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Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless
Communications 1st Edition Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic
ISBN(s): 9788792982803, 8792982808
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 1.41 MB
Year: 2012
Language: english
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 OFDM Based Relay
Systems for Future
Wireless Communications
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 RIVER PUBLISHERS SERIES IN COMMUNICATIONS

Consulting Series Editors

MARINA RUGGIERI HOMAYOUN NIKOOKAR
University of Roma “Tor Vergata” Delft University of Technology
Italy The Netherlands

This series focuses on communications science and technology. This includes

the theory and use of systems involving all terminals, computers, and
information processors; wired and wireless networks; and network layouts,
procontentsols, architectures, and implementations.
Furthermore, developments toward new market demands in systems, products,
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 OFDM Based Relay
Systems for Future
Wireless Communications

Prof. Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic

Dr. Enis Kocan
Prof. Ramjee Prasad
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Aalborg
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Published, sold and distributed by:
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Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Authors Biography

Prof. Dr. Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic is full professor in telecommunications

at the University of Montenegro, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Podgorica,
Montenegro. Mrs. Pejanovic-Djurisic graduated in 1982. at University of
Montenegro with BSc degree in Electrical Engineering. She has got MSc and
PhD degrees in Telecommunications at University of Belgrade. For the period
of two years, prof. Pejanovic-Djurisic has also performed research in mobile
communications at University of Birmingham, UK. She has been teaching
at University of Montenegro basic telecommunications courses on graduate
and postgraduate levels, as well as courses in mobile communications and
computer communications and networks, being the author of three books and
many strategic studies. She has published more than 200 scientific papers in
international and domestic journals and conference proceedings. She has orga-
nized several workshops, giving tutorials and speeches at many scientific and
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

technical conferences. Her main research interests are: wireless communica-

tions theory, wireless networks performance improvement, broadband trans-
mission techniques, optimization of telecommunication development policy.
Prof. Pejanovic-Djurisic has considerable industry and operating experiences
working as industry consultant (Ericsson, Siemens) and Telecom Montenegro
Chairman of the Board. She has been in charge of GSM network design and
implementation in the Republic of Montenegro. Prof. Pejanovic-Djurisic has
taken part in many ICT projects with domestic and international partners.
Prof. Pejanovic-Djurisic has considerable experience in the field of
telecommunication regulation. Being an ITU expert, she participates in a num-
ber of missions and ITU activities related with regulation issues, development
strategies and technical solutions.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 vi Authors Biography

Dr. Enis Kocan is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of

Montenegro, Podgorica, where he works as a teaching/research assistant since
2003. He received MSc degree in electronics engineering in 2005, and in 2011
he defended PhD thesis “Solutions for performance improvement of OFDM
relay systems through subcarrier permutation,” all at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering in Podgorica. Results presented in this book were obtained during
his PhD research, and after that, during his postdoctoral work, under the super-
vision of prof. Pejanovic-Djurisic. Part of PhD research Enis has conducted
at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Enis has published about 40 scien-
tific papers in international and domestic journals, international and regional
peer reviewed conferences. He has participated, or is still participating, in
realization of several international projects, in projects of bilateral scientific-
technological cooperation and in national research projects. Besides, Enis
has considerable experience in working for industry, as he has been involved
in many technical projects for the telecommunication operators, in creating
development strategies, elaborates, etc. His area of research and expertise are
digital communications over fading channels, with the particular interest in
topics:

— OFDM based relay systems for the next generation wireless communica-
tion networks,
— Multicarrier systems,
— Diversity techniques,
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

— Synchronization issues in wireless OFDM systems.

Prof. Dr. Ramjee Prasad is the Director of the Center for TeleInfrastruktur
(CTIF) and Professor Chair of Wireless Information Multimedia Communi-
cation at Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. CTIF is a large multi-area
research center in telecommunication infrastructure in the premises of AAU.
Under his successful leadership and based on his broad and long-term vision,
CTIF currently has more than 300 scientists from different parts of the world
and several CTIF branches exist worldwide, namely, CTIF-Italy (September
2006, Rome), CTIF-India (December 2007, Kolkata), CTIF-Copenhagen
(March 2008, Copenhagen), CTIF-Japan (October 2008, Yokosuka), and
CTIF-USA (April 2011, Princeton).

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Authors Biography vii

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

(IEEE), USA, the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engi-
neers (IETE), India; the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK;
and a member of the Netherlands Electronics and Radio Society (NERG), and
the Danish Engineering Society (IDA). He is recipient of several international
academic, industrial and governmental awards of which the most recent is the
Ridder in the Order of Dannebrog (2010), a distinguished award by the Queen
of Denmark.
Ramjee Prasad is the Founding Chairman of the Global ICT Standardisa-
tion Forum for India (GISFI: www.gisfi.org) established in 2009. GISFI has the
purpose of increasing the collaboration between Indian, Japanese, European,
North-American, Chinese, Korean and other worldwide standardization activ-
ities in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and
related application areas. In February 2010, CTIF under the leadership of
Ramjee Prasad inaugurated the International Institute for Innovations in ICT
(I4CT) in Lonavala, India, followed by a cooperation agreement signed
between I4CT, GISFI, Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES), and
Aalborg University (AAU).
He is also the Founding Chairman of the HERMES Partnership
(www.hermes-europe.net) a network of leading independent European
research centres established in 1997, of which he is now the Honorary Chair.
Ramjee Prasad has been strongly involved in European research programs,
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

initiating large-scale European funded international co-operations, such as the

Framework Programme Four (FP4)-ACTS project FRAMES (Future Radio
Wideband Multiple Access Systems), which set up the Universal Multimedia
Telecommunication System (UMTS) standard and the project ASAP, the FP5
Information Society (IST) projects CELLO and PRODEMIS; the FP6 IST
projects MAGNET and MAGNET Beyond.
Prof. Prasad was a business delegate in the Official Business Delegation
led by Her Majesty The Queen of Denmark Margarethe II to South Korea in
October 2007.
Ramjee Prasad is the founding editor-in-chief of the Springer Interna-
tional Journal on Wireless Personal Communications. He is member of the
editorial board of several other renowned international journals and is the
series editor of the Artech House Universal Personal Communications Series.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 viii Authors Biography

