Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-02-16

lied world At Russia's treatment Of the
political offenders.
THE YAcrs.
The facts 90 far received are m follows
Nine. Higida did not commit suicide, rs
the earliest report stated. She died from
the effect Of cruel fogging to which. she
was subjected. The fogging took place
continued until under the brutal blows
the unhappy victim lost consciousness and
Law az ono dead The poor woman never
revived from the terrible shock, but con-
timed TO grow weaker and weaker until
Friday, when death came TO her relief.
pIsnAy.
The news OF her shocking official murder
produced widespread dismay and anguish
among her fellow-prisoners, and three OF
them. unable longer TO bear their wretcbed
fate, committed suicide by taking poison.
How they obtained the poison is not known,
but probably they had long had 1t in their
possession and were keeping 1t as last re-
sort. The names of the women were Marie
Kaluzhnaya, Marya Thadloyna karalef-.
sKaya, and Madezhda Smirntskaya, and
these facts are learned in regard TO them:
Marie Kaluzhnaya was arrested in 1884. be-
ing then girl of eighteen, on the charge
of disloyalty. Her father was merchant
at Odessa. During her Imprisonment every
means was tried in vain 10 extort IRON ner
a confession duplicating her friends, At
last Colonel Katauski. q .gendarme ofhcer.
brought TO her skilfully forged statement
purportiug 20 be o confession of her fellow
conspirators and promising Immunity II
she also confessed. Marie fell into
the trap, confessed. and her confes-
sion was used against her friends,
who were sentenced to penal servitude.
When she learned they had made. no con-
fession. but had been convicted on her
testimony alone she procured revolver
and on the DIST Of August called upon
Colonel Kalausky and fred at him, wound
ing him slightly in one ,ear. For tins at
tempted assassination she was tried by q
court martial on the 2lst Of September,
1884. and sentenced to twenty years penal
seryitude. Marya Pauiovna Karaefskaya
was a young married lady about thlrty-tve
wears of age, the daughter of awcll-known
landed proprietor in the south of Russia,
Paul Vorautsof, and sister of Basil Noraut-
sof, one of the best-known political econo-
mists in Russia.
THE SECRLT CIRCLE.
She Joined the Secret Circle. which was
surprised aud captured by the police in Feb
ruary, 1879, and was sentenced to thirteen
years. penal servitude, with exile to Siberia
for life and the deprivation of all her civil
rights. Her husband, though not present,
was sent by an administrative process
thousand miles from the mines to which
she was sent. The separation drove her In
sane and she was put in stralt-]acket;;
In 1881 she was allowed to join her husband
in the hope of restoring her TO reason.
She recovered, but the new Governor
separated them again and she was restored
to the Kara mines.
Nadeshda Smirnitskava was thirty-three
years old and student in the Woman's
College. She was 4 to the Kara mines
Shortly after the suicide Of the. three
women a brother Of Marie Kaluzhnaya,
also n political prisoner, died suddenly. 1t
is not definitely known as yet whether ne
died by poison or whether his death was
the result of over-powering grief on learn
ing of the death Of his sister.
Another exile named Bobokoy COM
mitted suicide rather than submit to the
cruel humiliation. Bobokov was uni
versity student and took part III some pub
lie demonstration Of the students which
was displeasing to the authorities. He was,
therefore, ordered TO make his abode at
Pingo. small village III the province OF
Archangel, the northernmost portion OF
European Russia. From there he attempt
ed to make his escape. and for this heinous
offence he was exiled to the mines Of East
ern Siberia.
THE rIoGGISG oRDRR.
The hogging Of Nine. Sigida occurred
under orders issued by Baron kOrH, the
Governor General of the province OF Ar
mour, in which the Kara prison is situated.
fHI 4 q. Il I,.44 nne
of March. 1888, signed BY Galkine Veraski,
director-gencral of the prisons for the en-
pire. should be unfinchingly enforced.
This edict was to the effect that DO
litical convicts should be treated by
the prison officials in precisely the
same manner as criminals condemned
for common-law offences. The politi-
cal prisoners were thus made liable
TO fogging for breaches of prison dis
cipline. In what particular way Nine.
Sigida had transgressed the prison rules
is not clearly explained; but fogging. a
sensitive and cultured woman TO death for
any lack Of conformity TO prison regula-
tions, Stepniak thought, would impress
the Western World with profound horror.
The political prisoners at Kara, Stepniak
said, had in some way learned that the .po-
litical exiles imprisoned at Sagahllen had
also been subjected to cruel fogging:
They were constantly in dread of
similar torture to that inflicted
upon Nine. Sigida. Stepniak was ask
ed whether no thought the Gar, in
view of tho fact that these exceptional
horrors at Kara had been made public,
would interfere to mitigate the severity of
prison discipline in the case of political
convicts. He replied that he thought it
not unlikely that the publication of facts
would force the superior officials of Rus
sia to take some notice of the affair. But,
he said, the tlogging and all other brutal
ties were entirely due to the direct orders
of the Central Government at st. Peters
burg-namely, the edict of March. 1888.
The Ministry of the Interior was. therefore.
corporal punishment ofpolitical prisoners,
which had been suspended in 1877, after
Tropoff ordered Bogoluboff to be logged.