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

The document published here for the first time in English presents a unique account by a young peasant conscript in the Imperial Russian army of what life was like for soldiers who fell foul of the tsarist military establishment and were then sentenced to serve in a penal battalion. The author of the memoir was himself a Tolstoyan, who followed the pacifist teaching of the great Russian novelist. As a result of his refusal to bear arms he spent two years in a penal battalion. 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 intelligentsia but had authentic popular roots.