June 29, 1895
On Easter Sunday, 1895, a young Russian conscript named Matvey Lebedev was training with a reserve battalion in the army of Czar Nicholas II when he suddenly threw down his rifle, telling his officers that he was a Christian and that Christianity and war were not compatible. Ten of his fellow soldiers followed suit, soon joined by 60 more. Their pacifism lit a fire which swept through the Caucasus. Two months later 7,000 of their fellow believers secretly assembled. They called themselves, Doukhobors, meaning “Spirit-Wаrriors of Christ.” On this day, 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.” The Doukhobors were eventually exiled, most of them immigrating to Saskatchewan and British Columbia and along the US-Canadian border, where approximately 50,000 descendents still live today.
1922 reenactment of the burning of the weapons, in Saskatchewan.
