The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-12-15
A DESPERATE FLIGHT.
Terrible Exp eriences of a Political
Exile in Russia.

In the year 1916 Siecinslli, Bogdaszewsl1
and /, with the three Russian soldiers who
guarded us, occupied small shed near the
great distilleries of Ekaterinin ski-Zovod, in
Northern Siberia
1t was poor little dwelling. The wind
whistled and the snow drifted through the
cracks in the boarding, but it had the in
ostimable advantage of separating in some
degree our daily life from that of the con-
viCts, association with whom is one of the
hardest of the cXile's many trials
All the workmen at Ekaterninski-Zovod
were prisoners land as matter of course
also eXiles1, and by far the greater proper
tion were conViCts. The position of political
prisoners in such an establishment is neces-
sarily full of suffering, and my two friends
and l had drunk the bitter cup to the dregs.
We were Polish mobiles and Polish patriots,
and had each passed separately the trial and
Imprisonment in irons which had followed
our participation in the conspiracy of 1901.
Siecinslli and Bogdas2ewski preceded me to
Siberia, and there, alas left them.
Ipass over the first five years of my exile,
with its tolls and trials and will merely OBJ
serve that the permission to build and &C.
cupy dwelling apart had been granted to
my two friends and myself as a reward for
diligence and good conduct
Our three guards never left us by day or
night, but they drew apart during the long
evenings, and either slept or feigned to do
so, while we talked together of our beloved
country and the irrevocable past
Of one subject, and that the one probably
most constantly in our minds, we never
spoke at all. No one of us whispered the
word escape" and l do not yet know wheth
er my two friends have succeeded in doing
so or not. But this know, that if still in
in captivity they ponder through all the
hours of every day the exiles problem,
when and how to escape. Alas! how many
die without solving til From the moment
Of my arrest [ had resolved upon fight, and
a knowledge of the terrible punishments in
ticted by the Russian government not only
upon fugitives, but upon all who aid fugi-
tive, had induced me to determine to take
no one into my confidence.
NY occupation during the last four years
ofmy Imprisonment had been that of cor
responding clerk in the Bureau of the Dis
tilleries, and had in that way been brought
in contact with merchants and peasants
from all parts of Siberia, and had acquired
very thorough knowledge of the geography
of the country, of its customs and its inhab-
itants. In the latter part of the year 1915
had made three attempts to escape, which,
fortunately for me, remained undiscovered
and unsupported.
These failures were however, of use to
me, since in consequence of them | was in
duced to try the route which proved the
way to freedom. The choice of a route is
of the greatest consequence to a fugitive
when beginning his perilous journey. The
high-road from Siberia to the center of Rus
STA is the one oGtenest taken, because the
most direct and the easiest But for this
very reason it is incomparably the most
dangerous. The surveillance there exer-
'clsed by the government is one of unceasing
vigilance, and it is ably seconded by the in
habitants, whose zeal and rapacity are con-
tjuually on the alert. The Tartars have a
saying with regard to the fugitives from
Siberia "If you kill squirrel you have
but his single skim but if you kill a car
MAXI " "a term of contempt applied to pris-
sOners), ''you have three-his clothes, his
shirt and himself' (the reward for giving
up the man to iustice). Five other roads re-
manned, ali less dangerous than the one
above alluded to, but far more difficult and
wearisome. l decided to go northward
across the Oural Mountains and the steppes
of Petchara and Archangel to Archangel, a
route which was not only the least used,
but had also the immense advantage of be-
lug the shortest, for, once at Archangel
hoped to be able to escape in one of the
many foreign ships always to be found in
that port.
I had for many months been accumulat-
ing one by one, with great secresy and no
small difficulty, the articles indispensable
TO my fight.
First among these was passport. The
Siberian peasant is fond of travelling, and
the law requ@res him to be provided with
two passports, one for small distances that
is, from village to village, and another,
scaled with the imperial arms, and bearing
the government stamp.
succeeded in fabricating the one and the
other. I also procured Siberian wig that
is TO say the hood called wig worn by all
peasants in Siberia. 1t is made of sleeps
hide, thewool turned inward, and covers the
forehead down to the eyes, and comes well
forward over the checks, making-for one
not in the habit of wearing it--a disguise al
most as complete as mask or domino.