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since they naturally have no definite organisation or creed.
They are found one here and one there, and always refuse to
give any account whatever of themselves or their antecedents.
This is illustrated by the account of an official who visited the
prisons. After describing his experience with one of these folk,
he goes on to say:—
“I came across another original of the same kind and sect, in
prison also. In the prison rolls he had been described as
Tchnochruistov, but no one knew his real name, or where he
came from. I met him in a Siberian prison, where there were
confined more than eight hundred prisoners.
“This man was of a milder and more communicative
temperament than the former, so it was easier to get into conversation
with him. He rejected God and all religion, chiefly because of
the absence of all palpable or visible proof of God’s presence or
utility. He pointed out the contradiction between real life and
religious teaching.
“‘The priest tells you that God is good and just, and that not
a hair of a man’s head falls without God’s will. That sounds
beautiful. In this prison there are eight hundred of us at
present, and we shall all go to penal servitude. At least fifty of
these are entirely innocent. I know that from reliable sources,
and many are banished just because of their faith in God and
sincere piety. They are therefore unjustly condemned. I say
nothing about myself; I don’t belong to your lot, and your
God has nothing to do with me. But why does He not protect
and defend the innocent? They trust in Him, you know, and
worship Him. Some of them pray all night and bow their
heads to the ground while they cry to Him from on their
knees; but all the same they are flogged and sent to the mines.
How do you explain that?’
“This sectary recognised no authority. ‘What do we want
with them?’ he asked. ‘What use have the people for
government by all these tchinovniks? How can one single
person look after the needs of a hundred million men? No;
Government is not for the people’s benefit, but, as is clear
today, the people are for the Government’s benefit. But all that
is no affair of mine.’
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