# Siberia and the Exile System/Volume 2/Appendix G

Siberia and the Exile System Volume 1
APPENDIX G
REPORTS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF EASTERN SIBERIA TO THE TSAR
A part of the first report of Governor-general Anúchin to the Tsar upon the state of affairs in Eastern Siberia. Delivered to Alexander II., in person, by Adjutant Kozéllo in December, 1880. From a "secret" copy.
During my journey to Irkútsk I inspected a great number of prison institutions, and I regret to have to say that, with the exception of the prison castles in Krasnoyársk and Irkútsk, they are all—that is district prisons, forwarding prisons, and étapes—in a lamentable condition. The state of the étapes in Eastern Siberia is particularly bad, and has already attracted the serious attention of the Minister of the Interior. Large sums of money have been spent in repairs upon them, and 250,000 rúbles have been appropriated recently for the erection of new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál. I doubt, however, whether it will be possible to accomplish anything of serious importance without a change in the existing conditions. There is even danger that the new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál will share the fate of the étapes in the provinces of Yeniséisk and Irkútsk. The reason for this is the lack of technical experts. In the whole of Eastern Siberia, notwithstanding its great distances and enormous area, the civil lists provide for only seventeen architects and architect's assistants. And even this number is greater than that of the persons actually so employed, because, on account of the inadequate compensation received by technical experts here and the ease with which they can find profitable work in European Russia, they are reluctant to come to remote Siberia and enter a service which promises only material and moral privations. Such being the case, most Government buildings here are erected under a technical supervision which is nothing more than nominal. In reality they are built by contractors without any supervision whatever. For example: it is the intention of the Government to erect in the Trans-Baikál territory in 1881 thirty-one étapes and polu-étapes, which will be scattered over a distance of 1043 versts. This work is to be done under the supervision of a single ​architect, who, moreover, is burdened with the responsibility for an expensive new prison in the town of Vérkhni Údinsk, as well as for all other architectural work in a territory having an area of 547,905 square versts. It is manifest that one architect cannot cope with this amount of work; and the lack of technical supervision, by affecting disadvantageously the durability of the structures, results in the necessity for speedy repairs. In order to avoid these difficulties — the removal of which is beyond the limits of my power, but the responsibility for which rests on the local Siberian administration — I made a proposition to the Minister of the Interior to increase the salaries of the technical experts for whom provision is made in the East-Siberian civil lists. I do not ask for an increase in the number of officers provided for in the civil lists, but only for an increase in their salaries; and I do this in the hope that I shall thus attract hither a class of officers for whom there are always vacancies. I estimate at 9190 rúbles the increase of expenditure that this will necessitate. It will be far more economical for the imperial treasury to authorize this increased annual outlay than to spend a large amount at one time on badly constructed buildings. The losses that result every year from the bad construction of Government buildings in Eastern Siberia is incomparably greater than the amount of the proposed new expenditure. If the latter be authorized, it will at least be possible, on the one hand, to have in Eastern Siberia the necessary number of technologic officers, and on the other to make the local authorities responsible for the proper use of the building appropriations.
A part of the second report of Governor-general Anúchin to the Tsar upon the state of affairs in Eastern Siberia. Delivered to Alexander III. in March, 1882. From a "secret" copy.
​Siberia has served for a long time as a place to which are sent, from all parts of the empire, the more heinous class of criminals, who have been sentenced to penal servitude, forced colonization, or banishment. In addition to these criminals, there are sent to Siberia persons turned over by communes to the disposition of the Government, and persons who have been imprisoned for crime and whom the communes will not afterward receive. Hard-labor convicts and forced colonists are sent to Eastern Siberia exclusively. Communal exiles go thither in very small numbers. Penal servitude is centralized in the Alexandrófski prison near Irkútsk, at Kará in the territory of the Trans-Baikál, and on the island of Saghalín. Small gangs of hard-labor convicts are also sent to mining establishments and salt-works and to gold-placers. Forced colonists are distributed, in accordance with the nature of their sentences and the directions of the Prikáz o Sílnikh, throughout the provinces and territories of Eastern Siberia, with the exception of the Amúr region. To the latter are sent only an insignificant number of forced colonists — mostly hard-labor convicts from the island of Saghalín, who finished their terms of penal servitude before the year 1880, when the sending of forced colonists from there to the mainland was stopped.
