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

ment was hindering the very people who "consider it a binding obligation ( svyashchennoyu obyazannost'yu 1 to obey authority." 20 He added that in Russia's present dangerous situation, when neither clergy, teachers, nor administrations were a source of firm resistance to the negative spirit saturating the population little by little, it would seem that people in government who valued the 17 Quoted in Stead, pp. 352-3, note. 18 V. G. Chertkov, "B. A. Pashkov (Nekrolog) ," Svobodnoe slovo, (March 1902), no. 3, pp. 22-23. Letters from Korf consult with Pashkov concerning a brochure being prepared by a Professor Godet, apparently on the persecutions in Russia. See PP 2/15/1-6. 20 Letter of 27 February/ll March 1885, PP 2/l/b/43. 84 State's security and the good of the fatherland would, instead of opposing the preaching of the Gospel, give it full freedom, "as the sole force capable of saving the people from the corrupting movement (deistvie) of insubordination f beznachaliya l and unbelief [now] being advocated." As noted in Chapter 5, the Stundists' views regarding the believers' relation to government authority is unclear. Some repudiated it altogether; others believed it should be obeyed as an institution established by God. Where this latter view prevailed, they observed an important exception. Pashkov spoke of their obedience to "authority in all matters not relating to their faith, i.e., those subjects which are outside the bounds of the jurisdiction of earthly authority." 21 When Pashkov and other believers persisted in meeting for worship and in their missionary work despite government efforts to see that they did otherwise, they thereby placed a limit on autocratic power. In 1888 Pashkov wrote to Almanovsky, who was hoping to move with his family to Canada, "Engaged in your own farming, you will also have the chance to serve the Lord and living in a free country you will not meet obstacles from any quarter to reminding of the Lord all who wish to hear about Him." 22 The freedom Russia lacked was freedom of conscience, "the first word of liberalism," wrote Peter Struve, referring to the beginnings and early American manifestation of a liberalism PP 2/l/b/43. PP 2/l/d/103. 85 "cosmopolitan and ideal, in its origin." 23 While the Pashkovites and other sectarians in their recognition of the need for this freedom had thus taken the first step on the road to liberalism understood in a wider sense, it is unclear whether Pashkov himself advocated any other specific aspects of a liberal political program. However, given his close ties to English life, he may well have been more receptive to a constitutional, parliamentary order than many conservatives were. 24 Only after the government's concessions of 1905, including religious tolerance and'the creation of the Duma, did his successors have a full opportunity to demonstrate their political affiliations. 23 P. Struve, "V chem