Colonel V. A. Pashkov and the Late Nineteenth-Century Protestant Movement in Russia, Jan M. Surer, 1999

and many of the converts gained by his subseguent preaching in the aristocratic homes of St. Petersburg in the 1870's were to show a similar zeal. Another account of Radstock himself and of the aristocratic religious revival's early years can be found in novelist Nikolai Leskov's journalistic essay. Schism in High Society f Velikosvetskii raskol. Lord Redstok i eao posledovateli [1877]). 2 Written in part to counteract Prince Meshchersky's satirical novel The Lord Apostle in Petersburg High Society [ Lord Apostol v bol'shorn Peterburaskom svete [1876]) and other critical press coverage Radstock and his followers received, the essay attempted to provide a more accurate portrait of Lord Radstock's life and preaching work in St. Petersburg. Leskov's own religious searchings and his criticism of the lack of vitality in the Orthodox Church predisposed him to give the Radstockists a fair hearing. The work is not entirely devoid of a satirical and occasionally critical tone of its own, however. This stemmed in part from the surprising informality of Lord Radstock's meetings in the drawing rooms of his aristocratic hosts. Extemporaneous prayer and Radstock's Scripturally based The full Russian title is Velikosvetskii raskol. Lord Redstok i eao posledovateli. Ocherk sovremennaao reliaioznaao dvizheniya v peterburaskom obshchestve . St. Petersburg, 1877. (The old orthography has here been retained.) The work is available in English as Schism in High Society. Lord Radstock and his Followers , trans. and ed. by James Muckle, Bramcote Press, Nottingham, 1995. All pagination refers to this edition. 6 sermons were new experiences for his Russian audience. 3 Theological disagreements also led Leskov- to be critical of Radstockism in this work and elsewhere. 4 Leskov questioned Radstock's apparent confidence in his own message and ability to interpret Scripture without reference to a body of Church doctrine. 5 More sympathetic to and understanding of the Radstockists than were Pobedonostsev or Tolstoy (see below), for example, Leskov did try to elucidate Radstock's position on the role of good works. He followed the Orthodox priest I. S. Bellyustin in noting that "Lord Radstock is not indulgent towards the vices of others nor to his own weaknesses, and he does teach his followers to live as Christians should." 6 In a later article, however, Leskov unfavorably contrasted the Radstockists with the Stundists. To the "mysticism" and ultimately ineffectual charity of the Radstockists he preferred instead the moral sobriety of the earnest peasant Stundists. In Leskov's portrayal of them, the Stundists were less concerned with who was "saved" here on earth than with following Christ's teachings, whereas the Radstockists were "weak in spirit, unable to follow the straight, stern Christian path of a severe life with no [visible] results \po 3 See Leskov, pp. 71-91, for his description of a meeting conducted b