| Show t PRISONS OF SIBERIA Some New Light on the Hellish Outrages Perpetrated TWO BETTERS FROM EXILES One From the Prison in OustKara and One From Verholiensk Unexampled BrutaHtj to Women New YOKK July 10 1S90 = Special correspondence cor-respondence of THE HE ALDIt is my t pleasure to supply the demand for information S informa-tion regarding Siberian prisons by placing before my readers two letters written by omen exiled in Siberia which I recently received These letters present a timely addition to what became recently known concerning Siberia and an interest the greater in that to my belief they are the only ones of the kind that ever reached America They will argue with the readers the subject of Rusian Nihilism and Imperial despotism in a way and with an impartiality impartial-ity of which I am not capable for while I as an interested party might not be absolutely abso-lutely impartial as I might view the facts in a light to suit the interests of ihilists of whom I am one yet the letters from Siberia do not place their authors at such a disadvantage They were written to the friends and relatives of the exiled women and with a tenor that leaves no doubt in their genuineness and sincerity One is written in OustKara Political Prison audits author a lady twentytwo years old condemned to ten years at hard labor in the gold mines of that locality judiciously left her name unsigned It was well she did so for had her letter been intercepted in-tercepted by the government of the Czar and her identity established she would have been hung The other letter bears the date of Ver holiensk a settlement on the river Lena in Eastern Siberia Its author also woman and but three years older lean her fellow sufferer is undergoing a sentence of twenty years at hard labor She signed it with a fictitious name of V Alexandrova by which she is known only to her friends Before 1 give iha contents of the Siberia messages I musttell how they reached me when they were written and to give at least a few facts descriptive of the country coun-try Eastward from bt Petersburg for nearly live thousand miles the great Siberia highway high-way runs across the boundless prairies of European and Asiatic Russia to the lake of Baikal on the western border of the Transbaikal province of Siberia and only one comparatively insignificant range of Ural mountainsthe dividing line between Europe and Asia disturbs the level of the vast domain of the Czar This is the road by which the exiled Nihilists are conveyed under heavy guard to their destination in province of Transbaikal It takes them two and of tjCn three years to reach the city of LaKontik the capital of the province Likewise it takes two three and oven more years for letter of a Nihilist located in the province to read Europe for the safety of the exiles and their friends and relations demand that they should be forwarded not by mail in which case they are exposed to the scrutiny of the unscrupulous Prussian official but through unofficial channels which although al-though slow present a greater safety 1 Ii1 ii iiiW 1rrt F i j T I s J I l reJ I S 4 L 11 ON TUB GREAT SIBERIA HIGH WAY Such was the way the letters came to moOn mo-On their way they changed many hands before they could be entrusted to the safe hands of the British and United States mail They traveled for over threo years as the date upon them August 28 1SSG I S proves and yet they possess the freshness So of the latest news The readers will undoubtedly I un-doubtedly remember that all the recent cable news of which I have spoken before pertained to the events in biberia which I occurred also three years ago Leaving Lake Balikal behind the exiled I Nihilists continue their exhausting journey I jour-ney further eastward On the road they I meet the small towns of Tchitn Nerchins and finally Szetensk where they embark I on board a steamer which takes them UIJ Shilka river to OustKaraa penal settlement I settle-ment with a number of prisoners Fifteen 0 versts about nine miles further east another an-other convict settlement the Lower Kara is met Here a male Political Prison TVIS erected in 187T the female political prison being located at OustKara Still further east right to the shores of the Pacific and off the mainland on the Island JSahalin and ior thousands of miles north of Amoor river in the Arctic i and siloArctic regions of Eastern Sifaeriaa 1 1 dozen other insignificant settlements or i urta of the nomadic Mongolian tribe of i aconter are scattered hero and thero There the Nihilists who finished their term of hard labor in the mines of Oust and Lower Karas are deported to Verhol iensk in one of theso settlements It was the lot of my good and unfortunate unfortun-ate friend Biborcal to be the pioneer exile in the Lower Kara This was in iSIS Soon after other Nihilist exiles followed him until in 1SS2 there were over one huu tired males and ten females located on both varns Today there number is many hun dreds They were all young and educated men and women who participated in the events of ISrrlSSl the period of the greatest activity of the Nihilists a peviotl during which thousands of Nihilists like silent shadows momentarily appeared on the Held of bilttle with Russian despotism cast their lot and as suddenly disappeared mortally wounded and since which not one of them remains