Courage of the
past, hope for the
future remembered
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Burning
of The Arms -1895
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In 1894, while Russian Czar Nicholas II was demanding that all Russian citizens take an oath of allegiance, spiritual leader Peter Verigin was advising the Doukhobor people to stop using alcohol and tobacco, to become vegetarians, and to take a definitive stand against militarism. Sending his message via couriers from his home in exile, Verigin told his followers to make secret plans to burn their weapons and for all Doukhobor men. in the army to refuse further drill.
The following year at Easter, a soldier named Matvey Lebedev threw down his gun while training in the' Yelizavetopol reserve battalion, stating that war and Christianity are incompatible. Ten colleagues followed suit. For their efforts Lebedev and colleagues, as well as 60 other young Doukhobor men in active service who followed their example, were exiled to a disciplinary battalion.
On June 29, 1895, on St. Peter and Paul Day, a centuries-old feast day celebrated by the Russian Orthodox, 7,000 Doukhobors in three areas of the Russian Caucasus burned their weapons.
Reprisal for this act against the state was swift and brutal. Cossacks, or Czarist soldiers, were dispatched to the villages and many of the protesting young men were whipped, some even to death. It was the extreme persecution following this event that aroused the sympathy and interest of Lev Tolstoy and friends, who began a campaign to find the Doukhobors a place of refuge, and which resulted in their immigration to Canada in 1899.
Ever since that day, Doukhobors remember this heroic struggle of their forefathers, and reaffirm their own faith and pacifistic understanding through ceremonies of remembrance, prayers, and communal food sharing. This year, reverence for this day will be marked in the Castlegar area at the Doukhobor Village Museum, June 27. This will be the 109th commemoration of this historic event. Proceedings begin at 10:00 a.m. with prayers at the Verigin Tomb, and will continue with a potluck luncheon at the Doukhobor Village Museum, followed by a program of song, speech and congregational sharing.
The public is invited to participate.