Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-02-28
SIBERIAN ATROCITIES.
DETAILS OF WOMAN BEATING THAT
id IN EAT

An Official Act for the Sake of Enforcing
Authority and as an ~I1xalmple-A Story
That Makes tho Blood Boil-Othcr News
of Good and Ill.
Sergius Stepniak, the well-known writer
upon Russian political and social condi-
lions. when asked whether he could give
any information in regard to the political
outrage at Kara, in eastern Siberia, re-
piled that the reports already published
gave only a hint of the horrible tragedy
enacted at Kara. Perfectly trustworthy in
formation, he said, had been received in
! cipher letters that tell the story only in its
main outlines. The full details of the
dreadful story cannot be long now in reach
ing the western world.
The facts SO far received are as fol-
lows: Madame Sagida did not COM
NIT suicide, as the earliest reports
stated. She died from the effects of
the cruel iogging to which she was
subjected. The fogging took place
Wednesday, Nov. G. 1t was continued till
under the brutal blows the unhappy victim
lost consciousness. The news of her
shocking murder produced widespread dis
may and anguish among her female fellow
prisoners, and three of them, unable longer
to bear their wretched fate, committed sui
eide by poison. Their names were Marie
Kaluzhnaya, Marie Paoloona Karaleskaya
and Nedezhda Smirnitskaya. Marie Kali
uzhnaya was arrested in 1884, then q girl
of Is, on the charge of d%isloyalty. Every
means tried to extort a confession lmpli-
eating her friends were futile until Col.
Katanski brought her a forged statement
purporting to be the confession of her
fellow conspirators and promising immu-
nifty. Marie fell into the trap and con-
fessed and her confession was used against
her friends, who were sentenced to penal
servltude. When she learned of the de-
ceptlon she procured a revolver and tried
to kill Katanski. For this she was SEN
fenced to twenty years of penal servitude.
Marie Paoloona Karaleskaya was a
young married lady about IS years of age
ana of a good family. In 1871 she was
sentenced to thirteen years penal servi-
tude, with exile to Siberia for life, for be-
longing to the secret circle. Her husband
was sent 1000 miles from the mines to
which she was sent. The separation drove
her insane, and in 1881 she was allowed to
join her husband in the hope of restoring
her reason. She recovered, but q new gov
ernor separated them again and she was
returned to the Kara mines. Nedezhda
Smirnitskaya was SO years old and a stu
dent in q womaa's college. She was SEN
fenced to the Kara mines for fifteen years
of penal servitnde.
Shortly after the suicide of the three
women O brother of Marie Ku%luzhuaya.
also a political prisoner, died suddenly.
Another exile named Kakokor committed
suicide rather than submit to the cruel hu-
initiation and suffering of fiogging.
The fogging of Madame Sagida occurred
under orders issued by Lieut. Gen. Banon
Korff, governor general Of the province of
Amour, in which Kara prison is situated.
These orders directed thai the secret
edict of March, 1888, signed by Galkinev.
raski, director-general Of prisons for the
empire, should be u%ntlinchingly enforced.
This edict was to the effect that political
convicts should be treated by prison Off
Gals in precisely the same manner as
criminals condemned for common law
ofenses. In what particular way MADAME
Sagida transgressed the prison rules is not
clearly explained, but fogging q sensitive
and cultured woman to death for any lack
OF conformity to prison regulations, Step
MAX thought, would impress the western
world with a profound horror.
The political prisoners at Kara, Stepniak
said, had in some way learned that politi-
cal exiles imprisoned at Seghalied had also
beer subjected to cruel aoggings. They
were constantly in dread of similar torture
to that inflicted upon Madame sagida.
Stepniak thought it not unlikely that the
publication of the facts would force the
superior officials OF Russia to take some
notice of the affair, but iogging and all
other brutalities were entirely due to the
direct orders OF the central government at
st. Petersburg.