File:Honeymooning in Russia (1911) (14579009110).jpg

Identifier: honeymooninginru00wood (find matches)
Title: Honeymooning in Russia
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Wood, Ruth Kedzie
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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hey are the official mur-derers of the Empire. Of the imperial whip, the Gov-ernment is the handle — the Cossacks the lash. These500,000 cavalrymen, born to rob and maim, are thecorner-stone of the dynasty. Without their support,the monarchy could not be maintained. In return fortheir murderous obedience, they are held as the especialwards of their sovereign. They are better paid and caredfor than other divisions of the army. They scorn thecommon soldiery. Their ancestry is Circassian, Greek,Turkish, and Slavonic. They are bred to shoot, to ride,to despise emotion, and, above all, to disregard suffering— even in their own ranks. At the behest of their ruler,they crush a mob, shoot into a crowd of peaceful work-men, assault and torture women. It is their trade, theirvocation. If they did not give this kind of service, theywould be of no more use to the autocracy than any otherbranch of the army. They are paid especially well toexecute the most brutal of the Tsars commands, and they
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pq 00 w o X hiu p The Widow Kirsanovs Lodgers 279 earn their wage with a zeal which keeps him ever intheir debt. The manoeuvres over, the troopers walked their horsesin double file past our vantage-point back to the stables.Hand on hip, each man sat with arrogant grace, hisbridle-hand holding a loose rein above the neck of a Cir-cassian steed equal to an Arabian in fire and form. Last month, said Michael on our way back to thetown, a Jewish cabinet-maker was expelled from Arm-insk because he had not bribed the constable as gener-ously as his neighbours. He stole back to get some toolshe had forgotten. When the uriadnik heard of it, hereported it to the ispravnik, the police chief of the dis-trict. A day later, a dozen Cossacks galloped into theJewish quarter. The man himself had gotten awayagain, but that did not matter. They dragged out otherJews and flogged them instead of the man they had beensent to find. Before they were done, there was a pogrom— a riot and a massacre. Ah, they

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