HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6948, 23 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS.

Tire following communication his been received from a trustworthy source:—"A Bhort time ago some officials employed at the fort of Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg were arrested on suspicion of complicity with the Nihiliats. Uorresponding with this but not necessarily connected with it is the receipt of two letters from political prisoners confined in this fortress. Some of the details contained in the first of these letters have already been published. The second document, of great length, though written throughout with the prisoners blood, has just been communicated to us by one of the most prominent and influential Nihilist leaders. The letter is a description of the prison life endured by the Nihiliats condemned to hard labour and confined in Troubetskoi bastion. It is headed by a quotation from St. Luke, chapter iv., verse 12. The writer commences by expatiating on the horror of tbe cell, its damp walls, the little iron table, the bed— -Consisting of a sack of straw—and a rug 'as thin as paper,' the fcetid atmosphere, the narrow little window, choked up with duet and dirt, the foul pail on one side, tbe jug of bad water on the other. And, worse than all, there are no books no paper—there is absolutely nothing to do ; nothing to relieve the somplete solitude and silence. In vain the prisoner sends for the inspector ; who in reply to his appeal, hands him » copy of the prison rules. These, however, bear no aignatnre, an obscure copyist alone testifies to their authenticity, and there is no mention of the decree, nor its date, by which the regulations were established. The inspector states that the present rfyime. has been in force for the last sir years, and the Third Section (secret police) were held responsible for the actual state of affairs. As the same time the prisoner maintains that no one is sent to this bastion except at the express command of the Czar; and that the condition of its inmates is well known at Court. The illtreatment which he proceeds to describe he attributes to feelings of personal hatred against the Nihilist chiefs. A lengthy account is then given of the prison diet, which is often mouldy, sometimes in a state of putrefaction, and never sufficient. Dysed> tery and scurvy soon ensue, reducing the strongest to a state of the greatest prostration. But there is no difference of treatment in favour of the sick. One of the doctors attached to the prison, the youngest alone enters the cells, bnt he is afraid to couch the the patients, he dare not feel their pulses, and the few medicaments he \-entures to prescribe are usually countermanded by the senior surgeon. To the complaints of the prisoners be generally answers that there is no remedy possible. In the prison the strongest soon become ansemic, and those who are too feeble ro rise for the common necessities of life are not provided with the ordinary appliances iased for the sick, and therefore wallow for days in the most repulsive iilth. Thus human beings rot away and give off odours as of dead bodies before life is extinct. Even those who become mad under the stress of this fearful suffering and solitude are not treated any better. They are strapped down and beaten with the knout. All night their fierce yells resound through the prison, and their number is daily increasing, aa is also that of the suicides. The writer cannot give all the names, but he mentions Issaiev as having completely lost his reason, and Madame Terentieva, who died in a mysterious manner. It is said that she was outraged and then poisoned to hide the crime, the doctor certifying that the chemist gave the poieon by mistake ; but no inquiry has been Instituted or blame inflicted. Another lady Is now dying of phthisis, contracted in this contracted in this prison. Some of the prisoners are kept in undergronud cells, where a ray of sunlight never enters, where jffensive water oozes through the walte, and :ungus grows on all sides. Here lived Kiviatrovski, Priessniakou, and Sucnanov, before ;hey were hung. In these dungeons the rats ire the worst enemies, and yet it is in one of these cells that Madame Jakimova and her infant child are now confined. Day and night this lady has to watch and fight, so that the rats should not devour her baby. There is little or nothing that she can eat, yet she has to feed her child, and in spite of all has not lost courage. The treatment is arranged so as to emasculate tbe prisoners. The body is soon bent, and deprived of its strength, the face puffed out, the limbs tremble, and,the eyes, affected by the gloom and the atmosphere, are so diseased that they can hardly be opened. The prisoners being deprived of soap, their bodies are soon covered with layers of dirt. Combes are also forbidden, and it is fortunate that the males are shaved. But aB the women retain their hair for yearß without its being combed or brushed, they are literally devoured by lice. The men Buffer in this respect with their beards, which are not cut off nor are they even allowed to cut their nails. The only good thing about the prison is the clothes of the prisoners. Theße were selected some 50 years ago for ordinary criminals, and are well suited to resist the damp and cold. The hope that such suffering may be of use to the cause alone enables the prisoners to keep heart. The writer {eels convinced that his persecutors dare not despise the prisoners. 'This, , he says, 'we feel even in the depth of our prison, and this we clearly perceive when we meet people of administration.' For this very reason the higher officials avoid the prisoners as much as possible, the inspector sees them rarely, and the governor of the fortress never. Thus they are left to the mercy of the soldiers and gaolers, who are only kind to unconvicted prisoners, from whom money can be obtained. They never speak to those who are' sentenced; and refuse even to mention the day or date. Sometimes, in the night, The Procurator Mouravieff enters a cell to question a prisoner, and woe to the victim ■who refuses to sell himself to the Government. Torsur,e in some form is sure to await a recalcitrant witness ; but the temptation to obtain some relaxation of prison discipline, though eo great, rarely succeeds in producing revelations the exercise is taken in a yard protected by five walls, the prisoners walking in Indian file, with gaolers in front and gendarmes behind. If a priaoner chances to look in any particular direction, a gendarme will at once search to see if he can find anything. The cells are examined, and the dust and dirt turned over not to be carried away, but for fear something might be concealed underneath. To cough very loud or strike the walls of the cell is to be denied the pleasure of exercise. Towards the end of this very lengthy, letter, of which the above is only a summary, the writer makes a special appeal to the civilised world on behalf of the women, whose situation is far worse than that of the men. - The gaolers are depicted as showing no scruples. Under pretext of searching the women they often cause them to be stripped caked in the presence of a bevy of gendarmes, and this has been done even at seasone when euch exposure was especially painful to them. Though the gaolers are forbidden to enter any cell unaccompanied by gendarmes, cases of violation are not rare. Hysteria ia, of course, a common occorence among the women, and becomes a pretext for much violence and illtreatment. Anything to reduce pain, even a glass, of water, is systematically refused to to those who are ill, and the only way the prisoners can resent such treatment is by refusing the food. This is sometimes done individually, by groups, and even by all the prisonr.-rs simultaneously. But the only result is that of hastening the death of the weaker prisoners, who however, generally prefjir. death to madness. For years these revolts have occurred at different intervals, baft the rigour of the prison rules have not been relaxed. " Though condemned to hard labour the prisoners have absolutely nothing to do, and are driven mad by their solitude. Even the Bible is denied them. The letter concludes with a few very pathetic sentences. The -writer looks upon the document as his last'will and testament, and expresses his fervent hope that on the triumph of the revolution no effort will be made to avenge Ms memory on his enemies. He trusts the revolution will distinguish itself with humanity ; and he only asks that the penalty of solitary confinement, like the tortures of She Middle Ages, ehall for ever be abolished."