A CONVICT'S ESCAPE.
A SIBERIAN DRAMA. ' STORY OF THE TSAR'S PRISON-CANCB. TOLD BY THE ESCAPEE. (DT TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Auckland, June 10f "Yes,' l escaped. I have como to your country, for the shelter of your English nag. I escaped after many years. Ah, it is from lieil unto the' poaco of God I coma." A man of under 40 years 6f age, but looking nearer 50, was tho speaker, and ho had como to New Zealand from a Russian convict prison in Siberia, whence lie had escaped, having staked his life on his slender chances and won. "You may write my name down ; as Schopkin—it's only part of it, and I've taken a new name in my freedom," he went on to say, when asked to, tell his story to a "Herald" reporter.' THE CONVICT'S BRAND. At first ho declined to say anything about his experiences, but finally consented to "let you peaceful people in this happy country know how happy you, should bo compared with the hopeless, souls in the living death and iron cruelty of the' detested Siberia. Tjook"— . , He rolled up his shirt sleeve to the shoulder and showed his brand "C.K.A." branded into tho flesh with a, hot iron. • 'That moans exile convict," he went on to say, "and it would have been on my face, one letter on each cheek and tho other on the' forehead, had not.the branding officer bMn...brib^.'_'.;,Well, j 'l.'carry other 'marks, too—marks of the knout and the lash, for I escaped before and was caught." "You-speak English woll," observed his listener. • . ' . "I think I do," he replied. "I was educated in your language in Russia, and perhaps forgot much, but since my escape I have been on English ships and in Australia, and that helps ine. My father was a wealthy- land Qwner, and I was. sent to the high school it Kazan and aftenvards to thp University of Moscow, where I formed one ■of a zomlyohostra—that is, a club or laud group of students from the same province. Wo woro a riotous lot in those careless days. Nihilism was rife, and I became ono of a little, group who used to meet in secret to. prepare-revolutionary papers. Woi.wero only youths and did not understand what fire we were playing with.
BETRAYED AND SENT TO SIBERIA. "Wo woro betrayed and our premises were, raided, and. I and several others wero caught.: The trial was a mockery. Youth or ignorance, was ho defence, and we were condemned to 'ten years' ■ imprisonment. My. friend's and relatives tried every possiblo meaqs to secure iny pardon, but iii vain. My. father sought to influence tho Tsar, but was presented with a police order not'.to travel beyond the boundaries of liifc, own province. I was shut in the Moscow forwarding prison, and was almost starved for a week, and then with-a lot of, others was shut in a cage on a bargo for tho journey to ionisk."My companions seemed to have been ' brought from the worst dungeons , in Russia. They wero attired in the filthiest cloth- ; ing, and ( were; indescribably dirty. At , Tomsk we were disembarked and chained in A a ,We. were, subjected to all sorts of indignities, and were lashed if wo limped. Wo were reviled in.tho coarsest language by our guards, and were left to sleep on the cold grouttd in our filthy ragsand yet we, woro ,'political,' supposed to be treated with less severity than the ordinary convict. . " One prisoner, a mere lad and in delicate i health, fell down in utter oxhaustion. He was lashed till tho blood dyed his clothes, and ho lost consciousness. Do you wonder that our hearts' we're bitter?"'. Continuing his storyi Schepkin said tho -gang'were marched to the mines, and, upon 'arrival, it was found that tho usual official ! blunder had been made, and, instead of being sent to the mines, lie and several others of the samo gang had really been condemned" to the ; prison fortress at Schlusselburg,- on an island of'the Neva,. noar'Lako Ladoga— the prison where, common rumour had it in : Russia, there was a dungeon,. through winch a. deep stream flowed into tho Neva,' and many a prisoner Went out through the flood gate a i corpse. ■. The error, however, was ■■ "rectified" by an official, who calmly erased the namo of tlio prison on the official documents,. and substituted Siberia." j SUFFERINGS AT THE MINES.
"Shortly afterwards," lie went on to say, "tliero was a' mutiny, and I was mixed up ,in it/; and for • our trouble wo were drafted to the Kara mines, and to ono of the worst . places there. Wo were chained to wheeland from dawn to . dark, wo were worked in gangs'liko'so many cattle,' beaten V and insulted 'on' every possible'pretoxt. Tho / shameful indignities heaped upon botli male v." and female prisoners aro unpunishable.' ' V " Could the peoplo in this sweet country see but ' one of the thousands' of tortures ; inflicted on the prisoners at Kara they would go on their knees daily, in gratitude. I take off, my hat to your English, flag. I go on my knees before it. I thaiik your • country, for the haven of refuge I find." The: ''Herald"- representative, mentioned tho naturalisation law, and the Russian bocamo. excited. "You 'tell:-me I can becoiuo a subject of your English: Crown?" ho questioned eagerly. " Yes, after certain formalities." . v /■'•'<"'Md;>.then 1 am the same as, all you •>.. people? I claim tho. English flag as my . flag? ■' Could I he under its protection in another country P" '"Ho'was'assured that, onco he became a British subject: tho protection- of tho flag .was his'everywhere. The intimation seemed ' 'to';.come as a relief after* some great" sus-' ponso, as ho'foll back on his bed and gavo way to.'unrestrained sobbing, , so that tho interview Was interrupted for soino time. ■ It 1 was plain, -too, that tho man was suffering . from utter breakdown, and it was with dii- ■ ficulty ho told'the rest of his story. .
