, 1890-05-15
EXILED TO THE ARCTIC ZONE.
fstepnIak, in tho New IlevIew.

many soils and many towns, which
are all places of punishment fol
those whom the master of all the
Russians and comnan der of mill
ions of soldiers deems dangerous te
his power. George l<ennnn hm
described TO the indignant world
our exile system us n whole. | will
now retrace his steps In speaking Of
that national calamity of ours. My
object Is to say u few " lords abou,
the exile into the far North not Wis
tied by kennan, where the, cxiles
have TO undergo not merely com
plete intellectual isolation, but
series of most cruel physical and
material suflerlngs, which make
that form of arbitrary punish.
ment lust rs heavy rs, II not heavier.
/ than the hard labor In the mines,
| Let me tell the reader the story OF
one of the early settlers In that In.
| hospitable region, "a certain Zalcss.
| ky, IL land surveyor In the province
of lSursk. In 1877 he was arrested
few socialist pamph lets, and ex.
D lltAl WITHOUT llHtl w ' VI hO- i AllNL.
/ u village In latitude 81 degrees, "a
minutes, numbering 300 inhabitants,
wretchedly poor and completely saw.
age. In that awful place, where he
was at that time the only educated
man, Ialcssky remained full eight
/ years without II book, without
u newspaper, without n letter,
suffering from the terrible Arctic
cold, from hunger and want. II
was not the cruelty of the geudurne,
which inflicted so dire punish.
ment for so triiling an oiiensc; we
will not bring against our enemies
any uuwurranted charge. Xalcssky
WAS simply forgotten 10y them.
When, 10y mere accident, his ex.
istcnce was discovered, an order was
sent 10 Siberia to bring him back to
his native country. As lac had 10
money To make the Journey at his
own expense, he had TO travel right
across siberia ON foot, under escort
with batch of vugabonds sent to
their native villages In European
Russia
IL took him n year to come TO the
! Moscow central prison, which he
reached in 1885; thcu he was metbs
II number of political eNllcs on their
/ way to siberia. One Of them, who
escaped aiterward, told mo that the
Appearance of Ialessky was that Of
Il mnu who spent twenty years In
/ gloomy dungeon. Though under
40, he looked like an old decrepil
man, with bent and shattered body,
blinking, almost sightless eyes, and
toothlc-s mouth. II IN not only the
climate which works such havoc
upon q mans frame, bat the life Of
utter misery aud isolation. When.
ever un exile IL sent to n new place,
where lac Is qultc alone,
his fate Is always extremely
hard. Here Il another ex.
ample of more recent date. In lS4
jordan, a student of the khnrkoh
veterinary schools, was arrested tor
having taken part In the printing
OF the pamphlets Of the peaceful
sOcialists-thosc who were against
political terrorism. After IA year OF
imprisonment, namely, In 1855, he
was eNiled without trial 20 Ncrko-
Lensk mot Ncrko- iansk), n town
In Southern siberia. On reaching
this place hc wrote To his friends at
kharkuii, asking them to send him
at his own address nll the new
things issued by the secret press,
saying that the local police superiRI
tendent was good man who
l did not open the letters of the
l eNilcS. This letter wns intercepted
l by the khnrkoh police, and Jordan
was sent OF to the Arctic zone 10
/ Nilusk, lat, G3 deg. A. min, whee
he had To live quite alone among
the savage Hakut. The suilerings
and prlvatlons he underwent were
so great that lac died there in 1855.
When the number Of oNiles in
cteases they mutually help each
other morally aud materially so as
to make life more tolcmblc even In
such places cursed by nature ~
Nerko- iansk, Sredne- Kolyni-k and
Nllusk. Still, the suflerings and
privations to which they are sub
iccted are extremely severe. These
are non-inhabitahle places for
Europeans ut all oventA
Nova Tembla, which Is visited by
men only during the summer
months, has much mlder climate
than tho Arctic region of Siberia.
In the former the average temper
D
rcnhoit, with : degrees below zero
for the three winter months, willis. I
In Ncrho- Iansk the average both iof|
the winter and autumn months !
81 degrpcs Fahrenheit below Zcr, I
the average temperature for the
three months of eternal night,
December, January and February,
sinking To 63 degrees Fahrcnheit
below zero, which is full 10 degree
below the freezing point ofmercury.
As To the average temperature for
the year IL is only degree k'ahrcn-
helt above zcru, the lowest temper
ature that has been observed at any
point OF the northern hemisphere.
During the short summer the tcm.
pcratnrc rises, rapidly reaching -
degrees +. But with tho warm
season come the mGsquitoes, which
are n plague of thep regions more
dlihcut To endure than cold. ~
never would have bulicvcd,r says
the correspondent of the Russky
Nedolnosty (Moscow), who hns been
eNiied to these parts, "that the In.
sects should appear In such swnrms
They literally darkJIod the light,
illling the air with an iuccssant
noise, covering, as with u black
mantle, our horses, whose ilauks
were soon bleeding all over. Mad
dencd with pain, the horses
kicked and reared, but seeing that
all wns unovaillng, they droopod
their heads and submitted 10
the inevitable. In vain we tried to