
of the police and priests, but after a while, seeing that no
very strong measures against them were adopted, the
brethren grew bolder, and met openly by day in Zyboulski's
lodgings. Peasants from the surrounding villages soon
heard of the grand new message delivered to their fellows
in Plosskoye, and streamed in to hear the preachers. When
they returned to their homes they in turn began to preach,
and from their villages radii of light went out in turn to
villages still more remote. At last the attention of Arseni,
Metropolitan of Kief, was attracted. He put the police on
the track of Tyshkevitch and other leaders, numerous
arrests were made, meeting-places were closed, and arbitrary
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16
THE STUNDISTS.