Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-03-12
BARBAROUS SLAUGHTER.

northumberland Particulars of the Re-
cent Massacre of Russian Exiles.
George KEENAN,, of Siberian fame, has
received a letter from a Siberian exile
which was covered with postmarks and
addresses, and which had evidently
travelled circuitous route to reach him.
1t comprised eighty-six pages of micro
scopic chirography, only part of which
he has yet deciphered, but enough to
prove to his satisfaction that the rumored
massacre of exiles by Russian soldiers
at Yakutsk is an indisputable fact.
They had arrived at Yakutsk and were
preparing for the last and most terrible
stage of their journey. Time and GER
tain amount of official clemency had,
however, softened the rigors of the way
in some degree, when suddenly decree
of the new Vice-Governor, Ostashine,
was issued, increasing the difficulties
and the hardships of the journey to an
intolerable extent. The essence of the
decree was that it made it almost i'm
possible for the exiles to buy beforehand
sufficient provisions and comfort for the
journey, in the course of which no inns
with, nor any means of replenishing the
travellers store. Consequently, the ex-
lies sent a joint petition requesting the
Vice-Governor to return to the old sys-
tenn. But, in order to present their pc
tition, the exiles had been in a body to
the provincial administration, and this
alarmed the Vice-Governor, who ordered
them to repair next day to the house of
M. NOtkine, brother exile, where they
would receive their answer. Then
followed the almost incredible part
of the story. An officer of police, one
Olessoff, went to Notkine's house and
babe the exiles follow him to the ad-
ministration. They cried out that that
was what they had been forbidden to
40; on which he departed in a rage, to
return in few minutes with detach-
ment of some seventy soldiers and po-
lice. As though expecting resistance,
the soldiers broke down the door, sur
rounded the house and roughly ordered
the prisoners to go with them to the po-
lice bureau. When the exi1es protested
that they would go of their own free
will, the soldiers struck them with the
butt end of their rifles. What followed
is somewhat obscure; but from one side
or the other some shots were fired. 1t
is possible that these may have come
from the exiles, many of whom, when
in these parts of Siberia, are allowed to
carry revolvers as a protection against
wolves. At all events, the first dis
charge was the signal for fearful re-
prisals. Many of the exiles were shot
down. Sophie Gourewitz was ''ripped
open" by bayonets. The commandant,
Vageff, tried to stop the massacre, but
the Vice-Governor, coming up at the
time, fired twice at one of the exiles,
and the soldiers, encouraged by this ex-
ample, went on with their bloody work.
The exile Rotoff, wounded by this man,
returned his shot and wounded the Vice
Governor. In the end, when the mas
sacre ceased, it was found that six ex-
lies had been killed and nine wounded;
that one policeman had been killed and
three officials wounded. More, how
ever, was to follow. Not satisfied with
the butchery the higher authorities de-
termined that something more must be
done to vindicate themselves. Osta-
shine, whose wound seems to have in
furiated him, demanded a court-martial,
on the ground that the presentation of
thirty petitions at one time constituted
an act of insurrection; and the Governor
of Eastern Siberia, General Ignatieff,
brother of the famous dfplomatist, or
dered the court-martial to be held. It
was asserted and sworn that several of
the prisoners had resisted the authori-
ties: that some of them had fired, and
that was enough. The court, presided
over by a sub-lieutenant, found every
body, except one person, guilty Three
were sentenced to death and many 9TH
ers to long terms of penal servitude.
The three men were hanged soon after
ward, one Of Bernstein-wh
had been wounded by four bullets, be-
ing carried to the gallows in his bed
n. Y. Cor. st. Louis Globe-Democrat.