Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-11-08
A HUNGER STRIKE.
A REVOLT OF RUSSIAN EXILES
IN SIBERIA.
Tho Threatened FlogginS-A nes-
pcratc Protest Against Cruel
ty-StarvinE to Dcnth-The
Prisoners Victorious.

III inc century Dlr George KEENAN, gives
the following account of a prison revolt
among the Siberian cxiles: a few days
later-about the middle of July-all the
rest 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 orgi-
nal kameas in such manner us to di-
vide each of them into thirds. The eff
fect OF this change was to crowd every
group of seven or eight men into cell
that was so nearly filed by the sleeping
platform rs to leave no room for locomo-
ton. Two men could not stand side by
side in the narrow space between the edge
of the platform and the WALL and the oc-
cupants of the cell were therefore com
PEELED 10 sit or lie all day OH the plank
mares without occupation for either minds
or bodies. No other reply was made to
their petitions and remonstNnccs than
threat from Khalturin that if they did
not keep quiet they would be logged
With view to intimidnting them Khal-
turin even sent II surgeon to make ply
steal examination of one political, for the
av0wed purpose OF ascertaining whether
his state of health was such that he could
be logged without endangcring his life
This was the last straw The wretchcd
State criminals, deprived of exercise,
living under dungeon conditions"
poisoned by air laden with the stencil of
cxcremcnt 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 isknown in Russian prisons
rs "golodofka," or "hunger- strike"
They sent Il notification to Major Khal-
turin that their life had finally become
uncomfortable, 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 Il 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 apathctic 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
i'll the building were the footsteps Of the
scntrics, and now and then the inco-
hcrcnt muttcrings of the insane. On the
fifth day of the ''golodofka" Major
Khalturin, convinced that the hunger
strike was serious, came TO the
prison and asked the convicts to
state definitely upon what terms
they would discontinue their protest
They replied that the conditions Of their
life were unbearable, and that they
should continue their lf-starvation
until the buckets were taken out of their
cells, until they were permitted to have
books and To exercise daily i'll the open
mir, until they were allowed to direct
the expenditure of their money for bet
ter food and better clothing than were
furnished by the Government, and until
he QKhaltnrim gave them Il solemn assur-
ancc that none of them should he
flU@gcd. The commandant told them
that the talk about logging was non
sense; that there had never been any
serious intention Of rcsoriing to the whip,
and that, if they would end their strike,
he would see what could he done to i'm
prove the material condition of their life.
Not being able to get any positive assur-
anccs that their demands would be com-
piled with, the prisoners continued the
''golodofla. On the tenth day the state
of affairs had become alarming. All OF
the starving men were i'll the last stages
of physical prostitution, and some of
them seemed to be near death Count
Dmitri Tolstoi, the Minister of
the Interior, who had been appraised
of the situation, tclegraphcd the com
mandant TO keep ''skorbnoi lecst," or
''h0spital sheet, setting forth the symp-
toms and conditions OF the strikers, and
to inform him promptly of any marked
change. Every day thereafter Il fcdsher,
Or hospital steward, went through the
cells taking tie pulse and the temporal
ture of the starving men. On the thir-
teen;h day Of the ''golodofka" Major
lLhaturin sent word to Tie wives of all
political conyicts living at the Lower
Diggings that they might have IN inter
view with their husbands-ihc first in
more than two months-if they would
try to persuade them to begin taking
food. They gladly asscnted, of course,
10 this condition, and were admitted to
the prison. At the same time Khalturin
went himself TO the starving men and as
sured them. on his honor, that if they
would end the hungcr-strikc he would
do everything i'll his power to satisfy
their demands. The entrcaties of the
wretched, broken-heartcd women and the
promises OF the commandment finally
broke down the resolution Of the po-
lidcals, and on the thirteenth day of the
first and most obstinate hunger-strike in
the history of the Kara political prison
came TO IN end.