The Kingdom of God Is Within You, Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy [books to read fiction .TXT] 📗

men. These are the individual

bees, who are beginning to separate from the swarm, and are flying

near it, waiting till the whole swarm can no longer be prevented

from starting off after them. And the governments know this, and

fear such incidents more than all the socialists, communists, and

anarchists, and their plots and dynamite bombs.

 

A new reign is beginning. According to the universal rule and

established order it is required that all the subjects should take

the oath of allegiance to the new government. There is a general

decree to that effect, and all are summoned to the council-houses

to take the oath. All at once one man in Perm, another in Tula, a

third in Moscow, and a fourth in Kalouga declare that they will

not take the oath, and though there is no communication between

them, they all explain their refusal on the same grounds—namely,

that swearing is forbidden by the law of Christ, and that even if

swearing had not been forbidden, they could not, in the spirit of

the law of Christ, promise to perform the evil actions required of

them in the oath, such as informing against all such as may act

against the interests of the government, or defending their

government with firearms or attacking its enemies. They are

brought before rural police officers, district police captains,

priests, and governors. They are admonished, questioned,

threatened, and punished; but they adhere to their resolution, and

do not take the oath. And among the millions of those who did

take the oath, those dozens go on living who did not take the

oath. And they are questioned:

 

“What, didn’t you take the oath?”

 

“No, I didn’t take the oath.”

 

“And what happened—nothing?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

The subjects of a state are all bound to pay taxes. And everyone

pays taxes, till suddenly one man in Kharkov, another in Tver, and

a third in Samara refuse to pay taxes—all, as though in

collusion, saying the same thing. One says he will only pay when

they tell him what object the money taken from him will be spent

on. “If it is for good deeds,” he says, “he will give it of his

own accord, and more even than is required of him. If for evil

deeds, then he will give nothing voluntarily, because by the law

of Christ, whose follower he is, he cannot take part in evil

deeds.” The others, too, say the same in other words, and will

not voluntarily pay the taxes.

 

Those who have anything to be taken have their property taken from

them by force; as for those who have nothing, they are left alone.

 

“What, didn’t you pay the tax?”

 

“No, I didn’t pay it.”

 

“And what happened-nothing?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

There is the institution of passports. Everyone moving from his

place of residence is bound to carry one, and to pay a duty on it.

Suddenly people are to be found in various places declaring that

to carry a passport is not necessary, that one ought not to

recognize one’s dependence on a state which exists by means of

force; and these people do not carry passports, or pay the duty on

them. And again, it’s impossible to force those people by any

means to do what is required. They send them to jail, and let

them out again, and these people live without passports.

 

All peasants are bound to fill certain police offices—that of

village constable, and of watchman, and so on. Suddenly in

Kharkov a peasant refuses to perform this duty, justifying his

refusal on the ground that by the law of Christ, of which he is a

follower, he cannot put any man in fetters, lock him up, or drag

him from place to place. The same declaration is made by a

peasant in Tver, another in Tambov. These peasants are abused,

beaten, shut up in prison, but they stick to their resolution and

don’t fill these offices against their convictions. And at last

they cease to appoint them as constables. And again nothing

happens.

 

All citizens are obliged to take a share in law proceedings in the

character of jurymen. Suddenly the most different people—

mechanics, professors, tradesmen, peasants, servants, as though by

agreement refuse to fill this office, and not on the grounds

allowed as sufficient by law, but because any process at law is,

according to their views, unchristian. They fine these people,

trying not to let them have an opportunity of explaining their

motives in public, and replace them by others. And again nothing

can be done.

 

All young men of twenty-one years of age are obliged to draw lots

for service in the army. All at once one young man in Moscow,

another in Tver, a third in Kharkov, and a fourth in Kiev present

themselves before the authorities, and, as though by previous

agreement, declare that they will not take the oath, they will not

serve because they are Christians. I will give the details of one

of the first cases, since they have become more frequent, which I

happen to know about [footnote: All the details of this case, as

well as those preceding it, are authentic]. The same treatment

has been repeated in every other case. A young man of fair

education refuses in the Moscow Townhall to take the oath. No

attention is paid to what he says, and it is requested that he

should pronounce the words of the oath like the rest. He

declines, quoting a particular passage of the Gospel in which

swearing is forbidden. No attention is paid to his arguments, and

he is again requested to comply with the order, but he does not

comply with it. Then it is supposed that he is a sectary and

therefore does not understand Christianity in the right sense,

that is to say, not in the sense in which the priests in the pay

of the government understand it. And the young man is conducted

under escort to the priests, that they may bring him to reason.

