The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-29
.EXILES OF SIBERIA.
Another Story of Russian Cruelty
and Barbarism.
A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG PRINCESS
Is Shot Down by the Guards in SURPRISING q
'RebelliOn"-The Crime OF Her Danish
ment is Unknown.

New York, Aug. 2S.-Six weeks ago
there came short cable dispatch from
Berlin, giving the news that further hor-
ror had been perpetrated on Russian exiles
in Siberia, that number of so-called .'po-
litical unfortunates'' had been slain by
guards near the town of Tiumen, in west
ern Siberia. There have been so many full
dispatches about Russian crueIties, es-
pecially of the logging of Nine Sihida, at
Kara. that the few lines abo ut the Tinmen
affair attracted little attention, but details
have now been received in this city that
bring its horrors fully up to these perpe-
trated in the extreme northern Siberian
capital.
A Russian, Alexander Kwiatkoweski, ar
rived here Monday direct from st. Peters,
burg and brought with him the first ac-
count of the Human tragedy He had
gained his news almost at first hand from
relative of one OF the victims, the beautiful
young Princess Elene Oginska, eighteen
Yeas OF age. From Prince Adam Oginska,
M. Kwiatkoweski learned the following
details.
The story begins with the exiles, hun
dred in number, who left Ekaterinburg
| about the end of May. They had been
| transported with steamer load of exile
| politicians and criminals from Mini Nov
| gorod to Perm, living n iron cages ON deck,
and were then sent by railroad across the
Ural mountains, twelve hours journey, to
Ekaterinburg, where the real horrors OF
| the Siberian journey began. From that
point the exiles had to go on foot all the
way to Turnein, distance of nearly five
hundred miles, where cage stermer would
| be IN readiness to transport them via the
| Gecessei and the Obi, to Tonesk where an
other thousand miles would have to be
trodden by the weary exlles until Takutsk
was reached.
| According to Count Adam Oginska's ac-
count, as told to M. Kwiatkoweski, the
journey from Ekaterinburg to Tiumen was
one of indescribable hardship The heat
| during the day was intense, and for fifteen
days the exiles were compelled to walk
under burning sun along roads half foot
deep in dust. They usually made from
twenty to twenty-five. and sometimes
thirty miles a day, resting in the road
prisons at night, which line the great
Siberian post road straight across the con-
tinent from the Urals to the Baikai, and
| then further to the Pacific ocean.
From letters received by the prince, the
sufferings of the frail and beautiful Prin-
cess Elene were intense, arousing even the
sympathy of the Cossack guard at times.
She was the youngest oil the group, but
much as she suffered herself she was never
heard to complain. All her companions
were in similar pitiable condition of ex-
haustion from the dreary journey. Their
feet were swollen to such an extent that
some of them sat down by the roadside and
declared il was utterly impossible for them
to move another step, and asked permission
to ride in the wagons that always accom-
/ pany an escort of exiles for the purpose Of
transporting the sick and women unable to
walk. They appealed to the guard in vain,
however. As an answer. they were cruelty
beaten by the soldiers with their guns and
ordered to get up and march on. These
tscenes happened frequently on the journey.
At last, when within only few stations Of
Turnien, the small band of eXiles, driven
to despair, turned fiercely upon the guards
and began 4 fight for freedom. 1t was a
very unequal fight for the soldiers who
made the Journey with loaded rifles imme-
diately began firing on the crowd. The
result was Shorrifying. The first victim
was the beautiful young princess herself.
Her head was pierced by bullet and she
, | fell dead without uttering a word. Still
the soldiers kept up firing and out
of the small band of one hundred political
, exiles who left E6atrinburg twenty were
, shot dead and twelve wounded, as nearly all
/ the exiles in the group participated in the
s'rebellion" to a greater or less degree. 1t is
+ feared that the remainder will be severely
punished if not hanged. M. Kwiatkowsk
j says the case of the Princess Oginska has
= been followed with deep interest in the
. Russian colonies in Geneva, Paris, London
= and here She belonged to an old ano
honorable Lithuanian family, several
: members of which spend the winter season
+ in st. Petersburg. How she came init
= trouble originally is not clearly known
f She was probably connected in some way
with societies in St. Petersburg for bring
r ing about political reforms. That M
Kwiatkowski's story is based on facts car
! scarcely be doubted. The news of suci
! horrors can only get out of Siberia b.
: private letters which happen to escape th'
argus eyes of the postoffice officials in Rus
STA 1t is still secret how the news Of the
Takutsk massacre reached Switzerland.