Ramjee Prasad is a member of the Steering, Advisory, and Technical Program

committees of many renowned annual international conferences, e.g., Wire-
less Personal Multimedia Communications Symposium (WPMC); Wireless
VITAE, etc. He has published more than 25 books, 750 plus journals and con-
ferences publications, more than 15 patents, a sizeable amount of graduated
PhD students (over 60) and an even larger number of graduated M.Sc. students
(over 200). Several of his students are today worldwide telecommunication
leaders themselves.
Ramjee Prasad’s professional experience dates back to 1979. He had a
pioneering role in introducing the rounded concept of code division multiple
access (CDMA) as a technology for wireless personal communications, which
led to the concept of the universal personal communication system, combining
into one a broad range of research areas, such as radio propagation aspects,
basic cellular communications including macrocellular, microcellular,
and picocellular systems, adaptive equalization, multiple access protocols
with CDMA concepts and random access protocols in a hostile wireless
environment, dynamic channel assignment, several aspects of future public
land mobile telecommunication systems (FPLMTS)/IMT-2000/UMTS and
broadband multimedia communications including orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM), OFDM-based asynchronous transfer mode
network and multi-carrier (MC)-CDMA. His research effort has contributed to
introduce the concept of wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and a comprehensive
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

approach to the design of a WCDMA air interface that was a major step
towards the adoption of the concept of UMTS for third generation mobile
communication systems. Further, his research efforts provided a compre-
hensive material about OFDM and how to build an OFDM demonstrator.
He helped establish OFDM as a candidate technology for applications such
as digital audio and video broadcasting, and wireless ATM, an effort that
currently can be recognized in the significance of OFDM as the technology
for fourth generation communication systems.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Contents

List of Abbreviations xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 General Overview of Relay Techniques 9

2.1 Relay Based Communications 10
2.1.1 Relaying techniques 15
2.2 Amplify and Forward Relay Technique 18
2.2.1 AF with Fixed Gain 19
2.2.2 AF with Variable Gain 22
2.3 Decode and Forward Relay Technique 26
2.4 Performance of AF and DF Relay Systems 27
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

3 OFDM relay systems 33

3.1 Basic OFDM Principles 34
3.1.1 OFDM System Structure 37
3.1.2 Benefits and Shortcomings of OFDM 38
3.1.3 Implementation of OFDM and Perspectives 40
3.2 Overview OF OFDM Relay Systems 43
3.3 OFDM Relay Systems with Subcarrier Permutation 45
3.3.1 Capacity Enhancement in OFDM
Relay Systems 47
3.3.2 BER Performance Improvement in OFDM
Relay Systems 48

4 Relay Stations in Wireless Cellular Networks 59

4.1 OFDM Relay Systems in WWAN 59
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 x Contents

4.2 Relay Specifications in IEEE 802.16J Standard 61

4.3 Relay Solutions in IMT-Advanced Relay Systems 66
4.3.1 Relay Specifications in LTE-Advanced Systems 69
4.3.2 Relay Specifications in IEEE 802.16m Standard 73
4.3.3 Comparisons of IMT-Advanced Relay Systems 76

5 Performance of OFDM AF FG Relay Systems with

Subcarrier Permutation 79
5.1 System Description 80
5.2 Statistics of the End-To-End SNR 82
5.2.1 Ordered Statistics of Random Variables 83
5.2.2 PDF of SNR for BTW SCP Scheme 85
5.2.3 PDF of SNR for BTB SCP Scheme 88
5.2.4 MGF of SNR for BTB SCP Scheme 89
5.2.5 MGF of SNR for BTB SCP Scheme 91
5.3 BER Performance of OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 92
5.3.1 BER of DPSK Modulated OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 92
5.3.2 BER of BPSK Modulated OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 93
5.3.3 BER of m-QAM Modulated OFDM AF FG
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Relay Systems with SCP 95

5.4 Ergodic Capacity of OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 96
5.5 Performance Analysis of OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 98
5.5.1 BER Performance Analysis of DPSK
Modulated OFDM AF FG Relay Systems with SCP 99
5.5.2 BER Performance Analysis of BPSK Modulated
OFDM AF FG Relay Systems with SCP 100
5.5.3 BER Performance Analysis of 4-QAM
Modulated OFDM AF FG Relay Systems with SCP 101
5.5.4 Ergodic Capacity Analysis of OFDM AF FG Relay
Systems with SCP 103
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Contents xi

6 Performance of OFDM AF VG Relay Systems with

Subcarrier Permutation 107
6.1 System Description 107
6.2 Statiscs of the End-to-End SNR 109
6.2.1 Harmonic Mean of Random Variables 109
6.2.2 PDF of SNR for BTW SCP Scheme 110
6.2.3 PDF of SNR for BTB SCP Scheme 113
6.2.4 MGF of SNR for BTW SCP Scheme 116
6.2.5 MGF of SNR for BTB SCP Scheme 117
6.3 BER Performance of OFDM AF VG
Relay Systems with SCP 118
6.3.1 BER Performance of DPSK Modulated OFDM
AF VG Relay Systems with SCP 118
6.3.2 BER Performance of BPSK Modulated OFDM
AF VG Relay Systems with SCP 118
6.4 Ergodic Capacity of OFDM AF VG
Relay Systems with SCP 121
6.5 Performance Analysis of OFDM AF VG Relay
Systems With SCP 122
6.5.1 BER Performance Analysis of DPSK
Modulated OFDM AF VG Relay Systems with SCP 123
6.5.2 BER Performance Analysis of BPSK
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Modulated OFDM AF VG Relay Systems with SCP 124

6.5.3 Ergodic Capacity Analysis of OFDM AF VG
Relay Systems with SCP 125
6.6 Performance Comparison of OFDM AF Relay
Systems with SCP 128
6.6.1 Comparison of BER Performances 129
6.6.2 Comparison of Ergodic Capacities 133

7 Performance of OFDM DF Relay Systems

with Subcarrier Permutation 135
7.1 System Description 135
7.2 BER Performance of DPSK Modulated OFDM DF Relay
Systems with SCP 137
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 xii Contents

7.3 BER Performance of BPSK Modulated OFDM DF Relay

Systems with SCP 139
7.4 Ergodic Capacity of OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 140
7.5 Performance Analysis of OFDM DF
Relay Systems with SCP 142
7.5.1 BER Performance Analysis of DPSK
Modulated OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 142
7.5.2 BER Performance Analysis of BPSK
Modulated OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 143
7.5.3 Ergodic Capacity Analysis of OFDM DF
Relay System with SCP 144
7.6 Comparative Performance Analysis of OFDM AF and
OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 147
7.6.1 Comparative BER Performance Analysis of
OFDM AF and OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 147
7.6.2 Comparative Analysis of Ergodic Capacities of
OFDM AF and OFDM DF Relay Systems with SCP 149

References 155

Index 163
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 List of Abbreviations

3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

ADSL Asymmetric DSL
AF Amplify and Forward
BER Bit Error Rate
BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying
BS Base Station
BTB SCP Best-to-Best Subcarrier Permutation
BTW SCP Best-to-Worst Subcarrier Permutation
BWA Broadband Wireless Access
CDF Cumulative Distribution Function
COFDM Coded OFDM
CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission
CSMA-CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

