Connecticut western news., 1873-10-24
A Bloody Insurrection.
A Page from Russian History.

6 Page from Russian History. On the 3d of December, 1895, tn, consplrators made simultaneous an6 : preconcerted attempts in several of tn. r large cities of the empire, to unfurl tho :. standard of revolt among such regi , ments of the army as were known to bs , disafected toward the new czar, At St. Petersburgh, two regiments oi
 the imperial footgi1ards, under the com mand of Colonels Braganoff and Jese. hur1ez, left their barracks, and marched
 upon the principal government build. ings. The State Chancellerie fell an easy prey to them, but at the building
 of the War Department, which resem: bles small fortress, they met with g
 determined resistance.
 Nicholas, the new czar, who was be- lieved by the oonspirators to be at
 Tsarskoe Zelo, had returned during the night. and, upon hearing of the revolt,
 collected five squadrons of the draeoons and Cossacks of the guard, and two
 sections of the light artillery, with which he made sudden and furious
 onslaught upon the insurgents. The
 latter offered heroic resistance but,
 being moved down with grapeshot, as
 they were, they finally had to surren- der. Many of the soldiers and officers
 were slain by the dragons after they
 had thrown down their arms. Several
 consplrators had hurried through the
 streets, and in loud voice called upon
 the people to rise in arms against the
 new czar. But the people paid no at-
 tentlon to them, and the Cossacks, who
 secured the city after the suppression
 ot the 1nsurrection, had no difficulty in
 resisting them.
 Of the military prisoners, all the
 commissioned officers were sent to the
 fortress of Schlusselburg, where they
 were thrust into the subterranean dun
 geons. The civilians were confined in
 irons in cells at the Krasnikoy jail.
 An investigation was at once set, and,
 through torture, the names of the ring
 leaders among the two regiments of the
 guard were easily ascertained. They
 gave as the most active among them,
 the two colonels, and beside, Majors
 Sikoff, Toalirog, Pokiss, Captains Za-
 gar, Brohany, Cezog irof, and Lieuten-
 ants Tengen, Schenck, Virgizy, and
 buciot. The officers themselves reso-
 lutely refused to give any information.
 On the 26th of December the High
 Commission, composed of sixty high
 civil and military dignitaries, assem-
 bled at the large hall of the ministry of
 justice in order to try the conspirators.
 The czar and most of his male relations were present at the opening of the court.
 The venerable General Gortschakoff presided. The prisoners were led in. all of them heavily ironed. Colonel Braganoff, upon seeing the czar, shout ed to him in sneering tone, |" German dog German dog But no notice was taken of this insult, and the trial commenced. The proceedings were so summary that the whole trial did not last more than five days. Late in the evening of the 31st of December the court pronounced the following terrible sentence:
 'All the commissioned officers caught with arms in their hands shall snffer death by shooting, except .Colonels Braganof and Jesshuriez. whose tongues shall be torn out of their mouths by the public executioner, Whereupon they shall be hanged until they are dead the Second and Fourth regiments of the Foot Guards shall be decimated the civilians shall receive one hundred strokes of the knout." The next day was New Years, in the new calendar, and so the sentence was not executed until the 2d of January, 1926. St. Petersburgh, as may be imagined, was In state of intense agitation from early dawn on that eventful and mo- mentous day.
 Immense crowds thronged the streets. and frequently were dispersed by the mounted police. At ten o'clock the sixty-four doomed officers and nineteen civilians were led out upon the Newski Prospect, where the execution was to take place. Colonels Braganoff and Jesehuriez were dressed in suits of coarse brown linen, and the executioner placed them under the huge gallows which had been erected for them. Both of them manifested remarkable forti- tude, which did not disconcert the exe- cutloner little. With visible embar- rassment he told the two brave oonspir- ators: "I must now tear out your tonguesp Colonel Jesehuriez allowed him to open his mouth and to seize his tongue with large steel forceps. The vast concourse of spectators uttered cries of horror as the executioner vio- i !ently pulled it out. The tongue, bleed l ing and horrible to look upon, came out. Jesehuriez, uttering a heavy groan, sank to the ground, while steam of blood poured from his mouth, He was immediately picked up by the as- , sistant of the executioner, who strangled him on tho gallows. Braganoff proved less tractable. The executioner had to /. force open his mouth, in doing which. he broke the front teeth of the unfortu- : nate man. Five minutes afterward, ! too, had breathed his last. {
 Next the officers. who were to be shot. $ were led forward, with their backs $ turned toward the Neva river. Twelve I of them were selected to die first. They f met theirfate bravely. Shouting, s'Long i live Russia!" they received the volley { of bullets which twenty-four picked 1 rlfiemen fired at them. Five fell dead. The other seven had been but slightly { Three more volleys were re- V 1u1red before all of them had been put C put ot their misery. Four times more f 'hs terrible scene was re-enacted. At 8 ast all of the victims were dead They c ay In a large heap. The immense \ 'rowd of spectators was shuddering. I
 But now followed still more thrill t ing scene, but fortunately it was not to s md in butchery like the one we have 8 ust described. f
 Fourteen hundred soldiers. without Q .rms, were marched out in order to be | iecimated
 Nothing could be more frightful than he spectacle which these poor victim n their intense anguish and uncertainty presented. For none of them knew G which were to suffer death, and which Q were to be spared. They looked with . lorror and dismay upon the pile of E orpses in front of them, An aid-de- | amp of the emperor appeared. He { walked along the ranks, touching every V