Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-20
DEAD BUT NOT BURIED.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF THE tx
LIES IN SIBERIA.

Suffering on the Road Graphically De-
scribed-Char:ty of the People Who Wit
ness Observation-Disclosures of Cold and
Hunger-Told by One Who Escaped.
Mr.. Alexander Baranof, who was Russian
army officer, and who was sentenced to 81
IBERIA for alleged completely m revolutionary
schemes, spoke TO a reporter as follows:
Were it not for the charity of the people Of
Russia and Siberia no convict would ever live
to see the end Of his journey. The charities
| of the city OF Moscow, from which 50 many
| prisoners start for Siberia, are great It is
| the custom OF the convicts TO choose one of
| their own number as foreman when about to
start On their long journey. When our COM
! pany OF 500 men and women, escorted by the
soldiers with fixed bayonets, lett Moscow our
! foreman went up and down the lines OF peo-
! pie gathered to witness our departure. He
| collected aims from the crowd, the money be-
| ing put into bags and carried along to the
! first station, where it was divided The
amount collected was so great that every man
had S27.
DEAD But NOT BURIED.
| The government does not interfere with this
/ aims giving on the part Of tie people In
( every little town through which you pass
/ each villager takes of his bat. and crosses
/ himself, and throws in penny for the benefit
OF the poor unfortunates," as the conyicts
are termed By the people.
All that the American people have heard
and read about the su1ferings endured by the
prisoners exiied to Siberia Is true The half
has never been told The soldiers in Siberia
have name for the convicts which well ex-
presses their condition It may be translated
freely as you are dead but not buried" This
is the truth. 1t is living death.
Typhoid fever Is the worst scourge of fthe
exiles. More convicts die of that than of
any other cause. 1t could not be otherwise.
The indesoribable filth and frightful atmos-
pbere of the crowded sleeping places at the
stations along the route are steady and sure
breeders of the disease, which makes dread
full ravage5 among the prisoners. The fever
broke out among US when we were at Tobolsk,
and the prisoners died at the rate of thirty or
forty day. l was sick with the fever my
self. The prisoners received medical atten-
dance, such as it was. Tobols1 WAS a great
stopping place for transients, and at that
time there were 8, 600 conVicts confined IN va
rious barracks opening upon a large inclo-
sure, which was strongly fortified
Another thing from which the convicts
suffer in Siberia is the cold. The cold OF
Siberian winter is intense, and the conyicts
on the line Of march, unable to walk fast and
keep their blood In circulation because of
their chains, suffer much. l remember one
day. near the city of Tara, in the province
Of Tobolsk, when it was 50 frosty that some
of the baggage horses even lay down and
died We lost three women and five men
that day, who, chilled through and through
by the dreadful cold, succumbed and died in
the road, their bodies being picked up and
brought along 70 the next station
Some OF the prisoners died in this way
every week, especially in the Bratski steppe,
and yet it was only the ordinary Siberian
winter.
Convict life In the mines Of Siberia is well
Illustrated by our daily routine at the gold
mines of Nerchinsk. We got up at o'clock
In the morning and had q breakfast of black
bread and bowl Of cruel. We worked in
the mines till noon and then had dinner, con-
sisting of more Cruel and black bread and
also a piece of meat. The meat was often
horse meat, and young horse, let me tell you,
isn't half bad, especially if you are a prisoner
in Siberia.
WORKING IN TIE MINES.
We worked in the mines again until dark.
Supper consisted of cabbage or some other
kind of soup meat every two or three days,
potatoes or some otler vegetables, which
were frequently rotten, and black bread. In
the mines we worked in true miner fashion,
with pick and shovel and lamp on hat. We
still wore our chains They never came Off
The convictS had to live in them and die in
them.
Such q life, Of course, sooner or later caused
the death of many conTicts. The political
prisoners, many OF whom were of high rank
and totally unusued to manual labor and to
such diet and manner Of living suffered the
most, and succumbed generally the fastest.
The ordinary offenders, thieves, common
nalefac5ors, ETC., who came from the lower
classes, stood prison life much better, for it
more nearly resernbled in its diet and daily
toll their former life. have known ordinary
offenders, men from the lower classes, who
were stout and strong, who had lived and
worked il the mines for twenty years.
The women prisoners at the mines were en-
ployed in scrubbing, washing and clothes
making. The delicately nurtured ladies
arnonT them who were political offenders did
not generally live long.
victs in Siberia are justified, it must be said.
Many of the convicts are the worst sort OF
humanity, including murderers, thieves,
highwayIner, and all kinds of offenders. We
had one murderer in our community who
had killed twenty-seven men.
The political prisoners were forced to min
gle with this class Of convicts, some OF them
the dregs OF humanity. In our company of
500 which left Moscow there were forty-eisht
political prisoners, four Of whom were wo-
men Sixteen OF US were the officers lof the
Shleselburg regiment, who had been court
martialed for alleged completely with Polish
conspirarors Three Of Us officers stuck to-
gether and worked together, and finally es-
capped together. I do cot know whatever be-
came Of the Others l suppose they are al
dead by pow--BH.oa Advertiser.