Connecticut western news., 1881-04-06
STUDENT LIFE IN SIBERIA.
The Students in Exile-What They
 Suffer and how Life Ends.

All that is known of Roussakoff, the Russian conspirator, is that he was 8 | student. To explain the part played by | the universities in the nihilist drama | theorists generally refer to Bakunin and l his doctrines. A much nearer reason l lies in the great number of students l who have, in these last few years, been | exiled without any judicial hearing. The crimes entered against them in the books of tLe "Third Section" are, yer batim, as follows They had become suspected" but of what or in what degree there was no attempt at proof. They "had not denounced" comrades proved guilty of receiving forbidden pamphlets they had been "insubordi- nate" to school inspectors or had re- ceived moro than the permitted quan- tum of bad marks for Latin. Official reports say that only 1,696 cases come under the above mentioned category but sad and well founded rumors say that 10000 such arrests took place some three years ago on the occasion of the political trial of the "193." Up to the present moment, out of the official ,696, only 115 have been set at liberty, and thirty out of that number allowed to continue their university career, no grounds, legal or illegal, being found to forbid their doing so. Russian Con- missioners work slowly; questions and answers come and go but slowly be- tween St. Petersburg, Arkangel, or Eastern Siberia {; and yet many among the remaining 1,581 are giving signs of life; newspapers are keeping them be- fore the public; they themselves are writing home carefully worded letters, and hoping, as it were, against hope.
 In the cheerless region of Arkangel-of which the aborigines say, "God made
 Russia, but the devil made Arkangel" | there are more than two hundred of those banished ones, men and women,
 all young, all poor, most of them sent without trial, few of them knowing even of what they are accused. Victor Ivan- ovitch dimes with his friend B., for in- stance, and after a stroll along the Boulevard they separate. B. is arrest ed that very evening, and when Victor,
 astounded and horror-stricken, hastens to inquire the case, he finds everybody,
 even B.'s own father, as much in the dark as he is himself all questions and petitions on the subject receive vague administrative answers; all friends and relatives are systematically discouraged and silenced; eagerly they wait and
 watch for the numerous political trials
 that come on without intermission,
 hoping to see the missing ones name on
 the list of criminals or see his face once
 more, let it be even in the prisoners
 dock; but as they wait and watch the
 prisoner is, without any trial, en route
 for Arkangel.
 Arrived there, the routine is the
 same. Whatever the crime alleged, the
 age or sex, the prisoner is taken to the
 police ward-a dreary log building, con-
 taining two sections, one for men, the
 other for women. The solitary table
 and chair, the four walls and even the
 ceiling are covered with the names ot
 youthful predecessors, whose pencilled
 tests and clever caricatures bear wit
 ness to the strength and confidence in
 themselves with which they began
 their life in exile. In this dreary abode
 week or ten days is spent, while the Governor of Arkangel, after due rehec. tion, marks out for this dangerous per. sonage some final place of exile, some miserable little district town such as
 Holmogor, Shenkoursk, Pinega o1 Mezen. He is then told that his ''docu ; ments" are ready, and 8 gendarme en ters, saying that it is time to start. The , prisoner jumps into the jolting pos } wagon, two gendarmes jump in afte1 3 him, the trolka bell above the horse
 neck begins to ring and rings on fo
 days and weeks-through wood ant f swamp and plain, along arctic roads in r conceivably drear and lonely, until tn : weary convoy at length arrives at it
 destination. The little town is sma] and black, consists of log huts, two un /, paved streets, wooden church painte l. green, and the only live stock visibl l. ten or twelve rawboned horses, a her
 of sickly COWS and thirty or forty rein 1t deer. The population rarely exceed 7, one thousand, and consists of the It >, pravnik, ten subaltern officers, the Al ~ ~ bitter of the Peace, the Grown Forester s- a priest, a few shopkeepers, thirty (
 forty exiles, chain-gang of "God-fo
 gotten" Russian felons and crowd B. Finnish beggars. On his arrival, u in prisoner is driven straight to the polio
 ward, where he is inspected by the I er pravnik, police officer, who is absolu m lord and master of the district. Tn
 representative of the government T A- quires of him to answer the followi1
 questions His name? How ole le Married or single? Where from? A to dress of parents or relations or friends
 Answers to all of which are entered ,-aa the books. A solemn written promi ' is then exacted of him that he will n ,u give lessons of any kind or try to tea D. any one; that every letter he writes W mt go through the Ispravnik's hands, al
 that he will follow no occupation exec H. shoemaking, carpentering or field labe .o" He is then told he is free! but at t
 same tune is solemnly warned tI on should he attempt to pass the limits ng the town he shall be shot down like It. dog rather than be allowed to escar TO- and should he be taken alive shall