A CITY OF THE DEAD

Evening Star, Issue 16626, 8 January 1918, Page 4

A CITY OF THE DEAD

EX-TSAR’S PLACE OP EXILE. A PICTURE OF TOBOLSK. ''.A city of the dead.” “A living tomb.” This is how Harry Do Windt, the noted traveller, describes in the ‘Manchester Guardian ’ the Siberian, town of Tobolsk, to which Nicholas Romanoff, once Tear of all the Russias, and his family have been exiled. De Windt writes:— “ Tobolsk is the ancient capital of Siberia, and contains 50,000 inhabitants, largely composed before tho war of Germans engaged in the leather and tallow Prides. It has been stated, that the exisar was conveyed to his place of exile •by special train from Russia,’ which, can hardly bo correct, seeing that Tobolsk can be reached only by liver. .1 had to travel there for five days from Moscow via NijniXovgorod, up the river Volga to Perm, thence across the Ural Mountains by rail to Tinmen, and down the Irtysh River. ” Tho province of which Tobolsk is chief town is eight times tho size of Great Britain, and is sparsely peopled by Russians, Tartars, and fur-clad Ostiaks and Samcyedes; yet it was once of considerable commercial importance, which, owing to the Trans-Siberian Railway, lias now greatly decreased. “ On approaching it from the river, and viewed from a distance, Tobolsk presents an imposing and picturesque appearance, which is quickly dispelled on closer acquaintance, for the place then assumes a listless, lifeless apearanoo, which sinks into the soul. There is an upper and a loner town, the former being the citadel, which consists of a cluster of whitewashed buildings overlooking the river from the summit of a precipitous limestone cliff.

“It is approached by a steep carriage drive, and here the ex-Imperial family probably reside, for the citadel comprises the Governor’s palace, Government offices, and a golden-domed cathedral, whence there is a fine view of the river and cres-cent-shaped city, which chicily consists of drab-colored weather-bleached wooden buildings in various stages of decay. “Neither they nor tiie streets are kept in decent repair, and as the latter are paved with rough planks, which have rotted away in places, it is somewhat risky to drive after dark, for the town is but dimly lit. Tbo constant clatter of traffic along these wooden thoroughfares becomes maddening after a. time, for it resembles the incessant rolling of thousands of drums, and is generally prolonged far into the night. The best hotel was old, dirty, and comfortless, and permeated, like many of the streets, with an odor of sewage, for the drainage here is of a very primitive description. “There was a theatre (generally closed) and a so-called cafe chantant, which was unpleasantly suggestive of some low-class dive iTj New York or Gan Francisco. Amusements there were none, by day or night', except the arrival or departure of a river steamer, which appeared to afford the inhabitants their only relaxation. “Some of the shops were fairly good, especially those for the sale of antique jewellery and silver, where sleeve-links, scarf-pins, and other articles fashioned in the shape of a boll were constantly offered to mo. For Tobolsk is as proud of its boll as Lucerne of its lions or (Berne of its bears—‘ the Bell of Ouglitch,’ which, for tolling the signal for an insurrection, was banished here by a Tsar of the sixteenth century. “In the Dark Ages Siberian exiles were deprived of their nostrils by means of redhot pincers, but this being obviously impossible in the case of the metal offender, its suspenders were publicly removed in the presence of the Tsar and a huge concourse of people, and this unique exile has now found a resting-place in the local museum. “Tobolsk presents at all seasons of the year a drab and desolate aspect, especially in summer, when the only trace of greenery is a public garden composed of stunted birch and cedar trees, dusty shrubs and scentless flowers, intersected by weedy paths ankle-deep in wet weather. A dilapidated and deserted band stand occupies the centre, and near it is a stone obelisk with the inscription ‘To Yermak,’ the dauntless warrior who, with a handful of Cossacks, captured Western Siberia- three centuries ago from a formidable Tartar force. “The prison hero is the most dismallooking structure, inside and out, which I have over beheld, yet it is well in keeping with its mournful surroundings. This, in short, is a city of the dead in more ways than one, for Tobolsk has the highest death rate of any town in Siberia, a fact partly attributable to defective drainage and partly to the extensive and stagnant marshes by which it is surrounded, and which are a fruitful source of every malarial disease. “Looking down from the citadel on a summer evening on the town below the view is invariably concealed by a lake of dense, fever-laden mist which has crept in at sunset from the neighboring swamp. Summer is a season of dull, grey skies, incessant rain, and swarms of mosquitoes; winter of intense cold, combined with damp—a climatic combination unknown in other parts of Siberia, which elsewhere is invariably sunlit, dry, and bracing. Political exiles have told me that they would rather serve a five years’ sentence in the depths of Russian Asia than reside here in comparative freedom for six months, although it is much nearer Europe.’’. *