Notwithstanding the length of time that the deportation of criminals has been practised, the exile system and penal servitude in Eastern Siberia are in the most unsatisfactory state. In the chief administration there is not even a department for their superintendence and regulation, while the exile bureaus in the provinces are not organized in a manner commensurate with the importance of the work that they have to do, and are prejudicial rather than useful to the service. The étapes, forwarding prisons, and prisons of other kinds, with the most insignificant exceptions, are tumble-down buildings, in bad sanitary condition, cold in winter, saturated with miasm, and, to crown all, affording very little security against escapes. The prisons in Nízhni Údinsk, Chíta, Nérchinsk, Blagovéishchensk, and particularly Nikoláivsk, astound one by their bad condition. The reasons for this melancholy state of the prisons are many. In the first place, the prisons of the empire generally, with the exception of the principal ones recently erected, are not remarkable for their good qualities, and the Siberian prisons are bad particularly because they were built quickly, with insufficient means, and almost wholly without supervision, either administrative or technical, the latter especially on account of the lack of architects. The last reason is applicable even now to prisons in process of erection. The prison at Vérkhni Údinsk, ​APPENDIX 547 which, according to the estimates, is to cost more than 250,000 rubles, has been built, and will presently be completed, under the supervision of an architect who does not live where the work is going on, and who pays to it only an occasional visit. A number of etapes, which are in process of erection simultaneously along a distance of more than five hundred versts, are under the superintendence of an architect who has a great quantity of other important work to look after. The results are perfectly in- telligible. The contractors find no difficulty in departing from the plans, estimates, and conditions, and accountability for the work is merely formal and almost wholly fictitious. Apart from this lack of proper supervi- sion, the amount of money appropriated for prison buildings is too small. Etapes, for example, are built of logs, without stone foundations, and, as a result, their long walls soon settle and become crooked, and the whole edifice assumes the appearance of a ruin, which is speeddy made complete by inadequate care, climatic agencies, and injuries done to it by its temporary occupants, the exiles. It is absolutely necessary to increase the number of architects in the country, and to pay them more than the present rates of salary. The extra expense thus incurred will be produc- tive, because it will result in the better construction of Government build- ings, and thus in a very considerable saving in the future. Prisoners are forwarded from place to place in Eastern Siberia " by etape process." Parties under the supervision of a " convoy command " march from etape to etape, and are whole months on the way, while hard- labor convicts, who must go to the head waters of the Amur River, do not reach their destination in less than a year from the time when they enter Eastern Siberia. In the etapes the male prisoners and the families that voluntarily accompany them are kept, as far as possible, in separate kdmeras ; but they spend the greater part of the day together, and the scenes of debauchery to be witnessed here cannot possibly be described. All the shame and all the conscience that a criminal has left are here lost completely. Here go to ruin also the families of the criminals, irrespec- tive of age or sex. In addition to debauchery, the prisoners are guilty of many other offenses and crimes, among which changing of names occu- pies an important place. A hard-labor convict, for example, changes names with a mere exile, and goes into simple banishment instead of pe- nal servitude, while the one who takes his place knows that he can easily make his escape from penal servitude. The subsistence of the prisoners on the road is very expensive to the Government, and yet the exiles are very badly fed. Receiving food-money in the shape of cash in hand, they seldom get anything warm to eat, and feeding them from a common kettle is almost impracticable and is rarely attempted. The exile system is almost completely unorganized. Although the laws have established innumerable rules for its regulation* such rules, for the most part, have been dead letters since the very day of their promulga​548 SIBERIA tion on account of their impracticability and of the absence of proper supervision. Forced colonization consists of the distribution and enrol- ment of the criminal colonists in the vohsts [cantons or districts of a province]. Upon reaching the places of their enrolment, after so long a period of imprisonment, they receive full freedom, and must look out for their own