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A messenger from Siberia brought Verigin's further specific instructions. All of the weapons held by the Doukhobors must be destroyed; secretly, dramatically and simultaneously in all of the three districts of Doukhobor settlements.On the eve of St. Peter's Day (June 29, the commemorative day of the martyred apostles, Peter and Paul, and Peter Verigin's birthday), each village gathered their swords, daggers and guns. At midnight, the weapons were doused with kerosene and lit. Assembled in a mass sobranie (meeting), the villagers sang psalms and hymns as the weapons burned.
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Retribution from the Tsarist authorities was swift. Cossacks, armed with swords and lead-tipped whips, rode in to quell the 'disturbance' and brutally slashed the protestors.Soldiers on horses charged directly into the peaceful protestors. The armed soldiers attacked the demonstrators violently in order to show authority; to hurt, to main.
Mass arrests, floggings, sophisticated and painful tortures followed, as well as further exile into the Georgian and Tarter territories.
The result of this persecution was the death of over one thousand souls out of the total exiled population of 9,000. The courage of the Doukhobors to say "No more war" in a non-violent manner (on their part at least) is respected by peace movements around the world today.
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