THE SIBERIAN SUICIDES AND HUNGER STRIKES. (From The Times.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 17

THE SIBERIAN SUICIDES AND HUNGER STRIKES. (From The Times.)

The ghastly Btory of the flogging and the subsequent suicide of ladies who, as political prisoners, were incarcerated at Kara, in Eastern Siberia, is now fully confirmed. No less than five letters, written by four different persons actually living in Siberia, have been received, and the details given by these correspondents who are on the spot are confirmed by other communications from St. Petersburg. The latter emanate from certain parties who have connections with official circles, and it is known that the Government has been supplied with information on the subject by its agents in Siberia. It appears from this correspondence that the tragedy which happened in November 1889 was the outcome of a long struggle between the authorities and the female prisoners entrusted to their care. More than a year ago the female prisoners lodged a formal complaint againßt Masukoff, the director of their prison at Kara. He bad, in a most unwarrantable manner, insulted 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 Soluzeff Kovalsky'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 sense 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. Here, 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 " himger strike." A long and fearful experience has shown that, as 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 true. Masukoff had resigned ; out theu the Governor-general Baron Korf) had refused to accept his resignation. Everything, therefore, remained as beiore, 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 pronpod to another prison. The news was a deliberate I'aJsoljooc),

invented in order to in&we the prisoners to> take) fo9d. It nevertheless showed how much the Siberian authorities fear cases of death due to 1 voluntary starvation. They may be ready to coittnit any villainy that can be concpnled, bub deaths udifer such awful circumstances become known, stir puWKG opinion, and attract general attention. When there remained no longer any doubt as to the deception practiced npon them.. tho women' organised their third and what proved to be their most desperate hunger strike. It lasted a Ml 21 days, and naturally many, in faot all, of the women would have died before he expiration of that time had they not been fed artificially. What this meanß can be left to the imagination 1 of the reader. It was only done by the eseroise of shocking violence. Soldiers and gaolers had to hold ckmnthe unfortunate women i wfailo the food was forced upon them in an unnattiral and mechanical manner. By these extreme meastrtes the authorities frustrated the prisoners' design. By the scandal and outcry that would have followed their death they had hoped to compel the deposition of the hated director of the prison, Masukoff. Ifc was at this juncture that Madame Nabyda Sihida, whose death was recorded in the first news received from Kara, resolved to sacrifice herself. She determined to insult the director in such a manner as would bring down upon herself a sentence of death, followed by execution byhanging. But, at the same time, the sensation this must cause would, she imagined, render it | impossible far Masukoff to remain at his post. After this prolonged hanger strike, only one woman besides herself still retained sufficient strength to bo able to stand on her feet and walk a few steps. It was on 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 ears. She was instantly seized, removed from the quarters occupied by the political prisoners, and locked up in the common convicts' prison. A report describing her" sob was sent to the Governor-general. This took place in August. After a longcorrespondence the director of the Kara prisons received from the Governor-general, Bardn Korf, instructions to the effect that whenever an act falling under the heading of "rebellion " was committed by political prisoners I they should be liable to corporal punishment. ! This document was read ont, both in the men's and the women's political prisons. The male political prisoners, after considering a while the full purport of this order, sent to the director of their prison a petition. In this document they warned him that, having no means to defend themselves against such otttf ages, they would destroy themselves in a body if any of the political prisoners were flogged. Further, they requested him to telegraph to St. Petersburg, soliciting the fluppreeoion of tho obnoxious order. The director, however, refused to take any etep in the matter. Upon this the prisonere contrived to hold a consultation among themselves, at which a proposal was made that rather than live under the threat of such an outrage tbey should all take poison. This, they urged, would constitute such a protest, such a manifestation of outraged dignity, that it would not fail to excite general indignation and render the execution of the infamous order impossible. Such was the state of mind of the prisoners that the majority were willing to commit suicide even before any one had been flogged, and as a protest merely againt the order that sanctioned flogging. But a» several of the prisoners were not in favour of 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 the promulgation of the new regulation, the following order came from the Governor-general, Baron Korf : — "Apply, according to regulations, the corporal punishment to Nahyda Sihida, for having insulted by action the director of the prison." The 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, no corporal punishment can be inflicted without a medical certificate of this kind. The prison surgeon, Gurvioh, in response to a summons by telegram, examined Madame Sihida, and then went to see the superintendent of the common convicts' prison, Gomulezki. He explained that Madame Sihida was in a weak state of health, and was under treatment for disease of the heart. Consequently, Gomulezki telegraphed to Shamiline, the chief director of all the common convicts' prisons pf Oriental Siberia, explaining' $&£4£jA surgeon had refused to be present afoiSwHEfcution of the order. The surgeon's rensospjMfejpj that, not only was the prisoner under rJMOTaI treatment and in an unfit condition, but the law stipulated that corporal ..punishment shall ba 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 ayail. Sbamiline 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 fragging Madame Soluze,ff-Kovalsky out of bed, arrived at Ust- Kara, the" .village where the prison is situated. He proceeded immediately to the gaoJ, and half an hour later the preparations for the flogging were made. Madame Sibida, in spite of her .deplorable physical condition, was beaten without mercy. One hundred blows, duly counted, were deliberately administered. It b,ad been reported that, under the awful distress! and humiliation caused by such treatment, Madame Sihida bad poisoned herself. This, ifc appears, is an error, c siJy accounted for under the' circumstances. Madaino Sihida died in two dayn ( not from poison, bi^'b from the effects of/ the 100 blows she had received. Although Madame Sihida did not commit suicide,L*ljer companions died by their own bands. *In the same gaol there were three other female jpSltMcal prisoners— Mesdames Maria Kovalevskaia, Smirnizki, and Kalujuy. They had obtained permission to join Madame Sibida, probably for the purpose of nursiug 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 so carefully isolated that, so far, it has been 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 prison the men were not inactive, but showed equal determination and resentment. The male political prisoners, on hearing that Madame Sibida had been flogged, held another consultation. They numbered altogether 30 priaonerg, andthia time unnnitnnusly decided to kill themselves. They had secured a certain quantity of poison, and every prisoner bravely swallowed his share, then patiently awaited death, oaoh in his roll. Bnf rho quantity of poison they were able to smuggle into the gno{

"was not sufficient to insure prompt tefteot on all *>t them. The action of. the poison on most of the prisoners was slow, but two died in the course of a few hours. These were Bobokboff and Ivan Kalugoy. It was the sinter of the latter who had nursed Madame Sihida, and had also poisoned herself. The Convulsions of the two dying men, and the peouliar and sinister silence m the oells of the other prisoners, attracted the «ttention of the gaolers. Recognising that something extraordinary had hapton*7*?l y P rom P tl y summoned the surgeon. Witn the help of the guards, emetics were administered. Thus most of the 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.

—An American paper gives the following epitaph on a locomotive : " Collisions four or five she bore ; the signals were in vain ; grown old and and rusted, her boiler busted, and smashed the excursion train."

—It is stated that the inhabitants of 200 miles on the west coast of Africa consume 20,000 tuns of spirits a year. — For astronomical purposes the Eiffel Tower is even a greater success than anticipated.