The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1889-11-09
4 HUNGER STRIKE.
. REVOLT OF RUSSIAN EXILES
In SIBERIA.
The Threatened FIoSSing-A Des-
perate Protest Against Cruel
ty-Starving to Death-The
Prisoners Victorious

1
ster-about the middle of July-all the
,pst of the State criminals were brought
back to the political prison at the Lower
Diggings, where they were put into new
and much smaller cells that had been
made by erecting partitions in the origi-
nal kameras in such a manner as to di-
tide each of them into thirds. The eff
feet of this change was to crowd every
yroup of seven or eight men into n cell
that was so nearly filled by the sleeping
platform as to leave no room for locomo-
ton. Two men could not stand side by
lde in the narrow space between the edge
uf the platform and the wall, and the &C.
rupants of the cell were therefore COM
pelled to sit or lie all day on the plank
mares without occupation for either minds
Or bodies. No other reply was made to
their petitions and circumstances than
threat from Khalturin that if they did
not keep quiet they would be logged
With view to intimidating them Khal-
turin even sent surgeon to make Apply
ical examination of one political, for the
Towed purpose of ascertaining whether
bis state of health was such that he could
be flogged without endangering his life.
This was the last straw. The wretched
State criminals, deprived of exercise,
living under dungeon conditions"
poisoned by air laden with the stencil of
agreement buckets, and finally threatened
with the whip when they complained,
could endure no more. They resolved to
make that last desperate protest against
cruelty which is known in Russian prisons
IS "golodofka," or s'hunger-strike. "
They sent notification to Major Khal-
turin that their life had finally become
mendurabl that they preferred death
to such an existence, and that they
should refuse to take food until they
either persisted or forced the Government
to treat them with more humanity. No
attention was paid to their notification,
but from that moment not q mOuthful OF
the food that was sent into their cells
was touched. As day after day passed
the stiffness of death gradually settled
down upon the prison. The starving
convicts, too weak and apathetic even to
talk to one another, lay in rows, like
dead men, upon the plank sleeping plat
forms, and the only sounds to be heard
in the building were the footsteps of the
sentries, and now and then the inco
herent mutterings of the insane. On the
fifth day of the "golodofka" Majol
Khalturin. convinced that the hunger
strike was serious, came to thu
prison and asked the convicts t.
state definitely upon what term
they would discontinue their protest
They replied that the conditions of thei
life were unbearable, and that the.
should continue their self-starvatioI
until the buckets were taken out of thei
cells, until they were Permitted to hav'
books and to exercise daily in the opel
air, until they were allowed to direc
the expenditure of their money for bet
ter food and better clothing than wer
furnished by the Government, and unit
be (Khalturin) gave them a solemn assur
ance that none of them should b
logged. The commandant told then
that the talk about fogging was non
sense; that there had never been an
serious intention of resorting to the whip
and that, if they would end their strike
be would see what could be done to I'm
prove the material condition of their life
Not being abse to get any positive assur
ances that their demands would be com
piled with, the prisoners continued tn
"golodofka." On the tenth day the stat
of affairs had become alarming. All c
the starving men were in the last stage
of physical prostration, and some
them seemed to be near death. Cour
Dmitri Tolstoi, the Minister
the Interior, who had been apprise
of the situation, telegraphed the con
mandant to keep "skorbnoi leest,
"hospital Sheet" setting forth the SYM
toms and conditions of the strikers, an