, 1923-02-18

awaiting his last hour will ascend It
but once. IN order to leave the ship"
and step meekly onto the shore Of
Death.
Every evening. as soon as the sun
has set, the door at the head OF the
stairway opens, the penetrating voice
Of the executioner is heard and the
next victim leaves the hold" And
his place is taken by others.
Here are a few incidents from the
life aboard this mysterious and terri
BILE ship" ingenuously and truthfully
described by several fortunate" ones
who had expected death, but been
"pardoned" later by the All-Russlan
Central Executive Committee. One of
them tells US:
The Execution of a Man, IS,
For Loans to the Bourgeoisis
an the beginning Of February, on a
Saturday, they brought n certain Thu
-insky. a gray haired man of about
55. He was accused OF having loaned
large amounts Of money against tho
promissory notes of a number of lead
ing representatives OF the Moscow
bourgeoisie, specializing upon the in
evitable fall of the Soviet regime. The
Moscow tribunal had condemned him
to be shot, but he filed a petition for
clemency with the All Russian Gem
trail Executive Committee, and had to
wait four months for his fate to be
decided. At last there arrived tho
news hat the Central Executive
Committee had confirmed the verdict.
Under the pretext Of an unexpected
visit by his family, they called him
from his single cell to the prison Of
flee. and at 7 in h evening he found
himself already on the Ship
The old man scarcely spoke a word,
and to the suggestion from the guard
hat he eat his supper he merely re-
oiled: What's the use OF eating be-
fore ones death?' And then he began
to cry. Later he pulled out of his
pocket a copy Of the verdict and thrust
IT. into my cell. t
Soon Pankratov appeared, very
drunk, and shouted: Come on out!'
This time he did not even mention tho
name and did not order him to I'M
dress. Zhurinsky mounted the stairs
with firm and sure steps. Two or
three minutes later the automobile
was started. carrying away the still
warm corpse to the Lcfort morgue.
Five days later they brought again
from Butyrki prison three men sem
fenced by the Moscow Tribunal to be
shot for counterfeiting. These were:
NiLulin. 40 years old; Smirnov. SO.
who had been n bookkeeper al some
Soviet institution. and Vasiliev. 90, n
dry goods clerk. All were married and
each had several children. They had
filed their petitions for clemency with
the All Russian Central Executive
Committee at the time they were sem
fenced and had waited for its decision
six months. At the expiration of hat
time the verdict was confirmed.
The Horror That Marked
The Shooting of the Three
They came for them Just as they
were taking their exercise in the
prison yard. They were taken directly
from that place and. without a chance
TO go back to their cells for their
things. driven straight to Lubianka
street"
The last moments OF these three
men have been described as follows
by another prisoner of that ship:
IAN three kept very cool in the
beginning. and used TO talk n great
deal to me and the other inmates.
Then they wrote farewell letters to
their relatives, and one of my neigh
bors who was figuring to get Off
with only one year OF concentration
camp, agreed to deliver them. Soon
after this, however, he too, was shot,
so that the letters never reached their
destinations. The oldest of the three.
Nikulln. was asking all the time that
we inform his wife that he was calmly
facing his death and that he had gone
TO his execution bravely. But ] saw
him cry twice. His comrades tried to
console him as well as they could.
They all regretted bitterly that they
had been unable to fetch along from
their prison cells the potassium cyan
ide they had prepared. Smir-
nov even began to cry in his ~exaspera-
ton.
"Ono OF them asked: AT what hour
do they shoot?' I replied: About
seven in the evening When daylight
began TO fade one of them said: Come,
let us have n last look at tho light
OF day NiSulin raised his head and
said with a sigh: Here I am SIN
alive and watching the daylight fade,
But in three quarters OF an hour a
bullet Will pass through my temple,
and that will be tho last of II. .
He broke down and again commenced
to cry.
IAN my life long I did not believe
in n God, but now / dol
"Smirnov replied in n hopeless tone:
You may believe or not believer; makes
no difference now. for It smells like
death already
Then he turned to us and spoke:
Never. my friends, should you place
your faith In others, but live each OF
you according to his W lights. And
the main thing is-don't attempt to
got rich quickly, II was in seeking
easy money that ! was done for. How
much I would now like to mend tho
mistake, but II is evidently too late
now. It's hnrd TO die.
"NREIlI"v kept pacing the cell all tho
time, only now and hen lying down on
iAc COT. Tt is all overt he exclaimed
In q trembling voice.
"ouly about five TO ton minutes re,
malncd IN : o'c.ocS. They tried &c