# The Doukhobor release of livestock in 1902

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P014](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P014/#char=1671,1759): "A splendid and insane Russian sect ran about taking all the cattle out of all the carts."

The likely reference is to the Doukhobors' release of livestock in western Canada in 1902. A Canadian Commons question on 26 March 1903 explicitly asks about animals turned loose in the Yorkton district during the preceding autumn. The government's reply records roughly 120 horses, 95 sheep and 285 cattle, their collection and auction, and the use of the proceeds for Doukhobor relief and the cost of returning pilgrims home. This contemporary record corroborates a substantial animal release, though not Chesterton's precise picture of cattle being taken from carts. [House of Commons, ‘Doukhobor Pilgrimage,’ 26 March 1903](https://lipad.ca/full/1903/03/26/1/).

Calling them a Russian sect can obscure the Canadian setting. The example makes the argument vivid because these people acted abruptly rather than waiting for society to catch up. Chesterton admires their decisiveness even while calling their action insane: his immediate subject is the possibility of urgent action, not an endorsement of their practical judgment.

## Sources

- [Canadian House of Commons Debates, 26 March 1903](https://lipad.ca/full/1903/03/26/1/), Questions: ‘Doukhobor Pilgrimage’; Mr. Wilson's four questions and Postmaster General Sir William Mulock's numbered replies (contemporary debate, p. 542).

Revision 1 · 2026-11-07 · https://glosses.org/a/a_dnv3o3ma/