Sunday 27 June 2021

Doukhobor Arms Burning is Relevant Today

126 years ago tomorrow, June 28, 2021, one-third of the Doukbohors in the Russian Caucasus joined in a daring protest of burning guns — all their killing weapons.

The significance of the Burning of Arms event for the Spirit Wrestlers / Doukhobors is enormous then and now.  Why?

This concrete act catapulted the Russian group into the international arena. Civilization was presented with a nonkilling alternative strategy of living instead of the use of violence from the gun, the bomb and other weapons of mass destruction.

'Arms Burning by Russian Doukhobors in 1895
by William Perehudoff, 1969. Click picture to enlarge.


This first ever event took place June 28-29 (Old Calendar, New Calendar July 12-13), 1895 in three places of Transcaucasia in southern Russia, with 7,000 people involved. It was inspired by Russian writer and philosopher Lev N. Tolstoy by way of Doukhobor leader Peter V. Verigin. 

Today the precarious international relations with world nations demands the same serious attention that Doukhobors applied to guns 126 years ago.  No more killing! No more wars! It's time for the leaders of the world to make war illegal as a crime. 

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9 comments:

  1. Thank you for your continuing persistence at ensuring humanity is working towards becoming a better people, Koozma.

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  2. Thank you Kòozma for your work for a non killing world. Your continuing efforts are an inspiration.

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  3. I admire the irrepressible power of endurance in pursuit of a nonviolent world that you and your spirit-wrestlers demonstrate tirelessly. As you know, I'm with you in this struggle, but in view of the rapidly progressing militarization of the human world across the globe, I fear it'll take a massive self-destructive event to silence those who are willing to pull the trigger on the weapons they have gone to such lengths (and cost) to manufacture.

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    1. Thank you kindly for your learned comment on my most recent Spirit Wrestlers article on the 1895 burning of arms event in Russia. Yes, I hear you that it would take massive efforts to silence those who are addicted to pull the trigger when disagreement arises. In any case, I still feel it is worthwhile to make this story known to the wider public -- so as to encourage the growth of wisdom in the new generations.

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  4. I don't agree with criminalizing war, as an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. We just need to stop.

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    1. Essentially I agree with you that we need to stop making and using guns and other weapons of destruction. This will require massive public education over many years, beginning with ourselves.

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  5. Lawrence Klippenstein28 June 2021 at 14:41

    Thanks much for the reminder of the burning of arms event. I still think it is indeed a most significant moment in history to have the history of that recorded. Covid now slowing down a bit here, and more opening happening. The Mennonite Heritage Village has recently set up a Mennonites at War exhibit to say what the arms burning was all about.

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  6. Winnifred Kowalewich30 June 2021 at 19:51

    Thank you, Koozma. I do know the origin of the Doukhobor Peter's Day in June. In fact my cousin Louise who lives in LaSalle, Ontario came to Kamsack, Saskatchewan and sat with the dignitaries because her Grandfather Lebedoff was the first man to throw his gun into the bonfire. Then how did a radical sect... resort to such violence when they moved to British Columbia. I certainly am not proud of them. Where are they now?

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    1. Glad to. know that you have not forgotten the St. Peter's Day or Peace Day event that characterizes t the essence of the Doukhobors.
      The zealots or so-called Sons of Freedom are really another tribe. Because of their actions of violence and nudity, they have essentially kicked themselves out of the Doukhobor movement. However, that is not how they see themselves -- because they think they are the central part of the movement. This is a clash of two different cultures. Please have a look at my feature article on the group 'The "Sons of Freedom" -- a Flashback to 1956', in my Spirit Wrestlers website with the link to the article being: http://goo.gl/OkXDKV.

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