free but my humble self and but few are alive to bo found in the wilderness of Siberia Until 1SS2 the life of political exiles on the two Karas was comparatively speaking speak-ing bearable inasmuch as like their neighbors neigh-bors the criminal exiles they had to work in the near by gold mines which arc the personal property of the Russian Czar Hard as their work was it supplied the necessary physical exercise so vital in the condiions of men and women for years confined con-fined in the narrow wards of prisons In 1SS2 Count Louis Melikoff became a minister of the interior He had the repu tation of af man of libeial tendencies and great hopes wore placed in him by all Russia Rus-sia not excepting exiled Nihilists The first move of the new minister tended only to strengthen his reputaUou with noise and much parading he released many Nihi lists from prisons of European Russia and 4 THE KAKA PJIISOX I issued orders effecting substantial improvements improve-ments in the condition of Siberian exiles However a second secret series of orders was simultaneously dispatched to the governors gov-ernors of the various Siberian provinces which directed them not to mind the first orders but on the contrary to tighten the noose on the throat of the politicals To effect this the governors were to absolutely prohibit the exiles all communication with the outside world with their fathers and mothers wives and husbands to forbid their accepting any food clothing and other helps from sources other than prison admin istnitiou to forbid them the use of books and writing material to abolish their labor in tho mines and to keep them forever under un-der lock Slow starvation stared in the face of the politicals for the prison food was unwholesome unwhole-some and insufficient But let myfriends in Siberian political prisons speak for themselves them-selves jy OOSTKAKA August 1SSH My Dear Friend sSince the order of Louis Melikoff began to be enforced our situation became actually desperate so much so that Radio our frienu in Lower Kara took his life by poisoning SimonoJ sky followed him and Mary Kovalskv became be-came hopelessly demented She is with us however and the ceaseless maniacal cries and the distortions of tho face of our de rncnted friend fairly bid us all to lose our reason The secretor er moreover affected af-fected our situation in more than one way it left us without the aid of our friend and relations while the prison food is utterly ut-terly unwholesome and insufficient Already Al-ready acute and chronic catarrh and scurvy are common to all of us Our daily labors consist of cleaning the prison wards scrubbing washing sewing and cooking and once each day we are unlocked un-locked for half an hour We go to the prison yard and passing between two lines of soldiers wo reach a wood yard Her we load ourselves with fire wood and return re-turn to the prison The treatment accQrded to us by the prison officials is rough and in suiting From the commandant down to the warder and his assistantsall the ofli dais look for an excuse to strike a blow or to curse in a way I cannot reneat Four years am I here confined yet I am unable I to harden my nerves and to get used to the abuse without the deepest emotion 10 give you an example ot the abuse let me narrate to you an occurrence of an average I temper The day before last Mary Kovalsky do mcnted and Armfeldt were escorted to the bath house On their way they halted in i front of the store house requesting the permission per-mission of their guard to get some clean I clothing they had the permission of the I commandant procured beforehand Forward For-ward march commanded the guard officer I offi-cer in reply to their request But exclaimed ex-claimed Armfeldt the commandant At this moment a blow from a soldier knocked her down With the buttend of their rifles the soldiers began to batter heron her-on the head arms and back Bruised and bleeding she screamed at the top of her I voice we heard her we rushed to the windows You may perceive the effect of the scene we witnessed Blood rushed to our heads we lost selfcommand our screams filled the prison wards and brought down from his office the warder He stopped the beating of Armfeldt and then like a maddened beast rushedat us Silence commanded he in a tone that nromisedno cood His eyes fell upon me I S L i I I was crying The guard he commanded com-manded and a squad of soldiers surrounded me They beat me Oh how terribly they tortured me 1 Sophie Shinier stood next to i L i e BRUTALiTY TO rEAIALK PKISOXEItS me Overcome with fear and emotion she I fell to the ground beating her head against the wails and screaming It seems as if all o f us became mad There are punishments nrescribed by the code of the prison rules for every trifling offense but this is not enough for them and we are hourly subjected to insults and punishments for no offense at all The soldiers are ordered to treat us insultingly and for every instance of their not having acted with appropriate brutality they are severely punished Here is an instance A few days ago when loaded with firewood fire-wood we were returning to the prison the commandant ordered the soldiers to drag us What caused him to act this way we cannot understand He meant what he ordered while the soldiers interpreted his command in a more liberal way How could