Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-13
MURDERED WITHOUT CAUSE.
Russian Exiles RuthleSsly Shot Down
by the Government Troops.
Men and Women Find No Mercy at the
Hands of the COssacks.
Letters to Geo. KEENAN,, the Lecturer,
Expose the Foul Crime.

CHICAGO, Feb. George KEENAN,, now
lecturing here on Siberia, to-day gave to
the press resume of a voluminous CORES
pondence lately received by him, relating
to the massacre of Russian administrative
exiles at Yakutsk on April 3, last, the oc-
currence of which has been hitherto strenu-
ously denied by the Russian government.
One of these letters, written by a survivor
of the affair. is sixty-one pages in length,
and sets forth with great exactness of de-
tail, every particular of the massacre and
the events leading up to and Immediately
preceding and succeeding it.
Mr.. KEENAN, S correspondents agree that
the former government of the province of
Yakutsk, Gen. Svetletski, had done all in
his power to see that the exiles in his
charge were forwarded as comfortably as
being promoted to the government of the
province of Irkutsk, his successor, Gen.
Ostaskin, who assumed the Office Temporal
rily in March last gave great dissatisfac-
ton to the eXiles by the announcement of
certain cruel and arbitrary rules.
Under the Russian penal code it is a
unite in petition for a redress of griev
separate petition and presented it at the
Office of the provincial administration
They were directed to assemble in the
house of one of the exiles, and when there
were told that the government regarded
their individual petitions as merely an eva
sion of the law and their action equivalent
to open rebellion.
AT 10 o'clock the next day, writes one
IL IL Jf,,I
affair, I'VE met again in Notkin's house
to the number of thirty-three. At half
past ten the police overseer, Olesof,
brought verbal order that
all exiles present were to come to the
police station. We thought that there
must be a misunderstanding, as we were
waiting by the orders of the chief of police.
Olesof turned on his heel, saying, Then,
understand you won't come. We said
no such thing, but they wanted to know
from the chief of police what he expected
them to do.
A company of Cossacks, numbering over
100 men, under command of an officer
named Karamzin, then appeared, battered
down the gates of the court yard and fifteen
or twenty of them entered the house, while
the others surrounded it. The offices who
entered with the soldiers were Chief of
Police Souchakef, Captain Vashef, the
local commander of the whole Cossack
force in the town, and Olesof, the police
overseer. Karamzin, in command of the
company, also entered and told us that he
had the governors orders to take us to the
police station We tried to explain our
side of the case, and said we had not as
sembled there for any other purpose than
to receive the governor S reply; but that
we would go to the police station only
asking that Karamzin withdraw his troops.
The chief of the police then said to Ka-
ramzin: ''What is the use of your talking
with them. Do what you were ordered
to-" Karamzin then cried out to the Cos
sacks, Take them
eve were assembled in a room about
twenty feet square, and had gathered in
one corner, from which position the Cos
sacks endeayored to GUST US by striking US
with their dubbed rifles and pricking us
with their bayonets. Cartridges had
been served to the soldiers the night be-
fore, and they fired point blank into the
miscellaneous crowd of men and women.
Five of the exiles had revolvers which
they had brought as means of protection
on their journey, and not for the purpose
of resisting the authorizes, Nicolai Zotof
drew his revolver, sprang upon the divan,
and shouted stop! stop!
''The firing then became general on
both sides. After one or two volleys the
soldiers withdrew from the house, and the
whole Cossack force outside then poured
in their fire through the doors and win
dows. Schur, one of our number, rushed
into the court yard crying, eve sur
render, but was shot dead short dis
lance from the steps. Podbelski, who
heard the firing, and ran to the house to
see what the matter was was shot dead by
the courtyard gate. He was not impli-
Gated in the affair in any way, and was
within two months of the termination of
his exile. Joseph Estrovitch, already
wounded, rushed into the court yard, fell
and was repeatedly bayoneted as he lay
on the ground.
GAS result of this affray, six of US,
including one woman, were killed out
right. This woman's stomach was all
torn open by a bayonet and all the rest of
us We're more or less injured.
cat the first lull in the firing upon the
house Zotof ran out into the courtyard
1t does not appear for what purpose
There he saw Gov. Ostasekin, who had ar
rived. and whom he doubtless believed to
be responsible for the killing of his
friends. He drew his revolver and fired
two shots at him. But for this there
might have been no more shooting. 70
tof, however, wounded the governor, and
the soldiers recommended firing into the
house. After two or more volleys this
firing was stopped by Capt. Vazhef."
The government casualties were one
soldier killed and the governor and SOL
der slightly wounded. The exiles killed
were Sergius Pix, Sophie Gurevith PAM
Potbelski, Peter Mukhanof, Gregory
Shura and Jacob Notkin Twelve others
were severely wounded
Three months later the survivors were
tried by court martial on the charge of
armed resistance. Three of the prisoners
were hanged Kohan Boinstein, who had
been severely wounded, and was unable to
stand. was taken to the scaffold on a cot
from the hospital, the moose put around
his neck, and the cot taken from under
him. He was choked to death. Fourteen
others were sent to the mines for different
terms ranging from ten to fifteen
years.
Il consider that this information receiv-
ed from Russia" said Mr.. Kennan in con-
clusion, 80 minute and circumstantial In
every detail, and knowing the reliability
of its source, to be a complete and conclu-
sive answer to the recent strenuous denials
of the Russian government which were
published in the New York Tribune about
two weeks ago.
Mr. VIM. Tallet, the president of the
great Howard association of England,
says that every effort will be made to
bring this matter before the international
Prison CONGRESS. which will meet in St