t repent
when they took it, for it is the duty of the reformer to secure a
following. Anarchy he had not foreseen, and was troubled by its
manifestations. The gentle mind of an old man, resting peacefully in
the country, could not penetrate the dark corners of cities where the
rebellious gathered together and hatched plots against the tyrant. In
spite of Alexander's liberal measures, the Nihilists were not satisfied
with a Government so despotic. Many attempts had been made to
assassinate him before he was killed by a hand-bomb on March 13th, 1881.

Alexander III abandoned reforms and the discontent increased in Russia,
where the plots of conspirators called forth all the atrocities of the
spy-system which still existed. Enmity to the Government was further
roused in a time of famine, wherein thousands of peasants perished
miserably. Tolstoy was active in his attempts to relieve the sick and
starving in the year 1891, when the condition of the people was
heartrending. He received thanks which were grateful to one very
easily discouraged. The peasants turned to him for support quite
naturally in their hour of need.

Trouble came upon the aged leader through a sect of the Caucasian
provinces who had adopted his new views with ardour. The Doukhobors
held all their goods in common and made moral laws for themselves,
based on Tolstoy's form of religion. They refused to serve as
soldiers, which was said to be a defiance of their governor. The
leaders were exiled and some hundreds enrolled in "a disciplinary
regiment" as a punishment. {226} Tolstoy managed to rouse sympathy for
them in England, and they were allowed to emigrate instead of suffering
persecution. He wrote _Resurrection_, a novel dealing with the
terrible life of Russian prisons, to get money for their relief. He
was excommunicated formally for attacking the Orthodox Church of Russia
in 1901. The sentence caused him to feel yet more bitterly toward the
Russian government. He longed to see peace in the eastern land whence
tales of cruelty and oppression startled the more humane provinces of
Europe. He would fain have stayed the outrages of bomb-throwing which
the Nihilist societies perpetrated. He could feel for the unrest of
youth, but he knew from his long experience of life that violence would
not bring them to the attainment of their objects.

The tragedy of the Moujik-garbed aristocrat, striving for
self-perfection and cast down by compro