Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-06
FLEEING FROM RUSSIA
Thousandsof Refugees Escape
to Austria and England
TOAVOID ARMYSBRVICE
METHODS OF GAINING PERMIs-
SION TO CROSS THE BORDER.
Watchfulness of the. Authorities Does
Not Prevent an Immense Ex-
odus of Russians.
TOAVOID ARMYSERVICE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

special Correspondence OF lhe Evening star:
VIENNA, January &c, 1905.
Thousands of Russian citizens are flee
ing from their country to escape being
drafted into the war in the far east The
cities of every neighboring European
state are full of them-Jews and Gentiles.
The Russian secret police are at work
everywhere, spying them out and making
list of names which may prove usetul
later in identifying the refugees on their
return. Few of them will go back, how
ever, unless general amnesty is de-
clared, for the penalty is heavy 1t means
arrest, Imprisonment and probably en-
forced military service in the far north
east.
There are at least 1000 recently arrived
Russians now in the single city of Vi
emma. These are all able-bodied men,
young middle aged members of Rus
sias military reserve corps, and are
counted, on paper at least, as among
those who are to keep up the war until
Japan has been worn to the point of com
promise, or even defeat. Even in time OF
peace no Russian is supposed to leave his
country without having performed the
military service required of every citizen
on reaching his twenty-first year. In
time of war, as at present, restrictions
are redoubled, and understanding the
cZdI pl TO l1e elltcI ludl
those with others dependent upon them
for support should be spared, every able
bodied man is being seized upon by the
authorities and impressed among the
troops being hurried to the front at the
rate of several thousand each day.
Russia's Military Strength.
Tales of terrible suffering from cold
and hunger, to say nothing of brutal
treatment, have already been brought
back to every village in western Russia,
and the bond of patriotism which holds
the Russian loyal to his government is
not strong enough to bear the strain, and
many of them prefer to sever the slight
ties which bind them to their native land
and flee to safety in some foreign coun
try If the Russian army has lost 100000
men through the operations of the war in
the east, this is but a partial measure of
the inroad which has-been made upon
RuSSias military strength by the war.
| The natural emigration from Russia
reaches nearly 100000 each year, and to
this number must be added several hun
dred thousand more who have been driven
forth during the past twelve months
through oppression and fear of compul
sorry military service.
In ordinary times this movement of popu-
lation is largely confined to certain recog-
niZed channels, but now the Russian en-
pire is overlooking at every point along it's
western and southern borders, where escape
the natural gates of travel. OF the $40 600
Russians who reached their twenty-firSt
year during the twelve months before the
beginning of the conflict with Japan go 900
were drafted to meet the needs of active
service, and the remainder were enrolled in
| the opochenie, which corresponds to ma
tional militia which gives Russia a paper
strength of 4,500 coo men available for war
as compared with her peace organization of
something over 100000 in the regular
army.
That this strength is purely theoretical is
now shown by the difficulties met in raising
regiments with the rapidity desired
1t is not alone the poor and low-spirited
who are leaving Russia by the western
routes. The men who have come to Vienna
are good-looking lot, well clothed and
apparently most of them are we'll supplied
with money. Some of them expect to STAY
in Europe, others expect to return to Rus
STA after the war is over, and thousands of
them are preparing to go, or are actually
Ell route to the United States