Duelling in Russia.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 238, 21 January 1888, Page 2

Duelling in Russia.

In t no country are duels more, frequent or more murderous than in Russia; the Russians beinqr, especially when in their 1 cups, as quarrelsome among themselves as they are proverbially courteous to foreigners. The mode ' of combat usually adopted is that termed, Olabarrierc, the opponents being put up at fifteen paces with I liberty to advance five _pace 3 each at a given signal and to' -fire at will. Should one of them fire and miss, his adversary is entitled to complete his five paces before returning hjs shot. Thisisobviouslyaverybusiness-likeformof . duelling, and many cases' have bee'rf known in , which a duellist, although' mortally wounded, has yet retained "sufficient strength to take steady aim and fire withfatal effect. The great Russian poet,. Pushkin, wai killed in a duel a la barriere after Beyerely 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 &t> a given signal. It may appear almost impossible for two men to miss each other at so 1 short a distance ; .but " this is not thecase. Each of the opponents is so, desperately anxious to gain the least fractionof a second on his adversary that, on the signal 1 being given, the weapons arebrought down with so hurried and violent a jerk that the bullets b,ury themselves in the 1 ground. At a duel fought last year at Rigabetween an officer and a student in thisfashion, no fewer than three shots "were fired without any result; while at thefourth discharge the student had the great toe of his right foot cut clean off by his opponent's bullet. '