maintenance. Only the least spoiled part of them, and those accustomed to work, establish themselves in the places to which they are assigned, or seek employment in the gold-placers. The rest abandon their places of enrolment and wander about the country, giving them- selves up to laziness, and imposing themselves as a heavy burden upon the local population, at whose expense they are fed. The influence of these exiles upon the people of the country is very pernicious, since they carry into the villages and towns the seeds of depravity. As the Siberian population grows more and more prosperous, it manifestly feels, more and more, the heavy burden of these criminal colonists, and submits to their presence only as to an evil that is inevitable, protesting loudly, how- ever, in the mean time, against such an order of things. Penal servitude exists on the mainland and on the island of Sagkalin, but there are no special convict prisons for the confinement of convicts during the time that they are not at work. Hard labor itself is not defi- nitely regulated, and convicts either work very little or are engaged in labor which, although hard, is not of such a nature as to render prac- ticable the regular and constant supervision of the laborers. Such labor, for example, includes the erection of buildings of various kinds, the con- struction of roads, the working of gold-placers, the making of salt, and the mining of coal. All of this work is done outside the prisons. Kdtorga [penal servitude] on the mainland is centered, for the most part, in the Kara gold-placers, where last year [1881], in five prisons, there were 2939 men and 151 women. The convicts, as a whole, are divided into two classes — namely, those " on trial " and those " reforming." The " on trial " class includes all new-comers, who are kept in prison for certain fixed periods proportionate to the severity of their sentences. At the expira- tion of their prison terms, if their behavior has been such as to meet with approval, they are transferred to the " reforming " class, and have a right to live outside the prison walls. They generally occupy small houses built by themselves in the vicinity of the prisons. The place of penal servitude thus consists of a mass of Government prison-buildings surrounded by a greater or less number of houses belonging to private individuals or to convicts of the " reforming" class. It will be manifest that this renders the work of supervision extremely difficult, and hence the number of escapes from Kara is very large. In 1881 there escaped 272 persons, or more than 9 per cent, of the whole number of convicts. The work in the Kara gold- placers is not hard, and the convicts [who work side by side with free laborers] are well fed. In the Alexandrofski prison [near Irkutsk] all ​the work is domestic, and penal servitude consists merely of imprisonment with light labor. Still less hard is the work of convicts leased to the owners of private gold-placers and salt-works. Their situation differs little from that of free laborers. Among the convicts, however, are not a few feeble or decrepit persons, who are unfit for work and who are depressed by sickness. Their condition is burdensome in the extreme, and for most of them I can see only one end — the grave. The prison hospitals and asylums are in a lamentable condition. It is greatly to be regretted that there are many children in penal servitude — children who have come from places of exile or who have been born in Siberia. At Kará there is little supervision over them, and little probability, on account of the lack of funds, that the children's asylum, which has been authorized, will soon become a reality.
Unorganized and unregulated penal servitude of this sort fills all the surrounding country with brodyágs [runaway convicts], and overcrowds all the Siberian prisons. Even at the mines there are great numbers of recidivists, formerly convicts, who have escaped and been recaptured. The impossibility of establishing the identity of persons arrested without passports often results in the condemnation of a captured brodyág to four years of penal servitude, when, before his escape, he had belonged to a class condemned to ten or more years of penal servitude. Escape, therefore, besides giving him temporary freedom, lessens considerably his punishment, even after recapture and a new trial. When a convict finishes his term of penal servitude he goes into forced colonization in the same way that a forced colonist does if banished directly from one of the interior provinces. The Kará gold-placers are situated on the bank of the river Shílka, and steamers from the lower Amúr come directly to the Kará landing. There was a project to bring convicts to Kará around the world and up the Amúr; but, although it was considered and found feasible, it has never been carried into effect for the reason that the volunteer fleet is not able to provide the necessary transportation.
