The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-10-04
A RUSSIAN INQUISITION.
Barbarities Inflicted Upon Political Pris-
oners-A Statement from N Sufferer.


from st. Petersburg letter.
The following letter from political
prisoner in Siberia wiki be found inter
esting not only as coming from such a
source, but as containing facts not gen
orally known. The writer studied the
English language from books while in
exile, and without any opportunity for
practice acquired such proficiency that
his letter loses none of its interest from
being presented exactly as he wrote it:
Foreigners have such vague notions
about Russia that they are as yet unable
to understand the very reason and
character of the revolutionary tend
encies which prevail to such an extent
in that vast country. j will tell here
one fact which will show YOU clearly
the character OF the Russian Govern
ment. In 1865, soon after the execution
of Karakozoff, a young workingman,
sitting in an inn where two or three
persons were present, was foolish
enough to say of the Gar, 'You see he
hanged now man who was perhaps
much better than he himself Imme-
diately he was arrested and brought TO
st. Petersburg, where they put him in
the well-known prison of SITS. Peter
and Paul. Then, without any trial,
merely by the order of the Gar, he
was sent to be imprisoned Mt the mon
astery at Soozdall There are in Rus
STA two monasteries which have prisons
for political or religious ibres-penssurs
the monastery called Solovetzkee, on
an island in the White sea, and the
~ GaA.lon Il. e. r
these prisons are the holy fathers-the
Abbots themselves The young man
was locked up in small room. Once
he committed some insignificant offense
against the rules of the prison. Then
the Abbot submitted the prisoner to
such a punishment as the civilized world
has not heard of since the times of the
Inquisition. 1t is to make the world
know this punishment that decided to
write this letter.
THE Abbot ordered a box to be
brought into the room of the prisoner,
just as high and wide as the prisoner
himself. On the inside of the box there
were fixed on every point strong, large
iron nails. The prisoner was put into
this box and locked up. He could not
turn himself, he could not move at all,
because everywhere he would meet the
iron nails. He remained in the box
two days. Finally he could not bear
any longer this torture, and said to the
guard he wanted to see the Abbot. The
latter came. DO you wish, said the
prisoner, to kill me? / cannot bear
any longer this torture. / swear to you
that if you will not release me instantly
from this box will kill you Only
then the Abbot released him. But no
sooner had the prisoner left the box
than he fell and tainted on the floor.
His feet were so swollen they would not
bear him.
"The holy fathers of the monastery
use also several other kinds of torture.
For instance, they put upon a prisoner
iron letters of 100 pounds weight, and
keep him thus during some days. Only
a man of great physical power can,
with these letters on his feet, rise or at
all change the position of his body, as
while sleeping he might desire.
"Such are these monastery prisons,
in which they keep for many long years,
without any legal trial, innocent people
WIZ nave IlltlI ONH OlJlLlOuo tDOub
religion different from those of the
States church. / remember plenty of
other facts of the same kind Where,
for instance, is now the well-known
revolutionist, Naitshaff, sentenced in
1871 to twenty years imprisonment at
hard labor? Nobody knows exactly,
but there are persistent rumors that he
is kept in one of the fortresses chained
to the wall and fettered with irons OF
100 pounds weight.
where is the political criminal
Tomeen, sentenced in 1879 by the Mar
tial Court to imprisonment for life?
Nobody knows, but they say, and it is
probably true, that he is kept in one of
the Siberian prisons-namely at To
bolsk-and that there are two special
guards TO watch him, who receive
greater payment for this honor.
"Why were the three newly-con-
demned revolutionists, Sheeriaeff, Tee
ehonoff and Gessi Gelfman, not sent to
the Siberian prisons, as the law COM
mands, but are kept in Slusselbourg,
this Russian Bastilca? Because in the
Siberian prisons they would not die so
soon.
what right has the Government, in
spite of the laws it created itself, to
keep as it does, since more than ten
years, in pitiful small village, Vii
linsk, 800 miles from Yakoutsk, the
celebrated Russian writer, Tchernee-
sheffski, author of Remarks upon John
Stuart Mills Political Economy as
well as many other excellent books
By the Russian law Tcherneesheffski
has long since the right of going
through all Siberia. but the Govern
ment keeps him forcibly at Villinsk.
Eight gendarmes and Cossacks, sent
from Yakoutsk for this special purpose
are always watching him. He must
live and sleep in the prison only in the
daytime he has the right to go into the
village. But to him the most terrible
punishment is that it is forbidden TO
him forever to write anything for pub
LEGATION. But the man is full of life
and energy. He cannot help writing
he must write, and he does. He writes
leaves upon leaves; he covers piles of
paper, and then-he puts them in the
fire. Can you imagine this? Is it not
the fortunes of Tantalus?
0AnI oftar oil tho foota ,,yo 70