D Destination
DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting
DF Decode and Forward
DFT Discrete Fourier Transformation
DMT Discrete Multitone Modulation
DPSK Differentially Phase Shift Keying
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting
DVB-T Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial
eNB eNode B
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 xiv List of Abbreviations

FD Frequency Domain
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FEC Forward Error Correction
FFT Fast Fourier Transformation
FG Fixed Gain
Flash-OFDM Fast low-latency access with seamless handoff OFDM
F-RS Fixed Relay Station
GI Guard Interval
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
HIPERLAN High Performance Radio Local Area Network
i.i.d. independent identically distributed
ICI Intercarrier Interference
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transformation
IMT-Advanced International Mobile Telecommunications - Advanced
ISI Intersymbol Interference
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical
ITU-T International Telecommunication Union–Standardization
Sector
LTE Long Term Evolution
LTE-Advanced Long Term Evolution-Advanced
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

MAC Medium Access Control

MBSFN Multicast-broadcast single-frequency network
MGF Moment Generation Function
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
MMAC Multimedia Mobile Access Communication
m−QAM m-ary Quadrature Apmlitude Modulation
M-RS Mobile Relay Station
MS Mobile Station
N-RS Nomadic Mobile Station
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
PARP Peak-to-Average Power Ratio
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PDF Probability Density Function
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 List of Abbreviations xv

PLC Power Line Communication

R-PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
RS Relay
S Source
SCP Subcarrier Permutation
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
TD Time Domain
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDMA/DSA Time Division Multiple Access with Dynamic Slot
Assignment
VDSL Very high-bit-rate DSL
VG Variable Gain
VLSI Very Large Scale Integration
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN Wireless Local Area Networks
WWAN Wireless Wide Area Networks
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 This page intentionally left blank
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Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 1
Introduction

In the last decade, all segments of communication industry are highly charac-
terized by intensive development of wireless communication systems. Thus,
both WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Networks) and WLAN (Wireless Local
Area Networks) networks are having a significant impact on the overall
socio-economic conditions, becoming indispensable in all kind of every day
activities. With the continuous demand for new web based services and multi-
media applications, a significant focus is on their further development, so that
the required high data rates and sufficient system capacity will be provided.
At the same time, the expected traffic increase over future wireless networks
is due to the explosive penetration of new smart user terminals (smartphones,
tablets). Their improved processing and display characteristics represent a
base for successful implementation of the well known “anywhere, anytime”,
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

communication paradigm enabling high degree of mobility in accessing new

broadband services and applications.
It is well known that wireless signal transmission imposes serious
challenges in fulfilling demands for high data rates and sufficient quality of
service, when providing reliable communications. It is due to the complex
nature of wireless radio channels whose characteristics are influenced by
various types of noise, multipath effects, propagation losses, interference and
other impediments, which are further on susceptible to constant change due to
user mobility. Thus, in giving the adequate technical solutions for future broad-
band wireless networks, all relevant characteristics of this specific transmission

OFDM Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, 1–7.

© 2012 River Publishers. All rights reserved.
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 2 Introduction

medium have to be taken into account. One of the first steps in this direction
is certainly related with the definition of optimal transmission techniques at
the physical layer of wireless networks.
Over the last years, orthogonal frequency multiplexing (OFDM —
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) has been imposed as a tech-
nique which enables high data rates in severe transmission conditions
encountered in wireless radio channels. It is one of those ideas that had been
developing for quite a long time and it became a reality with growing demands
for multimedia applications and services. OFDM modulation and transmis-
sion scheme is considered attractive for the implementation in broadband
wireless networks since it mitigates the effects of multipath propagation, even
in the frequency-selective fading environment. At the same time, its important
advantage is in the fact that it efficiently uses limited frequency spectrum due
to orthogonal subcarriers that enable spectral overlapping without interfering.
With its parallel data transmission scheme, OFDM reduces various types of
interference, making the use of complex equalizers unnecessary.
Due to its good characteristics, OFDM has already been implemented
in a number of standardized wireless communication systems, like: DAB
(Digital Audio Broadcasting), DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), WLAN
networks (IEEE 802.11a/g/n). On the other side, its extension to multiple
access scheme — OFDMA, which supports multiple users by providing each
of them with a fraction of the available number of carriers, has found its place
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

in WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) systems.

Despite the advantages of OFDM systems, it has been shown that further
enhancements regarding quality and capacity of broadband communications
over wireless channels are still necessary [1]. In different evolution steps
towards next generation wireless communications over higher bandwidths,
the increase in carrier frequencies is usually proposed. However, the available
frequency spectrum is limited, with the bandwidth being a scarce resource,
and it is essential to utilize it as efficient as possible. Thus, increasing spectrum
efficiency becomes more and more important when upcoming technological
solutions for wireless systems performance improvements are considered. At
the same time, it is well known that the transmission at higher frequencies
means reduction in the network coverage range due to increased propagation
losses. Moreover, fulfilling the demands related with the high throughput and
link reliability at the edges of coverage zones becomes specially challenging.
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Introduction 3

In that sense, it has been shown that OFDM, even in combination with the
advanced techniques like multiple transmit-receive antennas, signal process-
ing or error detection and correction codes, cannot provide sufficient capacity
and the required service quality for the users located far from the transmitters
(base station, access point) or near the limits of coverage areas. That is why
research efforts have been directed towards new solutions and techniques that
would support high data rates and higher capacities of future wireless systems,
with the better coverage and link reliability at the same time.
Recently, it has been shown that cooperative communication concepts can
solve many of these issues faced by future broadband WWAN and WLAN
networks. In the general context, the term cooperation refers to the action of
working together towards the same purpose. Here, it is a novel communica-
tion concept which means fundamental shift from traditional point-to-point
communication. It is based on resource sharing and coordination among units
of wireless network, which enable significant performance improvements in
terms of coverage, data rates, capacity, link reliability and spectral efficiency.
Cooperative communications actually use the broadcast nature of the wireless
channel and allow interaction among units of wireless networks to jointly trans-
mit information. Thus, cooperative diversity is formed leveraging the spatial
diversity available between the distributed units. Its diversity gain is achieved
when a number of network units collaborate and share their antennas to form a
virtual multiple-input-multiple-out (MIMO) system. In such a scenario one or
Copyright © 2012. River Publishers. All rights reserved.

