Evening star., 1921-12-22
TRYING IMPROVED
RED" COMMUNITY
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
YASNAYA POLYANA. Russia No
vember 20-Fifteen young men, two
young women and an elderly matron
have recently established on the Toll
stoi estate what they term IAN i'm
proved bolshevik community" De-
scribed as an attempt to rectify fail
ure of communism. the members of
the colony are the declared enemies of
the destruction of property. human or
animal life. and thus are arrayed
against the soviet government.
. The members of the colony make a
religion of manual labor and declare
its chief tenet to be embodied in the
phrase, Love thy neighbor as thy
self" They declare themselves. like
Count Tolstoi. 'searcherS for the truth
in all things" They arrived here in
early September. with a permit from
Moscow to occupy Il portion of the es
tate now classed as a national institu-
tion. A teacher, whose brother is di-
rector of the colony. organized the
movement The eighteen members, all
Of whom profess the practical ideal
ism of the DoukhoborS sect, with a
mingled belief in buddhism. were al
lotted quarters in a once handsome.
but now tumble d. down, one story
building of the estate. built in 1880
for the serfs Of Prince Eolkonski. ia
ther of TOlstois mother
Prepare for Cultivation.
The new arrivals have made the
building habltable and have started to
prepare for the cultivation of the
100 acres included in their grant. Food,
so far, has been supplied free by the
soviet government. the same as to all
visitors to the Tolstoi home. The
three women do the cooking.
tact with member of the colony in
rather strange manner. After a. long
journey he had been enrolled as a
pilgrim at the Tolstoi home, accord
ing to the rules of the institution. He
was given a bed in the ground-fi
room, characterized by a big brick
arch. room occupied by Tolstoi for
some fifteen years. Just as he was
dropping Off to sleep he was reused
by pleasing chords on the grand piano
done by a young man who wore high
boots, belted jacket and a sheepskin
cap. Seeing the correspondent, he
stopped playing and apologized. say
ing he didn't know the room was
occupied. Then he went on to explain
who he was and began to ask infor-
nation about the possibility of walk
ing to India, by way of Turkestan. He
wanted to study philosophy there, he
said.
Members Are Vegetarians.
The 1O0-acre farm includes a big
orchard planted by the famous Rus
sian author. and one OF the first acts
of the newcomers was to whitewash
all the trees. This operation was pre-
ceded by an animated discussion as to
whether it should be done. The young
men carefully debated this problem.
If the trees are not white washed the
orchard will be ruined by insects, but
if the whitewash is applied the in
sects will die of starvation and it is
wrong to destroy life. AS the MEM
bers of the colony are vegetarians
and fruit is. therefore, the prime ar
ticle of food to them, necessity pre-
vailed over ideals and the whitewash-
ing was done.
A second problem was solved much
after the same reasoning. For many
years the manager of the Tolstoi
estate has been Prince Obolinski who
occupied building once used by the
author as peasants school. The
newcomers, declaring that the pres
ence of an overseer might restrict
their '1iberty of action" have decreed
that the prince must go and the Obo-
linski family soon must seek food and
shelter elsewhere.