The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-20

after other nihilist exiles followed him
until In 1882 there were over one hundred
male and ten females located on both
Karas. To-day their number is many hum
dreds.
They were all young and educated men
and women, who participated in the events
of l877-1881-the period of the greatest
activity of the Ninilists; period during
which thousands of lNihilists, like silent
shadows, momentarily appeared on the field
of battle with Russian despotism, cast their
lot and as suddenly disappeared mortally
remains free but my humble self and but
few are alive to be found in the wilderness
of Siberia.
Until 1882 the life of political exiles of the
two Karas was. comparatively speaking,
bearable, inasmuch as, like their neiRhbors
the criminal exiles, they had to work in the
nearby gold mines, which are the personal,
property of the Russian Gear. Hard as
their work was, it supplied the necessary
physical exercise so vital in the condi-
tion of men and women for years confined
in the narrow wards of prisons.
In 1882, Count Louis Melikoff became a
minister of the interior. He had the repu-
tation of man of liberal tendencies. and
great hopes were placed in him by all Rus
STA, not excepting the exiled Nihilists. The
first move of the new minister tended
only to strengthen his reputation; with
noise and much parading he released many
Nihilists from prisons of European Russia,
and issued orders effecting substantial inn
provements in the condition of Siberian ex-
lies. However, second secret series of
| orders was simultaneously dispatched to
| the governors of the various Siberian prov
inces, which directed them not to mind the
first orders. but, on the contrary, to tighten
| the moose on the throat of the ''politicals.' y
| To effect this, the governors were to abso-
lutely prohibit the exiIes all commnnlc ation
with the outside world, with their fathers
and mothers, wives and husbands; to forbid
their accepting any food. clothing and Other
helps from sources other than prison ad
ministration; to forbid them the use O
books and writing material; to abolish thei
labor in the mines, and to keep them for.
ever under lock.
Slow starvation stared in the face of tn,
politicals; for the prison food was unwhole
i some and insufficient. But let my friends
in Siberian political prisons speak fol
themselves:
Ousr KARA, Aug. %, 1886.
Nv Dear Friend: Since the order o
Louis Melikof began to be enforced on
situation Lecame actually. desperate, q
much so that Radin, our friend at Lowe
Kara, took his life bv poisoning, Simonof
sky followed him, and Mary Kovalsky be
came hoplessly demented. She i with ue
and the distortions of the face of our de
mented friend fairly bid as all to lose on
reason. The secret order, moreover, affsot
ed our situation in more than one way
left us without the aid of our friends an
relations, while the prison food is utterl
unwholesome and insufficient. Alread.
acute and chronic catarrh and scurvy ar
common to all of MS.
Our daily labors consist of cleaning tn
prison wards. scrubbing, washing, sewin
and cooking, and once each day we are IN
locked for half an hour. We GO to the pris
| onward and r,asaino hatW0An tynO lineR n
soldiers. we reach woodward. Here "
load ourselves with firewood and return T.
prison. The treatment accorded to us b
the prison officials is rough and insulting
From the commandment down to the wardel
and his assistantH-all the officials look 70
an excuse to strike blow c
to curse in way ca
not repeat. Four years am here confined
yet am unable to harden my nerves an
to get used to the abuse without the deer