Penal servitude on the island of Saghalín is organized in the same way as at Kará, but the work at the former place is much harder, and the place itself is wilder and more solitary. This, with the prospect of remaining on a distant island as a settler after the completion of a term of hard labor, makes the lot of a Saghalín convict a very hard one, and one that corresponds much more nearly with the punishment which the law has in view. It should be remembered, however, that the transportation of convicts to Saghalín by sea is very convenient, and is much easier for the convict himself than the agonizing journey across the ​whole of Siberia to Kará. In this respect the Saghalín convicts have an advantage over the convicts who work on the mainland. The experiment tried during the last few years of keeping convicts on Saghalín has shown the perfect practicability of making that island a place for the organization of penal servitude, and insuring the future of colonization by means of agriculture and the development of the natural resources of the country. In order, however, that this may be duly accomplished, it is necessary to organize a permanent administration for the island, and with this work the chief prison administration is now occupied.
The greatest advantage of the organization of penal servitude on the island of Saghalín lies in the fact that the convicts, and afterward the forced colonists, are there isolated from the free population, and can establish themselves without interfering with innocent people, as they would on the mainland.
As conclusions from all that has been said above with regard to penal servitude, the exile system, and prisons, it appears:
1. That penal servitude and the exile system in Eastern Siberia are wholly unorganized, and that their organization will necessitate a great financial expenditure.
2. That the forwarding of exiles by étape is expensive, is accompanied with great suffering for the exiles, and is a heavy burden to the local population along the route over which the exile parties pass.
3. That the exile element is very injurious to the people of Siberia, is burdensome to it, costs it dear, and is a source of moral corruption.
4. That the prisons and étapes demand, and, on account of local conditions [such as climatic agencies, the difficulty of maintaining a watch over the buildings, and the injuries done to them by passing prisoners] will always demand, very considerable annual expenditures; and, independent of the latter, that it will become necessary in the near future to spend an enormous sum of money in renewing these buildings.
5. That the concentration and organization of penal servitude on the island of Saghalín are perfectly practicable.
Imperial interests require that the most serious attention be given at once to this subject. The advantages offered by the island of Saghalín should be utilized as a means of freeing Siberia from the convict element, and this should be done without grudging the money that may be necessary for its accomplishment. The results to the Empire will be enormous, morally in raising the spirit of the Siberian people, and economically in the development of the resources of the island of Saghalín. The transportation of all convicts to this island, and the equipment of them with the necessary means of maintaining and subsisting themselves, will establish our maritime relations with the far East, and this is extremely important for the development of the Amúr region.
​Having witnessed on the ground all the miseries brought upon Eastern Siberia by penal servitude and forced colonization, I regard it as my sacred duty to bear witness before your Imperial Majesty that every measure looking to the localization of penal servitude and the limitation of exile will be, for the people of Eastern Siberia, the greatest possible of boons. The adoption of such measures is necessary in order to regulate this exile system, which is an ulcer upon the Empire, and which swallows up an immense quantity of money to no purpose. I have not concealed from the Minister of the Interior the present unsatisfactory state of the exile system, penal servitude, and prisons in the country intrusted to my care. The chief prison administration comes to my assistance as far as possible, but its means are limited and if serious measures are not taken we shall be confronted by very great difficulties, of which it seems to me my duty to give notice in time.
