“In the world, ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” — John xvi. 33.
The Dukhobors[1] settled in the Caucasus have been subjected to cruel persecutions by the Russian authorities; and these persecutions, described in the report of one who made inquiries on the spot,[2] are now, at this moment, being carried on. These Dukhobors were beaten, whipped, and ridden down; quartered upon them in "executions" were Cossacks who, it is proved, allowed themselves every license with these people; and everything they did was with the consent of their officers. Those men who had refused military service were tortured, in body and in mind; and it is entirely true that a prosperous population, who by tens of years of hard toil had created their own prosperity, were expelled from their homes and settled, without land and without means of subsistence, in the Georgian villages.
The cause of these persecutions is, that for certain reasons three-fourths of the Dukhobors (that is, about 15,000 people, their whole population being about 20,000) have this year returned with renewed force and earnestness to their former Christian profession, and have
- ↑ The Russian word Dukhobortsui from Dukh, “spirit,” and barets, “a wrestler”—is the nickname popularly applied to the dissidents who refuse to use carnal weapons of defence. The simpler form “Dukhobors” is now generally employed.—Ed.
- ↑ A detailed report of those persecutions, drawn up from personal observation by a friend and agent of Count Tolstoï, was published in the London Times of October 23, 1895.
