The record-union., 1895-11-15
KOVALEV As A RUSSIAN NIHILlSP.
Arrested for Participating in an At
tack on the Car.
The Story Told by Nathan Baded of
San Francisco When the
Exiles Arrived.

Last evenings San Francisco Bulletin
published an article on Ivan kovalev.
the Russian now on trial here for MUIR
der, which, while it has no real bearing
on the case at issue, will be read with
some interest at this time.
The Bulletin states that Nathan Babed
of 546 Howard street. now absent from
the State, noticed that a nihillst was
among the Russian convicts brought TO
this coast by the whaling bark Cape
Horn Pigeon in 1898. and referring to the
matter of the escape of the prisoners, he
at that time said:
81 am a Russian, and am aware that
Russia is unjust, so L became interested
in the fate of the prisoners" And later
he said: 81 notice that the press is pub
fishing matter which endangers the lives
OF people who have been through much
danger for freedoms sake. 1t is partly
for that reason that [ decided 10 interview
the alleged convicts.
ION boarding the Cape Horn Pigeon
with two persons interested, / singled
out the nihiIist He would not speak
until l had given him the sign OF the
nihilistic order. He was an Intelligent
fellow, and he gave me his true story.
My name Ii Ivan kovOlioh. l am 26
years of age. l was born in the city of
Chark of, in the southern part OF Russia.
Colleges are few in Russia, and Charkoff
Is place that boasts of university.
lin 1888 when Gar Alexander Ill. was
on his way to Charkotf. his tran was
wrecked by nihilists bomb. The stu
dents of the city to the number of about
1000 engaged in a riot with the guards
Of the college, and 1, Kovoliotf. who was
an honest shoemaker, WAS one of the
crowd OF rioters. The police were called
out and many student was shot and
killed. The battle ragged fiercely and lhe
labOrers came 10 the assistance OF the
students. Wholesale arrests were made.
l was one OF the men taken into Gus
tOdy.'"
The Russian was taken to prison, and
for three years occupied cell in one OF
the city bastiies. In August, 1891, he was
transferred to the steamship Odessa. and
with scores of manacled men, women and
| children, was sent away to Saghalein
Island, there to serve life sentence.
Babed here stated that the Gar God''
of Saghalen at that time was man
named Levin, brute of wide reputation.
In concluding his statement in the
presence of the officers OF the Cape Horn
Pigeon and the Interpreter, kovoliofi
said that he hoped to find protection III
America. and that he would commit sui
eide before he returned TO Russia.
1t seems strange coincidence, says the
Bulletin, that the name of one OF the
principal witnesses against the Nihilist is
a man named Levin. and it is stranger
still that during the voyage from the
north the man who now stands accused
of the Weber murder refused to have
anything to do with the men with whom
he is now charged with consorting. lie
held aloof from the Russian Jews and the
other refugees, and told Babed that he
considered them dirty lot of scoundrels
unit to associate with.
Altogether, considering the testimony
of the past with the story of the present,
the narrative OF Ivan kOvalev, or kovoli-
of, is a most remarkable one.