In concluding this part of my report, I must offer, for the most gracious consideration of your Imperial Majesty, a few words concerning the State [political] criminals now living in Eastern Siberia. On the 1st of January, 1882, they numbered in all 430 persons, as follows:
| a. | Sent to Siberia by decree of a court and now | Sent to Siberia by decree of a court and now | |
| | 1. | In penal servitude | 123 |
| | 2. | In forced colonization | 49 |
| | 3. | In assigned residences [na zhityó] | 41 |
| b. | Sent to Siberia by administrative process and now | Sent to Siberia by administrative process and now | |
| | 1. | In assigned residences [na zhítelstvo] | 217 |
| | | Total | 430 |
All of the state criminals belonging to the penal-servitude class are held at the Kará gold-mines, under guard of a foot-company of the Trans-Baikál Cossacks consisting of two hundred men. The sending of these criminals to work with the common convicts in the gold-placers is impossible. To employ them in such work in isolation from the others is very difficult, on account of the lack of suitable working-places, their unfitness for hard physical labor, and the want of an adequate convoy. If to these considerations be added the fact that unproductive hard labor, such as that employed in other countries merely to subject the prisoner to severe physical exertion, is not practised with us, it will become apparent that we have no hard labor for this class of criminals to perform, and the local authorities, who are in charge of them, and who are held to strict accountability for escapes, are compelled, by force of circumstances, to limit themselves to keeping such state criminals in prison under strict guard, employing them, occasionally, in work within the prison court, or not far from it. Such labor has not the character of penal servitude, but may rather be regarded as hygienic. Immunity from hard labor, however, does not render the lot of state criminals an ​552 SIBEEIA easy one. On the contrary, complete isolation and constant confinement to their own limited circle' make their life unbearable. From the observa- tion of a person who has close relations with them, it appears that they are divided into parties hostile to one another, and merely make a show to the prison overseers of living together in peace and harmony. Such a situation has an injurious influence upon the weaker characters. There have been a number of suicides among them, and within a few days one of them, Pozen, has gone insane. A number of others are in a mental condition very near to insanity. In accordance with an understanding that I have with the Ministry of the Interior, all sufferers from mental disorder will be removed, if possible, to hired quarters in the town of Chita, since there are in Siberia no regular asylums for the insane, and all the existing institutions of that kind in European Russia are full. The other state criminals, who are living in forced colonization or in assigned residences under police surveillance, are distributed in small groups among towns and villages situated [as far as possible] away from the principal roads, so that escape from them may be more difficult. Most of these exiles have no adequate means of their own to live on, and the distribution of them in thinly settled districts renders the finding of work almost impossible, even for those of them who know some trade and would be willing to work. As a result of this it becomes necessary for the Government to assume the expense of their subsistence by giving to every one of them an allowance of from six to twenty rubles a month, ac- cording to local conditions. Exceptions to this are very rare. The surveillance of state criminals is very unsatisfactory, and it is a question whether the principal safeguard against their escape is not the deportation of them to remote and desolate places, which, of themselves, render escape a thing not to be thought of. Police supervision, which is not attended with satisfactory results even in the provinces of European Russia, amounts, in Siberia, to little or nothing, because there are districts here where a single isprdvnik and his assistant have to look after a terri- tory comprising several thousand square versts. The surveillance of the village authorities is only nominal. The offenses committed by the state criminals exiled to Siberia, and their accomplices, characterize sufficiently their personality and their aspirations. It is doubtful whether imprison- ment and exile have brought any of them to their senses. It is more than probable that they have become still more hardened and obdurate. Exiled as adherents of the party of anarchy, they do not conceal their convic- tions in the places to which they have been banished, but give open ex- pression to their false judgments. It must be said, frankly, that the Government itself, by means of exile and at its own expense, spreads anarchistic ideas in places where, as in Eastern Siberia, nothing of the kind has ever before been known or heard of. Some of the young people in Siberia have already been led astray, and it is impossible not to feel ​APPENDIX 553 serious anxiety with regard to the further extension of the disturbance. If imperial considerations render it impossible to put a stop to the banish- ment of this class of offenders, they should be isolated, so far as possible, even in Siberia, from the local population. This subject is now occupy- ing the attention of the Minister of the Interior, and I am taking part in his deliberations. The conditions of the question are so complicated that it is difficult to settle upon anything, and thus far nothing has been decided upon. The concentration of such persons in one place, or the segregation of them in groups of considerable size in several places, would obviate the necessity of scattering them over the whole country, and would facilitate surveillance ; but, on the other hand, it is doubtful whether, on account of the smallness of Siberian towns, it would not necessitate the finding of quarters for them and the subjection of them to discipline in their social life ; and this would not be far removed from the