more intermediate nodes (terminals) intervene in the communication between

a transmitter and a receiver. Thus, each terminal is supposed to transmit its
own messages as well as to assist as a cooperative agent for the transmission
of messages originating from other terminals. In that manner, a possibility is
created for the message transmission to be realized over a better path, or the
original source-destination link is kept in use but its quality is strengthened
thanks to diversity provided by the cooperators. This directly leads towards
resource sharing and link quality enhancement, while providing options for
improving energy efficiency of wireless networks.
Cooperative communication concept can be implemented in both infras-
tructure based wireless networks (cellular systems, WLAN, WMAN) and
infrastructure-less networks (ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks).
Depending on the nature of cooperative nodes, it can appear in different
forms. Thus, the above described cooperative paradigm, where additional
Ofdm Based Relay Systems for Future Wireless Communications, River Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Other documents randomly have
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 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me,
Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me: It
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stopped, and the end had come; it was fulfilled.
“I see, I see, I see, beloved!” cried Kilikeya, interrupting the
reading, her face pale and shrivelled, a fixed look in her dilated eyes.
“What do you see?” asked the old monk.
“I see that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending from
heaven, like unto a precious stone, a jasper stone, clear as crystal,
an emerald, a topaz and a sapphire. The twelve gates are twelve
pearls; and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.
And the city has no sun, for the glory of God illumines it. I am afraid!
I am afraid! O my friends! I see His face more radiant than the sun.
Here He is, here He is. He is coming to us!”
And they who listened to her believed they saw it also.
When the night came and the candles were lit they all knelt and
sang:—
“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh at midnight and blessed is the
servant who is awake. Watch, my soul, be not heavy with sleep, lest
the doors of the Kingdom be closed upon thee, and thou be
delivered unto death, but awake and cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The Holy Virgin have mercy upon us.’ Remember the terrible day. O
my soul, trim thy lamps with oil, for no one knows when the cry will
be made: ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh.’”
 Sophia, standing next to Tichon, held his hand. He felt the
trembling pressure of her hand, and saw the smile of shy joy on her
face; so does the bride smile at her bridegroom before the altar. And
his soul was filled with responsive joy. Now he believed that the Red
Death was God’s will while his previous fear was Satan’s temptation.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose
his life for My sake and the Gospel’s sake shall find it.”
They expected the soldiers that night, but they did not come. In
the morning they were as heavy as after a severe drinking bout.
The monk’s vigilant eye was everywhere. To those who grew
despondent and timid, he gave little balls of dark scented paste
(which most likely contained a stupefying poison). Swallowing these
caused a sort of mad ecstasy; the weakest no longer dreaded the
fire, but raved about it as heavenly bliss.
To give themselves courage they told each other tales about the
voluntary death of starvation, which was supposed to be much more
terrible than death by fire.
These martyrs were placed in an empty hut, without doors and
windows, furnished only with benches. To prevent their killing
themselves all garments were taken from them, even the belt and
cross. They were let into the hut through the roof, and the hole was
fastened up so that no one could escape. Guards armed with clubs
were posted around the hut. Their torments lasted three to six days;
they wept, praying, “Give us to drink,” they bit their own bodies and
cursed God. Once twenty people were locked up thus in a threshing
barn; weary of waiting they succeeded in breaking one of the boards
and crept out; but the guards knocked them on the head with their
clubs and killed two; then closing the opening up, they reported
what had happened to the leading monk, asking what they had
better do. He ordered straw to be put round the barn and then
kindled.
“The Red Death is infinitely easier,” concluded the speakers, “it is
so quick that there is no feeling.”
 But a small girl of seven, who had been sitting quietly on the
bench and listening attentively, suddenly began to tremble, and
jumping up, rushed to her mother, caught hold of her skirt, and cried
in a piercing voice:—
“Mamma, mamma, come, come away! I don’t want to be burned!”
The mother tried in vain to quiet her, but she continued crying
louder still:—
“I don’t want to burn, I don’t!”
And such animal terror was in that scream that all shuddered,
realizing the horror of what was about to happen.
The child was petted, threatened, punished, yet she continued to
scream till at last, almost black in the face and breathless, she fell to
the ground in convulsions. Father Cornelius bent over her, blessed
her with the sign of the cross, beat her with his rosary and recited
an exorcism:—
“Go forth, go forth, thou evil spirit!”
Nothing did any good: he then lifted her in his arms, opened her
mouth and forced her to swallow one of the balls of dark paste. He
began to stroke her hair gently and whisper into her ear. The little
girl grew calmer, she seemed to have dozed off, but her eyes
remained open, her pupils dilated with a fixed stare, as in delirium.
Tichon listened to the man’s whisper. He was telling her about the
Heavenly Kingdom, the Garden of Eden.
“Uncle, will there be any raspberries there?” asked Akoulína.
“Yes, dear, there will. Very large berries, the size of an apple, and
so sweet, so sweet!”
The little girl smiled, she evidently rejoiced at the idea of these
heavenly raspberries. The old man continued to fondle and lull her
with almost motherly tenderness. Yet to Tichon there appeared
something insane, pathetic, hungry, in the monk’s luminous eyes.
“Like a spider sucking in a fly,” thought he.
 The second night came; but there was no sign of the soldiers.
During the night, one of the old nuns made her escape. When all
were asleep, even the guards, she crept out on the roof, and tried to
let herself down with a rope of neckerchiefs she had tied together,
but they gave way and she fell. For a long time her moanings were
heard under the windows, but at last they ceased; maybe she had
crept away, or passers-by had picked her up.
There was little room in the chapel. The victims slept on the floor
close to one another, the men on the right, the women on the left.
Yet—were they dreams or demons?—shadows stealthily flitted from
the right to the left, from the left to the right.
Tichon woke up and listened. A nightingale was singing in the
distance and her song echoed the moonlit night, the freshness of a
dewy meadow, the perfume of a pine forest, freedom,
voluptuousness, the bliss of life. And as in response to the
nightingale’s song, strange whispers, rustles, sighs, resembling sighs
and kisses of love, rose from the chapel floor. Plainly the fiend was
still striving in man. Human passions were not quenched, but
fanned, by the imminence of death.
Cornelius did not sleep. He was praying and neither saw nor heard
anything, or if he did, he pardoned “his poor children.”
“God alone is without sin, man is weak; like dust he falls and rises
like an angel. Not he who goes wrong with a maid or a widow is a
sinner, but he who errs in his faith. We do not sin when our body
takes liberties; but the church sins when it tolerates heresy.”
Suddenly Tichon felt that somebody was embracing and clinging
to him. It was Sophia. He was frightened, but it flashed upon him,
“The flames will purify all,” and feeling through the black habit the
warmth and freshness of the innocent body, their ardent lips met.
And the caresses of these two children in the dark building, that
common coffin, were as innocent as those of Daphnis and Chloe of
old on the sunny plain of Lesbos.
 Meanwhile, John the Simpleton, squatting on his heels, a candle in
his hands waiting for the dawn, swayed gently to and fro and sang
endlessly:—

You hollowed oaks will prove,

Fit house for us.

