Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-30
RUSSIA'S PRISONS
NHUMANITIES PRACTICED BY
JAILERs OF THE CAR.
Horrors of Fortresses of st. Peter and
st. Paul-Solitary Confinement, Slow
Hangings, Eye-Hole Torture.

From the st. James Gazette
Well may the inhabitants OF ST. Peters
burg shudder they glance beyond the
Neva, at the dark fortress whence. each
hour the north wind brings across the
river the discordant sound of it's melan-
choly bells. Melancholy, indeed, for moth
ing but memories of suffering and oppres-
sion sit upon it's granite walls. Here Pc
ter I tortured and mutilated his enemies.
Here he slew his own son, Alexis, ana to
this dungeon during the licentious reign
of the expresses, omnipotent favorites
consigned aspiring rivals Ind since then
whole generations of men and women, for
no other crime than love of their OPP
pressed country, have entered these gates,
often to leave them no more
The horrors perpetrated within the fort
resses of St. Peter and st. Paul and the
Schluesselburg typical of the prison
system all over the Russian empire, and
in spite of official efforts to suppress the
facts 1t has been possible to obtain the
truth both from former officials and from
those who have suffered.
Cruelty of the System.
A special refinement of the Russian
prison system in the case of political pris-
oners and suspects. who are not given
short shrift on the glacis or the gallows is
continued solitary confinement until. as in
the case of that splendid intellectual re-
former Dmitri Pissaref, they can be re-
ported as harmless" Some prisoners
here were relieved of their senses quite
gently and almost politely Ihey were
shut ND in comfortable cells well lit with
electric light, and for men,ai panuiu ia
they were supplied with only religious ana
technical works. When insanity or SUI,
eide supervened the appointed END had
been secured.
But the doom of others presents even
greater features of horror. Imagine,
dark, damp cell, measuring about ten Dy
six. beneath the level of the surrounding
waters in which the chained man or
woman is condemned to lie in absolute
idleness, studiously isolated from any m
bed no sort of pillow, nothing whatever
to cover the body but the prisoners gray
cloak. The amount allowed for FOOD is
farthings day. which provides bread
bowl of warm soup. For ten minutes
every second day the miserable wretch is
allowed to the light and breathe the
air in the prison yard.
For the rest, intolerable loneliness, alb
solute silence, occupation of not the small
est kind, no books. no writing materials,
no instruments of manual labor Mad
ness comes to such gradually with the
passing years not as 1t came 10 an I'M
happy young lady a rising painter, who
received such treatment at the hands OF
the british prison police that she lost her
reason instantly. In the majority OF cases
the mind rots gradually in the enfeebllng
body. Suicide and madness are the two
great weapons in which Russian autocracy
puts its trust.
Strangulation.
Frequently, says one who has been
prisoner in one of these Russian hells
some poor wretches will make feeble at
tempt upon a warder in the hope of at last
being brought 20 trial. Shooting or hang
ing has been their lot The scenes of SUI
fering witnessed at slow hanging, occu-
tor
rible. Within the courtyard of the prison
is hand hoist for lowering ropes depend
ing over a gallows. To these the victims
are attached and then slowly elevated into
midair to struggle and gasp till death re-
lieves their agony. Should the governor or
superior present be DESTROYS of getting
through the business speedily a warder is
ordered to seize the suspended victim feet
and hang on swinging backward and for
ward.
On previous occasions when there has
been large number of political offenders
characterization has been deliberately
manufactured to afford pretext for judi
cial murder. From Polish nobleman. the
husband of an English lady now in London,
i learned details of his experiences in such
case. I'VE never knew, he said, Il ana
those who had been taken at the same time,
until after our morning parade in the prison
yard who would return alive to his cell or
who would remain in the yard-upon his
back the stones. Every mor1lng we
were subjected to the grim sport Of lot
terry After being brought from or cells
to the yard were placed in line, and a
certain number being drawn-say :ive-tfdt
number of men told off from the right. The
doomed fifth was then marched with his
back to the farther wall and a hle % SOL
diers did the rest. l saw my own brother
shot before my eyes one morning. i was
eventually exiled to Siberia, and from there
/ managed to escape.
The Peep Hole.
Do you know what it is to have your
sentence of death committed by the Czar?
little while ago Europe commented with
satisfaction on the Communication by the
car of three death sentences out of five.
These fortunate ones" were immured
in cells in the fortress of ST Ieter and st.
Paul Not only were these dens dark for
twenty-five hours out of twenty-four, but
the walls were running with damp and
pools of water had gathered en- The floor.
Neither books nor anything that might dis
tract the mind was allowed. and one pris
oner having been found designing geo.
metrical figures with his bread mad It re-
moved by the jailor with the remark that
hard labor convicts were not permitted to
aMuse themselves
Another calculated torture in these cells
is the eyehole, at which a warder or soldier
is posed TO watch the prisoner. By this
means the quetest prisoner is soon moved
to frenzy and the slightest INSTRUMENTATION
is at once punished by merciless flogsing IL
not worse Thus IL comes about that of the
three men whose sentences had been COM
muted. one, after a year of these horrors,
became a consumptive; another a robust
and vigorous workingman, went mad; the
third also a man OF powerful physique,
was rotted with scurvy. Such is the
mercy of the car"