HEROINES OF REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 192, 8 May 1908, Page 3

HEROINES OF REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

■It. is difficult: to realise—and, indeed, since --the; thought of horrors is unhealthy, it is not; desirable that, we should realise —how. at this - moment ,meh and' women m Russia are suffering the very -torments, that form; the. basis .'of melodramatic plays : and nov'e'fa of Russian:life/' A'nd yet th'o world should snow . something ofMts .bravest men, and it is: well that _a: book-on .."Heroes 'and'. Heroiis.es of' Russiaj Builders, of \a New Commonwealth " should' hive ; been' written.'by- a distin'g nished :who.'''.is familiar with.i.mariy ' stories of. the Revolution. 'It : is'staled that this book has-been: suppressed by the:,censor on'account of;the undesirable information'; it offers to the apostles ,of . unrest. . ;. 1 ' The most; amazing part of the' sk/try that M. Prelooker has to tell;(says "M.A.P." re.viewing .the ' book).' is the dcvotion.:-of tho women to. the. revolutionary cause., They ' are all women; of culture, many of noble birth, and yet in tho 'hope of being able to . dry at* least a few- of the tears'of; Russia's groaning millions,-: thoy have given, up their homes, sold, their costly gowns and furs, and jowols for .the'."cause,and have-gone bravely out;to/face death, aii'djworse than death. Of :'.these women, Catherine- Brershkovskaya ■,is'thc honoured,leader. She is'known as tho ; 4 'well-beloved jgrandmother''...of ijbhe revolutionists. . For twenty-three.': jears .-sKe ■ was in T carceratedJwih i.Sr.arious-prisons;?;in t Siberia, 1 ' sometimes in. solitary confinement, sometimes with,.,a fow. companions, in an Arctic climate surrounded.,by aii (jternity.of snow, .but.iiji- : daunted irr spite/ of. all. '-'.'Wc-may die ;in exile,:and our.ichildren may .die.: in{exile,: and our,: children's children may. di® in exile, but " something will come out;of it at : last." . . Catherine; Breshkovskaya is/ the daughter ' , of ,a Russian nobleman. For years sho worked; among the peasants, .teaching ■ them to read,.: ana'..often ' enough standing between' \ them and ; their; officials perseCTtors.;: After a 'while she and her husband wfato warned arid placedlunder pblicoisuperyision', and at last . she decided 'that' ' her ,'woEk for peasants, must' be. done in ;secret.: ■' She was - only twenty-six ; 'time, and had not long been ; marriedbut as,her jhusband declined ... to: risk oxile and death for; the. "Cause'," she , went out face,'.destiny; alone. She not only . donned tKe'garb of the peasant woman, but, . to make her. disguise more complete, she used' artificial; means,', suich 'as acid,' to pur- . pbsely | spoil;the ;skin;.and .the :tender .com-' .plexioh of her face apd hands, so as to make them look - coarse., and wtrinkled. ' • •- : . ■ ' ■ vFor ; -three -years' .this,'.'wonderful woman ' worked':among the peasants-ill.secret. Often . she had to leave a' village in a hurry tp avoid but, it . was':obvious- that' the. climax could'not be postponed 1 : for It is left ■ for'the'-reader to .shudder at the treatment meted out to this delicately nurtured woman who'desired:nothing; more than the" welfare , ' .of her country.; ' The' details of her first ex- ' pericnce of tlio "Blaek Holo" p.ro unspeakably awfur; but,:,tliey on the lady's otvn authority in. M: ,'Prelooker's.ibook. Of her;companions'"in'-that land of death, soino Wont mad, some committed suicide, 'and one lady , Madame Sigicia,: died -as the result' of a prison : flogging. t jladamo Breshkovskaya, however, survives.. ; At',lastyin September,! the authorities considered thait. ityenty-three years of . constant hardships,'privations,.' and various horrors in .prisons /were sufficient to break' tho health' and energy of any woman, and thoroughly ■; "reform", her. criminal .political convictions-, and- accordingly,.Madame Breshkovskaya was-alloyed to, return to European Russia, . . s ' ..- '. - Ono of the moEfc. interesting- of the Russian delegates at : the Socialist Congress held .in : Stuttgart last. August was Malle. Vera Figner, who began life .amidst aristocratic and military' t surroundings, her grandfather .' having' been' one - of tho famous generals of ; 1812. As a 'girl .she. was of a happy. and lively dispositiofr, and,. even Rafter' she' had definitely joined; the revolutionary party, she was always. frae~from the ascetic austerity so' often to be observed in persons burning with . the zeal of the reformer. V Consequently, when.it was;first announced that'this highspirited: yojing. lady had - been condemned to twenty years.:iir tho Schlusselburg fortress, her'co-revolutionists'felt' satisfied, that ,she i , had gone to Ijer death. But Vera Figner is another: of the, women of. Red Russia whom despotism cannot • kill.; She has come back from, the ;daTkness : not .only' alive, but more determined than ever to work for the triumph i of the "Cause.". The news that she had survived .Sclilusselburg scorns to have surprised everyone., ' Russian society Was startled at this news, because thoso incarcerated 'in this fortress are considered as buried alive, no intercourse and communication;with the outer world being allowod to them, even with their own nearest'relatives. . The: Schlusselburg fortress is :tragicaJly renowned for. the number of political',prisoners there_ who havo .become " insane, ,or committed suicide, or succumbed to various, ailments and diseases contracted during a short period of; confinement. 1 Looking at the other side of "the picture,' the -■ reviewer ■ remarks that ifc- is to x:nderstahd the position' of/'the authorities a little more clearly.' "The Russian bureau-' cracy is-face to face with foes that'are fearloss: and. implacable., As -thoy ask for no mercy,so ,'will they. give none. As they aro really to fling away their lives at any moment in the service of the Cause, so do thoy hold themselves justifiable in taking tho lives of others. . . The Women among the Russian .revolutionaries seem to top the record .ofxhuman courage; and yet, curiously enough, ,-tliey are true women in their' more sober -hours. Those who know them best speak of them ,as unrivalled in nursing the sick,. comforting tho sad, and cheering the broken, in spirit. Indeed, it is only on tho hypothesis of a violent revulsion of feeling that ;their most desperate' actions become at all explicable, on tho human piano of thoriht;" '