THE SIBERIAN SUICIDES AND HUNGER STRIKES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8793, 1 May 1890, Page 4

THE SIBERIAN SUICIDES AND HUNGER STRIKES.

(From Tho Times.)

The ghastly story of the flogging and the

subsequent suicide of ladies who, as political

prisoners, were incarcerated at Kara, iv Eastern I Biboric, id no,r fullj omfirmod.- No Ices, *h»u | five letters, written by four different persons actually living' in Siberia, havo been received^ and the details given by these correspondents )\ who are on the spot are confirmed by other jj communications from St. Petersburg. The | latter emanate from certain parties who have jj connections with official circles, aud it is known I that the Government has been supplied with | information on the subject by its agents in 8 Siberia. It appears from this correspondence 1! that the tragedy which happened in November 8 1889 was the outcome of a long struggle be- ii tween the authorities and the female prisoners entrusted to their care. More than a year ago the female prisoners lodged a formal complaint against Masukoff, the director of their prison at Kara. He had, in a most unwarrantable manner, iusulted and brutally ill-treated one cf their companions, Madame Soluzeff-Kovalsky. This lady was about to be transferred from the Kara prison to a prison at Verkne Udinsk. Acting under orders given Masukoff, an officer named Bobrovsky, whose ordinary business it is to attend to common law criminals to convicts and desperadoes of the lowest type, broke into Madame SoluzeffKovalsky's cell. Bobrovsky was accompanied by several soldiers, and he came so unexpectedly and at so early an hour that Madame Soluzeff-Kovalsky was still in bed. There was nothing to prevent the officer from withdrawing for a few moments so as to enable the prisoner to rise and dress herself. Bobrovsky and his soldiers were not, however, actuated by any such senso of delicacy, or even of common decency. They rudely seized their victim, pulled her out of bed and dragged her, while still in her nightdress, through the passages to the offices of the prison. Hero, amid the coarsest insults, she was stripped and a convict's dress put upon her. On hearing of this outrage her pri.on companions entered a formal complaint, but received no answer. Then the prisoners resolved to resort to that most terrible

of pretests which the extreme character of the

suffering endured in Siberia alone can have suggested—a "hunger strike." A long and fearful experience has shown that, a 6 a general rule, the Government pays no attention to the grievances of the exiles unless some scandal is produced by the cruel death of one or more of the victims. Hence the women of the Kara prison resolved to starve themselves to death unless the director (Masukoff) was removed. This, their first hunger strike, lasted 18 days, and only ended when Masukoff informed the prisoners that he had tendered his resignation.

The fact was truo. Masukoff had resigned; out then the Governor-general Baron Korf) had refused to accept his resignation. Everything, therefore, remained as be ore, and the women prisoners made a second hunger strike. This time it only la ted eight days, for Masukoff assured them he had received a telegram from the Governor-general accepting his resignation and giving him orders to proceed to another prison. Tho news was a deliberate falsehood, inveuted in order to induce the prisoners to take food. It nevcrthclosj showed how much the Siberian authorities fear cases of death due to voluntary starvation. They may be ready to commit any villainy that can be concealed, but deaths under such awful circumstances become known, stir public opinion, and attract general attention. When there remained no longer any doubt as to the deception practiced upon them, the women organised their third and what proved to be their most desperate hunger strike. It lasted a full 21 days, and naturally many, in fact all, of the women would have died before

he expiration of that time had they not been fed artificially. What this means can be left to

the imagination of the reader. It was only done by the c icrcise of shocking violence. Soldiers and gaolers had to hold down the unfortunate women whilo the food was forced upon them in an unnatural and mechanical manner. By these extreme measures the authorities frustrated the prisoners' design. By the scandal and outcrj' that would have followed their death they had hoped to compel tho deposition of the hated director of the prison, MasukoiE. It was at this juncture that Madame Nahyda Sihida, whose death was recorded in the first news received from Kara, resolved to sacrifice herself. She determined to insult tho director in such a manner as would bring down upon herself a sentence of death, followed by execution by hanging. But, at the same time, the sensation this must cause would, she imagined, render it impofsible foe Masukoft' to remain at his post. After this prolonged hunger strike, only one woman besides herself still retained sufficient strength to lie able to stand on her feet and walk a few steps. It was ou the 22nd day of voluntary starvation that Madame Sihida sent, by one of the guards, a request to see the director upon an urgent affair. Admitted to Masukoff's presence she at once called him a villain, and smartly boxed his cars. She was iustuutly seised, removed from too quarters occupied by tho political prisoner.*,and locked up in the common convicts' prison. A report describing her act was sent to the Governor-general.

