Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1903-02-20
RUSSIA MAKES NlHlClSTS.
Brutality of an Employer Followed
by Tyranny In the Courts.

The Arbeiter Zeitung, published in
Vienna, gives full reports of the trials
Of several hundred Russian peasants
at NijEi-Novgorod, Saratoff and Sor-
movo for participation in the political
riots which took place in the early
spring of last year, from which, it ap-
pears, that the proceedings were lively
and at times dramatic.
At Min ni-Novgorod 440 peasants were
tried before special tribunal be-
hind closed doors. The charge against
tive part in demonstrations at which
shouts of Down with the czarr'
Down with absolutismr' "Hurrah for
political freedomw were heard, at
which revolutionary songs were sung
and at which seditious speeches were
delivered.
When called on to answer to the
charge, the ringleader Bikoff, said:
Il have known nothing but poverty
and misery all my life. 1 was hardly
twelve years old when | first felt the
sting of Cossack knouts. l was then
employed in a factory at Lodz at a
wage of siXpence a week. When the
men, who We're also paid the same
scale, asked for higher wages, the pro-
prietor told the authorities that his
men were all revolutionists and asked
for military aid to keep them in order.
"Fifteen hundred Cossacks were i'm
mediately sent. The proprietor made
them drunk and then turned them
loose among the workmen on his prem
iseS. The result was too awful for the
human mind to imagine. | myself saw
young girls eyes poked out of their
sockets. | was wounded and suffered
from the effects of the injury for
years afterward. That was my first
experience of the benevolent govern
ment of the czar, and since then have
had only too many more of the same
kind"
Another Of the accused, named Sam
lin, said that he had been sentenced to
fifteen months solitary confinement
for organizing a society for the study
of Russian literature to two years
hard labor for having five books on
socialism in his possession and to three
years hard labor on the mere suspicion
of having sympathized with revolh-
tionary agitation carried on in his Gfs-
trict. He said that the injustice that
lie had experienced had made him so
desperate that he felt himself to be an
enemy of Il government that tolerated
such atrocities being practiced in its
name.
A. 20 tnH snlinSnI
fense declared that they fully sympa-
thized with the political views of the
accused. One of them declared that
the government would do better to
erect schools than scaffolds, and an
other said that chance alone had pre-
vented him from being in the dock by
the side of the prisoners. The presid-
ing Judge sentenced six lawyers to six
months solitary confinement for con-
tempt of court committed by utter
ances of this kind.
One of the accused, Ochanina, made
long speech in defense of his position,
saying:
IN Russia nine-tenths of the people
are slowly starving, yet the govern
ment has no better remedy than to
shoot down workmen and students by
the hundred
At the climax of his speech Ochanina
was overpowered by his feelings and
fell back in a dead faint
Another prisoner, named Jefiimoff,
shouted at the top of his voice:
81 despise you all. Do with me what
you like. / am past caring what be-
comes of me, thanks to your system of
miSrule."
The presiding judge ordered Jetlimoff
to be removed, and he was dragged out
Of court struggling and shouting:
"Mr. President, you are nothing but
the cars flunky.'
Sentences varying from lifelong eX-
lie in Siberia to two years hard labor
were passed None of the accused was
acquitted Those banished to Siberia
included nearly n hundred women and
several youths under eighteen years of
age.
A report of the trial containing the
utterances of the prisoners and their
advocates has been circulated through
cut Russia by the socialist party, and
it has produced a great impression on
thousands of readers.