The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / MiscellaniesTolstoy, Leo, graf
Religion
The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Russian literature -- Translations into English
frontier, where it is in a state of siege, and where he may be shot
for refusing to serve, and where the matter may pass unnoticed,
since in that distant country there are few Russians and Christians,
and mostly natives and Mohammedans. And so they do. The young man
is attached to the troops located in the Transcaspian Territory,
and with criminals he is despatched to a chief who is known for his
determination and severity.
During all this time, with all these transportations from one place
to another, the young man is treated rudely: he is kept cold,
hungry, and dirty, and his life in general is made a burden for him.
But all these tortures do not make him change his determination. In
the Transcaspian Territory, when told to stand sentry with his gun,
he again refuses to obey. He does not refuse to go and stand near
some haystacks, whither he is sent, but he refuses to take his gun,
declaring that under no condition would he use violence against any
one. All this takes place in the presence of other soldiers. It is
impossible to let such a case go unpunished, and the young man is
tried for violation of discipline. The trial takes place, and the
young man is sentenced to incarceration in a military prison for
two years. He is again sent by étapes with other criminals to the
Caucasus and is shut up in a prison, where he falls a prey to the
uncontrolled power of the jailer. There he is tormented for one year
and six months, but he still refuses to change his decision about
taking up arms, and he explains to all those with whom he comes in
contact why he does not do so, and at the end of his second year
he is discharged before the expiration of his term, by counting,
contrary to the law, his time in prison as part of his service, only
to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
Just like this man, as though having plotted together, act other men
in various parts of Russia, and in all those cases the mode of the
government's action is as timid, indefinite, and secretive. Some of
these men are sent to insane asylums, others are enlisted as scribes
and are transferred to service in Siberia, others are made to serve
in the forestry department, others are locked up in prisons, and
others are fined. Even now a few such men who have refused are
sitting in prisons, not for the essential point in the case, the
rejection of the legality of the government's action, but for the
non-fulfilment of the private demands of the government. Thus an
officer of the reserve, who did not keep the authorities informed
of his residence and who declared that he would not again serve as
a military man, was lately, for not fulfilling the commands of the
authorities, fined thirty roubles, which, too, he refused to pay
voluntarily. Thus several peasants and soldiers, who lately refused
to take part in military exercises and take up arms, were locked up
for disobedience and contempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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