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

in contact. At the end of the second year they set him

free, before the end of his term of imprisonment, reckoning it

contrary to law to keep him in prison after his time of military

service was over, and only too glad to get rid of him as soon as

possible.

 

Other men in various parts of Russia behave, as though by

agreement, precisely in the same way as this young man, and in all

these cases the government has adopted the same timorous,

undecided, and secretive course of action. Some of these men are

sent to the lunatic asylum, some are enrolled as clerks and

transferred to Siberia, some are sent to work in the forests, some

are sent to prison, some are fined. And at this very time some

men of this kind are in prison, not charged with their real

offense—that is, denying the lawfulness of the action of the

government, but for non-fulfillment of special obligations imposed

by government. Thus an officer of reserve, who did not report his

change of residence, and justified this on the ground that he

would not serve in the army any longer, was fined thirty rubles

for non-compliance with the orders of the superior authority.

This fine he also declined voluntarily to pay. In the same way

some peasants and soldiers who have refused to be drilled and to

bear arms have been placed under arrest on a charge of breach of

discipline and insolence.

 

And cases of refusing to comply with the demands of government

when they are opposed to Christianity, and especially cases of

refusing to serve in the army, are occurring of late not in Russia

only, but everywhere. Thus I happen to know that in Servia men of

the so-called sect of Nazarenes steadily refuse to serve in the

army, and the Austrian Government has been carrying on a fruitless

contest with them for years, punishing them with imprisonment. In

the year 1885 there were 130 such cases. I know that in

Switzerland in the year 1890 there were men in prison in the

castle of Chillon for declining to serve in the army, whose

resolution was not shaken by their punishment. There have been

such cases in Sweden, and the men who refused obedience were sent

to prison in exactly the same way, and the government studiously

concealed these cases from the people. There have been similar

cases also in Prussia. I know of the case of a sub-lieutenant of

the Guards, who in 1891 declared to the authorities in Berlin that

he would not, as a Christian, continue to serve, and in spite of

all admonitions, threats, and punishments he stuck to his

resolution. In the south of France a society has arisen of late

bearing the name of the Hinschists (these facts are taken from the

PEACE HERALD, July, 1891), the members of which refuse to enter

military service on the grounds of their Christian principles. At

first they were enrolled in the ambulance corps, but now, as their

numbers increase, they are subjected to punishment for non-compliance, but they still refuse to bear arms just the same.

 

The socialists, the communists, the anarchists, with their bombs

and riots and revolutions, are not nearly so much dreaded by

governments as these disconnected individuals coming from

different parts, and all justifying their non-compliance on the

grounds of the same religion, which is known to all the world.

Every government knows by what means and in what manner to defend

itself from revolutionists, and has resources for doing so, and

therefore does not dread these external foes. But what are

governments to do against men who show the uselessness,

superfluousness, and perniciousness of all governments, and who

do not contend against them, but simply do not need them and do

without them, and therefore are unwilling to take any part in

them? The revolutionists say: The form of government is bad in

this respect and that respect; we must overturn it and substitute

this or that form of government. The Christian says: I know

nothing about the form of government, I don’t know whether it is

good or bad, and I don’t want to overturn it precisely because I

don’t know whether it is good or bad, but for the very same reason

I don’t want to support it either. And I not only don’t want to,

but I can’t, because what it demands of me is against my

conscience.

 

All state obligations are against the conscience of a Christian—

the oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings,

and military service. And the whole power of the government rests

on these very obligations.

 

Revolutionary enemies attack the government from without.

Christianity does not attack it at all, but, from within, it

destroys all the foundations on which government rests.

 

Among the Russian people, especially since the age of Peter I.,

the protest of Christianity against the government has never

ceased, and the social organization has been such that men

emigrate in communes to Turkey, to China, and to uninhabited

lands, and not only feel no need of state aid, but always regard

the state as a useless burden, only to be endured as a misfortune,

whether it happens to be Turkish, Russian, or Chinese. And so,

too, among the Russian people more and more frequent examples have

of late appeared of conscious Christian freedom from subjection to

the state. And these examples are the more alarming for the

government from the fact that these non-compliant persons often

belong not to the so-called lower uneducated classes, but are men

of fair or good education; and also from the fact that they do not

in these days justify their position by any mystic and exceptional

views, as in former times, do not associate themselves with any

superstitious or fanatic rites, like the sects who practice self-immolation by fire, or the wandering pilgrims, but put their

refusal on the very simplest and clearest grounds, comprehensible

to all, and recognized as true by all.