prison confinement to which they might be subjected without sending them to Siberia. In any case, it is extremely necessary that they should be kept under more vigilant surveillance, otherwise escapes, which now occur rarely, may assume more extensive proportions, and every such criminal who escapes from Siberia becomes extraordinarily harmful and dangerous. The serious importance of escapes should receive the more attention for the reason that among the exiles banished to Siberia and living there in comparative freedom are not a few extremely harmful pei*sons — persons much more dangerous than those sent into penal servi- tude. To the best of my information there exists among these exiles a rule to assist in the escape of the more self-reliant and resolute characters, and the latter, in return, promise to sacrifice themselves for the attain- ment of the ends designated by their leaders. Recognition of the impor- tance of preventing the escape of such criminal evil-doers, and the almost complete impossibility of so doing render my position, and that of the administration dependent upon me, a very hard one. We are over- burdened by the weight of the responsibility that rests upon us, and the threatening possibility of the escape of this or that exile keeps us in constant fear of incurring your Imperial Majesty's displeasure. It is my plain duty to report to your Majesty that the administrative authorities of Eastern Siberia are honorably fulfilling their obligations in this par- ticular, and I hope that they will not give occasion for any complaints. Thei*e have been only three escapes from regularly organized prisons, and, in connection with them, it must be remembered that state criminals, who are experienced in plots, bold in their plans and resolute in carry- ing them into execution, have, as their adversaries, imperfectly educated prison wardens, and subordinate officials who stand on a still lower plane of intellectual development. The escape of Malaf ski and Ivanof from the Krasnoyarsk prison seems to indicate a relaxation of discipline in that place of confinement. I have sent one of my officers, Major Kalageorgi, ​554 SIBERIA to make an investigation of all the circumstances connected with it, and with the prison management ; but I have not yet received his report. So far as the people of Siberia are concerned, they do not sympathize with state criminals, and after the melancholy occurrence of the 1st of March, 1881, 1 several Siberian towns asked that such criminals might be removed from within their limits. Their requests, however, could not be granted, because the concentration of state criminals in towns places them, at least, under some real surveillance from the local police. . . . In this communication with regard to the state of the administration in Eastern Siberia, I have sketched, in general outline, the condition of the various branches of the Government. The truthfulness and frankness which have guided me in the preparation of this humble report to your Imperial Majesty have compelled me to paint an ugly picture. 2 Eastern Siberia is a country not only far removed by nature, but neglected in all branches of imperial government. No matter where you look you see imperfections, faults, and often abuses. For too long a time nothing has been done for Siberia, and now the results are to be seen in the extremely melancholy condition of its administration. Your Imperial Majesty! Siberia is truly a beautiful country. Its people are gifted with high intellectual capacity, and are honest, indus- trious, and energetic. Both the country and its inhabitants deserve the most gracious consideration. I regard it as my first duty to intercede with your Majesty in behalf of this country and its necessities, and I do so, boldly, in this humble report, confidently hoping that the attitude which I have taken with regard to the interests of the country committed to my care will not be attributed to me as a fault. It is my sincere con- viction that now, at the beginning of the fourth century of the vital union of Siberia with Russia, it is time for the Government to give that country particular attention, and extricate it from the position into which it has been put by its remoteness from the center of the Empire, by its designation as a place of exile and penal servitude, and by the long-con- tinued failure to satisfy its needs and demands. All the reforms that are necessary for Siberia are bound up with the question of financial means. If the money be given, it will be possible to begin a whole series of reforms ; and the officers to carry them into execution may be found if their services in this remote country can be properly compensated. But the mere assignment of the means is not enough. The money must be properly used, strict order must be maintained, and the necessary mea- sures progressively adopted. At the present time, when every requisition of the local authorities is satisfied by this or the other department, it often happens that the least 1 The assassination of Alexander II. [Author's note.] 2 On the margin of the original report, opposite this sentence, stands in the Tsar's handwriting the word " Yes !" ​important requests are granted, while the most important are postponed. This is comprehensible. Every department supports that in which it is interested, and so it often happens that the resources of the imperial treasury are spent for things that are not the most important and vital. In order to avoid this, it should be decided how large a sum of money can be set apart annually for the needs of Siberia. Then the governor-general should be authorized to make suggestions with regard to reforms in accordance with local conditions and circumstances. Knowing what sum he will be allowed, he can make his representations correspond with it. I should fix this sum at first at 100,000 rúbles per annum. With such an amount it would be possible, the third or fourth year, to begin prison buildings of considerable importance. . . . With the adoption of such measures the local governor-general would be able to act energetically for the welfare of the country committed to his care.
