Today, when Rassviet celebrates its tenth anniversary, it would be well to compare its work and ideals with those of another great Russian organization--the Dukhobor Society. [Translator's note: Dukhobors are members of a Russian religious sect with colonies in Canada and in Mexico.] Both Rassviet and the Dukhobor Society advocate the liberation of the spirit and the subordination of material things as necessary conditions for the achievement of real freedom by the human race.

The Dukhobors, as is well known, condemn the present political system, the division of mankind into political bodies, into kingdoms, monarchies, or dictatorships; instead,they advocate the formation of a universal brotherhood embracing all peoples of the world. Dukhobors deny the right of a man to take the life of any living creature. They favor the common ownership of all the wealth of the earth. It is true that, in the opinion of people who have never 2given these matters serious thought, all such ideas of the new order, the new social structure of human society, are so much nonsense, and that those who propagate these ideas are either criminals or fanatics. Dukhobors regard this seemingly unattainable social evolution as their highest ideal, which when realized will change the material life of man and will profoundly affect his spiritual life in a direction conforming to the highest hopes of Christianity. Dukhobors, as members of a religious sect, naturally look upon all these desired changes from the viewpoint of the Christian religion.

The ideologies of Rassviet and of the Dukhobor Society are the same, because many Dukhobors read Rassviet avidly and believe in it. Only its high subscription price, which many of our members cannot afford to pay, stands in the way of Rassviet's widest possible circulation among the Dukhobor masses.

Today, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Rassviet, one cannot but wish that Rassviet and the Dukhobor Society will go forward hand in hand toward 3the realization of their aims, and that they will both follow the road of constant spiritual improvement and the improvement of those with whom they come in contact in their daily work.

[Translator's note: The writer of this article, one V. Shafonsky, is a teacher of Dukhobor children in one of the Dukhobor colonies in Canada.]