The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-08
TOOK What
THEY LIKED.
Starving Russian Peasants
SWOOp Down on Mobiles.
Demanded Keys of Barns, Gran
aries and Pantries.
TOTED OFF CONTENTS.
When Refused Admission They
Broke Down Doors.
When Opposed They Burned and
Destroyed.
TOTED OFF CONTENTS.

London, May S-The ST. Petersburg
correspondent of the Associated Press,
after a personal investigation of the sit
uation in Southern Russia, writes from
Moscow, under date of Saturday, May B.
as follows:
Con parative order has been restored
in the governments of Poltava and
kharkon but the peasants are only out
wardly quiescent, believing thatthe grant
of a division of the lands of nOblemen
will be effected during the coming au-
tumn. leaving the hardy land owners
only 20 acres and a yoke of oxen each.
Authentic particulars of the dlsor-
ders prevailing during the last three
weeks show they were largely due to
extreme suffering from famine, which
was utilized by agitators to Torment
rising. The peasants were not the only
believers in the issue of an imperial
ukase permitting a division of the pro-
perty OF the nobility, and a charitable
distribution of potatoes by the steward
of the Duke of Mecklenburg'S estate at
Kharloffka tended to confirm this be-
lief. The people of the whole country
side, often led by the village magnates,
streamed to the KharlOffka and other
estates, afOOt on horseback and in wa
CONS, demanded the keys of the pantries,
granaries and barns and carried off
their contents Rich COsSackS suffered
equally with the nOblemen. When land
owners refused to deliver up the keys,
the peasants broke down the doors, qui-
city seized foodstuffs and returned
home. even well-to-do peasants sharing
in the plumber.
when unopposed the peasants con-
tented themselves with supplying their
immediate needs, but when baked they
burned and destroyed, carried off live
stock and desolated estates. Most of
the difficulties occurred where the in
habitants of the villages were already
on strained footing with the neigh
boring landowners. Violence is report
ed from twelve to fifteen villages, while
three estates have been devastated in
the KharkoR government and 4S
in the Poltava government. To add to
the general CONSERVATION, 200 COsSackS
arrived at Poltava after the regular
military forces had restored order The
three cases, and in one instance the
peasants attacked the troops with
stones, whereupOn the latter fired, kill
ing several persons and Wounding q
score, among whom were women and
children. Corporal punishment was
administered right and left without
much inquiry into their guilt.
There was q similar occurrence at
KharkOn, whose governor general,
Prince Obolensky, was particularly Sc
we're
Gen. Eugene Neutrality-suspicious.
hOvsky was among the sufferers His
estate at Mechek was ruined and he
himself was seized and beaten. He is
still i'll from the effects of the treatment
| he received.
LAS an example of the extent to
which the ranks of the famine-stricken
| villagers are swollen by the return of
unemployed factory workers, it is point
ed out that one iron works which here
tofore employed 1000 to 10000 people is
now employing only 5000 for three days
| a week"