New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-22
A RUSSIAN AGITATOR.
Nine. Breshkovskaya to Speak at Cooper
Union To-night-Her Career.

Freedom The Rev. Minot J. Savage will preside
! and, besides Nine. Brcshkovskaya. Robert Hunter.
Robert l.. Ely secretary the League for Political
Education. and others viii speak.
Nine. Breshkovskaya interests and attracts not
"riy on account of her personal courage eHdr-
ahce faith and undyins aspiration during twenty
I'VE years Of exile in Siberia but because She Is
"c:Sef an eptonle Of that whole great revolution
airy movement which has been going on in Russia
for the last forty years
BEFORE SHE BECAME A PRISONER
The daughter of Il Russian noblem:n she spent
her carly life his estate entering heart and
into the elevation of the pleasant class, whom
/ emancipation, instead OF bringing freedom and
relicf from dependence and ignorance, had brought
Increased suffering and discomfort Denied the right
OF free speech. Of free assembage. of free action.
thrown from the estate of the landed proPrieJOrs.
Vet without land Of their means Of acquiring
land. the complexities of their already din ut
dition seemed 10 have been but increased by enan-
cpation The feeling of acute disappointment
which swept the younger generation of Rus
sian men and women in the early los the fail
ure Of emancipation to emancipste became evident
furnished Toursenieff with the theme of several of
his greatest novels
katherine Breshkovskaya one of the young
Russian leformers who believed that in education
lay the panacea and of this movement grew
the Peasantial party. which feeding on the writ
ings OF Lassalle Marx and Tourgeneff. preached
| q gospel of higher education for both men and
women. 1t was in 1874. when Nine Breshkovskaya
in her early twentes, that the government,
alarmed at the spread of this propaganda. made
wholesale arrests to the number of nearly 1000,
Katherine. who was looked upon Joan of Arc
by thousands Of peasants, was among those ar
rested.
SENT TO MINES IN KARA
She spent nearly four years in prison before it
came her turn to be tried. and then she was
sent the mines of Kara. a convict sentenced to
hard labor but for only few. months, fortunately,
ns her years in prison stckoned in part of
the sentence
This was the first time in Russian history that
a had received this sentence" says The
Boston Transcript which prints long and inter
estinS article about her.
The prison to which she first conveyed was
Of those vile, disease breeding pens such as
exist nowhere in Russia. This fine gentle
woman recoiled from the filth and stencil. but no
place was provided for her to lie down or even 10
sit down. Two grown Infectious from dirt
and sickness. had previously occupied the room.
All through the first night she remained standing.
When she slept she leaned against the wall
When her term here had expired, she was trans
ported to a little village Lake Baikal. there to
spend fourteen years. Among her fellow eXiles IN
this place a Polish general. the father OF Cen
| eral KuroN For three years she remained here
living on the Sc a month granted by the govern
nent and receiving at intervals money from her
friends in the world outside which she prudently
saved against the day of escape.
This came at the end of the third year
HER ESCAPE AND CAPTURE
with three other exiles all of them men. she
bought horses and provisions engaged a guide, and
one night they succeeded in eluding the gendarmes
and set forth toward Nladivostok a journey of
four thousand miles over mountains and barren
wastes The geogra phical situation of the village
Of their confinement such that temporary es-
cape was easily effected. but owing TO its remote
ness and the vast uninhabited territory surrounding
On Ill sides racapture was almost certain But
hearts stout and daring is a commonplace
virtue where and women suffer persecution
for the saSe of principle. Cndaunted by nun
dreds of miles of wilderness and Steppes. these
fearless exes planned to reach the seaport town.
board American vessel, cross the Pacific Ocean.
cross the American continent and back into Rus
STA by way of Europe, there to take up the move
ment again. Having borne so much. they were
not content to cease their labors for the cause
For several days they made good progress. Then
the gu.ue missed the way. For little they
struggled on, but the guide lost heart and de-
serted. For the exiles there could be turning
back. After a month of futile and heartbreaking
wandering they were Overtaken by fifty soldiers
sent to them down. When they returned to
the Baika village they had been tried and SEN
fenced to four years in the mines Of Kara and
fourteen years in exile This the verdict de-
lvered them as they re-entered the village"
From Kara there escape. and she served
her full term. Then she assigned to Seenginsk |
a miserable little Monaghan village, and it was
there that George KEENAN,. who had gone out of his
way her. spent a day with her.
From Kara Selenginsk is thousand miles |
and the entire distance had to be covered afuot |
They walked about thirty miles day for two !
days and rested every third day. There two |
women in the party about one hundred men, most |
of them ordinary prisoners, and they guarded
by a squad of fifteen soldiers This the begin |
ming of the worst period of her life. Gnutterable |
loneliness at times almost overpowered her. From !
the everlasting dreariness there never any |
respite In winter the cold extreme Her prison |
did not offer adequate protection from cold or
storm. Ofteutimes the floor coated with ice. |
After eight years Of this life she given pass
port travel from point to point in Siberia. and
during the remaining six years Of her term she !
continued be Il exile She had learned that
the risks Of escape great. So. instead saw
ing the money that was sent her she lived solely ]
upon the government allowance and forwarded the (
rest to Kara. where She knew there prisoners /
whose nigeardy pittancc insufficient to keep |
them alive. She had occupied infested prisons had |
batted with and seen the ravaGes Of scurvy.
During the last period OF her exile she found it !
possible TO earn little money ~ sewing This |
morey she also sent to tie poor in the mines.
AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
In 1896 just twenty-five years after hcr first ar
rest. Nine. Breshkovskayas term expired. and she |
returned to her home" continues The Transcript"
Her mother and father were NOW dead her old |
friends scattered dead or lost forever to her. For
three months she remained quietly among the few |
who left, @nd then she plunged once more INTO |
the work At Tfty-three she began the most Gctlve
part of her career. First she secured Russia for
the remnants of the old guard. Then>they went to
the people Moro quickly than ever. the ideas
they PROMULGATED spread through Russia Thus
vas born the present Socialist Revolutionary party
Circles were established in nearly every Town OF
size or Importance in European Russia n ni
allure Logan 10 be circulated in enormous quaint
ties. TINS has continued up TO ne pl,99tionar,;;
P'Is rdiscovered Through the underground Nine,
PreShk0ESkaVa