THE RUSSIAN REVOLT.

Evening Star, Issue 12768, 22 March 1906, Page 7

THE RUSSIAN REVOLT.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. A DARING ROBBERY. ST. PETERSBURG, March 21. Twenty men armed with revolvers entered the Mutual Credit Society’s Bank, in the centre of Moscow, just before closing time, and covered the assistants with their weapons. The gang escaped with 850,000 roubles in gold and notes (about £85,000), evading the police who had been deputed to guard the banks. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 7.36 a.m.) The Daily Express s ’ Moscow correspondent reports that after overpowering the bank guards the gang placed a larae infernal machine in the middle of the building, threatening to blow it up if there was the slightest attempt to raise an alarm. They then locked the clerks in the inner rooms while they ransacked the desks and safes. The whole operation only took fifteen minutes. THE AGRARIAN RISING. the bill of costs. ST. PETERSBURG. March 21. (Received March 22, at 7.36 a.m.) Hie Russian Government Commission estimate that the agraian disturbances in twenty provinces, excluding Conrlnnd and Livonia, caused damage to the landlords to the extent of £5.200.000. Eight hundred houses belonging to German landlords in tbs Baltic provinces were burned. BAdv*ER.QM MANCHURIA. An interesting account of a regiment’s return from Manchuria was given 1 to an ‘Evening Standard and St.- James’s Gazette’ representative by an intelligent soldier, who having with his comrades caphirod a train ta take them hcm-e, rrrrmediately after bis return fled to London for fear of prosecution. “Ln October of last, year,” he said. “I was stationed with my regiment at Ekaio-rina-Nicholskaia, north-west of Yladivostcck. On the 15th of that month we held a mass meeting, in which it was decided that we should trace our way backwards cirselvcs. Two days afterwards, in company with the non-commissioned officers, who marched in. the ranks with us, we set out-, despite formal prohibition and threats, but apparently to the great delight of the inhabitants of the town, who End been suffering very much from looting and robbery. Badly fed and bady clothed, we were in no condition to face the hardships of a Siberian winter. At every stage we had to leave comrades behind to take their chance with the hungry wolves, who followed us day and night. —Bonfires of Farmhouses.— “ Every time we came to a village onr hungry men invaded the houses and seized every particle of food. At nights, to keep oruraelvei warm, we crowded round huge bonfires made from the debris of demolished hovels, or else we set farmhouses on fire, and camped round them. The terror of our name preceded us, aud oftentimes on our approach the terrified villagers would flee to the forests, leaving their property a pray to the returning army. For more than two months this march of ours continued, our dwindling ranks being froih time to time recruited from other bodies of trops who had gone before us. At times we had to leave the high road to get sufficient provisions, as the villages had already been plundered by men in- front of us. Only a scrap of a uniform here and again and the' rifles showed that we belonged to the army, and the rest of our clothing being mostly that- of the peasants looted from the villages. The whole of Siberia is now covered with troops on the solitary march home through the northern wilderness At times they are joined by revolutionary agitators who goad them into acts of senseless destruction. —-A Captured Train.— “At last we reached the railway station of Verhne-Udinsk, sixty miles east of Lake Baikal, where we found several goods trains. We soon captured the station, took possession of the trains, and manned the .engines with soldiers who were mechanic

