Dueling in Russia.

Evening Star, Issue 6726, 7 October 1885, Page 4

Dueling in Russia.

In no country are -duels more frequent or more murderous than; in Russia; the Russians beiug, especially when in their cups, as quarrelsome among themselves as they are proverbially courteous to foreigners. The mode of combat usually adopted is that termed d la barrUr.e, the opponents being put up at fifteen paces, with liberty to advance five paces each at a given signal and to fire at will. Should one one of them fire and miss, his adversary is entitled to complete his five paces before returning his shot. This is obviously a very business-like form of duelling, and many cases have been known in which a duellist, although mortally wounded, has yet retained sufficient strength to take steady aim and fire with fatal effect. The great Russian poet Pushkin was killed in a duel d la barrtere after severely wounding his antagonist. In the Baltic provinces a system prevails which at first sight appears even more murderous. The adversaries are placed only three paces apart. The pistols are held with the muzzles pointing upwards, and are brought down and discharged at a given signal. It may appear almost impossible for two men to miss each other at so short a distance ; but this is not the case. Each of the opponents is so desperately anxious to. gain the least fraction of a second on his adversary that, on the signal being given, the weapons are brought down with so hurried and violent a jerk that the bullets bury themselves in the ground. At a duel fought last year at Riga between an officer and a student in this fashion, no fewer than three b1 lots were fired without any result; while at the fourth discharge the student had the great toe of his right foot cut clean off by his opponent's bullet.