News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-04
THE LOST SOULS OF SIBERIA.
The Political Prisoners sent Into the Wild
Northern Waste.
IRON the London Post.l


A graphic picture of the condition o
those unfortunates who are ftly de
scribed as lost souls' is drawn in tn
work on Siberia by the Russian write
Jadrinzetf, German edition of which
has just been published by Professor E
Petri, of Berne. But few of the exile!
ever attain to the possession of {
house." by which is meant a miserable
hut. Most of them are in reality the
b0ndsmen of the Siberian peasants,
by whom they are hired; that is to say,
they remain in their debt as long as they
live, ard are satisfied when they can get
money for drinking on holidays from
their masters. But as the majority OF
the exiIes are rogues and vagabonds by
profession, who are afraid of work, the
number of fugitives is constantly in
creasing, who steal, rob, and plumber
whenever a chance offers, ard thus in
tensify the natural antipathy of the set
tiers against the class of the depOrted.
The peasants have every cause to be in
Censed against them, for, besides suffer
ing from the malpractices of the con-
Wet class, they have to bear the cost of
the erection and preservation of prisons
for the exiles, organize hunts for the
capture of runaways, provide guards for
them and find he taxes which cannot
be raised from among the deported class.
But the greatest gaps in the ranks of
the exiles are caused by the almost sys-
tematic escape of the latter from forced
labor and from the convict settlements.
No less than Is per cent. of the deported
escape during transport. Many of them
are shot down like wild beasts by the
lie rsants and natives, and an observer
Oh Siberian life made a very true re-
mark when he said that Siberia would
scarcely have been able to overpower
the runaway exiles if the peasants had
not annihilated them.
The most extreme measures to check
the system of escape are the hunts by
the natives, organized by the Russian
Government. The native receives three
rOubles if he delivers the prisoner
dead or alive" to the authorities. The
people are provided with good arms and
ammunition, so as to make hunting the
escaped prisoners perfect success. One
Of those few who managed to escape
was seized in his native village, and,
when brought before the court he said:
- or two years | have wandered about,
have swan through rivers and seas,
have crossed Siberian forests, passed
through steppes and mountains and no
one has touched me, neither man nor
beast; but here, in my native village, /
have been seized and cast into CHAINS"
The escape from forced labor had be-
come so common that the administra.
tors of convict establishment s were in
the habit of calling out when receiving
prisoners, "Whoever wishes to stay, let
him take clothes; he who wants to run
away will not need them 1t should
be observed that the clothes left behind
by escaped convicts, so as to guard
against capture, are the perquisites of
the prison authorities.
Whilst the statistics show an incled-
ible increase in the number of crimes
committed by exiles, proving the eff
cheney of the system of deportation as
a corrective delusion, they are equally
cCndemnatory of its much Wanted
cheapness to the State. The cost of
transport of Siberian deporte is esti-
mated at fifty roubles tS37.5O). But in
this estimate are not included the cost
of transport to the main route steamers
on the Volga and Kamal, and thence to
the place of destination, the mainte-
nance of his family if he is accompanied
by 1t, the maintenance in prison till
the sprin p, as transports in winter have
been abolished, as well as the cost of
the military guard, so that the expenses
of transport for each convict to his
place of destination amount to about
800 roubles $225l, a sum which would
be sufficient to keep him at least 4 years
In tie dearest prison of European Rus
sla. But this sum is raised to 500
roubles (S6jOl, by the expense attach
ing to the maintenance of etappe routes,
escorts, prisons along the route, and
efdPpe houses, not to reckon the burdens
imposed upon the population, who have
to provide vehicles and hospitals, and
their losses through thefts and crimes of
all descriptions.
4 simple calculation, conseq uently,
ought to oe in favor of those in Russia
who raise their voices against degrading
Siberia into receptacle for "lost souls"
Jadrlnzelt says: "The system of de-
pc. tatlon has converted Siberia into
sewer; deportation has been the cause
OF much injustice and harm done to the
country. By mixing the deported with
the population. crime was accorded a
wider scope. The lies are at present
IN an extremely miserable and obiec
tionable condition, and Siberia receives,
instead of useful workers, numerous,
lazy proletariat. BY the present deplor-
able condition of the banished, the pun.
ishment inflicted does not lead to re
form, but yields a result quite the re
verse, consisting in the decentralization
of the exiles, and an increase in vaga.
bondisIn and crime"