ESCAPE AND RECAPTURE.; ; ■ When ho resumed, lie said that after'about sovon yearn at Kara ho saw a chance "of oscape, and made a dash for the taiga (forest), 'being fired upon by three guards as ho ran. Ho gained the shelter of tue woods in safety, and was at largo for two months, whoa the approach of winter drovo him out .of the forest to search for food, and ho was recaptured near Ncrtchinsk and returned to Kara. Ho was sentoncod again, but the sentence was .not communicated to him. Ho supposed it was exile for life, for soon afterwards he was branded. After that escape ho was heavily ironed, continuously, and ho bears the marks of the knout laid on unsparingly upon his return to Kara, aild will carry them all his life.; By day ho was chained to' tho heavy, lowframed carts used in conveying goods and .'material from place to placo, and at night ho was chained to tho wall, aiid occasionally with a wheelbarrow .chained alongside to his [body: The food".wis; the roughest and coarsest,-but still it was plentiful enough and so the daily round went on, year after year, the convicts' treatment depending on tho temper of the guards. Fragments of the world's news filtered through occasionally but for the most part the convicts remained in utter lgnoranco, of anything outside tho prison's fiendish practices. "Hundreds of incidents I. could, give you " h !° s , een . a ". convict's faco slashed with a knife by ; a drunken guard : and tho poor wretch had to suffer in silence'Women marking at tho mines havo been de-' : graded in-tho most fiendish.maimer in front of. scores of their brutal, guards.. Men have benn. forced to submit to'nameless indignities
• r ' for the -amusement of. guards ; alter .some ,: ' ■ drunken debauch. . Prisoners haVe: been murdered by tho guards in fits oft temper— ' and nothing was over said—in fact, we envied the murdered ones their place. HOW HE COT AWAY. .. /'Eight years I went through that daily round of torture; After my recapture I knew ■ nothing of the outside world, did not even • / know • of. the- troublo, between Russia and Japan. One day I was released from; my •chains to do some especially.,-heavy manual : v /labour. It was spring time, and the snows " were melting: away,: and the country looked so fresh. A mad rush of blood surged into my brain, and before-1 scarcely , knew what I was doing I had knocked my guard over ' with a stone I was liftingj and'ran. Iheard. . ,the s shots ; and the whizz ,of bullets as, in a dream. I was hit on: the. arm, but did not ' : feellthe woundi - I ,was mad'with the'intoxication of the thought of liberty. I would ' be killed before I , would be taken again. I ,i felt as one committing suicide; I thought I was to die. " I was hunted by dogs, but I baffled them in the forest, and-wandored for weeks and weeks, living on loaves. / I climbed, trees and snared birds, and ate, them raw. After ■■ a while I fell in with two men,' themselves - escaped, convicts. • The country there is ter.v. rorised escaped prisoners—men- capable of- almost any kind' of crime—but fortunately tho two I met were kind-hearted men, and I they helped mo with food; and gave me a < knife. Hiding by day and prowling by night, -/ with almost daily: narrow escapes, I got down near,-Yakutsk, on the Lena River, and then', foil ill; but some who, found me • \' shejtered me, - and nursed ' me. How good their kindness was aftor those long weary ■ years 1
HELPED BY ENGLISHMEN. ;" One of the peasants was engaged for . somo service by two Englishmen who were : , travelling through Yakutsk" to Okhotsk, ! fid," lie told them about me. - If it hadn't been for them. I might be back at Kara mines - . or dead-.by now. Nobly they. helped me".. They spared .no expense, and smuggled-me ~ through, at one time concealed in the bottom of a cart; at; another as an r English servant, with a forged'' passport. How my heart beat into my mouth ; when the pass- -,- ports were being examined, but those two Englishmen spent, gold like water, to ;,help'an unfortunate—such is the chivalry of the Eng- , lish. -.1 was smuggled on board a little sail.ing boat at Okhotsk, and firiaUy got to-Tokio, ;in 'Japan.' -Then , those magnificent : friends. . found mo again, helped me liberally with money," told ' me to ? make for the English . ooloniesj:and'mentioned Newt Zealand;, and so ; by''a roundabout waj' : *1 came here—and I.am free." '•: - .. - ' ;. ...... Schepkin is now in kindly hands in Aiick- . : land. : His frame, wasted by, of siifler- ; ing;; : is "now being built up to health'.and strength again.. Curiously enough, the pub-' . Ijcation/of: the convict's story , has'; led to a little re-union of ex-Siberian prisoners. Two. ; other, men who had escaped came along to; , offer; greetings -to the ' newest arrival, and they report that there are two if not three' : . Russians. in . North who escaped from Siberia, and all are now resnected-citi-zens of,"the 'Dominion. :; '; '„ 7 • ; .
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 221, 11 June 1908, Page 7
Word Count
1,828A CONVICT'S ESCAPE. Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 221, 11 June 1908, Page 7
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