 

Thus they refuse the voluntary payment of taxes, because taxes are

spent on deeds of violence—on the pay of men of violence—

soldiers, on the construction of prisons, fortresses, and cannons.

They as Christians regard it as sinful and immoral to have any

hand in such deeds.

 

Those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance refuse because to

promise obedience to authorities, that is, to men who are given to

deeds of violence, is contrary to the sense of Christ’s teaching.

They refuse to take the oath in the law courts, because oaths are

directly forbidden by the Gospel. They refuse to perform police

duties, because in the performance of these duties they must use

force against their brothers and ill treat them, and a Christian

cannot do that. They refuse to take part in trials at law,

because they consider every appeal to law is fulfilling the law of

vengeance, which is inconsistent with the Christian law of

forgiveness and love. They refuse to take any part in military

preparations and in the army, because they cannot be executioners,

and they are unwilling to prepare themselves to be so.

 

The motives in all these cases are so excellent that, however

despotic governments may be, they could hardly punish them openly.

To punish men for refusing to act against their conscience the

government must renounce all claim to good sense and benevolence.

And they assure people that they only rule in the name of good

sense and benevolence.

 

What are governments to do against such people?

 

Governments can of course flog to death or execute or keep in

perpetual imprisonment all enemies who want to overturn them by

violence, they can lavish gold on that section of the people who

are ready to destroy their enemies. But what can they do against

men who, without wishing to overturn or destroy anything, desire

simply for their part to do nothing against the law of Christ, and

who, therefore, refuse to perform the commonest state

requirements, which are, therefore, the most indispensable to the

maintenance of the state?

 

If they had been revolutionists, advocating and practicing

violence and murder, their suppression would have been an easy

matter; some of them could have been bought over, some could have

been duped, some could have been overawed, and these who could not

be bought over, duped, or overawed would have been treated as

criminals, enemies of society, would have been executed or

imprisoned, and the crowd would have approved of the action of the

government. If they had been fanatics, professing some peculiar

belief, it might have been possible, in disproving the

superstitious errors mixed in with their religion, to attack also

the truth they advocate. But what is to be done with men who

profess no revolutionary ideas nor any peculiar religious dogmas,

but merely because they are unwilling to do evil to any man,

refuse to take the oath, to pay taxes, to take part in law

proceedings, to serve in the army, to fulfill, in fact, any of the

obligations upon which the whole fabric of a state rests? What is

to done with such people? To buy them over with bribes is

impossible; the very risks to which they voluntarily expose

themselves show that they are incorruptible. To dupe them into

believing that this is their duty to God is also impossible, since

their refusal is based on the clear, unmistakable law of God,

recognized even by those who are trying to compel men to act

against it. To terrify them by threats is still less possible,

because the deprivations and sufferings to which they are

subjected only strengthen their desire to follow the faith by

which they are commanded: to obey God rather than men, and not to

fear those who can destroy the body, but to fear him who can

destroy body and soul. To kill them or keep them in perpetual

imprisonment is also impossible. These men have friends, and a

past; their way of thinking and acting is well known; they are

known by everyone for good, gentle, peaceable people, and they

cannot be regarded as criminals who must be removed for the safety

of society. And to put men to death who are regarded as good men

is to provoke others to champion them and justify their refusal.

And it is only necessary to explain the reasons of their refusal

to make clear to everyone that these reasons have the same force

for all other men, and that they all ought to have done the same

long ago. These cases put the ruling powers into a desperate

position. They see that the prophecy of Christianity is coming to

pass, that it is loosening the fetters of those in chains, and

setting free them that are in bondage, and that this must

inevitably be the end of all oppressors. The ruling authorities

see this, they know that their hours are numbered, and they can do

nothing. All that they can do to save themselves is only

deferring the hour of their downfall. And this they do, but their

position is none the less desperate.

 

It is like the position of a conqueror who is trying to save a

town which has been been set on fire by its own inhabitants.

Directly he puts out the conflagration in one place, it is alight

in two other places; directly he gives in to the fire and cuts off

what is on fire from a large building, the building itself is

alight at both ends. These separate fires may be few, but they

are burning with a flame which, however small a spark it starts

from, never ceases till it has set the whole ablaze.

 

Thus it is that the ruling authorities are in such a defenseless

position before men who advocate Christianity, that but little is

necessary to