A population of twelve thousand people - „Christians of the Universal Brotherhood“, as the Doukhobors, who live in the Caucasus, call themselves - are at the present moment in the most distressing circumstances. Without entering into argument as to who is right: whether it‘d be the governments who consider that Christianity is compatible with prisons, executions, and, above all, with wars and preparations for war; or whether it‘d be the Doukhobors, who acknowledge as binding only the Christian law (which renounces the use of any force whatever and condemns murder), and who therefore refuse to serve in the army - one cannot fail to see that this controversy is very difficult to settle. No government could allow some people to shun duties which are being fulfilled by all the rest and to undermine thereby the very basis of the State. The Doukhobors, on the other hand, cannot disregard that very law, which they consider as divine, and, consequently as surpremely obligatory.

Appeal on Behalf of the Doukhobors (March 19, 1898)

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy
(1828-1910)