IN THE TORTURE CHAMBER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9305, 22 March 1907, Page 6

IN THE TORTURE CHAMBER.

RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE AND

THEm METHODS.

A Scotchman has sent a Glasgow paper

the following description of a torture chamber in Russia, for publication. The communication in question is said to have been written by a "victim" of Russian , political tyranny. The story brings back 1 the days of the Inquisition. The scenes ! described are almost too horrible to publish j but we give them as showing the methods adopted by the Russian police for wringing ■ confessions from prisoneTs even 'although > they may be innocent. ! A "BLACK-HOLE LIKE THAT OF CALCUTTA. On the night of Sakurday, the 25th November, 1906, I was along with 99 persons j who were arrested in a restraurant in Riga and taken to the Police Department. With the exception of four persons, all were liberated the same night; but the four detained, a detective named Davus pretended to recognise as important political j offenders, three of whom were subjected to ; a strict examination similar to the Bertdl- ; lion metihod adopted by prison authorities. Out examination concluded, without a charge or trial of any kind, we were thrown into a cell, <and fox two days 'ire- : oeived no food of any kind. On tine third day we were put into another cell, email and narrow, 'which already contained 17 person©. Here we received daily a small portion of black bread, but no water. The relief of our tormenting thirst depended entirely upon the caprice of the watchman, and when he was in an ill-humor he would brutally kick us back into our cell and lock the door. INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE. In (this unseeable cell were now huddled! 21 persons. During the day it was possible to accommodate vb standing, but in the night time it was hoxribde, as there was not sufficient floor space for us to lie down arid wen© forced to lie one upon the other. The foul atmosphere of the cell would also become at times unbearable, and none dared venture to open the window, as the sentinel opposite would shoot at sight anyone who approached it. All officials', from j the common policeman, warder watchman, spy, lose no opportunity of scoffing-ar jeering at the prisoners, and enjoy the right to abuse them with kicks and blows at \ their brutal pleasure. It was under these | conditions we were introduced into the j torture chamber. The torturing of prisoners is generally carried out during the ■ night ; it commences at 10 or 12, and continues until six o'clock in the morning. One after the other the prisoners are taken to the second storey of the building where there is a special torture chamber, with all the different instruments to hand. In. the middle of the room is a long wooden bench wih straps attached for fixing the prisoners down. On the walls are hanging lengths of rubber tube of various thicknesses, filled with lead, to each of which the torturers have affixed a pet sobriquet: — "The Lord's blessing," "God's meTcy," "God's love,' and so on. Besides these are also iron tongs, pincers, straight jackets, long pins, cobblers' threads, and all maMnems of inhuman, devices. LASHED AND SALT RUBBED INTO

WOUNDS.

The tortures are 15 miscreants in all, including the spy Davus, Gregus, the ovexBeeir of the Secret Police Depoi, his assistant Michijeff, and/ Otton, an ex-convict, sentenced several times to penal servitude. These named have mad© themselves famous through theisr inventive genius in methods j of torture. The names of the others are aot known to me. Very often they anre j the local landowniears and barons, and the leaders of the military expeditions. One instance waa especially severe, the district magistrate, Bajrooa Raden— a well-known hangmtui and^loodhound-^tdking an ac- j tive poirt in it. Fulfilling the same ghastly dnty were Baxon Recks, a notorious pogrom hero, and a few of the smaller barons and princes— -all favorers of the notorious "Black Hundred" organisation. The torture is usually carried out in the follow- i ing manner : — After the .prisoner has been dragged onto the inquisition room, his. fetters are taken off, and one of the spies informs him that he is now wholly in their power, and that they are at liberty to torture him or kfll him without being accountable far their actions to anyone. He is then advised to confess everything, to name has comrades and accomplices, and declare all ihe information he can. By doing so he will gain his freedom, and. a good situation will be found for him in the Protection Department. If there is no confession, then the torture is resorted to. The prisoner is stripped naked, and thrown down upon the bench and bound fast with the straps. He is gagged, with a wet cloth in order to stifle bis screams. Then- with the afore-mentioned rubber tubes— "God's mercy" ox "God's Love"— he TFoedves from 200 to 400 strokes. In order to increase the pain salt is rubbed into the wounds, and he is flogged' again until he loses consciousness.

FULLING OUT. HAIK AND TEETH.

When he is once more restored to conscitfusness the oross-examinatioii begins. If the victim refuses to speak, the pincers are requisitioned to. pull the nadls of his fingers. The long pins axe thrust through ,the tendons of hip hands and feet, and the hair is pulled singly or by locks out of bis head. If the prisoner still remains obstinate the fiendish cruelty is carried further. Davus, the secret, police spy, is epecially engaged with pulling out the .hair and beard, and if this fails he will beat the prisoner on the temple and other tender parts. The beating out of teeth is also resorted, to, and another nameless outrage. Regularly every day these awful tortures aTO°cainriedi out, until the wretched victim, unable to bear them any longer, acquiesces in the charges brought against him. It is not to be wondered at tha* sometimes the least stable confess to crimes they have never committed, and also denounce persons equally innocent.- Those, however, who Tefuse to speak at all are, by the methods of torture, maimed and crippled for life. Such was the case with Griming,

[ arrested in the end of October. For three weeks he was subjected to the most cruel and inhuman tortures, but til to no purpose ; and finally he was despatched to the prison infirmary and delivered to the court-martial for trial. When the arrests were made in November, however, some of the prisoners confessed and denounced Gnimng, and he was taken back to the Secret Police Department to be tortured ! a second time. His beard was extracted, ■ and what was left of his hair has turned [ quite grey, although he is not yet 24. I His face is terribly mutilated ; from many parts the skin is cut or seared off ; his spine is bent, and his Tibs broken. Grun- ! ing himself stated that Davus and Miohii jeff, failing to get any information from him, put a plank across his shoulders, and danced upon it until his back and ribs I were broken and crushed. Yet Griming j did not say one wcurd to implicate himself ! or his comrades.