Abstract
As the reader already knows, the day selected for the burning of weapons was Peter and Paul’s day, June 29, 1895. On this day, in all the three guberniias, Doukhobors willing to follow the advice of Pëtr Vasil’evich had to burn all of their weapons. Not all the Doukhobors knew about the day and where the fire would be started. They were only expected to discuss and decide this matter in earnest, and then they would be notified later. No more than two or three reliable people in every village knew about that day. This was done so that the government would not learn about it in advance, because if they had learned about it, they would have taken all measures to not allow it. Although the weapons did not belong to the government, the officials knew well that the government’s power would be undermined by such actions.
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Notes
- 1.
The text uses the word “funt” (Russian equivalent of the word “pound”), which equals 16.3 kg. Since there is no equivalent unit in the English Imperial system, the word “gallon” was used in the translation. The actual amount of 30 Russian gallons of kerosene equals 30 × 16.3 = 489 kg. Almost half a ton of kerosene was used during the burning of the weapons.
- 2.
“Aul” is a word used to refer to local villages in the Caucasus Mountains.
- 3.
Sobranie (or sobran’e, sobraniia in plural) is a Doukhobor Assembly that typically started with “molenie” (molen’e) (including prayers, psalms and hymns) and continued with the resolution of pertinent matters by the assembly.
- 4.
Kars is a town in Turkey. With its surrounding area, at the time of the narrative, it belonged to the Russian Empire. It was one of the areas of the Transcaucasian exile of the Doukhobors. Since 1921, it has been a part of Turkey.
- 5.
Elizavetpol’ (later Kirovabad, since 1989, Ganja) was the capital of Elizavetpol’ guberniia in the Russian Empire. Since the separation of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union, it is one of the largest cities in Azerbaijan.
- 6.
The original text uses “sazhen” (pace), a unit of measurement employed in tsarist Russia, which equals about 2.1 m. Thus, the actual distance from the grove indicated in the text is over 400 m.
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Verigin, G.V. (2019). The Burning of Weapons in Three Guberniias and the Return of the Reserve Conscription Cards. In: Makarova, V., Ewashen, L. (eds) The Chronicles of Spirit Wrestlers' Immigration to Canada. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18525-1_14
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