The nightingale sang on of liberty, voluptuousness, and the bliss of

life. Her song seemed a delicate mockery of the song of the
Simpleton.
Tichon recalled a distant pale, white night, a group of people on a
raft upon the glassy surface of the Neva, between two skies, two
abysses, and the gentle languid music wafted across from the
Summer Garden, kisses and sighs from the kingdom of Venus:

’Tis time to cast thy bow away.

Cupid! we all are in thy sway.
Thy golden love-awaking dart
Has reached and wounded every heart.

Before dawn, Minei, a man eighty years old, tried to escape.

Kirucha caught him, they had a fight. Minei nearly killed Kirucha with
his axe. The old man was seized by the throat and locked in a closet,
where he went on screaming and reviling Cornelius with all his
might.
At daybreak Tichon looked out to see whether the soldiers had
arrived; he saw nothing but the empty glade flooded with sunshine,
the dreamy, friendly, but gloomy pines, and dewdrops sparkling in
iridescent hues. He felt the fresh perfume of the pinewood, the
gentle warmth of the rising sun, the peace of the blue heavens; and
again all that was going on in the chapel seemed a madman’s
delirium.
Another long summer’s day began. The weariness of waiting grew
unbearable. Famine threatened. There was but little water and
bread: a bag of rye biscuits, and two baskets of sacramental loaves.
 On the other hand there was a quantity of red wine. They drank it
eagerly. Some one, being drunk, suddenly started a coarse song. It
sounded sadder than the wildest moan.
The people began to murmur, they whispered together in corners
and looked angrily at old Cornelius. What if the soldiers do not
appear at all. Will they have to die of hunger? Some demanded that
the door should be opened and bread sent for. Yet their eyes
expressed but one thought, escape. Others wished to burn at once
without waiting for the persecutors. Others prayed, but their face
proclaimed they would rather have blasphemed. Others again,
having eaten the dark balls, which the monk distributed more and
more freely, raved, laughing and weeping. One lad in a fit of
madness seized a candle burning before an icon and began to set
the straw on fire. It was quenched with difficulty. Some sat for hours
without a word in a kind of waking trance, not daring to look into
one another’s eyes.
Sophia, sitting near Tichon, who lay on the ground, exhausted by
sleeplessness and famine, sang a melancholy song which the Chlisti
sang at their meeting, a song about the loneliness of a human soul,
forsaken in life as in a dark wood. The song ended in a sob:—

Thrice holy mother of God,

Implore thy Son for us!
On earth are many sinners;
On the moist earth, our mother,
Our nurse supreme.

Nobody saw them. Sophia rested her head on Tichon’s shoulder,

and cheek to cheek with him she wept.
“I am grieved for you, Tichon, my darling,” she whispered in his
ear, “I have led you into perdition, wretch that I am! Will you
escape? I will get you a rope. Or stay, I will beg Cornelius; there is a
subterranean path leading into the wood, he will let you go out.”
 Tichon, exhausted, remained silent, smiling at her like a child half
awake. His senses wavered. Through his mind floated idly distant
memories, as in some delirium; abstract mathematical definitions, to
the graceful and severe beauty of which—their icy transparency and
regularity—he was now specially sensitive. Well had old Pastor Glück
compared mathematics to music, to the crystal music of the spheres!
He remembered also the discussion between Glück and James Bruce
over Newton’s Commentaries on the Apocalypse, he could hear the
dry, short, wooden laughter of Bruce, and his words, which had at
the time echoed in Tichon’s soul with such alarming presentiment.
Bruce had said, “At the very time that Newton was writing his
Commentaries, here at the other extreme of the world, here in
Muscovy, wild fanatics, named Raskolniks, were also commenting in
their rude, uninstructed way upon the Apocalypse, and drawing
conclusions almost identical with those of Newton. The Raskolniks
daily expect the end of the world; some of them sleep in coffins, and
sing funeral hymns; others burn themselves alive. How extraordinary
this coincidence of imaginations! That the extreme West and the
extreme East, the greatest enlightenment and the greatest
ignorance, should meet in a single Apocalyptic conception! A fact
which in itself is enough to make one believe that the end of the
world is drawing nigh; that we shall all go to the devil very soon!”
Newton’s prophecy as repeated by Glück assumed a new and vivid
significance, “Hypotheses non fingo! I don’t make hypotheses! Like a
moth to the fire, a comet rushes to the sun. From the fusion of these
the heat of the sun will so increase, that the earth will be consumed.
It is written in the scriptures: ‘The heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be consumed.’ Then will be
fulfilled the two prophecies; that of the man of science who knew,
and that of the ignorant who had faith.” Tichon also recalled the old
octavo, No. 461, of Bruce’s library; gnawed by the mice, bearing the
illiterate Russian inscription, “Lionardo D’Avinci’s ‘Treatise on
Painting,’ in German.” A portrait of Leonardo, which had an odd look,
also, of Prometheus or Simon Magus, had been slipped into the
book. And beside Leonardo, Tichon thought he saw another face,
likewise terrible, the face of a giant clad in a Dutch skipper’s leather
jacket, whom he had once met in Petersburg in the Troïtsa square,
near the “Four Frigates” coffee house. It was the face of Peter, once,
he thought, so hateful to him, now suddenly admired, beloved. The
two faces had something in common, something similar and yet
opposed: Da Vinci stood for thoughtful Contemplation; Peter for
reason in Action. And both these faces seemed to exhale on Tichon
a delicious cool air, such as snow-clad mountains waft to a wanderer
exhausted by the heat of the dales.
“O Physics! save me from Metaphysics!” He remembered Newton’s
words, so often repeated by the drunken Glück. In these two faces
lay the sole salvation from the fiery heaven of the Red Death—in
both homage to Earth, the “fertile mother of all.”
Then all grew confused and Tichon fell asleep. He dreamt he was
flying over some visionary city: either the old legendary town Kitesh,
or the New Jerusalem, or perhaps Stockholm, or else the Glass City,
“like unto clear glass and a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” A music
which was at the same time mathematics filled the luminous city.
He suddenly awoke. All around him were bustling about with
joyous faces.
“The soldiers, the soldiers have come!”
Tichon looked out and saw afar off, on the borders of the wood, in
the evening twilight, men around a fire wearing three-cornered hats,
green coats with red lapels, and brass buttons. These were the
soldiers. “The soldiers have come. Kindle! friends! God is with us!”

