The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-19 00:00:00

POLES IN SIBERIA.

HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF THE

We borrow the foll;wing recital of the cruelty exer-
cised by the Russian Government on the Poles exiled
to Sib- ria for political causes from one of the Polish
journals published at Paris. Europe too often re-
mains ignorant of the mode in which Muscovite
tyranny displays itself; at intervals, however, some
victim escapes, and denounces to the civilised world
the frightful barbarity shown by this Government of
savages towards those of its subjects whose crime is to
aspire to liberty. Our readers may recollect that some
months ago the journals contained a paragraph, stating
that a Pole had been arrested at Keenigsborg by the
Prussian police, who found him asleep on the steps of a
church. This Pole, who at first attempted to pass him-
self off as a Frenchman, of Languedoc, on being closely
questioned, confessed that he was a political exile who
had escaped from Siberia. He was immediately thrown
into prison, and, by an order from Berlin, was about
to be delivered up to the Russian authorities, when,
fortunately, he again succeeded in escaping. This
fugitive, by name Rufin Piotrowski, a native of
the Ukraine, has now reached Paris ; he is known
to several of the most honourable members of the Polish
emigration, who attest the loyalty of his character, and
his perfect sincerity. During his stay in Siberia, Pio-
trowski had the opportunity of conversing with many
political prisoners on their road to the place of their
exile ; be was also acquainted with many inhabitants
of the district where he was (Tava, near Ekaterinsk)
and even with persons attached to the Govern-
ment ; hence he learnt many facts from men the
best informed on the subject, and ocular witnesses
of the greatest credibility. The number of Poles
exiled in Sibc ria exceeds fifty thousand. Several are
condemned to hard labour in various establishments;
the majority are colonists c n land belonging to the ad-
ministration of transports. A Catholic church has been
erected at Tomsk, and two priests of that belief are
annually sent to give religious consolation to the exiles.
The following accounts throw light on the fate of some
of these ur.happy men. Colonel Peter Wysoski,
chief of the insurrection of the 29th of November, 1830,
who was wounded and taken prisoner during the attack
on Warsaw in 1831, was condemned in 1834 to hard
labour in the mines of Nertchinsk, situate in Eastern
Siberia, on the confines of China. Here, finding a num-
ber of countrymen in a similar position, an attempt was
made to escape, in which, however, they were disco-
vered. Wysoski, the hero of so many battles, was con
demned to receive 1,500 blows of a stick. He under-
went his punishment with the firmness of a martyr, and
after being cured, was sent to the fortress of Akatui,
more to the east, where he still is. Another attempt
to escape by a Polish priest, named Sienacinski, and
a number of other exiles confined at Omsk, in Sibe-
ria, having been likewise discovered, about 400 Poles
were arrested. After an inquiry which lasted three
years, the Abbe Sienacinski, a Captain Gorski, and four
others, were sentenced to receive seven thousand blows
each; and two hundred others accused to from 500 to
3,000 blows, together with hard labour for life if they
survived. The execution took place at Omsk, in March,
1837, a General Galiafiayeff having been sent expressly
from St. Petersburg to preside over it. General Prince
Kortehakoff was Governor-General of Siberia at the
time. On the day fixed for this sanguinary act,
two battalions, of 1,000 men each, were drawn
up on the place of execution, every Pole in the
battalions having been previously replaced by Russians,
One of these battalions was to inflict the punishment of
the condemned sentenced to 7,000 blows; the other con-
demned were reserved for the second battalion. Ac-
cording to the military penal law of Russia, the sticks
used in punishing soldiers should be of such a size that
three will fit the barrel of a regulation musket; but each
of the sticks employed in the execution of the Abbe
Sieracinski and his accomplices were so large that a
single one would scarcely go into the musket. According
to the same law the soldiers ought to remain in close
order, and not move the elbow from the side in
striking ; for this special case, however, an order had
been issued to leave the space of one pace between each
soldier ; they were also commanded to advance the
right foot, and raise their arm when giving the blow, in
order to strike with their whole force. The execution
commenced with those condemned to receive 7,000 blows,
the Abbe Sieracinski being last. Each of the con-
demned, naked to the waist, was led fourteen times be-
tween the ranks (two soldiers striking at once only count-
ing as one blow). When the sufferer fell from exhaus-
tion be was placed on a sort of sledge, in order that he
might receive the full complement of his sentence.
When the turn of the Abbe Sieracinski came, a surgeon
approached him to make him take a strengthening
drink, but he refused it, and walked towards his
executioners singing the psalm, Misere mei Deus.
As he was of a delicate constitution, and exhausted by
long privations, he fell after receiving one thousand
blows. He was then seized, and placed in a kneeling
position on the sledge, his arms being bound behind
his back in such a manner as not to protect
him from the bloody flagellation ; his head
was fastened, face downwards, to beams at the back of
the sledge, and in this posture they continued to
bear him along before his executioners. He still
breathed at the four-thousandth blow ; but soon after
yielded up his last breath. His inanimate corpse
received the remaining two thousand blows. The
others sentenced to seven thousand; blows, died dur-
ing the execution, with the exception of one alone, who
was spared, because he was ill, and after recovering
from his wounds, was sent to Nertchinsh. There,
however, he became insane, and killed himself the day
after the infliction of his sentence. The bodies of the
five martyrs were buried near the town of Omsk. Those
who were to suffer from five hundred to three thousand
blows, reseived neither pardon nor commutation. Of
three persons, through whom the projected at-
tempt at escape had been discovered, one was strangled
140 another drowned; the authors of this act of
vengeance have never been discovered. The third has
been promoted to the rank of an officer (he was before a
private soldier), but has the air of a lunatic. General
Galifiayeff has been named commandant of the city of
Stavropol, the chief place of the province of the Caucasus,
and now resides there. Other scenes of the same nature
have occurred, and still occur in Siberia. The publicity
given to such facts will at least serve as a chastisement
to the executioners.