News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-03-07
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
BribabIe Mermadons of the Gar
Secret Supervision Over "Sus-
pects."

In recent lecture in Boston, Mr..
George Kennon referred as follows to
the Russian police: "The police of Rus
Bia control by means of Passports, the
movements of all the inhabitants of the
Empire, keep thousands of suspects
constantly under control, and certify
to the courts the liabilities of banHspts.
They conduct pawnbrokers' sales Of un
redeemed pledges, superintend the re-
pairs of roads and bridges, collect sta
tistics and enforce sanitary regulations,
make searches in private houses, read
the correspondence of suspects, give
certificates to identify pensioners, adj
monish church members who neglect too
long to partake of the holy-communio
and enforce obedience to thousands of
multfafious orders and regulations. 1t
is hardly an exageration to say that in
the peasant villages of f5ibefia, away
from the centres of enlightenment and
education, the police are the omnipres-
ent and omnipotent regulators of every
thing-a sort of bureaucratic substitute
for Divine Providence. The police of
Russia are divided into four classes:
The rural police, the common metropoli-
tan police of the cities, the detective and
secret police and the gendarmes. The
strongest class numerically is that OF the
rural police who enforce the orders of
the Government in the peasant villages.
According to q recent published state
ment, there are in the forty-seven pro-
vinces of European Russia 269, 900 towns
and villages where Intoxicating liquors
are sold at retail. If we suppose that for
every such village there are two police Off
GERS, which, perhaps is not an over esti-
mate, we have an army of over 100000
men in this one class, without including
Siberia or any part of Asiatic Russia.
The rural police are divided into STAINS,
or stations. They wear uniform, and
are armed with a sabre and revolver.
Their salaries are from $75 to 800 per
year for private and $500 for the chief
of district. The natural result is that
the rural police represent the worst ele
ments of the whole population. A large
proportion of them are ignorant and stu
pid. Those who have brains are gener-
ally dishonest, and use the orders of the
Ministers of the Interior in innumerable
instances to extort money from the peas
ants.
The lecturer asserted that bribery was
almost universal among the officials.
An instance Of this was as follows: In
every village there was generally one
Jewish capitalist. At time when the
peasants were about to float their wheat
to market on barges, one of these capt.
talists proposed to the official that
when the peasants applied to him for
their passports to enable them to travel
to the market, he should tell them that
they had been sent to the department
for renewal, or invent some other excuse
to prevent the peasants from travelling.
Then he (the capitalist) would buy their
wheat at home for about half its value,
and divide up the profits with him.
To this the official agreed, and the
scheme was carried out, with the result
that the peasants became discouraged,
and agriculture declined.
Next to the rural police in numerical
stEcngth, and far above them in intellect
and power" said the lecturer, care the
secret police of Russia, who are to be
found everywhere throughout the i'm
mense Empire, and who are most
numerous in the large cities. A great
part of their work consists III maintain
ing supervision over persons who are
suspected of sympathizing with the
revolutionary movement. The number
of persons under supervision when the
last Gar came to. the throne was officially
reported to be 1887 in European Russia,
besides about 1000 in Siberia, all of the
latter political exiles. The number is
probably much greater nov. All these
are under open surveill@1ce. They
know the police are Watching them,
and that their correspondence is under
control"