THE RED DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1925, Page 8

THE RED DEATH

RUSSIAN PEASANTS BURN. The news by cable recently regarding six families of Russian peasants at Stayroapolsk having burned themjselves in their houses rather than face the horrors of slow starvation, is an illustration of a peculiar feature in the faith of that mysterious people. To the Russian peasant his religion is a vital matter, hence these unfortunate martyrs elected to burn thenbodies, believing that in so doing they expiated the sin of selMestruction by their suffering in the flames, thus saving their souls in the life to come. “The Red Death,” as it is called, is by no means a new thing in Russia. As far back as the days of Peter the Great there was a sect in Russia who called 'themselves “The Old Believers.” It was an article of thenfaith that they saved th'eir souls by burning their bodies. A vivid description of one such burning scene is given in a novel, “Peter and Alexis,” written by Dimitri Mere]-' kowski, in a chapter headed “The Red Death.” “Better to burn here than to be cast into the eternal flames,” was the slogan of the Old Believers. One priest is made to say, “They do well. This self immolation is acceptable to the Lord. Even God cannot save those who. fall into the hands of the Anti-Christ. Yes, there is no means of escape, but by fire and water/’ To the Old Believers, Peter the Great, with his great innovations was Anti-Christ. The description given of the final burning scene in the old church in a forest is most dramatic. The “Old Believers” knowing that the soldiers were approaching, barricaded the doors with logs, got wood, powder and saltpetre inside, put on white shrouds had crowns on their heads, and' knelt

in rows with lighted tapers in thenhands ready to meet “the Bridegroom.” When the soldiers battered at the door of the church, the fire was started, and, as the fanatics burned, they cried out, “Lo, the Bridegroom cometh.” When the captain of the soldiers shouted, ‘Spare at least your children,’ they replied, “We shall burn in earthly fire ; you will burn in flames everlasting.” One priest said, “We will go to the ocean, to the borderland; there also, will we kindle fires. Gdd will bless our zeal, and.' the whole of Russia will blaze up, and after Russia, the whole world.’’