Page:Pavel Ivanovich Biryukov - The New Russia - tr. Emile Burns (1920).djvu/31

 groups was therefore set up under the Chairmanship of Vladimir Thertkoff, an intimate friend of Tolstoi. This Council sent a formal request to the Government asking for freedom from compulsory military service on religious grounds. Lenin, the head of the Government, declared in answer to this appeal, that the Socialist Government, which in principle was itself anti-militarist, could not persecute those who refused military service on conscientious grounds, and the Central Soviet of Moscow issued the following decree:—

Decree of the Soviet of Commissaries of the People, dated 4th January, 1919.

Freedom from Military Service on the ground of religious convictions.

(1) People who on account of their religious convictions are unable to undertake military service are obliged, in accordance with the decrees of the National Tribunal, to substitute for it an equal term of service to their fellow creatures by such service as work in hospitals for contagious diseases, or some other work of public utility to be chosen by the individual concerned.

(2) The National Tribunal in deciding questions as to the substitution of civil work for military service is to be assisted by "The Joint Council of Religious Groups and Communes of Moscow," for each individual case; the Joint Council to report as to whether the religious conviction concerned makes, military service impossible, as well as on the sincerity and honesty of the applicant.

(3) In exceptional cases the Joint Council of Religious Groups and Communes may have recourse to the All Russian Central Executive Committee, with a view to securing complete freedom from