Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-02-20
The czAR.s cAuLpRoN.
The Murder OF Mime. SIhlda-SIberian
Prisoners Driven Frantic

OOOAsC hCHudHs In6 Co1oDrdVoO ClOeElaQ
traveller, the London agent of the Asso-
ciated Press called on Sergius Stepniak,
the well known writer upon Russian
political and social conditions, and asked
him whether he could give any informa-
ton in regard to the outrages in the po-
htical prison at Kara in Eastern Siberia,
rumors of which had recently reached
the public press by way of the Russian
colony in Paris.
Mr.. Stepniak replied that the reports
already published gave only hint of
the horrible tragedy enacted at Kara.
Perfectly trustworthy information, he
said, had been received in cipher letters
that have succeeded in getting to Paris
and London from exileS in Eastern ST.
IBERIA. These letters. which were moth
ing but meager scraps of paper. told the
story OF the recent horror only in its
main outlines, but one who knew about
the Siberian prison life did not need
circumstantial recital to understand the
cruelty of discipline and the agony of
suffering of which this horror was the
elimination.
According to the latest information
Madame Sihida did not commit suicide,
as the earliest reports stated. She died
from the effect of cruel fogging to
which she was subjected. The flogging
took place on Wednesday, November 6.
1t was continued till under the brutal
blows the unhappy victim lostconscious-
ness and lay as one dead. The poor
woman never revived from the terrible
shock, but continued to grow weaker
and weaker until Friday, when death
came to her relief. The news of
her shocking official murder produced
widespread dismay among her fellow
prisoners and three of them, unable to
longer bear their wretched fate, COM
mitted suicide by taking poison. How
they obtained the poison is not known,
but probably they had long had it in their
possession and were keeping it as last
resort. The names of the women were
Marie Kaluzhnaya, Maria Paoloona
Karalefskaya and Nadezhda Smirnit-
skaya.
Marie Kaluzhnaya was arrested in
1884, being then girl of eighteen, on
charge of disloyalty. Her father was
merchant at Odessa. During her i'm
prisonment every means was tried in
vain to extort from her a confession i'm
plicating her friends. At last Colonel
Katanski, a gendarme officer, brought
to her a skillfully forged statement
purpOrting to be the confession of her
fellow conspirators and promising i'm
munity if she also confessed. Marie
fell into the trap, confessed and her con-
fession was used against her friends, who
were sentenced to penal servitude.
When she learned that they had made
no confession, but had been convicted on
her testimony alone, she procured re-
volver, and on August 81, called on Col
onel Katanski and fired at kim, wound
ing him slightly in one ear For this
attempted assassination she was con-
demned by court martial at Odessa Sep
tember 10, 1884, and sentenced to twenty
years penal servitude.
Maria Paoloona Karalefskaya was a
married lady, about thirty-five years of
age, daughter of a well known landed
proprietor in the south of Russia, Paul
Yoroutsof, and sister of Basil Voroutsof,
one of the best known political econ
omists in Russia. She Joined a secret
circle which was surprised and captured
by the police in February, 1879, and
sentenced to thirteen years. penal
servitude, with exile to Siberia
for life and deprivation of all civil
rights. Her husband, though not pres
ent, was sent by administrative process
!, 900 miles from the mines to which she
was sent. The separation drove her
insane and she was put in straight
jacket. In 1881 she was allowed to join
her husband in the hope of restoring
her reason. She recovered, but new
Governor separated them again and she
was returned to the Kara mines.
Nadezhda Smirnitskaya was thirty
three years old and student in a
woman's college. She was sent to the
Kara mines for fifteen years with penal
servitude.
Shortly after the suicide of the three
women brother of Marie Kaluzhnaya,
also political prisoner, died suddenly.
1t is not definitely known as yet wheth-
er he, too, died by poison, or whether
his death was the result of overpower-
ing grief on learning of the death of
his sister.
Another exile named Bobokov COM
mitted suicide rather than submit to the
cruel humiliation and suffering of fog
ying. Bobokov was a university stu
dent and took part in some public !
demonstrations of the students which !
was displeasing to the authorities. He |
was thereupon ordered to make his |
abode at Pirtega, small village in the
province of Archangel, the northernmost |
Of European Russia. From there he at |
tempted to make his escape and for this
offense he was exiled to the mines of /
Eastern Siberia.
The fiogging of Nine. Sihida occurred
1nder orders issued by Lieutenant-Gen-
eral Baron Kosff, the Governor-General
If the province of the Amour, in which
he Kara prison is situated. These or
lers directed that the secret edict of
March, 1888, signed By Galkine Vraski,
of the prisons for the
Empire, should be unflinchingly inforced.
This edict was to the effect that the po-
itical convicts should be treated by pris-
IN officials in precisely the same manner
Is criminals condemned for common law
,ffenses. Political prisoners were thus
made liable to fiogging for breaches of
prison discipline.