CHAPTER V
Captain Pirsky had received the following instructions from the
Bishop of Nishni-Novgorod.
 “The haunt of the Raskolniks is to be approached secretly, lest the
people set themselves on fire. Should they shut themselves up in
their monastery or chapel the soldiers must surround them in close
order, and watch their shelter carefully night and day. At all costs
prevent a fire. Try and persuade them to surrender, and give them
hope that they will all be freely pardoned. And when they surrender
make a list of their names, put them into footstocks or chains to
make flight impossible, and send them with all their goods under
guard to Nijni. But if, unmoved by your persuasions, they refuse to
surrender, stubbornly remaining shut in, you must get them out as
best you can by siege and famine; catching the ringleaders that their
heresy may not spread. Take them prisoners by force or starvation,
but avoid bloodshed. Should they set their robbers’ den or chapel on
fire, you must flood it with water, and hacking away windows and
doors, drag them out alive.”
Captain Pirsky, a brave old retired soldier, who had been wounded
at Poltava, considered the destruction of monasteries, a “cunning
invention of the army of long-haired popes,” and would have
preferred to have encountered the severest fire of the Swedes or
Turks, than to meddle with the Raskolniks. They chose to burn
themselves and he always received the blame! “The captain and
other lay officers should exercise more caution and skill, for it is
obvious that the Raskolniks seek death in the flames for fear of the
Captain.” Pirsky explained that the Raskolniks were driven to death,
not by fear but by their stubborn hate of the world. “They are filled
with anger against us, whom they consider apostates, and would
rather suffer death than accept the new faith, so inflated and
stubborn are they over minutest trifles.” But these explanations were
not listened to at the bishop’s palace and the remonstrances
continued.
With regard to the “Bank of Mosses,” he made up his mind to act
with great caution and prudence. In the evening, ordering his troops
to retire into the wood and not to stir, he approached the chapel
alone, unarmed, carefully inspected the place and knocked at the
window, repeating a prayer after the manner of the Raskolniks.
 “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us!”
No one replied. All was quite as the grave in the chapel, nobody
could be seen. The tree tops gently rustled. The fresh night breeze
was rising. “If they set themselves on fire we are done for,” thought
the captain; he knocked again and repeated:—
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us.”
Again silence, troubled only by the marsh crickets and a dog
howling in the distance. A falling star flashed across the dark sky in
a fiery curve and dispersed in sparks. He felt terrified as though he
really were knocking at a grave.
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us,” he uttered for a
third time.
The shutter at the window moved. A light fell through the chink.
At last the window slowly opened and Cornelius’ head peered
through it.
“What do you want? Who are you, and why have you come?”
“By his Majesty Tsar Peter’s decree we have come to exhort you to
tell us who you are, of what rank, what name, how long you have
lived in these woods, what permission you had to leave your houses
and by what decree you live here? If you have any doubts as to Holy
Church and her sacraments, you should describe them in writing and
send your teachers to deliberate with the chiefs of the clergy,
without fear or mistrust.”
“We peasants and commoners have assembled here in the name
of Jesus Christ, and we will do what is right by our wives and
children,” replied the old man in a slow, measured, solemn tone. “We
desire to die in the flames for our ancient Faith and we will not give
ourselves into your hands; you are persecutors, and your Faith is
new. Should any of you desire to be saved let him join us in the
flames. We shall be with Christ to-day.”
“Enough, friend,” replied the captain in a kindly voice, “the Lord be
with you. Put away this seditious project, disperse to your houses
and no one will hurt you. You may return to live happily in your
villages. You will pay a double tax; and that’s all.”
“Ah captain, tell that to children in arms; we folks know what we
have to expect. Fine talk, and there it ends.”
“I swear, upon my honour, to let every one of you go free without
hurt,” exclaimed Pirsky. He spoke the truth; he really had decided to
let them off, contrary to the decree, on his own responsibility, if they
would only surrender.
“But why should we waste our strength in shouting, our voices
might give way.” “I am getting hoarse,” he added with a smile. “The
window is so high I can scarcely hear. Look here! Drop a leather line
and I will fasten myself to it and you can pull me up through the
window, but a wider one than this. I could not get through this one.
I am alone, you are many; there is nothing for you to fear. We will
talk, and with God’s help we may come to an understanding.”
“To what purpose should we talk? How can we, destitute beggars,
vie with such as you,” answered Cornelius, sarcastically revelling in
his power and superiority, “between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed; none of our people, if he wished, could go to you, none of
yours could join us. I would advise you, Captain, to go back. We
shall light up directly.”
The window was flung to. Again silence ensued, only the wind
rustled in the tree tops, and the crickets chirped from the swamps.
The captain returned to his soldiers and treated each man to a
glass of vodka. “We will not fight with them,” he said, “there are but
few men among them, mostly women and children. We will break
open the door and catch them without any weapons.”
The soldiers prepared ropes, hatchets, ladders, pails and barrels
full of water, and long poles each ending with an iron hook, to haul
the human beings out of the flames. At last when it was quite dark
the men approached the chapel along the border of the wood, then
across the glade on all-fours, hiding in the tall grass and behind
bushes like sportsmen beating their game.
 Arrived at the chapel, which was still as the grave, they began to
put up their ladders.
Suddenly, the window opened and Cornelius cried:—
“Back! When the powder and saltpetre take fire the falling beams
will kill you!”
“Surrender,” cried the captain; “we will take you somehow, see we
have muskets and pistols—”
“You have pistols, we have the club of Christ,” replied a voice from
within.
Behind the soldiers a priest appeared with a cross and began to
read the bishop’s missive.
“He who kills himself unlawfully is a lost man, he loses his
temporal life, and draws upon himself everlasting torment.”
The muzzle of an old cannon appeared in the window, a blank
cartridge was fired, not to kill but to intimidate the persecutors.
The priest hid himself behind the soldiers, while old Cornelius
brandishing his fist yelled:—
“Hell’s torches! Ashes of Sodom! Sands of the ruined tower of
Babylon! give me only time, dogs, you won’t escape me. I will treat
you better yet. The Lord Jesus Christ will soon come and fight you,
all will be fulfilled, thrones will crumble, and your bones will be
thrown to the dogs like Jezebel’s! We shall burn in earthly fire, you
will burn in the flames everlasting! Forge then innumerable blades,
prepare then the most cruel torments, invent terrible deaths, our joy
will only be the keener! Kindle, friends! the Lord is with us!”
Women’s sarafans and garments, coats, skirts, shirts, men’s tunics
were thrown out of the window:—
“Here, persecutors, take them, cast lots, we need nothing. Naked
we came into the world; naked we will return to the Lord!”
“Spare at least your children, you damnable crew!” cried the
captain in despair.
 A funeral chant, soft and low, arose within the chapel.
“Force the door!” ordered the captain.
All was ready within. The firing was prepared. The hemp, flax,
pitch, straw and bark were piled in large heaps. The wax candles
before the icons were so slightly fixed that the least vibration would
cause them to drop into the troughs of gunpowder. This was
purposely arranged to make self-burning look less like suicide. The
children were seated on benches, to which their garments had been
nailed so that they could not run away, their hands and feet were
bound to prevent their struggling, their mouths were tied round with
handkerchiefs to stifle their cries. On the floor a quantity of
frankincense in clay vessels had been lit, so that the children should
be suffocated before their elders and not see the real terror of the
conflagration.
A woman had just been delivered of a baby girl. She was laid on
the bench to be baptized with fire.
Then having taken off their clothes they all put on new white
shrouds, and on their heads crowns adorned with eight-branched
crosses in red ink, they knelt in rows, tapers in hand, to meet the
Bridegroom.
Old Cornelius lifting up his hands prayed in a loud voice:—
“Lord God accept us, Thy unworthy servants! We are weak and
powerless, and dare not fall into the hands of our enemies. Protect
this chosen flock, which follows Thee, the good Shepherd, fleeing
the cruel wolf—Antichrist. Save and be gracious unto us. Thou
knowest the destinies of all, make us firm and steadfast to bear the
suffering. Have mercy upon us O Lord, have mercy upon us. Holy
Virgin, we implore thee, have pity upon us; we die for Thy pure
love’s sake!”
All repeated after him.
“We die for Thy pure love’s sake!”
Most pathetic was this human cry to God!
 At this moment the soldiers, having surrounded the church, and
climbed the ladders, began to demolish with their axes the thick log
walls, the windows frames and doors.
The walls shook. The tapers fell, but every time chanced to miss
the gunpowder troughs. Then at a sign from the old monk, Kirucha
seized a bundle of tapers, burning before the icon of the Virgin,
threw them into the gunpowder and jumped aside. The powder
exploded, the fuel blazed up, streams of fire spread along the floor
and walls. Thick smoke, first white, then black, filled the chapel, it
choked the flames. Then fiery tongues alone pierced the smoke and
hissing, like darts of serpents, approached the people, licked them
and retreated as in play.
Terrible screams burst out. And through the groans of the
sufferers, through the noise of the flame, continued the song of
triumphant joy:—
“The Bridegroom cometh at midnight.”
Only two or three minutes passed between the kindling of the fire
and Tichon losing his consciousness, yet what he saw, nothing could
erase from his memory.
The old monk seized the newly-born infant, blessed it in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and threw her into the
flames—the first victim.
John the Simpleton stretched his hands out towards the fire, as if
to meet the coming Lord, whom he had been expecting all his life
long.
Kilikeya’s shroud had caught fire, her hair was ablaze, surrounding
her head like a crown of flames, she felt no pain and remained
immovable; her eyes wide open; in the fire no doubt she saw the
holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending from the heavens.
Petka Jisla stooped and running forward threw himself into the fire
head foremost, like a gay swimmer diving.
 Tichon also beheld something joyous and intoxicating in the
terrible glare and noise. He remembered the song.

