VIOLENT DEATHS IN RUSSIA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10608, 10 November 1910, Page 1

VIOLENT DEATHS IN RUSSIA.

A GRUESOME LIST It is a significant pi cnomonon in Russian national life that as the country is lecovermg —at all events so it seem* to tho outside observer —from the effects of the troublous times of 1905 and lfllG,. the number of suicides has,nscn A wolk by Di Jankoff deals with the loss of human life by violent means in European Russia in the last few yeais, and is bjsed on official statistics, which however, .ire admittedly ncomplete. In 1905, tho pogrom or a-26,606 lues weio destioved by mmd i or by execution Th» total drcrr w < Tear bv until in 1909 onlv 81"0 pi i sons weie killed in tliese wa-ys These figuics include the suicides, which ha\ i risen, according to official figuies, from 85 cases in 1905 to 557 m 1906, 1803 in 1907, 3703 in 1908, and 4036 in 1909 Tho numbei of suicides is especially great in the laige manufacturing cities,, such as St. Petersburg and Moscow. Li the Russian capital the number has quadrupled in the last four years. Some ascribe the increase to tho despair in the ranks of the revolutionaries, and even m those of the more peaceful reformers, at tho failure cf their agitaton and tho trumph of tho reactionaries, i

While in 1905 the pogroms alone claimed 25,505 victims, only 1685 persons perished m, 1909 in so-called religious riots. Iu these periodical distur"bances, Dr. Jankoff explains, tho rcliy gious motive is now less apparent thai) mere lust of plunder. i Terrorist outrage? were icsponsible for 984 murdeir m 1905, 4262 in 1906; 6649 in 1907, 3518 in 1908, and'l929 m 1909 The effects of the futile'struggle between the revolutionaries and thd autocracy aie plainly discernible heie. They go'liand-jn-liand with the number of executions. From 32 m 1905, they rose to 798 m 1906, 664 m 1907, and 975 in 1908 Last year 1457 persons received the death sentence, but only 540 were executed, and 582 sentences were com-] munted tojpenal servitude. W*hat became of the 335-others no one knows. Officialdom keeps sdent about tliem^