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

he government's reactionary policy. At least two of Pashkov's employees, a cashier named Almanovsky and a forester named Kirpichnikov, were arrested for their religious activities. In 1884 Pashkov petitioned Alexander III on Almanovsky's behalf. The cashier had been guestioned, arrested, and held for more than two months without trial or investigation for his alleged participation in the spreading of the Pashkovite teachings. Pashkov noted that the books in Almanovsky's possession were all approved by the censor, so there was no basis for trying or punishing him. B According to Stead, Almanovsky was released after three months by signing an agreement not to work for Pashkov again. 9 Peasants whom Kirpichnikov had punished for stealing wood acused him of blaspheming icons, thus setting in motion a legal case against him which resulted in exile to Siberia. 10 Pashkov sent money to allow Kirpichnikov's wife and brother-in-law to accompany 7 Blane, pp. 283-84. Blane cites one source that claims 3,000 Stundists were imprisoned or exiled by 1896 (p. 284, n. 75). 6 Pashkov Papers 3/19. Stead, p. 386-87. Whether this agreement was kept is unclear. 10 Stead, p. 387; Trotter, pp. 195-96. 81 him there when all efforts at pardon failed. 11 Investigations of those who had either been influenced by Pashkov's St. Petersburg meetings or by his publications were occuring in such places as Tver diocese in the late 1880's and early 18 90's. 12 In Pobedonostsev's 1880 memorandum to the tsar, he had named some of his reasons for urging measures against the Pashkovites. He worried that their doctrine of salvation by faith would "create an indifference to sin." He also accused them of the "dissemination of new socialistic hallucinations" and feared that they would "coalesce with the Stunda " in the southwest. 13 Pobedonostsev believed that adherence to the Orthodox Church was inextricably linked to the Russian national identity and to the stability of the State. 14 This belief was one manifestation of Pobedonostsev's conservatism. See Pashkov Papers, 3/19, for Pashkov's petition to Alexander III reguesting Almanovsky's release (1884). For the story of Kirpichnikov and his wife, see S. Lieven, pp. 13-15 (taken from an account in the Pashkov family archive, she writes); Trotter, 195-97. For the letter to Avdotia Kirpichnikov regarding Siberia see PP 2/l/d/141. The Pashkov Papers include letters from Kirpichnikov to Pashkov (1886-1899). See PP 2/14/1-20. 12 As has been noted, Skvortsov's account is based upon investigations and court testimonies of Pashkovites and other sectarians whom Skvortsov suspects of Pashkovite links or influence. 13 For an English translation of this document, see Stead, pp. 373-75. 14 "The Church is a beloved mother to the Russian man.... It is here that our strength is rooted, here we find the secret treasure-store of our destiny... We have become great beneath the ban