they understand him otherwise We meant no resistance committed no offense and were actively going in the direction in which we were to be dragced So the soldiers were content with pushing forward I one or the other and striking an occasional I blow They paid dearly for their insubordination insubor-dination the court jnartial sentenced them to imprisonment Six long years of prison life are yet before be-Fore me six years of unbearable moral and bodily suffering God knows if I shall survive sur-vive them and once more see the light of Freedom All my past my fathers home my family and friends with their tender I love and attention all joys and happiness of past yearsall this seems like a dream before the coarse reality Dreams were my delight during the first years of my exile ex-ile life I dreamed of home life dreams cheered me kept up my courage my hope warmed up my mind and heart Noweven the pleasure of dreaming is gone and apart from bayonets soldiers and commands my diseased brain can create nothing better Few words more concerning our mutual friends Misses Rousenkova and Leshern von Herzfeldt are here undergoing life sentences sen-tences Misses Kovalsky demented and Armfeldt got fourteen years of hard labor each Koutidonskaia and Savandovitch four years Levcnzon eight years and Shihter six years of hard labor Shih tel is rapidly sinking would not live to see the new year As to myself a skeleton enveloped envel-oped in a skin this is how I look to my friends My hope is i vanishing great effort ef-fort is needed to keep up my courace and a desire to live For Gods sake write me Tell me a word of sympathy wake me up from the state of mental lethargy which drags me to my grave N YEltDOJleXSlt August 1SSO My Dear Friend It is now over a year since I wrote you my last and although material to write you was not wanting I kept silent what could I tell you I To speak of myself of my sufferings and sorrows sor-rows is to cause sorrow to you whose happiness hap-piness is dear to me Therefore I shall not speakof myself let me instead acquaint you with the country whence I send you my love and this message Kouznctzoff writes from Bologansk ti tiit eSSS 4 r tt I CONDEMNED TO LIVE IX A COW STABLE about 120 miles from the town of Jakontsk settlement The Jakontes amongst whom he with some other of our friends lives are a goodhearted hospitable people but primitive in their mode of living and utterly ut-terly filthy in their habits They live in urta log houses together with whole herds of their cows and nothing to divide the men from the beasts except a thin board partition The Jakontes never change their clothing once put on it is worn until completely rotten it falls off their bodies On special occasions and holy days however how-ever they dress profusely and then precious pre-cious furs of sable and silver fox and heavy silver ornaments hide the dirty underclothing under-clothing His present home is one of the Jakontes urtas There is no floor in l it to speak of mud takes the place of boards A fireplace without a chimney emits clouds of smoke which fills the house and finds its way out as best as it can through holes in the roof and walls The principal source of warming warm-ing the house is however furnished by the cows of whom there tMrty They impregnate the atmosphere inside with such a stench as makes life not worth living liv-ing excepting to Jakontes Food supply is another of tho dilemmas hard to solve Ali Al-i It 1Lt though cattle are plentiful meat is not procurable pro-curable upon their scanty allowance from the governmentnine roubles abiut3 50 per month Salt is to be got only on rare occasions aid at enormous prices In a word the allowance is barely enough to buy bread with Letme tell you now a few facts concerning concern-ing Middle Colima settlements I take them from a letter by our friend Alexis ArtaMonff In spite of all his appeals to the authorities in Irkoutsk to postpone his departure thither until next spring he was taken from the prison and under guard of two Jakonte cossacks driven to his destination destina-tion l ejourne last d three months A great variety of vehicles wore employed in this eventful travel of our friend First 3 > m amr cl2q < i < xn fI l fA alcd Y < r W 2 l W i Sss 9S r J m3tjj t c e ncT 7I THE JOOUXEV OF ALEXIS AnTASJO OFF wheeled trucks drawn by horses then nartya narrow sleigh for one man drawn by reindeer Then he rode on horseback horse-back tramped on foot and sailed in a boat Two thousand versts one mile equals 131 versts of the wllftness were traversed in sleighs drawn bjreindeer Four mountain ranges were ascended and left behind A glacier thirty to forty versts wide was mtt and crossed through a furious snow blizzard and many rivers filled with brok enup jca were forded The remaining 500 versts were made almost entirely in a rowboat row-boat through a succession of immense lakes and floodedmarshes This is the kingdom of sable and silver fox dogs are the only domestic animals of the natives the forests for-ests are thin and low and the ground perpetually per-petually frozenAs to the Middle Colima itself it is i a heapof dirt for ten months in the year hiddenmilder twelve feet of snow This is all 1 can tell you my dear friend and no better picture is needed to understand under-stand our situation V ALEXAXDUOVA 1 LEO HAUTMAX |
