Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-04-03
Officials Bear Glad Tidings.

| navigation peSlHS.
Officials Bear Glad Tidings.
| In order to witness this unprecedented
| mi grafton a correspondent of the Asso-
ciated Press came here in company
with a member of the duma NJ Rosen
off, and two members of the former
council of empire. The three officials
were sent by the provisional govern
ment to explain to the natives in these
| remote Russian outposts the nature OF
| the great change which has come to
1 the country. Their mission carries
| them to some scores of thousands OF
heather Asiatic tribesmen, and they
are especially directed to instruct
voters in regard to the coming constit-
| uent assembly, which will decide the
i form of Russia's new government.
| The liberation of Siberia's prisoners
has barely begun. West of the Urals
the Associated Press correspondent
encountered only a handful of exiles
who. .when the revolution began, We're
! at or near the railroad The first large
party was encountered when the 81
berian express reached Ekaterinburg, In
the Trails. 1t consisted of $50 political
| convicts and administrative eXlles, IN
Guiding twenty members OF the Jewlsh
revolutionary band. mostly from the
Verkholensk district west of Lake
Baikal The exiles were travelling in
special cars and had been on the ROAD
| continuously from Marcn - Nv uaS D
after they first heard of the revolution
| Crowd Cheers Exiles.
The cars were met by vast crowd at
the railroad station, which cheered
them unanimously. The returning
exiles returned the cheers. but they
were in a deplorable physical condition.
shaggy, uncouth. unwashed and eX-
tremely emaciated. Many were Grip
pied with rheumatism. two had lost
| hands and feet from frost bites. and
| one who attempted flight a week be
| fore the revolution had been shot IN
| the leg when he was recaptured. He
was lying In prison hospital when ne
learned that he was free man
| The exiles had started west so hur-
riedly that they arrived in an ex-
traordinary variety of incongruous
| garb. Some wore new costumes Whlch
had been supplied by sympathlzers
along their route and some had hand
some fur overcoats covering their
hideous Jail uniform. Among those who
wore this latter costume was a young
millionaire aristocrat from Odessa, who
| had been sentenced to life ten years ago
for fomenting a revolutionary mutiny
| in the Black sea fleet Others of the
party wore shaggy sheep and wolf
| skins as a protection against the bitter
| Siberian blasts. One man from the
|
uniform tunic of the dismissed governor
of Irkutsk under ragged and greasy
| overcoat.
| All Ekaterinburg gathered to do honor
| to the exiles. and reception and din
| ner was hastily improvised, at which
| speech was delivered by Sophia Vasneff
who spent seven years in different ST.
| berian penal villages for possessing
revolutionary literature.
| ro-% NJ TSr,a ", Ctor%ipr
! AS soon as the news of the revolution
spread through Siberia those exiles who
| had the means started for the nearest
railway. travelling day and night in the
Arctic cold on peasant sledges or gov
| eminent post sleighs. An enormous
number of sledges from widely scat
| tered settlements Converged on IrkutSk
and so congested the trails that the
movement was held up sometimes for
hours. Five days after the triumph of
| the revolution 5000 eXiles entered
Irkutsk. but the vast majority were un-
| able to proceed west, owing to the lack
Of rolling stock These encamped about
the town and along the railroad, and
at least month will be needed before
they can be sent home.
The president of the exile reception
committee in Ekaterinburg gave the
correspondent general picture of the
present conditions and prospects of the
| exiles. He said that there were prob
ably altogether 100000 persons in ST.
IBERIA who had been released under the
amnesty measure of the provisional
government This number comprises
political offenders. including terrorists
convicted after trial; persons suspected
of furthering revolutionary propag anda
and exiled without trial by order of
the secret police. gendarmerie or the
minister of the interior; finally some
tens of thousands of peasants exiIed
without trial by DEGREES of the village
| communal councils.
| Many of the latter will remain in ST.
IBERIA voluntarily. where conditions of
life and work are excellent under the
| reform government. One of the largest
convict settlements was in Yakuba, in
northeast Siberia. where about $4,000
exfles and convicts lived In semi-lib-
erty. In the mining district of
| Nertchfnsk one hundred exiles, includ-
ing seven women, convicted of conspir-
ing against the emperor, have been re-
| leased. The first to be freed was the
| famous Marie Spfridonova, who killed
a colonel of gendarmes for torturine
prisoners. She was herself tortured and
| abused for seven days and then SEN
fenced to death by field court-martial
After her release Mile. Spiridonova fell
III and Is now in hospital in Tchita.
Famous Terrorist in Party.
fha