Let us now travel to the extreme north, to the land where dwell the Yakuts, the Marseillais of the Polar regions. Living a life of gay and careless vagabondage in this snowy world,...
The thirst for perfection, the ardent desire to draw near to God, sometimes takes the form of an unhappy perversion of reason and common sense. The popular soul knows no hesitation...
The "sons of God" held that men were really gods, and that as divinity is manifested in our fellows and in ourselves, it is sufficient to offer prayers unto--our neighbours! Every...
The Soutaïevtzi (founded in 1880 by a working-man of Tver, named Soutaïeff) scoffed at the clergy, the ikons, the sacraments, and military service, while upholding the principle of...
The Slavonic atmosphere exhales an intense longing for the ideal and for heaven. Often a kind of religious ecstasy seems to sweep over the whole length and breadth of the Russian t...
This sect believed that man could attain to perfection of life and health only by avoiding the fatigue of penance and fastings; and that all men should equally enjoy the gifts of N...
A sect no less extraordinary than the last was that of the Stranglers (_douchiteli_). It originated towards the end of 1874, and profited by a series of law cases, nearly all of wh...
The numerous admirers of Count Tolstoi will find in his writings some derivations, whether conscious or unconscious, from the principles elaborated by many of the Russian sects. Th...
Sometimes this longing for a better world, where suffering would be caused neither by hunger nor by laws, took touching and poetic forms. About the month of April, 1895, all eyes i...