Green grass is growing at her feet,

Starred with florets blue and sweet.

He seemed to recognise these flowers in the transparent blue heart

of the flames. Their celestial colour promised ineffable bliss, but the
way to it lay through the Red Death.
The besiegers succeeded in removing several logs. The smoke
escaped through the opening. Soldiers with the help of poles were
hauling the victims out and pouring water over them. Mother
Theodulia, a centenarian, was dragged out by her legs; Vitalia
caught hold of her and was also rescued, but she died the next
moment, her body was one wound. Father Spiridon, when pulled
out, cut his throat. He lived four hours longer, crossed himself
continually after the manner of the Raskolniks, reviled the Niconians
and rejoiced, as the captain stated in his report, at having mortally
wounded himself.
Others, after the first contact with the flames, of their own accord
rushed to the opening, trampling upon one another, and climbing
over the pile of bodies, cried to the soldiers:
“Help! help! we burn!”
Animal fear took the place of angelic ecstasy. Those who remained
endeavoured to hold back the fleeing. An old man had clutched with
both hands the edge of the opening, ready to jump out, but his
grandson, a boy of seventeen, knocked a stick across his hands, so
hard that he let go and the grandfather fell back into the flames. A
woman was escaping with her little boy, but the father caught hold
of the child’s legs, swung him in the air and dashed out his brains
against a beam. The porter of the monastery, a stout man, who had
fallen into a pool of burning pitch, writhed and leapt as in a dance.
“Like a fish in a frying pan,” thought Tichon with sinister irony, and
closed his eyes so as not to see.
 The heat and smoke were stifling him. Purple harebells on a
blood-red field were beckoning to him and ringing plaintively. He felt
that Sophia was nestling up and embracing him. And under her
shroud, her young, innocent body was fresh as some flower,
blossoming in the furnace. And still living voices continued to chant
amid the groans of the dying.
“Lo, the Bridegroom cometh!”
“My Bridegroom, my beloved Christ!” whispered Sophia into
Tichon’s ear. He felt that the fire which consumed him inwardly was
more intense than the flames of the Red Death. They dropped
together, as in one embrace the bride and bridegroom lie down upon
the nuptial couch.
The burning woman, arrayed with the sun and winged with fire,
carried him away into the flaming abyss.
The heat was so intense that the soldiers had to stand back; two
were scorched, one had fallen in the chapel and perished.
The captain was angry.
“Fools, accursed fools! I’d rather fight the Swede or the Turk than
have to do with these beggars!”
The old man’s face was paler than when he lay wounded on the
battlefield of Poltava.
Fanned by the wind the flame rose higher and higher with a noise
like thunder. Burning brands flew about like fiery birds. The whole
chapel was a furnace, and in this furnace as in the fiery pit of hell,
writhed a pile of contorted human bodies. Skins were bursting, the
blood bubbled, the fat boiled, an atrocious odour filled the air.
Suddenly the logs of the roof fell. A column of fire shot into the sky
like a gigantic torch.
Earth and sky were lit up by the red glow, as though the last fire
which was to consume the world were already blazing.
 Tichon recovered consciousness in the wood, on the fresh dewy
grass.
He learnt afterwards that at the last moment, when he had
swooned, Cornelius and Kirucha had taken him up in their arms and
rushed into the sanctuary. Under the altar was a trap-door, which led
into a secret chamber and thence, following a subterranean passage,
they reached the wood, a thicket where the persecutors could not
find them.
Almost all the preachers of “Self-burning” acted in this way: they
let the others perish, but they and their closest disciples ran away in
order to continue their teaching.
Tichon had taken a long time to recover. The monk and Kirucha
sprinkled him repeatedly with water; they thought he would die,
though his burns were not severe.
At last he opened his eyes and asked:—
“Where is Sophia?”
The monk looked at him with his lucid, kindly eyes.
“Do not fret, my child, do not sorrow for your bride. Her soul is in
heaven, together with the holy martyrs.”
And lifting his eyes to heaven he crossed himself and said with
joyful accents:—
“Eternal remembrance be to God’s servants, who of their own
accord sought death by flames. Rest, beloved, until the day of
Resurrection, and pray for us; we too will drink the cup when our
time comes. It has not come yet, we must go on labouring for
Christ. You too, my son, have passed through the test of fire,” he
continued, turning to Tichon, “you are dead to the world, and have
risen in Christ. Endeavour then to live this second life not for
yourself, but for God. Put on the armour of light, rise and walk, be a
soldier of Christ, a preacher of the Red Death.”
And he added with cheerfulness:—
 “We will go to the Ocean, to the border land: there also we will
kindle fires, but we will be bold, we will burn innumerable brethren.
God will bless our zeal and the whole of Russia will blaze up, and
after Russia the whole world.”
Tichon said nothing, he had closed his eyes. The monk thinking he
had again fallen asleep, went to the hut to prepare herbs for curing
burns. Then Tichon, left to himself, turned away from the still bloody
sky, and pressed his face against the ground.
The moist earth eased his pain, and he felt that the Earth had
heard his prayer, that she had saved him from the Red Death, and
that he was coming forth from her womb anew, like a babe, like a
dead man resuscitated. And he flung his arms over her, kissed her as
though she were alive, praying:—

