Life in a Penal Battalion of the Imperial Russian Army : The Tolstoyan N.T.Iziumchenko's Story

Published here for the first time in English, this document provides a unique account by a young peasant conscript in the Imperial Russian army-and follower of the pacifist teaching of the great Russian novelist Leo Talstoy-who was sentenced to serve two years in a penal battalion as a result of his refusal to bear arms.

N. T. Iziumchenko's narrative points to an alternative tradition of non-violent protest against injustice and commitment to universal values.

It shows that in Russia such sentiments were by no means confined to the westernized intelligensia but had authentic popular roots.