Exiled to the Arctic Zone.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 9

Exiled to the Arctic Zone.

Stepniak, in the New Review. Siberia, the land of the exiles, is a vast country with many climates, many soils, and many towns, which are all places of punishment for those whom the Master of all the Rassias and the commander of millions of soldiers deems dangerous to his power. George Kerman has described to the indignant world our exile system as a whole. I will not retrace his steps in speaking of that national calamity of ours. My object is to say a few words about the exile into the far North not visited by Kennan, where the exiles have to undergo not merely oomplete intellectual isolation, but a series of most cruel physical and material sufferings, which make that form of arbitrary punishment just as heavy as, if not heavier than, th«

hard labour in the mines. Let me tell the reader the story of one of the early settlers in that inhospitable region, a certain Zalessky, a land surveyor in the province of Kursk. In 1577 he was arrested on the charge of having distributed a few socialist pamphlets, and exiled without trial to Verko-Yansk, a village in latitude 67deg 34rain., numbering 290 "’inhabitants, wretchedly poor, and completely savage. Tn that awful place, where he was at that time the only educated man, Zalessky remained for full eight year 3 without a book, without a newspaper, without a letter, suffering from the terrible Arctic cold, from hunger, and want. It was not the cruelty of the gendarmes which inflicted so dire a punishment for so trifling an offence ; we will not bring against our enemies any unwarranted charge. Zalessky wa3 simply forgotten by them. When, by mere accident, bis existence was discovered, an order was sent to Siberia to bring him back to his native country. As he had no money to make the journey at his own expense, he had to travel right across Siberia ou foot, under escort, with a batch of vagabonds sent to their native village in European .Russia. It took him a year to come to the Moscow central prison, which be reached in ISB6 ; there he Was met by a number of political exiles on their way to Siberia. One of them, wlio escaped afterwards, told me that the appearance of Zalessky was that of a man who had spent twenty years in a gloomy dungeon. Though under forty, ho looked i like an old decrepit man, with bent and shattered body, blinking, almost sightless eyes, and toothless mouth. It is not only the climate which works such havoo upon a man’s frame, but the life of utter misery and isolation, Whenever an exile is sent to a Dew place, where he is quite alone, his fate is always extremely hard. Here is another example of more recent date. In 1884 Jordan, a student of the Khark off Veterinary Schools was arrested for having taken part in the printing of the pamphlets of the peaoeful Socialists —those who were against political terrorism. After a year of imprisonment, namely in 1885, he was exiled with, out trial to Verko-Lensk (not Verko-Yansk), a town in Southern Siberia. On reaching this plaoe he wrote to his friends at Kharkoff asking them to send him at his own address all the new things issued by the secret press, saying that the local police superintendent was a good man, who did not open the letters of the exiles. This latter was intercepted by the Kharkoff police, and Jordan was sent off to the Arctic zone to Vilusk, lat. 63deg 45 min., where he had to live quits alone among the savage Yakuts. The sufferings end privations he underwent were such that he died there in 1888. When the number of exiles increases they mutually help each other morally and materially so as to make life more tolerable eveD in such places cursed by nature as Verko-Yansk, Sredne-Kolymsk, and Vilusk. Still, the sufferings and privations to which they ore subjected are extremely severe. These are non-inhabitable places, for Europeans at all events. Nova Zambia, which is visited by men only during the summer months, has a much milder climate than the Arctic region of Siberia. In the former the average temperature for a year is 13deg F., with 7deg below zero for the three winter months ; while in Verko-Yansk the average both for the winter and autumn -months is 31deg F. below zero, the average temperature for the three months of eternal night, December, January, and February, sinking to 53deg F. below zero, which is full 13deg below the freezing point of mercury, As to the average temperature for the year, it is only 1 degree F. above zero, the lowest temperature that has been observed at any point of the northern hemisphere. During the short summer the temperature rises, rapidly reaching 56 deg F. But with the warm season come the mosquitoeß, which are a plague of these regions more difficult to endure than cold. ‘ I never would have believed.’ says the correspondent of the Russky Vedomosty (Moscow), who has been exiled to these parts, ‘ that the insects could appear in such swarms. They literally darkened the light, filling the air with an incessant noise, covering, as with a black mantle, our horses, whose flanks were soon bleeding all over. Maddened with pain, the horses kicked and reared, but seeing that all was unavailing, they drooped their heads and submitted to the inevitable. In vein wo tried to protect ourselves with veils, traveling, notwithstanding the hot weather, in winter gloves and overcoats. The mosquitoes penetrated through the sleeves under the shirts, stinging the breast and the body, which ached as if burned wish fire. The more we struggled to get rid of our tormentors the more we opened the way to thousands more of them Ou arriving at the huts of the Yakuts we kindled a great fire, which made such a smoke that it pricked the eyes and choked the breath, though we lay stretched on the earthen floor. The mosquitoes disappeared, but as soon as the smoke dispersed a little, new swarms penetrated into the hut, covering all of us thickly.’ Such is nature in these regions. Now, what are the inhabitants, and their means of protecting themselves from its rigour? Wo will quote from the same authority a few lines describing the largest of these northern settlements, Sredne-Kolymsk, a * town ’ numbering fully 560 inhabitants. Most of them are of Russian extraction, but being for many generations isolated from all the world, and feeding exclusively on fish, they have lost the energy, industry, and versatility of Russian peasants. They are apathetic, lazy, and dull. It is considered a great sign of cleverness in a boy if he succeeds in learning to read and write in the course of eight or nine years. They know no trade, no industry, except fishing and occasionally hunting. The houses they live in can hardly be called houses, for they are badly-fitting wooden sheds, with no chimneys, because the inhabitants do not know the use of bricks. The houses are warmed with a fire lit in the middle upon the earthen floor, the smoke passing out through a big hole in the pointed roof. It is not surprising that such houses during the winter are 'infernally cold,’ to use the expression of the writer. Nothing grows, nothing can be got in these regions. Everything is imported from enormous distances, and is, therefore, exceedingly dear. Bread is sold at famine prices. Candles, soap, cotton wares, matches,

tire fabulously dear. ‘ln such conditions of the market-,’ philosophically observes this exile, ‘one has naturally to give np bread, Bugar, and the many other commodities we are accustomed to consider as indispensable for a civilised man. But fish, reindeer meat, fat, and wood for burning can be obtained.’ (Rnssky Yedomosty, 18S9, No. 94.) It is htrdly necessary to say that there is nothing in a place like that to satisfy the intellectual cravings of a civilised man. These are also to be * given up ’ as a matter of course. Suffice it to say that the letters from Russia take six months to reach Srrdne-Kolymsk. Thus the news received and the papers—supposing the exiles have money to spare for subscribing to any—are always six months old, and the post comes only three times a yenr.