Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-30
GIRL WILLING MARTYR
TERRIBLE TREATMENT OF RUS
SIAN PEASANTS TOLD.

The justification made by Mile. spir-
idnova, the girl who murdered Luzhenofsd,
the chief of the gendarmerie at Tahboff.
to the court-martial, which sentenced her
to be hanged, was in every respect a re-
markable story, painting revolving picture
of the terrible repressions practiced by the
petty czars," who exercise almost the
power of life and death in the far-away
provinces of Russia. says a cablegram
from st. Petersburg.
The young girl-she is only seventeen
years of age-told of the Russian agita-
ton for liberty, of the joy with which the
cars manifesto was received. Then she
declared came the reaction. The bureauc-
racy returned to the work of repression
She continued:
II won't even speak of the whole of the
province Of Tamboff, but will confne my
self to the bloody work of Luzhenoffski
Villages which he visited he left looking
like Bulgarian villages after Turkish raids
In the village of Pavlodar ten men were
killed by his s-Shcherbakoff, three of
the family of Zeitsen, Ostrovitinoff, Du-
brovin-and others.
Tortured Until Dead.
Young Pavel Zietseff, through the self
sacrifice of his family, had received a
good education. He and his friend Ostro-
vitinoff, when Luzhenoffski arrived, went
to him as the delegates of the peasants,
and Luzhenoffsd replied to their requests
with volley from his Cossacks For four
days Zeitseff and Ostrovitinoff were tor
tured-tortured until they died.
Alexander Dubrovin was a social dem
ocrat who had come to the village. He
was arrested, and without any investigation
of what he was doing was put upon the
rack and died under the inqusitfon. Dis
guised as sightseers, some of his relatives
finally managed to persuade the keepers to
show them his body, but it was unrecog-
nizable. 1t was literally mass of meat,
bones and bloody rags.
"In the same village of Povlodar forty
were wounded. In the BeroZovsky village
O. peasant named Clemsnoff was tortured
into insanity, and in the village of Peskee
two others lost their minds.
Besides the shooting, beatings and slow
death by torture, other measures of 'paci-
fication were used, such as the destruction
of the peasants property and grain, the
firing of their houses and the violation
of their women.
Bloody Record of the Chief.
"After his triumphal trips, Iuzhenoff-
ski was able to lay as trophies of victories
at the feet of the bureaucracy murdered
peasants, ruined owners, assaulted women
and bruised and crippled children
81 forgot to mention that Luzhenoffski's
method Of procedure when he arrived In
a village was to order the peasants to be
assembled and undressed, and then he
would go to his dinner and leave the poor
devils shivering on their knees in the snow.
AT Borisgoebsk he made searches, de-
stroyed houses, threatened every one and
boosted at dinner that he had killed six
peasants with his own hand He spoke
+I,a 10 mot a a
1.-The social revolutionary party seeks to
protect the interests of the masses even
at the price of personal sacrifice With
full appreciation of the responsibility of
my act, I 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 pro-
duced by Luzshenoffskis actions.
Insanity After fortunes.
ST had seen peasants who have gone in
sane after the tortures, I had met wo-
man who had gone mad because her pretty
f1fteen-year-old daughter had thrown her
self under the ice in shame because she
had been assaulted by Cossacks and after
that no prospect of torture could stop me
from executing my decision.
Her Own Tortures.
"And really, the vengeance of the police
upon me was worthy of their most infam-
Gus traditions. I was crushed and sub
tected to all those tortures which the gov
eminent used to pirate about abolishing.
Everything / wrote in my letter was true.
I was tortured not only mentally. I was
struck In the face; my tormentors spat in
my face"
(IIere she proceeded to tell her judges
the story which had already been published
of how she was stripped and beaten and
burned and violated.)
She concluded with these words:
I'm spite of all the horrors to which l
have been subjected, l am happy in the
thought that | belong to the ranks Of the
protectors of the people, and that l am to
die for their cause"