53 The Society for the Restoration of Orthodoxyso on.^94 Georgians (perhaps especially) considered mountain out-
posts a career demotion. A Georgian teacher complained about his
work in the “backwater” of Abkhazia in 1872 with condescension:
“Try to imagine what sort of life is here. Where is polite society?
Where is the theatre?”^95 And missionaries faced hostility from the lo-
cal population, in particular if their work took them closer to the
northeast Caucasus and the seat of Shamil’s former imamate. Priest
Tukuzhev, an Armenian missionary associated with the society, was
in the Lezgin village of Toipalo when two Chechens accosted him, ex-
claimed, “Again the devil has arrived,” and spat in his face.^96
Ossetian Vitalii Dizhaev put the struggle for resources and respect in
the terms that counted: “Our forefathers were Christian, and we wish
to maintain the faith of our ancestors; but under conditions in which
we are not so needy in the religious sense. Now the Muslims laugh at
us, because we don’t have any priests, we don’t have churches, and
we don’t conduct Christian services on our holidays.”^97
The suspicions of mountain peasant families about schooling, like
those of Russian peasants, presented another difficulty for teachers.^98
Parents were suspicious of the intentions of educators, sometimes
suggesting that the purpose of schooling for boys was preparation for
military service.^99 Rumors persisted among the Ossetians that the
girls who attended the Vladikavkaz Girls’ School were actually being
trained in order to be presented as wives to soldiers and Cossacks.^100
A teacher among the Tushin and Pshav had trouble getting any sup-
port from the local imperial official (pristav), a Georgian named Zov
Tsiskarishvili, for the construction and maintenance of a school.
Tsiskarishvili finally explained to the frustrated teacher that Pshav el-
ders from the valley had refused to cooperate in procuring materials
and providing labour for the construction of the school. “What am I
to do! You can see for yourself that orders, threats, and even punish-
ments have no impact upon the Pshav elders.”^101 The elders frankly
told the official and the teacher that they were unwilling to spare the
material, time, or labour. And besides, they explained, “There’s
hardly one man among us that’s going to send his son to your
school.”^102 Schooling conflicted with the rhythm of the agricultural
season and the important role played by even young boys in the fam-
ily economy. Vakhar Kubalov reported the sudden loss of ten boys to
agricultural labour during the harvest of 1871.^103
The tough conditions made suitable teacher candidates difficult to
find. Especially unqualified priests might for that very reason find
their way to the frontier. Church officials in Tbilisi discovered that a
certain Karzhilov, a priest from Saratov province, had abandoned his
wife and children there, wandered through several borderland towns