The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-03

cheered the famous terrorist, Nicolai
Anuikhin, who killed the chief of
the Petrograd- Warsaw railway in
1906. His victim, General Fuch1off,
was about to kidnap 400 railroad
strikers and send them to Siberia.
Anuikhin who introduced himself to
the correspondent as a released Jail
bird is a gigantic, broad shouldered,
elderly man, with a gray imperial and
an excited manner of speech. He
said:
ManacIed Four Years.
after one year in European convict
prisons l spent ten years in the Alex
androvsk prison, fifty miles from r.
kutsk. This is the biggest convict Jail
in Russia and contained 1900 ordi-
nary criminals and about 500 political
prisoners mostly sentenced to life in
Katroga. the severist form of Russian
punishment short of death. L spent
the first five years in the so-called pro-
baton class with hands and feet
manacled and chained to wheel bar
row which 1 had to take everywhere
1 was desperately flogged by order of
the governor. The assistant governor
during the absence of his chief ordered
daily floggings for his own satisfac-
ton.
Altho we had means of communica-
ton with the outside world we knew
nothing of the revolution until the
two terrorists and half dozen criminal
convicts were being flogged without
apparent cause. The provincial state
attorney suddenly appeared and an
nounced to our amazement Russia is
a republic and you are free.
Administers Last Flogging.
After our release we learned that
| the assistant governor on getting the
news of the revolution declared that
he would give a farewell flogging in
order to prepare my Jail birds for
/ sweet liberty
| Among the political prisoners from
| Tobolsk, is Alexander Popoff, who was
| sentenced to death for an alleged plot
| against the emperor, a charge which
| he declares was a police fabrication.
| Popoff, a highly intelligent artisan,
was chained by the wrists and ankles
| for four years. In describing his re-
| lease he said:
"a most remarkable feature of am
nesty day in Tobolsk was the sudden
demands for blacksmiths. The prison
| blacksmith fearing the vengeance of
| the convictS fled and private black
| smiths could not be found. Sixty
| chained men waited for. their liberia
| ton. The newly formed committee of
| public safety unable to find black
smiths. drove the still chained convicts
to the dismissed governors palace
where a banquet had been prepared
and where we had our first free meal
| Above the din of speeches and cheers
for the Russian republic could be
heard, the jangling of our shackles."
! From Tobolsk prison there were also
released fifty soldiers, sentenced to life
for mutiny during the revolution of
1905, leaders in the Livonian peasants
| riots and others who were sentenced
for minor offenses.
Pretty Girl, 10, an Exile.
Another liberated exile was Sophia
| LiJnaitzky, a pretty girl of 10, from
| Vitebsk, who was arrested a wear ago
on suspicion of being engaged in politi-
| cal propaganda and was spirited away
| to the remote Siberian village of Kiu-
tun. She was allowed 50 a month by
| the government for her living ex-
penses and managed to exist by teach
| ing adult peasants to read and write.
| She said
In my village the police them
selves. wearing red badges were the
| first to announce the revolution. I'M
| mediately there was a frantic COM
petition among the exiles to get home
| The first two girls who started were
| without proper equipment and were
| overtaken by a blizzard near Vreko-
| lensk and it is said were frozen to
DEATH"
Another girl who had been exiled
to place near the shores of Lake
Baikal said that the news of the revo-
| lage priest in church. Fifty exiles in
the congregation rushed out, deter
mined on vengeance on the local cap
tain who was a wanton tyrant.
Child Saves Father.
They were met by the policeman's
l10-year-old daughter who stood be-
fore her father and exclaimed:
xiii me first
The childs action saved the cap
tains life.
when the revolution occurred ]
was in the small Udinsk transport
prison awaiting the arrival of other
convicts for dispatch together to the
east. 1 had long lost hope of pardon
when 1 learned that L was free. The
discovery came in a most dramatic
way. I was at the time in chains as
a newcomer of unknown character. ]
heard a sudden shouting and after
ward a terrific rifle firing. 1t sounded
as if a million cartridges had exploded
in quick succession. Next bullets be-
gan to fly over the prison yard. Final
Iy a bullet cut the halyard of the Rus
sian flag which waved over the prison
building. The flag dropped on the
roof and shortly afterward a crowd
stormed the prison and hoisted a