by trade. Though our journey became quicker, it was scarcely less exhausting, as the goods and cattle vans were terribly overcrowded with soldiers, all of whom wanted to find places in the same train; The train stopped from time to time to take in provisions, which was effected by means of armed raids on the nearest villages. When we aprotiched the Russian frontier a rumor got abroad at a small station that the authorities had been sending out a train to intercept and punish us. So we made the engine put on all speed, and, having crossed the frontier, we disembarked just in front of Oheliabinsk, in Russia. Without much difficulty I reached Moscow on another train, but left the town again, feeling not safe enough in Russia for the moment.” “ CLEANING UP THE MESS.” Tire Riga correspondent of tho ‘Tribune’ describes a visit paid to General Sollogub, who hffl been appointed Governor-General of the revolted Baltic Provinces. He says ”He is the man for the job, if tho job consists—as in part it undoubtedly does —in cleaning up the nless for, which the Government Ore more or less responsible. Sollogub will clean up this mess, pitilessly, remorselessly—there is, perhaps, no other immediate Way; he will not be too particular, for Lett and Jew and German are no kin of his, nor are tho masses of great moment to his class. He is a man of courage, _ energy, and determination. I asked him whether ho was not afraid of being assassinated. ‘That is their bush ness, not min©,' was his reply. Her© in the city Sollogub’s chief difficulty is the lack of. a sufficient police force. ‘ There should be 2,000 men in Riga, and We carl only afford about 400. The war has crippled our finances, and we haven’t the money to pay an adequate polios fore©,’ he explained. The revolutionists are alive to this fact, and the meagre constabulary is actually in a state of terror. Yesterday five policemen were ‘executed.’ The poor fellows had been ordered to search a house, and they were ‘ hindered ’ with revolver shots. Thirty io forty thousand soldiers are rounding up 'the rebels in the provinces. They have been maddened by pictures of their mutilated comrades, and are out of hand. Men are shot and stabbed on the bare word of their German foes, and their bodies, ns often as not, are thrown into ponds, rivers, or any easy place of riddance. No record is kept of these nameless dead. The Russian Government have determined to put what is sometimes called ‘ th© fear of God ’ into the insurgent Letts, so that the spirit of rebellion be crushed for several years.” A RUSSIAN PRISON. A Russian student refugee gave the following account of his arrest at, imprisonment in, and escape from Kieff :—“Atabout two o’clock in the morning on December 15 I was suddenly awakened by a number policemen and secret agents forcing tneir way to my bedroom. Without being given time even to di-ess, I was hurried out into the bitter night air. On my way to tho prison I saw several batches of prisoners from all parts of the town going in thß same direction, escorted by mounted police and Cossacks. The forty odd prisoners who made up the policemens bag for the night comprised men and women of every age, all shivering in the keen frosty air, and also a few boys and girls from about twelve to fourteen years of age. When all the police forays had given up their parties of victims, we were driven at five o’clock in the morning into a cell about 10ft by 15ft, which was already occupied by numbers of prisoners lying on the floor pell-mell. Their reception consisted in an outburst of curses because we came to rob them of what little space and comfort they had already. Obeying tho orders of the gendarmes on duty, we tried to lie down, one beside another. There was not space enough for all of us to do so, though we were packed together like sardines. Sleep was out of the question, because of the cries of the women and children. —Running the Gauntlet.— “In the morning th© door was opened, and some soldiers with whips in their hands forced their way behind the prisoners and drove us to the bathroom. Our way lay between two rows of soldiers, who rained blows in every direction. This was repeated on onr way back. “By this time the women and children were screaming with pain, whilst we men clenched our teeth in the determination to seize tho first opportunity of getting our own back. Some time later breakfast was brought in—bread and water—but oinly enough for the first fifty-two prisoners. Dinner, which consisted of cabbages in a putrefying condition, was also only served out to them. Protests were rewarded with blow's, the speakers being dragged out of the cell and cruelly knouted. At supper time. we received at last some water to quench crur burning thirst. No food for us, the second batch of prisoners, till the second day, and then only a meagre allowance of execrable quality. Every morning we had to run the gauntlet, and if any noise w as made day or night the prisoners nearest the door, whether innocent or not, were dragged out, and usually came back with their shoulders tom open. —Women’s Agony.— “ Our sufferings increased day by day as wo felt more and more the lack of fresh air and the want of rest. A number of the women and five of the children fell ill, hut of course were not removed from the cell. Their continual cries of distress nearly drove ns mad, but there was no way out of it, the prisoners being practically surrounded by soldiers. The same hideous state of affairs prevailed in all the numerous cells of the building, from the roof down to the dungeons. On New Year’s Day (January 13), ' when our suffering had become ■unbearable, we broke open th© door of our cell while most of the guards were away praying for the C?zar in the prison chapel. Rushing out into the corridors we began to sing the ‘ Marseillaise.’ About twenty of us managed to overpower tho sentries and make good our ©scape into the streets. Our sortie was only partially sucessful. An alarm was quickly raised, and several of the fugitives were either shot down or recaptured. Fortunately for me, in the general turmoil I managed to escape to the house of a friend of mine. The same night he helped mo to leave the town in disguise, and, after some difficulties, and with the assistance of a few bribes, I at last wag enabled to cross the frontier.” MEALS FOR TWOPENCE. The condition of the German refugees in Riga and other towns is pitiable in the extreme. Men who were wealthy landlords, nobles ranking a little abovd the English country gentleman, are driven to ask for gifts of clothing from their countrymen in the towns, while a soup kitchen has been established for them where they can get a meal for twopence. ' Small wonder that they are bitter or that the least they desire for the Letts is that they shall be deported to North-east Siberia within the Polar circle which is the future that the Little Father intends, it is said, for his rebellious Lett children. INHUMAN BRUTES. At a midnight celebration at a fashionable restaurant high words followed on the refusal ox a student to rise while ‘God save the Czar’ was sung. The lad was shot dead by an officer of the party. ‘The Times ’ correspondent adds that the student Davidoff was anything but a revolutionary, and was merely resting his knee on a chair while the National Anthem was played. The wife of his murderer, Ofcanneff, mcated" and aided the crime, throttling one of Davidoff s friends who tried to disarm the assassin. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the same paper says that a ghastly incident occurred at the Nicholas goods station, A truck appeared full of corpses, which the authorities at Moscow had shipped for interment in the country, but which, by accident or design, was brought to St. Petersburg. An angry crowd quickly gathered, but was dispersed by Cossacks.