If it please your Imperial Majesty to approve my suggestions, and if the annual sum that I have recommended for reforms in Eastern Siberia be granted, this remote country will be enabled to develop its economic resources and begin a new life.
There has been some discussion in the newspapers of the question whether the Tsar is aware of the condition of the Siberian prisons and of the sufferings of the Siberian exiles. In the light of the above report the question must be answered unhesitatingly in the affirmative.
* ↑ Marginal note in the handwriting of the Tsar: "What has hindered this?" i. e. Why has this not been done?
* ↑ This report was written and delivered to the Tsar in 1880. Four years later the petty question of appropriating 9190 rúbles to increase the salaries of Government architects in Eastern Siberia had not even reached the stage of consideration in the Council of the Empire. The appropriation was trifling in amount [about $4600]; it was urged by the governor-general; the Tsar himself wanted to know why it had not been made; nobody, apparently, had any objection to it; and yet it was impossible to get the proposed reform under way. Governor-general Anúchin finished his term of service in Eastern Siberia and returned to European Russia without having seen this thing done. One of the advantages of an autocratic and despotic form of government is supposed to be the promptness with which a desirable change can be effected, but I doubt whether there is a country on the globe in which it is more difficult to get a certain class of useful things done than in Russia. If the thing that would be useful to the people promises to be profitable also to the high officials of the bureaucracy, it can be brought about in twenty-four hours; but if it be a measure of administrative economy, a scheme to secure impartial justice, or humanitarian reform, it may languish in obscurity for twenty-four years.
* ↑ This report was in my possession only a short time, and I was compelled to make the following translation very hurriedly, It is not as smooth and idiomatic in construction, therefore, as I could wish, but it seems to me better to let it stand as I originally made it, than to improve the English style at the expense, possibly, of fidelity to the original. The report itself was rather careless and slipshod in construction, and all that I could do in the brief time it was in my hands, was to reproduce it, with all its faults, in intelligible English. I cannot now refer to it nor remember its phraseology, and I therefore follow the copy in my note-book.
* ↑ This is the penalty for being found at large in Eastern Siberia without a passport, and refusing to disclose one's name and previous place of residence.
* ↑ The number of convicts on the island of Saghalín is 3000. [The number on the 1st of January, 1889, was 5530. Author's note.]
* ↑ Opposite this sentence, on the margin of the original report, stand, in the Tsar's handwriting, the words "I should greatly like to do this, and it seems to me indispensable." Upon the report, as a whole, the Tsar made the following indorsement: "I have read this with great interest, and I am more than troubled by this melancholy but just description of the Government's forgetfulness of a country so rich and so necessary to Russia. It is inexcusable, and even criminal, to allow such a state of affairs in Siberia to continue." Upon the part of the report relating to prisons and the exile system the Tsar has indorsed the words, "Grústnaya no ne nóvaya kartina" [A melancholy but not anew picture].