Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-31 | Page 5 | Dukhobortsi may Return to their Native Russia

DUKHOBOR TSI MAY RETURN TO THEIR NATIVE RUSSIA LONDON, March ."n.The Russian provisional government, says a Renter dispat'1 V' f rotn I'etrograd. is disposed svnyjWfllotienllv toward the wish ex-0scii ex-0scii by the 10,000 Pukhobortsi in vannda to return to Russia. The ques-tion ques-tion of their liability to military jcrv- ice will be determined by the judicial committee of the provisional government. govern-ment. Various military units, the dispatch adds, are announcing spontaneously that absentees failing to return will bo"court-martialed bo"court-martialed by regimental courts composed com-posed of officers and men. The Dukhobortsi closely resemble the Quakers. Under Emperor Nicholas 1 aoout 1850, the Dukhobortsi, who refused re-fused to participate in military service, serv-ice, were banished to Trans-Caucasia. At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Em-peror Nicholas II, in 1895, the Dukhobortsi Duk-hobortsi were persecuted by Cossack soldiers. sol-diers. Through the efforts of Count Leo Tolstoi and the Society of Friends in England, members of the sect were permitted per-mitted to leave Russia in 189S and in the following year 7500 Dukhobortsi immigrants im-migrants settled in western Canada, where they have remained since.