Want a real Easter message? Burn your guns

Stephen Hume -- Vancouver Sun -- April 10, 2004

On Easter Sunday, 1895, a young conscript named Matvey Lebedev was training with a reserve battalion in the army of Czar Nicholas II when he suddenly threw down his rifle.

He told his astonished officers that he was a Christian and said he had reached the conclusion that Christianity and war were not compatible.

Ten of his fellow soldiers followed suit. They were joined by 60 more. The Russian army reassigned the troublesome lot to the harsh corrective of a disciplinary battalion and they were exiled.

Lebedev and his fellow soldiers were Doukhobors and their pacifism lit a fire which swept through the Caucasus. Two months later, in the face of an aggressive policy of military conscription, 7,000 of their fellow believers  secretly assembled. On June 29, at one minute past midnight, they destroyed all their swords and rifles in three gigantic conflagrations that are still remembered as "The Burning of Weapons."

As the tools of killing melted into slag, they sang hymns and psalms.

It was not without consequence. They had acquired the weapons in the first place to defend themselves against the brigands and warlords of a wild region bordering Turkey where they'd been sent as colonists by an earlier Czar. But gradually, like Lebedev, they'd come to believe that violence and true Christian faith were not compatible.

When 300 more young men subsequently refused conscription for military service as conscientious objectors, they were charged with treason. The persecution of the Doukhobors began with flogging, beatings, killings and finally exile -- some might call it escape -- to Canada and eventually to British Columbia's rugged Interior where they established agrarian communes according to their tenets of "toil and peaceful life."

In the past, some extremist factions in B.C. reverted to violence for sectarian reasons that are too complex for me to detail in this limited space. It's this aspect of their history that too many of us unfortunately associate with the broader community.

I say unfortunate because that sad fragment of history no more reflects the Doukhobor mainstream than the bombing in Oklahoma City represents Christianity. Or the attempt to blow up a mosque in Los Angeles represents Judaism. Or al-Qaida represents Islam.

Now, I know we're a more secular society than ever. But it's a pretty big tent we've put up. Along with pop culture and its cynicism, the tent also provides shelter for a host of philosophies. They range from animism to atheism.

There are Marxists and Capitalists (and if you think those aren't quasi-religions, think again). Our spiritual community is comprised of Buddhists and Taoists, Hindus and Sikhs, Christians and Zoroastrians, Quakers and Roman Catholics, Muslims and humanists, Jews and Born Again Christian fundamentalists. And Doukhobors, who have some profound lessons to teach the rest of us.

I know, too, that a lot of people who call themselves Christians don't exactly walk the walk when it comes to the religious principles they claim to embrace and that for many of us this is just another holiday weekend. 

Nevertheless, Easter is also the formally recognized time at which any who are of Christian belief, however far they've strayed, give formal thanks for humanity's redemption through the persecution, sacrifice and resurrection of the Prince of Peace.

That's the Prince of Peace, please note. Not the Prince of War. Not the Prince of My Missiles are Bigger than Your Missiles. Not the Prince of the Atom Bomb. Not the Prince of Aircraft Carriers. Not the Prince of the Flame Thrower. Not the Prince of Pepper Spray. The Prince of Peace. 

It's the same Prince of Peace who told his chief disciple to lay down his sword when Peter drew it to defend him from a Roman soldier. It's the Prince who instructed us not to seek vengeance when struck, but to turn the other cheek. It's the Prince who told us not to store up treasures for ourselves on this earth and warned that material wealth is a burden that obstructs the achievement of heaven. It's the Prince who asked absolute forgiveness for those who betrayed, tortured and killed him.

In that context, I thought this Easter weekend would provide a good vantage point from which to draw attention to a remarkable event which will take place in Castlegar on Sunday, April 25, between one and four p.m. 

That's the day on which Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy, the great-great-grandson of Count Leo Tolstoy -- the literary genius who gave us War and Peace and Anna Karenina -- will visit the Doukhobor Village Museum to launch its 33rd season.

He'll do so by opening a special visiting exhibit from Russia's state Tolstoy museum. He'll be accompanied by the distinguished Russian literary scholar Dr. Galina Alexeeva. There will be traditional Doukhobor choral music

The exhibit will feature the writing materials, letters and other documents left by Sergei Tolstoy, Leo's eldest son. I thought this Easter was an appropriate time to mention it because it was that Easter Sunday in Russia so long ago that set in motion the sequence of events that would eventually connect one of the world's greatest writers to rural B.C.

Although he began as one of the first war correspondents, writing for Russian audiences about the Crimean War, in later life, Leo Tolstoy became an opponent of militarism and nationalism in all its forms and a fierce advocate of social justice. He became a Christian, but not an easy one, and his own thinking about its precepts led him to the principles of non-violence. 

Tolstoy was a personal mentor to the young Gandhi. His writings on non-violence are said to have influenced Martin Luther King. And his rejection of materialism also put him on the same philosophical page as the Doukhobors.

So perhaps it was natural for Tolstoy to embrace their cause. At the height of their persecutions, the great writer used his talents and his connections to draw their plight to the attention of the Western press. He found a loophole in the law that would let them leave Russia. Then he dedicated the royalties from his book Resurrection to help finance their journey to Canada. 

Tolstoy asked his eldest son to accompany the emigrants. Sergei sailed with them for Halifax aboard the SS Lake Superior in 1899. His diary, A Journey to Canada, in which he describes his fellow travelers and his impressions of the difficult trek west (20 people died on the voyage) has recently been translated and is now available at the museum in Castlegar.

When I asked museum curator Larry Ewashen about the Tolstoy exhibit that's coming from Russia, he thought that in these times when Christians, Jews and Muslims are busily killing one another, it took on a particular significance. 

"These are people who had an idea," he said, "an idea to burn all their guns." 

Now there's a revolutionary message for Easter if I ever heard one.