Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-04-30
SAYS SHE is
JUSTIFIED.
Russian Girl Who Killed Lezhen-
Offsk Tells Why She Did So
Horrors PraCtiCed.

following is the justification made by
Mile. Spiridonova, the girl who muir
dered ~Luzhenoffski, the chief of the
gendarmerie at TambOv, to the court
martial which sentenced her to be
hanged. 1t is in every respect n re-
markablc story. painting a revolving
picture of the terrible repressions prac-
tised by the petty cars" who eXer-
else almost the power Of life and death
in the faraway provinces of Russia.
Eyes, murdered Luzhenoffski, and
| desire to explain my deed. | am a
member of the Social Revolutionary
party. The discomfort of the people
with the existing regime has turned
into revolution, armed resistance to
the authorities, attacks on officials and
into open collisions with the troops in
the streets. Instead of meeting the
needs of the people the government
used guns, bayonets and bullets, but
they did not succeed.
''Then they invented the manifesto
of liberty. But at the same time they
also invented alleged popular demon
STATIONS by the organization of the
Black Hundred outrages. The mani
festo was only a piece of strategy and
nothing else.
"As soon as the bureaucracy realized
that the manifesto could be over
thrown it planned it's campaign and
returned to the traditional method of
expressing the people which was so
dear to its heart-namely, repression.
The horrors of the reaction was worse
than anything which had preceded.
Over 200 men were murdered under
the guise of executions, the 'inteli-
gentsia' were ctammed into prisons,
every association which opposed the
government was closed, the press was
gagged, the armed u%prisings were sup
pressed with machine guns.
The bureaucracy deliberately Gre
ated conditions which made it impos-
sible for the peoples Indignation to
reach the supreme power, and the Of
fetal reports We're filled with tran
uuillity. happiness and peace
III lHH StDIbf CoolOh VI IN N'N
disorders the work of the bureaucracy
was especially splendid. 1t should be
written in history in golden letters. l
won't speak about the 'pacitication' of
the peasants in many of the provinces.
| won't even speak of the Whole of the
province of Tambov, but will confine
myself to the bloody work of Luzhe-
noffski.
villages which he visited he left
looking like Bulgarian villages after
Turkish raids. In the village of Paw
lodar ten men were killed by his Or
Observation-Disclosures, three of the family
of Zeitseff, OstrovitinOff, Dubrovin,
etc. Young Pavel Zeitseff, through the
self sacrifice of his family, had receiv-
ed a good education in the Yekaterino-
slav Normal school. He was an hon
est. clean, enthusiastic young man.
He Used to say, All of my learning
and knowledge | will bring back to
my village for distribution among my
brothers, He and his friend, Ostro-
vitinoff, when Luzhenoffski arrived
went to him as the delegates of the
peasants and L~uzhenoffski replied to
their requests with a volley from his
Cossacks.
"For four days Zeitsetf and Ostrovi-
tinoff were tortured-tortured until
they died.
after his 'triumphaP trips Luzhe-
noffski was able to lay as trophies of
victories at the feet of the bureaucra-
cy murdered peasants. ruined owners,
assaulted women and bruised and Grip
pied children.
HE was an oppressor of the people,
and he merited death. The Social Rev
dictionary party seeks to protect the
interests of the masses ven at the
price of personal sacrifice. Its aim is
to establish political and economical
conditions which will permit the people
to realize a socialistic regime in which
liberty, fraternity and equality will
be Il reality and not a dream.
:'In the name of humanity, of truth
and of justice the Tambov committee
and | condemned L~uzhenoffski to
death. With Il full appreciation of the
responsibility of my act / undertook
the execution of the sentence because
my heart was breaking with sorrow,
and it was no longer possible TO live
with the tales of the horror produced
by L~uzhenoffski's acts ringing in my
ears. l had eel peasants who had
gone insane after their %tortures, | had
met a woman who had gone mad be-
cause her pretty fifteen-year-old daugh-
ter had thrown herself under the ice
in shame because she had been raped
by Cossacks, and after that no pros
. pect of torture could stop me from e
ecuting my decision.
"And really the vengeance of the po-
lice upon me was worthy of their most
infamous traditions. | was crushed
and subjected to all those fortunes
which the government used to prate
about abolishing. Everything l wrote
in my letter was true. / was tor,
tured not only physically but mentally,