The Siberian Exiles OR A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 225, 20 September 1906, Page 6

The Siberian Exiles OR A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

By COL. Tlit_j.v_A'_. 17. ZMOX

4uthor of" Overland Through Asia" " The Boy Travellers" etc., etc.

LiIAPTER \\ -j THE RUSSIAN POLICE .SYSTEM. I The -mrui who had called vvpcm H._rt- \ mann .nnd Ivan was an attache of the > Imperial Police nt Tatnbow and lic-d -/ brother of m_vl\ higher* vjosititm \.na._\ himself. I While ilipy were nt breakfast the next! morning, the youth asked Mr. Hartmanu I to tell him something about the police ] syste;n of the empire of the Czar. i "Well." said the gentleman. " you l must know that liussia is essentially a paternal country, the Government being i the sole authority in everything, and the Czar standing as tlie father of all his I subjects. The citizen, or subject, has no voice in selecting his rulers, and is con- j sidered incapable of managing anything but his own personal affairs; even his '■ ability to do that is no;, admitted, and he must refer to the police a great many tiling's that he would decide for himself , in other countries, especially in England or tho I'nited .States. " You know very well, as a "Russian subject, living in Russia, that you cannot travel without a passport; you cannot change your residence from one house to another without notifying the police, and. if you wish to open a cigar shop, a grocery, or a place for the sale of boots and shoes, the permission of the police must first be obtained. If a man has ti drug store, he is forbidden to sell medicines of a powerful nature, such as "poisons, narcotics and anesthetics, on the prescription of any doctor not named on a list given you by the police. A doctor cannot practice without permission of the police, and when he practices, he must _o to every call in the night, unless lie has the police permit to refuse to go out at that time. Performances at .theatres and shows of all kinds are under police , supervision, but to this no valid objection can be made, and the regulation, within certain lhnits, is a good one. The same thing is done in other countries, but we Rossi-us go a good many steps beyond other nations." •'"Suppose." said Tvan, "that I want to get up a concert for the aid of a hospital, asylum, or sonic other charity, what must I do in that case?" "You must get the permission of the police, before you ran do anything, and, I in applying for it. you must file your en- | tire programme, naming each person who I is to appear, and exactly what he is to I sing, play or recite, and. if you vary the j programme <m the night of the affair, | you may line! yourself in serious trouj ble." "Thai would be inconvenient," Ivan ' remarked, "but as everybody would unj dersland it. tho rule wouldn't, be serious." "Ijui the police supervision does not ■end here." Mr Hartmanu continued, "you must hand over the proceeds of tho entertainment to the police, and the money must pass through their hands ; before reaching the charity for which it j wan intended. It is liable to great ! shrinkage during this passage, and. in j fact, it may disappear altogether. It is 'very certain that it will not be increased by contact with tlie hands of the ; police *' - "Why do they make you put the money in their hands?" j "The reason for this regulation is, i that evil-disposed persons are in the i habit of getting up entertainments os- : tensibly for the benefit of well-known j charities, when in fact they are for supI plying funds to revolutionists, at home I or abroad, or prisoners in The hands of I the Government." • "Oh! I understand.'' said Ivan. "One of the regulations of the police | refers to the censorship of price-lists of ! goods, notes of invitation to parties and personal visiting cards; also for the • censorship of seals, rubber stamps and .business cards of individuals or-corpora-(tions. Another order regulates the sale of soap, starch, tooth-brushes and insect powder, and another controls the . printing on the paper used in making : cigarettes. The incongruous nature of 1 the orders issued by tho police, are _.- I lustrated by the circumstance that one [ order concerning religious instruction in j secular schools, and another about mear sures to prevent horse-stealing, aro I placed side by side." j Ivan laughed at this and then asked j bow the police force of the empire was I constituted. "All the police are under the control i of the Minister of the Interior." was the ] reply. "Down to a few years ago the j detective and secret police were under 1 independent control, and their business | TPiatec! wholly to political matters, but j it was found that crime and politics ! were so closely allied that the managei ment would bo easier if it were all in I one department. The municipal police j force is not unlike that of English or | American cities; the rural police inI eludes two classes of men, one appointed I by the Government and the other elect- | ed by the peasants; and the detective i or secret police arc as secret as possible. The outside public docs not know much about them, and the i little it does know is often wrong." While talking further on this subject, Ivan asked Mr. Hartmanu a question as ! to the number and extent of the secret j police. j " That's something T can't tell yon," I he replied. " If I could, it wouldn't be n I secreL But this T know, that there are j not many members of the force outside of the cities, for the very good reason i that it is chiefly in the cities-that their j services are needed. Revolutionists are i not found in the country ns much as in I the cities, and when a man in the country ! has revolutionary tendencies he is vary j likely to go to the city to carry on his | work. In the day 3 of the Emperor Nicholas it was a common saying that when three persons were together one of them

