Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-04-03
$4,000 sledges, Carrying Po-
litical Exiles, Pass Over
Shows in Endless Chain
Shaggy, Uncouth, I'm
washed Prisoners Greeted
by Large Crowds Knew
Nothing of Revolution till
Freedom was Announced.

Tyumen, Siberia, March 81, Via
Petrograd and London. April g.
Fifty thousand sledges, carrying vic
tins of the old regime back to free
dom in the New Russia from the
mines and convict settlements of ST.
IBERIA. are speeding in an endless chain
across the SHOWS of North Asia to-
ward the nearest point on the trans
Siberian railroad. Their passengers
range from members Of the old Ter
rorist societies to exiles who were BAN
ished by administrative decree with
out trial OF even known offense.
In order to witness this unpre-
cedented migration a correspondent Of
the Associated Press came here.
West of the Urala, the Associated
Press correspondent encountered only
a handful of eXiles, who, when the
revolution began, were at or near the
railroad. The first large party en-
countered consisted Of ISL political
convicts and administrative exiles, in
Guiding 90 members Of the Jewish.
revolutionary band.
The sledges were met at the station
by crowds who cheered the exiles tu-
multuously. The exiles returned the
cheers, but they were in a deplorabie
condition. shaggy, uncouth, unwashed
and extremely emaciated. Many were
crippled with rheumatism. Two had
lost hands and feet from frost bites
and one. who attempted fight a week
before the revolution, had been shot
in the leg when he was recaptured.
He was lying in a prison hospital
when he learned that he was a free
a
Reception for Exiles.
At Ekaterinburg many gathered ia
do honor to the exiles and a recep-
ton was hastily improvised at which
a speech was delivered by Sophia
Vasneff, who spent seven years in diff.
ferent Siberian penal villages for pos.
sessing revolutionary literature.
The presidents Of the exile recep.
ton committee in Ekaterinburg told
the correspondent that there were
probably ten thousand persons in 81.
IBERIA released under the amnest,
measure of the provisional govern.
ment. This number comprises politi
cal offenders, persons suspected O.
furthering revolutionary propaganda
and exiled without trial by order O
the secret police and some tens O
thousands of peasants exiled withou
trial by DEGREES Of the village coun
ellis. Many Of the latter will renal,
in Siberia voluntarily where condi
lions Of life and work are excellen
under the reform government.
Famous Prisoners Free.
One Of the largest convict settle
ments was in Yakuba, in northeas
Siberia, where about $4,000 exile
and %convicts lived in semi liberty. II
the mining district Of Nartchinsk 10
exiles. including seven women, con
victed Of conspiring against the en-
peror- have been released. The frs
to be freed was the famous Mari,
Spiridonova, who killed q colonel o,
gendarmes for torturing prisoners
She was herself tortured for v
days and then sentenced to death bv
field court martial. After her release
Mademoiselle Stiridonova fell i'll ant
is now in a hospital in Tchita.
Crowds at Tyumen cheered the ia.
nous Terrorist, Nicolai Anukhin, WHIT
shot and killed the chief of the Petro.
grad Warsaw hallway in 1905.
Manacled to Barrow for Five Years
After one year in European con,
vict prisons I spent ten years in tn,
Alexandrovsk prison." said this man