RUSSIAN EXILE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12458, 21 March 1905, Page 2

RUSSIAN EXILE.

HOW SUSPECTS ARE ARRESTED AND KEPT IN PRISON, OR SENT TO EXILE WITHOUT (TRIAL. r

The arrest of 'Maxim Gorky gives additional interest to the account cf the maininei* dn which the Russian Government imprison suspects without trial, ■told to &n "Express" representative by iM. Alexeieff, wh» is now living in London.

'Six yeaa^3 ago M. Alexeieff was la medical student at St. Petea-sburg, within ■eighteen "months of admission to the manks olf (the profession. Like most unii'varsity studeiite dn Rusraa, he took an dniterest dn 'poliitids and in political economy, iamd ihe 'formed the acquaint.anoe of some of. the more intelligent working men lin Sti 'Petersburg, who •melt .oedasiojtuailly to dis'cu&s politioal economy 'and flaboutr questions. \r ■-•"■.-- ■'" ~ "The if act that I, a ■memiber of the well-todo-olass, asaocialted for any purpose with 'working men "mas enough to dna'w upon me the diilspleasure of the ■authbrities," vsiaid1 ithe exile. "Thifl was quite lenlougli to justify my remova,! 'and one night as I sat (reading a Russian i-eview there dame la knock at my door; ian officer: of the gendarmerie entered,;-an!d I-was placed under arrest. The g^daPßies searched my Tooms from top to^bottoln withoutt finding anything | of a compromising nature. There was 'nothing to find. Perhaps that was itself regarded as suspicious. At any rate, they imarched me off to; the House of Erfilim'inia.ry Detention in Shpalernays. Street, wMdh lies on the same side oif the Neva as tfshe Winter Palace, but some distance iaw>ay. The fcdiiress eif.St. Peter and St. Paul, oh the other side of the niver, ds reserved' for more eminent offenders. Tlieonly man in England nviho Otnas bean imprisoned in jSt. Peter land St. Paul iis Prince Kropotkin, whor was there many years ago. NINE MONTHS IN PRISON.

"At the Hous© ©f. Detention I was lodged in a. cell 'for inine months, and never brouight toj taual. No charge was ever formally laid against me. The 'information 5 pin which my 'anne&t was ordered was (never communicated to me, aad .i<3J( ftliis day I ihave no idea what it was. •'...■

'For nine months I iived in my cell, my food being passed dn to me through a hole •■in, t|he dioor. The political and criminiail' 'prisonisa's were lamiainged in alternate cells, so that they could not communicaSte with their cwm class.

"At the end tof niiiie anonthis I was released iaii dhiiformed that my senteiice 'would be passed: in due course. In the meanwhile I must.not leave St Petersburg. So there I i*emained for some months, more,- regnlai^ly wat-ched by police spies. "At length I (was summoned before the gendarmerie officer, and the ordeafor. my 'bianislimen't signed ;by the Czar's own hand, was iread but. "The sentence iwa-s four years' banishment to a smair town of 10,000 inhabitant in Vratka, one of the liioa-th-eastern ■pilovi'nices, of Russia just this side of the Uaial mountaink . It was not so bad tas Sibeiia, ibut it iras sevein days' joml-5 riey fa*am St. Petersburg. ~ ' " . POLITICAL EXILE.

"For five months I lived? in the Vmtka rpa-ormce under .police supervision. The worst 'fejat'itre of the punishment was that, ibeing la (political exile, I was deibaiTed 'fj-om lalmiosit any intelligent occupaitio'n,. for up political ejdle; is lalilowe dto p^.*actise anyv pi'qifeission, or eiven to act as a tutoa. 1. I 1 solved the proiblem of Occupation! jby translating 'books from other laoiiguiaigesi into Russian;..- ~. . '■. ;•:'- ■'; '■

."But' I. jhiaa made up (my mind. to escape as scon iaei I had money enough. There is no difficulty for a political exile to, escape frioni Russia provided he oai* ■pay his way. Thi© 'only support an. exile gets; jfi'om the Government is an. allowance of 12s ia ■month if he is oaie of the '.'intellectual" classes, or 3s a. month if he is a working unan. . „-. •' "Bulb at* the end df five?1 month's I had, obtained erioaigß money to ensure my escape, wMoh cost labout £12: fi-om 'Vafatk* .ito-':ii(indb-n'-...! . ~ '.'./•..

I:^j> aiTangcsd;jwath ra' oon'ta'f abarid'ist to '■'oViai'"'^^© -'bordei'l-':'':;" This■• is 1 a :jf:dii as /a'.'.ipiassporb'' costia ,^rd : ni;^.n to fif teeai rOiiibles, it ip cheaper it?o' pay a icontinalbandist three roubles to :ismai.ggle tone', through. ] €: "... That is how most of the East ; End- .Russian Jews ■leave Rusisia."..: •'/": .■'■'; ' "■'■' ■ .