Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-15
Nearly Two-Thirds Had Seen Prison,
Exile or Other Punishment.
sHARK0FFs CASE NOTABLE
Experience Of the Legislators Largely
Accounts for Their Attitude
Regarding Amnesty.
BY WILLIAM q. CURTIS.


ment of which they are now part, and,
taking this fact into consideration, 1t Is
quite remarkable that they should show SO
much self control and take SO broad view
of their duty. 1t also accounts in a meas
ure for the determined attitude they have
taken on the question Of amnesty, de-
manding the pardon and release from
prison without trial or further proceedings
of the $4,000 or more men and women who
are locked up throughout Russia because
of their revolutionary conduct or liberal
opinions. The members of the duma know
what it is to suffer for conscience sake by
personal experience, and their demand upon
the car is based upon fellow feeling, as
well as human sympathy and sense Of
justice.
I do not want to be understood as ap-
proving this part of the duma program
Among the $4,000 persons now in prison are
many desperate criminals who are entitled
to no consideration whatever, and hanging
Is much too good for them But in it's
revolutions the duma includes the goats
with the sheep, because, like this body Of
of political opinion, from the bomb throw
ing, king killing, anarchistic wing of the
social revolutionary party to the repre-
sentatives of the conservative business ele-
ment.
Each of the many political groups in the
duma has friends and co-laborerS behind
the DarS, ana IL was agreed from the De-
ginning that they would all stand together
and demand pardon for everybody; men
who were sent up for assassination as well
as those who were detected in breathing a
prayer Of hope for better things
sufferings Of Sharkof.
One would suppose that some of the men,
bers Of the duma would never be able to
forgive the government for what they have
suffered. Take, for example, Sharkoff Of
the peasant group from Samara, who only
two years ago was beaten with 200 lashes
upon his naked back, and whose arm was
broken by a soldiers bayonet solely be-
cause he led a committee of villagers to the
governor of their province to protest
against their treatment by the landlords,
governor reached this village upon an in
spection tour Sharkoff, with seven other
elders from his village, received him with
those picturesque emblems Of hospitality
Then, asking his permission to present a
complaint, Sharkoff, as spokesman for
the party, described the wrongs and hard
ships from which they suffered. The gov
table upon which the bread and salt and
the key of the house had been placed, or
dered the entire committee arrested and
sent to prison and Sharkoff to be flogged.
After the latter had received $50 lashes
some merciful bystander interviewed and
declared that he had suffered enough.
,Whereupon a doctor was called, who exam
ined him and said coolly, "Whack. him
again." and he was given fifty more lashes.
All this time Sharkoff's arm hung help
less at his side, having been broken by
stroke from the bayonet Of one Of the gov
ernor's guards. When he started for st.
Petersburg to take the seat to which he
had been elected in the first parliament of
Russia his neighbors gave him a farewell,
and one of them said
"Sharkoff, hold up your broken arm as
a trophy In the presence of the Little Fa-
Their the first time you see him.
Several others of the shaggy peasants
nave suffered horrors from the police and
the soldiers; several others have been
nogged, several have been in prison for DO
nt1cal onenses, and that was the strongest
argument In favor of their election. That
In sending them here. Twenty-Five thou
sand peasants are now in prison for politi-
cal reasons. for demanding land for those
VINO labor and for making revolutionary
demonstrations.
The Village Sentence.
1.-THE village sentence" as 1t Is called.
presented to the landlords and the magis-
trates of the provinces in August, 1905. was
as follows:
we look death in the face because our
present conditions are intolerable, II YOU
will not grant what we ask you will have
to kill US all off and live alone, looking
after your own land. And what interests
us most is, how you are going to set about
killing us. because our brothers and sons.
VINO stand under your orders In the army,
will not shoot at their brothers and fathers.
They know that they would only have to
take up our burden after us and be killed
by their own sons who come afterward"
Many OF the peasant members are Hitter
ate, but they have natural intelligence, and
by experience have a thorough knowledge
OF the methods of the police, the interiors
Of prisons and the meaning Of the word
exile, Three peasant members Of the
duma cannot read or write They come
from the province Of Podolia, but they have
a sense of the fitness of things for when
Prof Groudeskoul was nominated for vice
president of the duma, one Of them, who
had never heard OF him before, asked who
he was.
He was an exile" said the member in
the next chair.
Then he must be good man." was the
reply.
Groudeskoul. when a member of the facul-
ty Of the University of Moscow, was BAN
ished to Archangel among the eternal SHOWS
for teaching constitutional law to his stu
dents. He was practicing as lawyer there
at the time of his election to the duma,
and now represents that district in this
body. His election as vice president was
not due to any particular ability or fitness
for that office, but the honor was con-
ferred upon him as mark Of sympathy
and as an approval OF his course.
The other vice president, Prince Peter
Dolgorukoff, comes from one of the Oldest
princely families in Russia-older than that
of the Romanoffs, the present dynasty. + He
and his twin brother. Paul, have been
among the most progressive of the nobility,
and have been foremost in the organization
Of the zemstvos and in extending the liberal
propaganda. They are among the largest
land owners in Russia and have taken
deep interest in the welfare of their peas
ants. Both of them have been in the lib
ration movement from the start, and one
of the first secret congresses of the zemst-
vos was held at Prince Peter Dolgorukoff's
residence. The latter was punished by
Durnovo, when minister of the interior, by
being removed from the presidency Of his
zemstvo for his liberal views.
Respect for Muromtsen.
Professor Muromtseff, president of the
duma, has also been punished because of
his liberal views. He belongs to the native
nobility, was born in 1850 and has degrees
from the universities of Moscow and Goet-
tengen, Germany. He was professor OF
Roman law at the University of Moscow