The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-08
RECRUITING IN RUSSIA
Count TOlstoi's Touching Descrip-
ton OF the Annual Event.
The Army of the Car Supplied at the
Cost of Morality and Ambition i'm
the Youths of the Land.
Count L. Tolstoi, in the Russian.

in whose general noise were heard the
hoarse shouting of men and the fearful
lamentations of women 1t was the gather
ing of military recruits. l never could
pass this spectacle without stopping; 1t at
tracts me against my will. L mixed with
the crowd, asking questions, watching. and
was amazed at the recklessness with which
this terrible crime is committed in the cen
ter of the city, and in full daylight.
Every year, coward the first of November,
in all the towns and villages OF Russia, the
starosta (village officials) get together the
young people of the requisite age, their
own sons often among them, and take
them TO town. On the way the recruits
get beastly drunk; and the officials do not
prohibit drunkenness, because it would be
altogether too cruel to force them to leave
their wives, mothers and everything dear
to them for no other object than to become
a passive instrument of destruction, with
out obscuring their reason by drink, and
thus they go in sleighs. singing, shout
ing, abusing and fighting each 9TH
er. The night is spent in the liquor
saloons. In the morning they again drink
whisky to retain their courage, and then
they gather around the City Hall. There
they stand, with faces swollen from drink.
Some emit wild cries, others are quiet and
sad, awaiting their turn at the doors, sur
rounded by wives and mothers, and others
again press into the ante-room of the re
cruit examination hall.
Meanwhile, inside the work goes on at
a rapid rate. The door opens, and the
door-keeper calls Peter SiGoroff. Trem-
ling and crossing himself, the candidate
door where the recruits undress them
selves, Sidoroff's comrade, pronounced
animation hall naked and shivering, and is
hurIiedly dressing himself. Sidoroff reads
on his face that he has passed" and
WISHES TO speak to him, but he is ordered
to get ready and lose no time.
FOR THE EXAMINATION.
He undresses himself. and perspiring,
trembling and emitting the odor of tobacco
and liquor, walks into the examination hall,
not knowing what to do with his muscular
hands. In the hall, In a conspicuous place,
hangs the picture Of the Car in full uni
form. while in a corner is q small likeness
of Jesus Christ. In the center of the room
is IL large table covered with green cloth;
around the table, with calm, confident ex-
preston, sit the members of the commits
sion; one smokes a cigarette. another copies
papers. AS soon as Sidorof enters the
doorkeeper approaches him, leads him to
the stand, puts his legs together and raises
his chin. The gentleman with the cigarette
who is the ph-ysician-comes up, and with
out looking into Sidoroff's face measures
ana examines him in evident disgust; he
makes him open his mouth, breathe, speak.
Some one records the doctors statements.
Finally the doctor says, Good. Next"
ana sits down with a tired look. Another
young man is hurried forward, while ST.
doroff dresses himself in confusion. Then he
is led into another room, where those
young man, a peasant like themselves, but
from a distant province and already q
solder armed with a gun. watches
4 lDG0l. lpadN 10 n1arna any II ram
should he conceive the idea of escape. on
the street, the crowd of fathers, mothers,
forward desiring to learn who was ac-
cepted and who rejected. One Of the re-
cruitS comes out and announces that Peter
Is accepted; at the same moment a cry is
heard from Peters wife, to whom the
years; and the life of a soldiers wife, like
that of a servant, is a life Of prostitution.
But now a man comes in a carriage whose
dress distinguishes him from the crowd.
The policemen make a uaS5age for him.
1t is the father" the priest, come to adj
minister the oath to the new recruits. This
father who was taught to believe that
he is the exclusive minister of Christ, and
who, in a majority of cases, docs not see
where the recruits are awaiting MIN. He
puts on a silk garment, drringes his long
hair, opens the evangel, IN which SWEARING
is plainly prohibited, and takes The cross.
All these unhappy, helpless, deceived
young men repeat after him the words
which he reads in a firm, trained manner:
Il promise and swear by the Almighty God
and His Holy Evangei'' . = = etc, that
L will defend (murder) all those who may
be pointed out to me, and do all that peo-
pie whom ! do not know and who need me
in order 20 crush my brothers and commit
position may order me to do. The recruits
stupidly repeat these wild words. Then
the father departs, fully convinced that
he had discharged his duty properly and
ccnscientiOusly; while the young victims
are convinced that these absurd, incompre-
hensible words have freed them for the
! term OF their service from all human Ohli-
cations and created for them the new.
more rigorous duties of the soldier.
NO TIME TO REFLECT.
And this act is committed publicly, with
out anybody's saying to the deceivers and
deceived: Reflect. This is the vilest and
most ~blaspherpous lie, which condemns not
only your bodies. but your souls aIso.'
Nobody does it; on the contrary, the col
onel, having finished the examination, en-
ters triumphantly the recruits room and,
as if to heap insult upon injury. cries in
military style: 'Zdorava, rebiota, I con-
graduate you on entering the Cars SER
vice" And the unfortunate wretches STAN
mer a few words that are meant to iex-
press their satisfaction in a voice heavy
from the drunk Of the day before.
Outside. the relatives sire still waiting.
The women. with eyes red from weeping,
watch the door. 1t opens at last. ard the
recruits, staggering, but trying to appear
giances OF their parents. Again the lamenta-
tons and hysterical cries OF the women
begin on every side. Some fervently en-
brace their parents or wives, some console
them, knowing well that they are lsft
without a provider for some years. The
fathers say little. They know that they
will never see the helpers whom they have
raised and brought up. that their sons
wiz never return as peaceful and indus
triCuS agriculturiSts, but as l0afcrs and
d~runkardS with an aversion to work.
At last the crowd disperses, the recruits
again going to the saloons, whose business
furnishes the income of the COVornmpnf
They remain at home two or three weeks,
drinking nearly all the time. Then they
are gathered together and their military in
Struction begins. Their teachers are the vie
tins of a few years before. The means Of
instruction are whisky. blows, lies and bru-
talization. Before q year passes. these
young men, healthy in body and spirit, be-
come as savage as their teachers.
well, suppose your father should be ar
rested and he should wish to escape. what
would you do?' l asked a young soldier.
Il would pierce him with my bayonet,"
said he, and If he should try to run away,
l would have to shoot him." he added, as
If proud of such a post.
When a man becomes lower than a wild
beast he answers the purposes of those
vino use him as a weapon of oppression;
the man has disappeared, a new instru-
ment of oppression has been.
And this is done every fall all over Russia
in full daylight in the heart of the city, that
all may see and know; and the fraud is so
skillful that. while all are conscious in their
inmost souls of their vileness and are
ashamed of it, they cannot free themselves
Of Ii.
Handy Man with an AK.
St. Louis Republic.