The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-03
Old TerrOrists Form Emaciated
but Happy COhOrt.
NEWS TO HEATHEN TRIBESMEN
Many Thousand Asiatic Ma
tives Now Free People.
Rush Across Urals Before
Spring Thaw Sets In,

1N
Petrograd and London, April q
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 81
IBERIA are speeding in an endless cham
ward the nearest points on the trans
Siberian railway. Their passengers
range from members of the old terror
list societies to exiles who were ban
ished by administrative decree without
trial or even known offense.
1t is race against time as the
spring thaw is imminent and the
roads, even in the coolest settlements
of the Lower Lena, will soon be i'm
passable. Exi1es who do not reach
the railroad within a fortnight must
wait six weeks or two months until
the ice melts and river navigation
begins.
To Heather Tribesmen.
In order to witness this unprece.
dented migration, a correspondent OF
the Associated Press came here in
company with member of the duma,
M Rosenoff, and two members OF the
former council Of the empire ms
three officials were sent by the pro-
visional government to explain TO the
natives in these remote Russian out
posts the nature of the great change
which has come to the country Ihelr
mission carries them to some scores
of thousands of heather As1atlc tribes
men and they are especially directed
to instruct voters in regard to the
coming constituent assembly when
will decide the forr2 of Russla's new
government.
The liberation of Siberia's prisoners
has barely begun. West of the Urals,
the Associated Press correspondent
| only encountered a handful of exiles,
who. when the revolution took place
were at or near the rear. The flrst
large party was encountered when the
| Siberian express reached Ekaterin-
burg in the UraIs. 1t consisted of
| $50 political .convicts and administra-
| tive eXiles, including twenty members
| of the Jewish revolutionary band
| mostly from the Verkholensk district
west of Lake BaikaI. The exiles were
| travelling in special cars and had been
on the road continuously from March
| "a five days after they first heard OF
the revolution.
The cars were met by a vast crowd
at the railroad station which cheered
| them unanimously. The returning
\ exiles returned the cheers but they
were in a deplorable physical condi-
ton, shaggy, uncouth, unwashed and
extremely ema ciated. Many were
crippled with rheumatism. two had
| lost hands and feet from frostbites
and one, who attempted flight a week
before the revolution, had been shot
| in the leg when he was recaptured.
|
when he learned that he was a free
man.
Still Wearing Jail Uniforms.
| The exiles had started west so
hurriedly that they arrived in an ex-
traordinary variety of incongruous
| had been supplied by sympathizers
along their route and some had hand
some fur overcoats covering their
hideous Jail uniforms. 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 revolu-
| tionary mutiny in the Black sea fleet.
| Others of the party wore shaggy sheep
and wooden skins as a protection
against the bitter Siberian blast. One
man from the 1rkutsk Jail wore the
gold braided uniform tunic of the dis
missed governor of Irkutsk under a
ragged and greasy overcoat.
AS soon as the news of the revolu-
| ton spread thru Siberia those exiles
who had the means started for the
nearest railway, travelling day and
night in the Arctic cold on peasant
sledges or government post sleighs.
An enormous number of sleds from
widely scattered settlement converged
on Irkutsk and so congested the trails
| that the movement was held up some
times for hours. Five days after the
triumph of the revolution 5000 exiles
| entered Irkutsk but the vast ma jority
| were unable to proceed west owing to
the lack of rolling stock. These en-
/ camped about town and along the rail-
| road and at least month will be
needed before they can be sent home
| 100000 Prisoners Freed
The president of the eXiles reception
committee IN Ekaterinburg gave the
correspondent a 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
he amnesty measure of the provisional
government. This number comprises
political offenders including terrorists
convicted after trial; persons suspected
of furthering revolutionary propa-
ganda and eXiled without trial by or
der of the secret police, gendarmerie
or the minister of the interior; and
| finally, some tens of thousands of
crees of the village communical coun-
ellis. Many of the latter will remain
in Siberia voluntarily where condi-
tions of life and work are excellent.
under the reform government.
$4,000 in One Community
One of the largest convict settle
ments was at Yakuba in northeast ST.
beria where about 900 exiles and
convicts lived in semi-liberty. In the
mining district of Nertchinsk, 100 ex-
lies including seven women, convicted
of conSpiring against the emperor
have been released. The first to be
freed was the famous Marie Spirido-
nova, who killed a colonel of gen.
darmes for torturing prisoners. She
was herself tortured and abused for
seven days and then sentenced to
death. After her release, she fell Ill
and is now at a hospital
Crowd Cheers Terrorist.
AT Tyumen the correspondeut me-