The priests begin to reason with him, but their efforts in

Christ’s name to persuade him to renounce Christ obviously have no

influence on him; he is pronounced incorrigible and sent back

again to the army. He persists in not taking the oath and openly

refuses to perform any military duties. It is a case that has not

been provided for by the laws. To overlook such a refusal to

comply with the demands of the authorities is out of the question,

but to put such a case on a par with simple breach of discipline

is also out of the question.

 

After deliberation among themselves, the military authorities

decide to get rid of the troublesome young man, to consider him as

a revolutionist, and they dispatch him under escort to the

committee of the secret police. The police authorities and

gendarmes cross-question him, but nothing that he says can be

brought under the head of any of the misdemeanors which come under

their jurisdiction. And there is no possibility of accusing him

either of revolutionary acts or revolutionary plotting, since he

declares that he does not wish to attack anything, but, on the

contrary, is opposed to any use of force, and, far from plotting

in secret, he seeks every opportunity of saying and doing all that

he says and does in the most open manner. And the gendarmes,

though they are bound by no hard-and-fast rules, still find no

ground for a criminal charge in the young man, and, like the

clergy, they send him back to the army. Again the authorities

deliberate together, and decide to accept him though he has not

taken the oath, and to enrol him among the soldiers. They put him

into the uniform, enrol him, and send him under guard to the place

where the army is quartered. There the chief officer of the

division which he enters again expects the young man to perform

his military duties, and again he refuses to obey, and in the

presence of other soldiers explains the reason of his refusal,

saying that he as a Christian cannot voluntarily prepare himself

to commit murder, which is forbidden by the law of Moses.

 

This incident occurs in a provincial town. The case awakens the

interest, and even the sympathy, not only of outsiders, but even

of the officers. And the chief officers consequently do not

decide to punish this refusal of obedience with disciplinary

measures. To save appearances, though, they shut the young man up

in prison, and write to the highest military authorities to

inquire what they are to do. To refuse to serve in the army, in

which the Tzar himself serves, and which enjoys the blessing of

the Church, seems insanity from the official point of view.

Consequently they write from Petersburg that, since the young man

must be out of his mind, they must not use any severe treatment

with him, but must send him to a lunatic asylum, that his mental

condition may be inquired into and be scientifically treated.

They send him to the asylum in the hope that he will remain there,

like another young man, who refused ten years ago at Tver to serve

in the army, and who was tortured in the asylum till he submitted.

But even this step does not rid the military authorities of the

inconvenient man. The doctors examine him, interest themselves

warmly in his case, and naturally finding in him no symptoms of

mental disease, send him back to the army. There they receive

him, and making believe to have forgotten his refusal, and his

motives for it, they again request him to go to drill, and again

in the presence of the other soldiers he refuses and explains the

reason of his refusal. The affair continues to attract more and

more attention, both among the soldiers and the inhabitants of the

town. Again they write to Petersburg, and thence comes the decree

to transfer the young man to some division of the army stationed

on the frontier, in some place where the army is under martial

law, where he can be shot for refusing to obey, and where the

matter can proceed without attracting observation, seeing that

there are few Russians and Christians in such a distant part, but

the majority are foreigners and Mohammedans. This is accordingly

done. They transfer him to a division stationed on the Zacaspian

border, and in company with convicts send him to a chief officer

who is notorious for his harshness and severity.

 

All this time, through all these changes from place to place, the

young man is roughly treated, kept in cold, hunger, and filth, and

life is made burdensome to him generally. But all these

sufferings do not compel him to change his resolution. On the

Zacaspian border, where he is again requested to go on guard fully

armed, he again declines to obey. He does not refuse to go and

stand near the haystacks where they place him, but refuses to take

his arms, declaring that he will not use violence in any case

against anyone. All this takes place in the presence of the other

soldiers. To let such a refusal pass unpunished is impossible,

and the young man is put on his trial for breach of discipline.

The trial takes place, and he is sentenced to confinement in the

military prison for two years. He is again transferred, in

company with convicts, by �tape, to Caucasus, and there he is shut

up in prison and falls under the irresponsible power of the

jailer. There he is persecuted for a year and a half, but he does

not for all that alter his decision not to bear arms, and he

explains why he will not do this to everyone with whom he is

brought