Thi3 took place iv August. After n long correspondence tins director of tbe Kara prisons received from tbo (jf.n'ernor-gcncral, Barou Koif, instructions to the effect that whenever nu act falling tinder tbe heading of "rebellion " was committed by political prisoners they should be liable to corjiimil piirtislimcut. This ducunK'iit was read cut, both iv tbe Dion's and the women's political prisons. Tbe male political prisoners, after considering a while tbe

full purport of this order, Bent to the director of their prison a petition. In this document they warned him that, having no means to defend themselves against such outrages, they would destroy themselves in a body if any o f the political prisoners were flogged. Further, they requested him to telegraph to St. Petersburg, soliciting the suppression of the obnoxous order The director however, refused to take any step in the matter. Upon this the prisoners contrived to hold a consultation among theiwelvee, at which a proposal was made that rather than live under the threat of such an outrage they should all take poison. This, they urged, would constitute such a protest, such a manifestation of outraged _ dignity, that it would not tail to excite general indignation and render the execution of the infamous order impossible. Such was the state of miud of the prisoners that the majority were willing to commit BU'cide even before any one had been flogged, and as a protest merely againt the order that sanctioned flogging. But as several of the prisoners were not in favourof this course it was resolved to defer to the opinion of the minority and to wait. They had not long to wait. On October 27, three days after tho promulgation.of the new regulation, the following order came from the Governor-genera), Baron Korf:— 'Apply, according to regulations, tho corporal punishment to Nahyda Sihida, for having insulted by action the director of the prison." Iho words, "according to regulations," meant that the prison surgeon must examine the state of health of the person condemned to undergo corporal punishment, and testify to capacity of supporting such suffering. According to the law, do corporal punishment can be inflicted without a medical certificate of this kind The prison surgeon, Gurvich, in response to a summons by telegram, examined Madame Sihida, and then went to see the superintendent of the common convicts' prison, Goroulezki. He explained that Madame Sihida was in a weak state of health, and was under treatment for disease of the heart. Consequently, Gomuleeki telegraphed to Shamiline, the chief director of all the common convicts' prisons of Oriental Siberia, explaining that the surgeon had refused to be present at the execution of the ordtr. The surgeon's reasons were that, not only was the prisoner under medical treatment and m an unfit condition, but the law stipulated that corporal punishment shall be administered after a sentence delivered by a regular tribunal, while in this case the order only proceeded from the administration. Even this legitimate and legal protest was of no avail. Shamiline promptly telegraphed in reply the laconic command, "Execute without the Burgeon's presence." Still Gomulezki hesitated and delayed. But on November 6 Bobrovsky, the officer who had distinguished himself by dragging Madame Soluzeff-Kovalsky out of bed, arrived at Ust-Kara, the village where the prison is situated.' He proceeded immediately to the gaol, and half an hour later the preparations for -the flogging were made. Madame Sihida, in spite of her deplorable physical condition, was beaten without mercy. One hundred blows, duly counted, wore deliberately administered. It had been reported that, under tho awful distress and humiliation caused by such treatment, Madame Sihida had poisoned herself. This, it appears, is an error, e-Bily accounted for under the circumstances. Madame Sihida died in two days, not from poison, but from the effects of the 100 blows she had received. Although Madame Sihida did not commit suicide, her coinpauions died by their own hands. In the same gaol there were three other female political prisoners—Meadames Mario. Kovalevskaia, Smirnizki, and KaluJDy. They had obtained permission to join Madame Sihida, probably for the purpoee of musing and consoling her after so terrible an ordeal. As soon, however, as Madame Sihida died and their services and sympathies were of no further avail, they all three determined to sacrifice their lives for the same cause. Madame Sihida's three companions took poison and are dead. The authorities, greatly alarmed, at once adopted elaborate measures to prevent the other women political prisoners from following this example. Each prisoner was specially watched, and co carefully isolated that, so far, it has beeu impossible to get any news from or about them. Nothing further is yet known of what may have happened to them.

While these dramatic events were occurring in the women's prisou the men were not inactive, but showed equal determination and resentment. The male political prisoner?, on hearing that Madame Sihida had been flogged, held another consultation. They numbered altogether 30 prisoners, and this time unanimously decided to kill themselves. They had secured a certain quantity of poison, and every prisoner bravely swallowed his share, then patiently awaited death, each in his cell. But the quantity of poison they were able to smuggle into tho gaol was not sufficient to insure prompt effect on all of them. The action of; the poison on most of tho prisoners was slow, but two died in the conrse of a few hours. These were Bobokhoff and Ivan Kalugny. It was the sister of the latter who had nursed Madame Sihida, and had also poisoned herself. The convulsions of the two dying men, and the peculiar and sinister silence in the cells of the other prisoners, attracted the attention of the gaolers. Recognising that something extraordinary had happened, they promptly summoned tho surgeon. With the Help of the guards,. emetics were administered. "Thus most <of ther'lives were saved—at least, as yet no other death has been reported. Nor is it known what new measures, if any, the authorities propose to adopt.