Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-08
TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA
Autocracy Deserves Fate Which
is 0vertaking 1t.
HOW A PEASANT LIVES
The Moujik as Subject for
Liberty.
FIFTY MILLION STARVING
Country Soddened With Blood-The
Aims of Revolutionists-Day of
Reckoning at Hand.
BY C. W. PAFFbW.


I shall not attempt either to justify or
TO condemn terrorism in Russia but to ac-
count for 1t on the ground of the ordi-
nary and well-known principles and mo-
tives of human conduct. The most impor-
tant facts 1 shall state are within my own
personal knowledge. for 1 am a native of
Russia. where, until almost mature man.
hood j was an interested witness to the
movement of the people against autocracy
and czardom. and know whereof I speak.
/ know of no daily paper in America
which is better informed on Russian po-
litical affairs or whose views are more lib
eral and sympathetic to the cause of the
revolutionary movement in Russia than is
The Washington Star. 1 was therefore
greatly surprised to read an editorial in
recent issue wherein you give list of
names of some twenty-eight stalwart
beaureaucrats who have, met their death
at the hands of the terrorists during the
last five years, and severely arraign the
revolutionists for pursuing this course of
discriminating the tyrants.
Among the names mentioned are to be
found the most inhuman monsters that
ever drew breath. Interior Minister Slpia-
guine. who. shortly before he met his
fate. petitioned the ear to create him die
tator of Russia, that he may the better
torture and destroy the subjects of the
czar NJ de Plehve whose character may
best be judged by the treatment ne ac-
corded his benefactors, as will be seen
from what follows. He was left an or
phan in his infancy, and was tenderly
cared for and educated by middle-class
Lithuanian family. When he became all
powerful in st. Petersburg he promptly
deported the entire family TO siberia 70
languish and die in the mines. because ne
wished to remove any traces of his humble
origin. and because the family INDUCED IN
liberal views. Soisalon Sonnen, that arcn-
val yho
to substitute the imperial ukase of the
Russian autocrat to the progressive laws
of the diet. Count Bobrikon, who estap-
Hshed a reign of terror in Finland and the
Baltic provinces in his efforts to ROB those
sections of their home rule. language ana
religion. Grand Duke Sergius. whose tyr
amy knew no bounds, and who, even AFTER
he had been relieved of his post or gov
ernor of Moscow. boasted openly that ne
would pursue his brutal policy in an UNI
official capacity. General Min. whose reg
iment dfsthe Seminovsky Guards recently
protested against his brutality IN
'round robin and who. only few days
before his death, proposed to set nre 10
building in which were assembled num-
Der of students. with the express purpose
of burning them alive. A number of les
ser tyrants with the details of whose lives
i am not familiar. are mentioned. al OF
whom it is safe to say. fully deserved the
fate which overlook them.
Killing of the People.
While perusing that list of names !
Thought of the more than $4,000 human
souls who have languished and are still lam
euishing in the most loathsome dungeons
on earth. toiling without hope in the mines
OF Siberia of prisons crowded to suffoca-
tion: Of the $50 school houses in the west
ern provinces which have been turned into
fails during the last few years to supply
the demand of the thousands OF thinkers,
students and liberals who have been SHOT
and hanged and slaughtered in masses
without pity; of the widows and orphans
who are left without food and without
hone. of the children Drained on walls and
curbstones and spitted on Cossack pay
oEets: of the delicate females violated ana
lacerated by the knout.
And by what authority and under whose
orders and sanction are these horrors per
petrated? They have all been done under
the authority. the command and the sug-
gestion of the men whose names are con-
tanned in your list. and other men ike
them These men possess absolute power
In their jurisdiction. which power mas
been committed TO them by the COD on
Earth as he calls himself, or by the car.
Let it be said and known once and for
all that with respect to so-called political
crimes there is no law in Russia to limit
and restrain the governor. the chief OF po-
lice and the subordinates acting under
their orders. How this will has been man.
ifested the bloody work of these miscreants
well show.
Let us suppose If such thing were pos
sible, that a governor of any of the United
States had the power to put people to hard
labor In chains, to have men killed and wo-
post at his own good will and pleasure, in