The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-29
RUSSIi'S MAN
Of THE HOUR
Parish Priest Petr0tf Who
Believes in Russia'S
Peasantry.

/ The high priests of the Byzantine
Church Of Russia We're Mortified when
they heard that a paper called God
Truth was being hawked about the
holy places at FIVE kopeks copy. They
suppressed the paper and thought TO
suppress its publisher. the parish
priest Pe-roff. But as every liberal pa
per ran a daily column Of Petrotf' :
homilfes Gods Truth" though sup
/ pressed still reached. il is estimated, a
congregation of twenty million people.
The Holy synod then charged him
with preaching socialism and sent him
to Cherementsk Monastery, condemn
/ ed to sing penitential psalms for three
months. Petroff or Gregory Splro-
donovitch. as he. is called by many
/ has since his liberation and arrival IN
/ st. Petersburg been feted by all the
progressive parties. A writer in the
( New York Times says:
! Since his temperance in the poIIt-
( cal world I have talked with Petrof
/ twice. l found him very fluent on the
subjects upon which he chose to con-
verse. Leading questions upon points
/ he wished to avoid he parted with
an address rarely found in parish
priest in Russia or anywhere else He
/ is a tail. heavily built man, carrying
his forty years well. he has violet eyes
lof engaging frankness, and his hair
which he wears long to his shoulders
like all Russian priests, is beginning to
turn gray. a result, he says, of his
recent ecclesiastical imprisonment HIS
voice is deep. full, and musical, real
IIv extraordinary voice, and he speaks
Russian as few men speak it, giving
!aU the vowel and sOmivOWel values.
He has. I believe. a working knowledge
of French and German, and, together
with his little en-year-Old-son, ne
is studying English with the purpose
| of some day visiting America, the
'Iand Of the most happiness" as he
calls it. but he prefers to speak Rus
sian. as well he may. in view OF the
marvellous command he has over that
! language
4 am the son of a peasant, and was
called to be a village priest. / have
Seen and shared what the people sut-
! fer. and I know how patiently they
| bear the ills that are put upon them.
when I found that I could no lon
ger preach Gods, truth at Gods altar
/ I put it i the newspapers. There
/ are but few now, but at that time
! there were no papers for the people
Andreieff and the other decadent writ
ers wrote a language that was differ
/ ent from that which is spoken and IN
derstood by the Russian people. He
land those of his way of thinking said.
the Russian people are foolish chill
ldren. Why should we communicate
/ with them? I, because I knew them,
| said the Russian people are very wise
/ I will tell them great truths in PLAIN
Language I will give them Gods truth
! as it was spoken on the Mount, and
mot as it comes from the Holy Synod,
land they will think. and think. and
when the time comes. act. But in five
| months they stopped my paper. turned
/ me out Of Moscow. Today this is all
! changed They can no longer stop our
newspapers permanently. You can tear
| a few leaves off a tree. but you can
not stop the foliage Of spring. and /
| tell you that our long, long winter is
| past. and spring has come to Russia.
"A people which in one short gener-
| ation has produced TOlstOy Tschai-
| kOwsky. Gorky, peasants son, Men
/ deleieff. the great chemist. and Mech
lnikow. whom France has hOnOred with
/ the succession of Pasteur. has no rea-
son to despair of its sons. We can and
/ will produce legislators and leaders of
men as soon as the old policy of sup
preston is entirely done away with
! And will there be followers, tCO?'
| Most assuredly. I am the son of
/ a peasant and I have grown up with
! peasants. and vet I am daily amazed
| at the shrewdness and political saga
! city which our people are exhibiting,
/ I tell YOU the Russian peasant will
amaze the world when his living
| chance is given him. So far as I have
| seen them. the arguments which are
/ advanced to show our unfitness for
/ liberal institutions or for self-gOvern-
Iment are absurd. They are the same
cunning lies that have been used from
time immemoVial by thos who have
sought their own advantage in keeping
| the people in leadng-strings when not
/ in chains
You must not go near the water
/ they say until you have learned to
swim"