The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-16
DUKHoBORS GOING BACK.
Eleven Thousand About to Leave Canada
for Russia.

Eleven Thousand ABOUT 20 Leave Candod
for Russia.
The announcement that Peter Verigin,
the leader of the ten to eleven thousand
Russian Dukhobors, or DukhoboEtsy has
declared his intention of returning to il
Russia with his followers has caused a
mild sensation in Canada. Fifteen years
ago a similar announcement would have +,
been received by the people of Western
Canada with expressions of devout graft
tude. The lliterate peasant spirit
wrestlers," as their name implies, were II
Idisliked as religious fanatics, who herd Il
ed together in community houses, and, Il
though peaceable and Industrious peas
ants, refused to conform to Canadian 1
laws, and regulations or to. accept ma
tionality, But now everywhere in West
ern Canada they are recognized as re- I
markable colonists, even if bad citizens, I
while Peter Verigin is acknowledged to |
be genuine leader of men.
| The Dukhobor has never been wan |
! derer of his own free will. He has moved !
/ from place to place in Europe as the re
suit of consistent persecution. Church !
and State went for him hammer and
longs" the one telling him that all re-
gious sects must be brought into con
j formity with established Greek Cathol
lclsm, the other that he must become a
soldier under the conscription act of
1887 At first he complied with the mill
Itary law and went off to battle, but with
the distinct understanding between him
and the elders that if he were compelled
to discharge his rifle he would fire it in
the air. For he has always. been a con-
sistent nonresistant and so-consistent an
opponent of war of all kinds that, in exile
in the Caucasus, the community threw
away the weapons that had been con-
: sidered necessary to protect its mem
bers from wild animals
In the first year of their settlement in
Canada, the men scattered in. order to
earn wages on farms, on railways, and
: in sawmills. Meanwhile, thewomen built,
, the future residences and; lacking horses,
, plowed the land by Harvesting them
. selves, twelve pairs of women to pillow,
/ with one plowman to drive them.
} Brilliant, in British Columbia, is one
e of the great Dukhobor centers and the
| Socialists Utopia. Here the community
: is wholly self contained and has realized
: something of that equality of its com
ponent citizens for which there is SO much
e striving in the world today. In contrast
2 to the modern city, there are no anxieties
concerning the source of the next days
t needs. There are evidently no divisions
n between mine" and thine" no lealousies
or envies over the possessions of another,
/ for no man is richer than his fellow No
t money is in circulation. One member
g of the executive does all the outside
/ selling and buying, and all money re-
ceived is turned over to the treasury
in hos n aciY1 VOL l,e
IS within the community. All the neces-
e saries of life are doled out without il
II by the various departments in charge
e Everybody has the wherewithal, which
is not of silver and gold. and there is
a no theft, any more than there is visible
o machinery of government The gov
g eminent Is the people. Once week they
1t crowd into the large assembly hall and
le discuss the affairs of the community, and
the managers of the several departments
n are given their instructions according t
{ popular sentiment. The Dukhobors pos
lie sess the system of initiative, referendum
e and recall in an admirably simplitieC
form: their officials and temporal repre-
ct sentatiyes hold office as long as they d.
I'd their work well.
rs The Dukhobor is frankly impossible
to the average human being. He want
~ no police because he is free from crime
as He will neither drink nor lie. He i
E. wealthy, collectively, and vet he viii no
have anything to do with lucre, or dres
otherwise than as peasant Fashion
do not tempt his womankind. Conten
or with a skirt that she herself has spur
q kerchief upon her close cropped head
a the feminine Dukhobor is never temple
It by vanities to foolish straying from tn
he paths of duty concerning her work or he
:" children. Her sole diversion an occasion
~ al religious discussion, hers is a life G
or really strenuous toll, without any c
the usual reliefs and without one touc
I'M of luxury. She is apparently content a
he never woman was before her. The ca
st of the great city, with its teeming wealth
of its worshippers of the gods of Mammo
i'll and Desire, goes UNDECIDED as she sits
Use the community yards pounding ont fial
so. seed or spinning on curious old Russia
Nv wheels.
What is the explanation of these p,
me .eular people who live 80 simply on
av farm or ranch which may stretch fl
mo- miles along the broad and stately c.
,st lumba river? And can Canada affol
he to lose the sisters and brothers" of
nix community who have builded better ths
I they knew, who have created uniql
70 state in the midst of the ild?-Chrl
to tian Science Monitor.
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