Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-02-14
RUSSIA MAKES NlHILISTS.
Brutality OF mn EmpIoyer@FoIloH
~ by Tyranny In the Courts 5E$sss

RUSSlA#MAk NlHlLISTS.
Brutality OF nm Employees Followed
.=s by Tyranny In the Courts.
The Arbeiter Zeitung, published iii
Vienna, gives full reports Of the trials
Of several hundred Russian peasants:
at Mini Novgorod, saratof and :Sor-
n,ovo for participation in the pelitical
! riots which took place in the early
spring of last year, from which, it an
pears, that the proceedings We're lively
and at times dramatic. =.s . .=s<
At Nijni-Novgored 40 peasants were
tried before a special tribunal be-
hind closed doors. The charge against
tive part in demonstrations at which
shouts of s'Down with the czar!''
"Down with absolutism!' 'Hurrah for
political .freedom!' were heard, at
which revolutionary songs We're sung
and at which seditious speeches were
delivered. s~*<>' ~ IA Il
When called~o on to answer to the
charge, the ringleader, Bikoff, said go
E"I have known nothing but poverty
and misery all my life. was hardly
twelve years old when I FIRST felt. the
sting of Cossack knouts. 4 was then
employed In factory at LODI at q
wage Of sixpence week.. When the
men, who were 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 ,im-
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 car, and since then I 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 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 a revolu-
tionary agitation carried on in his dis
trict. He said that the injustice that
he had experienced had made him so
desperate that he felt himself to be an
enemy of a government that tolerated
such atrocities being practiced in it's
name
At Saratoff the counsel for the de-
Tense 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
tempt Of court committed by utter
ances Of this kind.
y One of the accused, Ochanina, made
long speech in defense of his position.
saying: -, as7s@
I'm 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 Johanna
was oyerpowered by his feelings and
fell back in a dead faint.
Another prisoner, named Jeffmof,
shouted at the top of his voice:
81 despise you all. Do with me what
you like. l am past caring what be-
comes of me, thanks to your system Of
misrule."
The presiding judge ordered Jeffimof
to be removed, and he was dragged out
of court struggling and shouting:
''Mr. President, you are nothing but
the cars f1unky.''
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 a 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 great impression on
thousands Of readers.
Growth of A. 4. of l..