Vasily Nikolaevich Pozdnyakov (russian: Василий Николаевич Поздняков) (1869–1921) was one of the members of the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Doukhobor The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (russian: духоборы / духоборцы, dukhobory / dukhobortsy; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia an ...

community who in 1895 declared themselves

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

s. Severely punished and exiled to

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...

, he escaped and wrote an important account of his and his comrades' story, published internationally. He also authored a number of articles about the Doukhobor life in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Biography

Vasily Pozdnyakov originated from a Doukhobor family from the village of

Bogdanovka Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established in Transnistria Governorate by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust. Location Three concentration camps were situated near the villages of Bogd ...

(now Ninotsminda), in the south of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. His ancestors, along with other Doukhobors, had been exiled to Georgia during the reign of Nicholas I.The account of Pozdnyakov's early life and his activities in 1895-98 is mostly based on the work: O.A. Golinenko (О.А. ГОЛИНЕНКО
"Leo Tolstoy's questions to a Doukhobor" (ВОПРОСЫ Л.Н. ТОЛСТОГО ДУХОБОРУ)
This publication contains Tolstoy's questions, Pozdnyakov's article "The Truth about the Doukhobors in Transcaucasia and Siberia" («Правда о духоборах в Закавказье и в Сибири»), and Golinenko analysis indicating that Pozdnyakov's article may be inspired by Tolstoy's questions and may, to an extent, be answering them. Although the Doukhobor religion and world view had traditionally espoused

non-violence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

, the dangerous conditions of life in the southern borderlands of Russian Empire and the necessity to co-operate with the authorities resulted in the Doukhobors of the mid- and late-19th century owning and using weapons for self-defence, and, when

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

, joining the

military. However, as a moral and religious revival, inspired by the exiled community leader

Peter Vasilevich Verigin Peter Vasilevich Verigin (russian: Пётр Васильевич Веригин) often known as Peter "the Lordly" Verigin ( - October 29, 1924) was a Russian philosopher, activist, and leader of the Community Doukhobors in Canada. Biography I ...

and by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's philosophy of non-violence, by 1895 many of the Doukhobors living in

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

resolved to destroy the weapons they owned. Those of them who had already served in the military returned their reservist registration cards to the authorities, meanwhile the young Doukhobor conscripts currently in the army returned their weapons to their commanders and refused further service. The punishment was swift, both for the civilians and the conscripts. Vasily Pozdnyakov, who was a reservist at the time of his protest, had 300 lashes, and after 20 days in jail was called up once again to do his military service. As he again refused to bear arms, he spent some time in prison, which was to be followed by a 13-year exile to

. His party of convicts left the

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

prison to Siberia around Easter 1897, but only reached as far as

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

by the time winter fell. Having wintered in the

prison, the survivors of the Pozdnyakov's party continued down the

Lena River The Lena (russian: Ле́на, ; evn, Елюенэ, ''Eljune''; sah, Өлүөнэ, ''Ölüöne''; bua, Зүлхэ, ''Zülkhe''; mn, Зүлгэ, ''Zülge'') is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean ...

next spring, and eventually arrived to the place where other Doukhobors - those who had refused further service while already conscripted - had been exiled earlier. The location, known as Ust'-Notora (russian: Усть-Нотора), where the Notora River flows into the

Aldan River The Aldan (russian: Алдан) is the second-longest, right tributary of the Lena in the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia. to secretly leave and visit their spiritual leader,

, then in exile elsewhere in Siberia, and then their friends and family back in

. He managed to accomplish: crossing Siberia to meet Verigin in

Obdorsk Salekhard (russian: Салеха́рд; Khanty: , ''Pułñawat''; yrk, Саляʼ харад, ''Saljaꜧ harad'') is a town in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, serving as the okrug's administrative centre. It crosses the Arctic Circle, th ...

(disguised as a fishmonger, as no Doukhobor visitors were allowed to see Verigin); spending four days at

's at

Yasnaya Polyana Yasnaya Polyana ( rus, Я́сная Поля́на, p=ˈjasnəjə pɐˈlʲanə, literally: "Bright Glade") is a writer's house museum, the former home of the writer Leo Tolstoy. Bartlett, p. 25 It is southwest of Tula, Russia, and from Mosco ...

; spending a fortnight in the

, reporting to the exiles' wives on the situation in Yakutia and inviting them to join their husbands (which many of them did some time later); and returning to his place of exile in Yakutia. On the way, he delivered Verigin's letters to Tolstoy and to the Doukhbors in the

, and back from the Caucasus to the exiles in Yakutia. Tolstoy described him in a letter to

Vladimir Chertkov Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov (russian: Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Чертко́в; also transliterated as Chertkoff, Tchertkoff, or Tschertkow ( – November 9, 1936) was the editor of the works of Leo Tolstoy, and one of the mo ...

as "one of those people who are afraid of nothing". Shortly before Pozdnyakov's visit to Tolstoy, Tolstoy had been asked by Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, then in England, to provide him with more information on the persecution of the Doukhobors, for use in articles Bonch-Bruevich was publishing. Tolstoy's papers for this period to contain a list questions that he (Tolstoy) was to ask his Doukhobor's visitor. In the opinion of a modern researcher O.A. Golinenko, these Tolstoy's question list may have been compiled in response to Bonch-Bruevich letter, as a checklist for Tolstoy to collect the information from his Doukhobor visitor. In 1901 a small book entitled "The tale of Doukhobor Vasya''Vasya'' is a familiar form for ''Vasily'' (Doukhobor Genealogy Website) Pozdnyakov. With an Appendix including documents about beatings and rapes of Doukhobor women by the Cossacks" («Рассказ духобора Васи Позднякова. С приложением документов об избиении и изнасиловании духоборческих женщин казаками») was published in London by

's ''Svobodnoye Slovo'' (The Free Word) Publishers. The editor and the author of the preface was Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, the scholar who had requested the information from Tolstoy, and the author's text was dated 1898. Once many of Doukhobor exiles' wives arrived to Ust'-Notora to join them, some of the Doukhobors relocated to a new village named Otradnoye (russian: Отрадное, 'place of rejoicing').Otradnoye village
(Doukhobor Genealogy Website) After religious tolerance was declared by

October Manifesto The October Manifesto (russian: Октябрьский манифест, Манифест 17 октября), officially "The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order" (), is a document that served as a precursor to the Russian Empire's fi ...

in 1905, Pozdnyakov, and the other exiles were able to abandon their Yakutia village and come to Canada. After arrival to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, he, and some other survivors of the Yakutia exile, found the state of the affairs in the Doukhbor community there, in particular Verigin dictatorial leadership, quite a mismatch to those prospects of "radiant future" about which he was hearing from Veriging in 1898. His disillusionment shows in his Canadian essays, such as "Story of a Spiritual Upheaval" (1908). He later left the Doukhobor community. In 1914 a number of Pozdnyakov's essays - on the life of the Doukhobors in Transcaucasia, in Siberian exile, and in Canada - appeared in ''The Monthly of Literary, Science, and Social Life'' («Ежемесячный журнал литературы, науки и общественной жизни»); one of them recounts his 1898 visit to Tolstoy, and carries Chertkov's comment that it was during those four days in 1898 that Pozdnyakov's ''Tale'' was written.

Pozdnyakov's works available online

''Story of a Spiritual Upheaval''
(Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 1908). (Doukhobor Genealogy Website)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pozdnyakov, Vasily Nikolaevich Doukhobors Russian anti-war activists Russian conscientious objectors Russian Christian pacifists 1869 births 1921 deaths

Biography

Pozdnyakov's works available online

See also

References