The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-07-26
PRISON HELLS OF SIBERIA
Two Letters Just Received by Leo
Hartman from Exiles In Siberia.
New Light on Prison Outrages-The Long
Road Across Siberia-A Letter from
the Prison In Oust-K Kara and One
from Verhollensk.
fcoPyRIGHT, 1880, !

II is my pleasure to supply the do
mand for information regarding Siberian
prisons by placing before my readers
two letters. written by women exilcd in
Siberia, which recently received.
These letters present timely addition
to what became recently known con-
corning Siberia and an interest the
greater, in that. TO my belief, they are
the only ones OF the kind that ever
reached America.
They will argue with the readers the
subject OF Russian Nihilism and I'm
perial despotism in way and with an
impartiality of which am not capable;
for, while /, as an Interested party.
might not be absolutely impartial, as l
might view the facts in light to suit
the interests OF Nihilists, of whom
am one; yet the letters from Siberia
do not place their authors at such dis
advantage. They were written to the
friends and relatives Of the exiled
women and with tenor that leaves no
doubt in their genuineness and sim
certify.
One is written in Oust-Kara political
Prison" and its author, lady twenty
two years old, condemned to ten
years at hard labor in the gold mines Of
that locality, judiciously left her name
unsigned. II was we'll she did so, for,
had her lie tier been intercepted by the
Government of the Gar and her identity
established. she would have been hung.
The other letter bears the date OF
Verholiensl, settlement on the river
Lena, in Eastern Siberia. Its author,
also a woman, and but three years older
than her fellow sufferer, is undergoing
a sentence of twenty years at hard labor.
She signed it with a fictitious name Of
V. AleXandrova, by which she is known
only to her friends
Eastward from st. Petersburg for near
" five thousand miles the great Siberia
highway runs across the boundless
prairies of European and Asiatic Rus
STA, to the lake of Baikal on the
Western border of the Transbaikal
province of Siberia; and only one COM
paratively insignificant range Of Ural
mountains-the dividing line between
Europe and Asia-disturbs the level of
the vast domain of the Car. This is the
road by which the exiled Nihilists are
conveyed under heavy guard to their
destination in the province Of Trans
baikal.
1t takes them two and often three
years to reach the city oS Lakontik,
the capital of the province. Likewise,
1T takes two, three, and even more
years for a letter of Nihilist located
in the province to reach Europe; for
the safety of the exiles and their
friends and relations demand that they
should be forwarded not by mail, in
which case they are exposed to the
scrutiny of the unscrupulous Prussian
off Gals, but through unofficial chan
nels, which, although slow, present
greater safety. Such was the way the
letters came to me. On their way they
changed many hands before they could
be intrusted to the safe hands of the
British and United States mail. They
travelled for over three years, as the
date upon thcm-August %, 1856
proves: and yet they possess the fresh
ness of the latest news. The readers
will undoubtedly remember that all the
recent cable news of which spoke be-
fore. pertained to events in Siberia
which occurred also three years ago.