THE RUSSIAN INQUISITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 15

THE RUSSIAN INQUISITION.

i* TERRIBLE STORIES FROM THE RIGA i j PRISONS. 1 I A GHASTLY RECORD. \ I (From Our Special Correspondent.) : i ' I 1 LONDON, August 21. < "Torture," says Mr G. K. Chesterton, "is i a thins from hell." We will not agree with 1 him. Yet. the Russian despots who are ( dally torturing their victims within prison ( walls have their apologists, and ugly facts < are too often glossed over or ignored. The "Daily News" has done good service this i week in publishing, through the medium of ( a Russian refugee, an account of the ter- ( rible sufferings inflicted at Riga upon cap- : tured revolutionaries and suspects. It 1 makes sickening reading, this tale of hor- l rors, but it is well that the world should t know what is going on in Russia to-day. The refugee, a young Esthonian, describ- i ed his first "interrogation" by the Lindvarden Punitive Detachment. He was told that unless he at once confessed his guilt he would be tortured until he did so. He replied that he had nothing to say. The narrative proceeds:— "I was then taken to a special building '. set apart for tortures. There the dragoons stripped mc of my clothing, and rained blows upon my head and my whole body. looln (an officer) after that ordered the dragoons to count thirty strokes of the nagaika (a Cossack whip) upon my body, i Disgusting and indecent jokes followed, and i again thirty strokes of the nagaika were i meted out. The pain was horrible "After my first 'interrogation' I lay for 1 several days on the floor unable to stir. 1 My whole body felt like one great wound, i One day lonin came back from an absence < in Riga, and ordered the dragoons to bring ; mc into the torture building. They did so and threw mc on the floor. lonin read aloud from some paper words to the effect ' that I belonged to the Lettish Social Democratic Union, and that I was the editor of 'The Workman.' When I declared this to ' be untrue, the dragoons fell upon mc, and began to strike with their nagaikas so severely that I could not help crying out. lonin dealt mc blows with a wire rod. The dragoons kicked mc, while the officers laughed. Then they raised mc to a standing i position, and lonin struck my head and throat with the flat of his sword. They '■ pinched the wounds upon my back, and poked sticks into them. Specially selected dragoons carried out the tortures. Many of the others pitied us, and expressed commiseration. They secretly brought ns cigarettes, sugar and tea." Another prisoner named Martinson, sharing the same cell with the refugee, was taken out and tortured for three hours, in i spite of the fact that his spine was badly injured from previous torturing, and his ■ throat so badly hurt that he could not speak. He was then thrown back into the cell, naked and unconscious. During the next three weeks he was tortured in the most horrible manner. lonin and other officers applied lighted cigarettes and candles to his lips and tongue, and rubbed salt into his wounds. Eventually he was taken out and shot A GIRL'S TORTURES. A girl named Amalia Kreger, suffering from a serious disease, was arrested along with her aged father and mother, and ; brought with them to Lindvarden. The daughter was forced to be present in the room during the torture of her parents, and the mother subsequently beheld the agony of her daughter. The torture took place in the storey above the prison cells so that the refugee could hear the groans ' and cries of the victims. Later on the old man revived, and was thrown one day into the cell. Two days later all three were taken to the torture chamber again. The narrative continues: — "One day—l don't remember exactly which —I was summoned to the dreaded room. There I found lonin, Prinz, several other officers and dragoons, and the three unfortunate Kregers. i We four were made to stand up together, which we were hardly able to do because of our great weakness. lonin showed mc various photographs which had been found in Kreger's house. J " 'Do you know these persons?' he asked mc. "I replied in the negative. i " 'Do you know this man?' he asked Amalia Kreger. "The girl replied: " 'No, I don't know him." "And, indeed, we were perfect strangers. But hardly had she uttered the words than the dragoons fell upon her and began to flog i her brutally. lonin trampled upon her body with his heavy boots, and the unhappy girl filled the air with desperate shrieks of pain. After awhile she was made to stand up again, and lonin asked once more: " 'Do you know this man?' "She again answered in the negative, and the flogging began again, this time lonin, nagaika In hand, taking part in it. All .. this was done in the presence of her old parents, who sobbed helplessly nt the sight. "These proceedings busted for three or four hours, when we were all four thrown back into our cells. "After two weeks of repeated torture Amalia Kreger was taken away to Riga, to i the' Central Prison. The girl was so exhausted and mutilated that she could not .stand, and the dragoons were obliged to carry her out In their arms, she being • driven in a cart through the fields to the station. The parents were released at the • same time. They parted from their daughter | with bitter tears. I witnessed the scene • from the window of my celL She is still i lying in the Riga Prison Hospital, although | two years have passed since then; ' a most pitiable sight of a mutilated woman,' as the prison doctor told mc later when I was also placed in the same hospital. She is still unable, not only to walk, but even to sit up, without help. Until now there has been neither trial nof Investigation of her cast*," REVOLTING DETAILS. During his four weeks in Lindvarden prison, the refugee was taken several times to the torutre chamber. Each time he was brought back senseless, and left for some days unmolested until lie had regained strength enough to rise and undergo a new "interrogation." The dragoons, among other things, dug deep holes in his legs with their spurs, and pulled out pieces of flesh with ordinary iron pincers. They ' also stripped the skin from the edges of his wounds. His wounds were not band-1' aged, his hoots were clotted with blood, and ' his linen bathed in it and swarming with vermin. Another prisoner named Jacob Zarln and his parents, and a small brother of twelve, ' were beaten by lonin with wire and gntta | percha rods. He pulled hair from Jacob Zarin's beard, kicked his old mother, and ' : tying the little boy to a stool, flogged him ' with great cruelty. Jacob Zarin's head and legs were squeezed into a halter so that his body was doubled in half. He was then! beaten from behind with a leaden weight Drops of benzine were poured upon his body and set alight He was battered, mutilated, and burnt all over, yet he confessed to nothing. A few days later, in the beginning of November, 190G, Jacob Zarin was court-1 martialled on the charge of adhering to the Social Democratic I'arty, condemned to death, and shot. _f j A LITTLE GIRL OF EIGHT. ' Soon after the Kreger family departed, the dragoons brought a little girl about eight years of age, Anna Puren, into the courtyard. The child, suspecting no harm, walked cheerfully along- between her guard. Her father was :i farm labourer, who had taken part in ti:' revolutionary movement of 1905, and since theu bad been

hiding in the forest. The family was entirely without means, and therefore the aild, >her mother, and her grandparents ad been h'-rlng in the Ringsmundshof almsouse. The Utile girl was accused of havig taken food to her father to his hiding lace in the forest. lonin gave the order iat she was to be flogged. When the risoners in their cells heard the heartmding childish screams, they coulu not re'aln from tears, and vowed sooner or later > take vengeance upon the persecutors, oon afterwards her mother and grandarents were brought into Lindvarden, and kewlse flogged with nagaikas. Later the nild was set free, but the mother (also Mled Anna Puren) and the old people were ransferred to Ogern. During the refugee's presence in the Lindvarden Punitive Detachment, the majority of those tortured were between the ages or eight and seventeen or between fifty and eighty. Those between the age* of twenty and thirty comprised the smallest number of victims. All the cases descnoed, and great number of other, the refugee witnessed with h*s own eyes during the four weeks he pas.-;ed in Lindvarden.