even, rather than change their dress or crop their hair. They gloried in the red badge they were compelled to wear, as it pointed them out to the sympathy and commiseration of the people as the suffering, yet uncomplaining, defenders of national traditions and the ancient faith. Long hair and beards are still, as then, their distinguishing feature; and popular obstinacy, in this particular, proved stronger than the will of the autocrat. The more exalted and fanatic among them, called Stranniki,[1] or Fugitives, threw off all allegiance, and arrayed themselves in open opposition to the government, proclaiming resistance to constituted authority as their profession of faith.
Apart from the religious character of the Raskol, it thus assumed another aspect, social and political, equally important as a popular protestation against new or foreign habits, customs, and laws. In its origin and inception it was but a blind attachment to errors born of ignorance, prejudice, and superstition, essentially, a religious movement, and upon this, its first principle, was engrafted, during Peter's reign, that of hostility to the existing government, and to constituted authority. The reforms inaugurated by him were generally accepted by the nobles and by the upper classes, but were repudiated by the people; the lines of demarcation between the two sections of society were more strongly drawn, and the Raskol became concentrated, almost entirely, in the lower ranks, which remained persistently faithful to the ancient order of things. It was conservative and reactionary, hostile as well to civil as to religious reform, a powful and dangerous element, frequently availed of by unscrupulous and designing men for the furtherance of
- ↑ From strannik, a traveller, or wanderer.