Wonderful Queen, Mother of God!

Earth, thou fertile Mother of all.

A few days later, when the monk was preparing to leave, Tichon
escaped from him. He now understood that the church of the “Old
Believers” was no better than the church of the Orthodox. He had
decided to return into the world, there to seek the true faith until he
found it.
 Book X
FATHER AND SON

CHAPTER I
To Alexis the Church was no longer the true church after he
became acquainted with the Tsar’s ukase, whereby the seal of the
confessional was no longer inviolate. It seemed to him that the Lord
had, without doubt, abandoned His Church since He allowed its
humiliation.
When the Moscow trial was ended, Peter returned to Petersburg
on March 24, the eve of Lady Day. He applied himself with so much
zeal in his “Paradise” to the building of ships, the establishing of
Government offices and the transaction of general business, that
many in his official circle thought that the inquiry had really ended,
and that the whole affair was to be consigned to oblivion. The
Tsarevitch, had, however, been brought from Moscow under guard,
together with the other convicts, and lodged in a separate house
next to the Winter Palace.
Here he was kept a close prisoner, being allowed neither to go
out, nor to see any one. It was rumoured that he had gone out of
his mind through excessive drinking.
The Easter holy week came. For the first time in his life Alexis
refused to prepare himself for Communion. Priests were sent to try
and persuade him, but he declined to have anything whatever to do
with them; he took them all as spies.
 Easter fell on April 13. The Easter midnight service was celebrated
in the Cathedral of the Troïtsa, one of the oldest buildings in
Petersburg, and as small, low and dark as a simple village church.
The Tsar, the Tsaritsa and the Ministers and senators were present.
Alexis at first refused to attend, but he was brought thither by the
Tsar’s orders.

In the semi-dark church the tomb of Christ with a picture of the

dead was installed according to custom, and the Psalm of the great
Saturday, chanted over the representation, sounded like a funeral
dirge.
The officiating priests came out of the sanctuary still robed in their
black lenten vestments; they raised the tomb with the
representation of our Lord, bore it into the sanctuary and closed the
doors: they had laid the Lord in the grave.
The singers intoned the last verse of the Canticle:—
“When thou didst descend unto death, Eternal——”
Silence ensued.
Then suddenly the crowd began to sway and move as though
hurriedly preparing for some event. The wax taper which each one
bore was lighted from that of his neighbour. The Church was filled
with a soft light, and in this luminous hush there was the
expectation of great joy.
Alexis lighted his candle at that of his neighbour, Count Peter
Andreitch Tolstoi—his Judas Iscariot. The delicate light brought back
to him all that he used to feel at the early Easter Mass; but he thrust
these feelings aside, he no longer cared to recall them, he even
dreaded them. Gazing absently at Prince Ménshikoff’s back as he
stood in front of him, he tried to fix his attention on how to avoid
dropping some of the melted wax upon the gold embroideries of the
Prince’s dress.
 From behind the closed altar gates came the voice of the deacon:
—
“Thy Resurrection, O Christ, our Saviour! is chanted by angels in
heaven.”
The gates opened and two choirs sang in response:—
“Grant unto us, who are on earth, to glorify thee with a pure
heart.”
The priests, now arrayed in light paschal vestments, issued from
the sanctuary and the procession was formed.
The great bell of the Cathedral began to peal; it was answered by
the bells of the other churches. Rejoicing peals then burst forth from
all sides, accompanied by the thunder of cannon in salute from the
Peter and Paul fortress.
The procession left the Cathedral and the outer doors were closed.
The sanctuary had become empty and again every sound was
hushed.
The Tsarevitch remained standing motionless with down-dropt
head, gazing always in the same absent way: he forced himself to
hear nothing, to see nothing.
From without came the voice, broken and feeble, of the
Metropolitan, Stephen:—
“Glory be to the Holy Trinity which maketh alive, one and
indivisible, now and for ever, throughout all ages.”
Then came other voices, low and subdued as though from a
distance:—
“Christ hath risen from the dead!”
Then louder and louder, nearer and more joyous they sounded.
At last the doors of the Cathedral opened wide, and together with
the noise of the returning multitude rang forth the triumphant song,
which shook the very earth and the heavens:—
 “Christ hath risen: by His death He hath overcome death, and
hath given life to those who were in the darkness of the grave.”
And such fulness of joy was in this hymn that nothing could resist
it: it was as though all those things were about to be accomplished,
which creation had been awaiting from the beginning of time; as if a
miracle were about to take place.
The Tsarevitch grew pale, his hands trembled, he very nearly let
his candle fall. In spite of himself his whole being was pervaded by
an all-pervading sense of joy. Life, suffering, death itself seemed to
him to fade and become of no account before it.
He burst into tears, and, in order to conceal his emotion, he went
out upon the flight of steps in front of the Cathedral.
The April night was mild and serene. A smell of thawing snow, of
moist bark and of unopened buds filled the air. The church was
surrounded by people; below, in the dark square, the wax tapers
shone like stars, while above, in the dark heavens, the stars gleamed
like tapers. Clouds, light as angels’ wings, floated past. The ice was
thawing on the Neva. The joyous sound of the rumbling of breaking
ice floes mingled with the peal of church bells. It seemed as though
both earth and sky were chanting: “Christ is risen!”
After Mass, the Tsar, coming out upon the Cathedral steps,
exchanged the Easter Greeting not only with the Ministers and
senators but also with all his servants, down to the meanest kitchen
boy.
The Tsarevitch looked at his father from a distance, not daring to
draw near. Peter, however, saw his son and himself came up to him:
—
“Christ is risen, Aliósha,” he said, with the old kindly smile.
“Truly He is risen, father!”
And they exchanged three kisses.
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