Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-11-24
BONDAREFFS LABOR.
A BOOK THE CAR SUPPRESSED AND
TOLSTOl BROUGHT OUT.

A Russian Peasants Application of the
Penalty Pronounced Upon Adam in the
Garden of Eden, "In the Sweat of Thy
Face Shalt Thou Knead Bread"
While all the heavy weight economists
and profound scientists have been flood
ing us with pamphlets, paper backs and
two volume cloth bounds on the labor
question during the past few years, it
has been left to a Russian peasant to
give the most unique and startling con-
tribution to the subject. Labor, Ac-
cording to the Bible" by Timothy Mi
chailovitch Bondareff, has recently been
translated, and is now found on the
book stands In its simple pea-green pa
per cover it attracts little attention, but
beneath this unassuming outside is an
array of charges against the present sys-
tenn and arguments in favor of the au-
thors proposals which hold the atten-
ton if they do not in every case con-
vince.
Labor" as is stated above, was writ
ten by a Russian peasant, Bondareff,
who was 65 years of age before he knew
how to read or write. When he had
finished his work he submitted copy Of
it to the czar, who ordered it suppressed.
presumably because of its arraignment
of the ruling class in Russia. Count
Lyof Tolstoi, who knew Bondareff, es-
poused the cause Of the untutored prophet
and author, and under the direction and
protection of the great novelist and scien-
fist the book was published, but only to
be again interdicted by the ruler over
all the Russias. It was then placed in
the hands Of Amedee Pages, who brought
it out in French, from which language
it has been translated into English by
Miss Mary Cruger. All this has taken
place within very short time, as it is
chronicled that Tolstoi had no knowl-
edge of Bondaref prior to the year 1885.
Bondaref belongs to the sect of Sab
batists and is a devoted believer in the
Bible, which he read through carefully
several times, though at first scarcely
able to spell. When he wrote Labor
he was still very illiterate, as Count Toll
stoi says that while he made no change
in the thoughts set down, yet he had to
substitute for Bondareff's peculiar or.
biography one more generally used in
books" The peasant believes that he
has found in the Bible solution of all
social questions, and Tolstoi in What
Is My Life" What Should Be Done
~ Oh. <1>rk H.
imbibed pretty generally the theories of
Bondareff, while he introduced into his
own life the reform that the peasant ad-
vocates: he set himself to work with his
hands, fact we'll known to those who
have read much of the matter concern
ing the author of 1.-THE Kreutzer Sonata"
recently printed.
But what does Bondareff advocate?
you ask. That each man should earn
his own bread and that of his wife and
children by the actual labor of his own
hands, by cultivating the soil. He says
the first law Of God given to Adam is,
I'm the sweat of thy face shalt thou
knead bread" not "eat" bread, as it is
generally translated. This law was
given to Adam as punishment for TAX
ing the fruits Of others labor. At the
same time God said to Eve, I'm sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children" Bon
daref very pertinently asks why man is
allowed to escape while from woman is
exacted strict obedience to the law. Toll
stoi disagrees with Bondareff in the lat
ter's doctrine that the law of labor is the
effect of divine malediction, holding
that labor is pleasure and not curse.