was a spy and the other two were quite liable to be in the same line. Matters improved somewhat under Alexand-er 11.. b_t "becavae vsorse -gam a.lt«v. M»_audex JII. _s«'D_ed the throne.'' . " I suppose the secret police are better Vi.uA ttva.- out \'v_a\ vjoYvcmc.-. ate not '*" "They must be better paid or better bribed." replied the gentleman. " "Xo man can live honestly on a policeman's pay in the rural districts, and it is no wonder that he exorts money from the peasants on which to exist. On a salary oi" two or three hundred roubles (£'2o to £30) a man cannot support a family, keep himself provided with uniform, sword and revolver, make an occasional present to his superior, and otherwise meet the expenses of his position. We are all obliged to make presents to the local police; if we do so quietly, it ia much better for us than to resist, as the* they will make us pay for all tbe expense and trouble of making their collections. -, '' It is a suspicious circumstance.'' he continued, " when a. local police official, of whatever grade, refuses to take bribes. Let mc, tell you a little story on this I point." i Of course, Ivan was quite willing to ! hear it. and his friend continued: '' Some years ago. several young men of liberal views, well-educated and of good families, thought they would benefit the peasants by going into tho country and finding situations as bee-sers (district secretaries), where they could teach the people comething of their rights and protect them from the swindles of the small traders who were leagued to rob them. Of course, they went under assumed names, but they were ail discovered because they refused to drink vodko (whisky) or take bribes. If their habits had been dissolute and they had shown a readiness not only to take all bribes that were offered, but to force payment from those who did offer them, they would not have come under suspicion."'

'• You mention the small traders who rob the peasants," said Ivan, as Mr. Hartmann paused. "How is that done?" " Generally by combinatios with the stanovoi or chief police officer of a district or Tillage. You will find in nearly every village a kulak, that is, a man with some capital, who makes money out ot the peasants by lending at high rates when they are in distress, buying their grain for whatever he chooses to pay. and otherwise taking advantage of their necessities. '• I know one case where several of the peasant* had arranged to load their grain on a barge and float it down the. river to a market town, -where it would bring a good price. They could thus get nearly double what the kaluk had been in the habit, nf paying them, and would be abl.i to deal directly with the consumer* of the grain. '•The kaluk beard of the scheme and went to the stanovoi to propmo something to their mutual advantajj . "He told what the peasants were intending to do and then said. "'These people «innot go more than thirty versts from home without your permission on their passports, and the place where they expect to sell their grabi is at least two hundred versts away. Now, you can make various excuses for not* giving them their passports, which are in your possession: they will have to sell the grain to mc and we can divide the profits." "The. stanovoi embraced the opportunity, aniiivhen the peasants name for their passports, he said they had been sent to the governor of the province and could not be expected back again for several weeks. He was very sorry it so happened, but there was no way in which he could let the men po more than thirty versts away without their passports, "as they would certainly be arrested and imprisoned if found beyond the limits without then* ■'The men waited a while and finally grew tired and sold the grain to the kulak fur what he would give.' , "What an infamous piece of business!"' exclaimed Ivan. ''You may well say so," replied Hartmann, "but from one end <.;f Russia to the other, peasants arc oppressed by the police and have no redress. Your father anJ I have paid a great deal of money" to the police just to remain undisturbed and* to keep them from interfering with' us under one pretext or another. Whenever they want money, they devise ways of raising it and keeping ■within the requirements of the law at the same time. "Once, while w<> were in the midst of the harvest, the local stanovoi gave notice that all the peasants on our estates must be called together to hear the law read to them. It was the busiest time of the year with us, and he intimated that he could not p-dt oIY the reading without great inconvenience. We had ■become so accustomed to this kind ot thing, that we \mderstood at once what he meant. We asked him how much the inconvenience would be, and he answered, 'fifty roubles.' He received the money and the law was not read until autumn, when the peasants had very little to do."

A traveller, who is well acquainted with Prussia and its customs (Mr George Keanau) says, that one of the most lucrative things that can fall into the hands of a stnnovoi. is the body of a man who is supposed to have been murdered. The law requires the stanovoi to go to the'pla.-e where the body is found and then remove it to the dead-house in the nearest village to await the arrival of the district surgeon. The wirarsm is generally in another part, of the district and cannot be expected for a day or two, perhaps longer. Few villages have official dead-houses, and, in default of such buildings, the stanovoi can place the corpse in any house he chooses to select. Under these circumstances, he o-oes to the richest man iv the village aud propo<es_to leave the gha-suy object in his dwelling. The man knows that the official has the right to do so aud quickly o-,mes to terms by paying anywhere from ten to fifty roubles to be left alone. The same thing will be done at the next house and the next, in -f a __ the whole village ttirl be "squeezed," and then ■ the body -srnr be deposited in au abandoned shed or, possibly, it may be carried a-way to exploit another village the same way. Instances have been known of the exploiting of three villages in succession with the same cadaver.

But we are forgetting Carl Pavloff in our talk concerning the Russian police and their crooked ways. (To be continued daily.)