Horrors of the Modern Russian Penal Settlement.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue II, 12 July 1902, Page 75

Horrors of the Modern Russian Penal Settlement.

From time to time, more particularly of late, vague rumours have leaked through the meshes of Russia's jealously-guarded official net of diplomatic necromancy and deceit, which serve to explain the deep-rooted causes of seething unrest threatening to outburst with fearful violence at any moment. The smoke of* the smouldering fires of internal rottenness, of which the outside world infrequently catches a glimpse, is but a suggestion of the hidden tires eating at the foundation of Russia's very existence as a nation. The banishment of the venerable patriot. Tolstoi, the simultaneous student and peasant uprisings in widely separated parts «of the empire, the eager solicitude of Russian diplomatists to divert public attention from the growing menaces of her internal economy by a dramatic activity in her Asiatic policy, all these are of interest as showing how the wind blows. It is a curious instance of the far-reaching results of Russian official surveillance that, although the world is acquainted in a general way with the rigorous policy of Russian justice (?) —save the mark—yet. what reports have reached the public ears have been of snch a vague and illusionary character as to be lightly glossed over with that ■whimsical disinterestedness with which humanity views things at a distance.

In spite of the unmistakable handwriting on the wall, which shows thata great revolution is brewing in Russia. greater than the bloody attempt of the 'seventies that ended in the assassination of Alexander 11., Russian diplomatic policy, ostrich-like, has buried its head in the sand, and by inaugurating an era of unparalleled severity is but fanning into a wilder and more uncontrollable flame the fire’ of internal disaffection which it seeks to stamp out.

Recently a brief mail report, escaping the vigilant eyes of the censor, crept into the pages of the St. Petersburg "Viedomostyi.” detailing a bloody outbreak in the penal colony on the desolate island of Saghalin. off the coast of Siberia. There was a bit of grim justice in this brief announcement. for by this token hangs a tale of dark iniquity and mediaeval barbarity that scarcely finds a parallel in history. Since Kennan’s voluminous expose of the horrors of Russia's penal system in Siberia, the world has been led to believe, by subtle suggestions, and apparent frank and open testimonv. which, if sifted to the bottom, would be found to emanate from Ivassian official sources, that all the horrible conditions which then existed, and snhiected Russia to the scornful moral floating of all Christendom, have tri ven way to a temperate regime, which would not compare unfavourably with the penal system of any other nation. This was official Russia. The Czar, who would really be a humane and progressive ruler, could he throw off the tentacles of the lecherous policy of his advisers, knew that it was a He. and refused to eave countenance to his 'Ministers’ persistent scheme for foolinw Europe. The Czar, autocratic as is hie power, is as ignorant ree’arding many of the social sores fester’mr in his empire as a Hottentot or EH? Islander. He must depend for information on his Ministers, and the deceit and falsifvins’ evasion of Russian dinlomacr is notorious. This explanation is demanded in restore, for to lay at the door of Czar X ; chola« the horrors and ghastlv enormities of the convict system wonlr] l,e manifestly nninst and

Th" outbreak following Kennan’s npnalling revelations tanght Russia a lesson. The moral protest of the civilized world doubtless wonld have given her little concern, had she not foreseen that a defiant and unbending ignoring of such protests must have a reflex action on her future commercial and political relations. She might snarl and gnash her teeth, but her diplomatists were farsighted enough to perceive that aorne form of concession must be made to a protesting world. Vague promises of reform and official investigation were thrown out as a tentative “sop”; thereafter the innerness of the Siberian convict-system became a closed book. Russia did not abolieh

the evil or abate one iota of its injustice and horror. She merely hid it further into the bowels of her Asiatic charnel-bouse, and bound It round with a rigor of watchful surveillance which safeguarded against any future investigator. But truth will out. and again the horrors of the Russian convict-sys-tem are setting the world by the ears. Authoritative reports which have leaked out from the penal settlements of Saghalin during the last six months have prepared the pubHc for a new and horrible outbreak. The denouement has been sensational. but not unexpected. Not from the unsupported testimony of one investigator, but from scores of unimpeachable sources, and from the lips of convicts who have managed to escape, an array of testimony has been gathered, and the whole world soon will know that on the desolate island of Saghalin. buried from the scrutiny of civilization, has been concentrated a policy as terrible in its effect as the old Siberian convict system in its most atrocious days. It was only twenty years ago that the Russian home officials recognised the advantages wiucn this isolated spot offered as an ideal convict colony. At first a few of the most dangerous prisoners of the Siberian penal settlements were deported; -each year the number swelled, until, in 1884, the island was divided into administrative districts, a governor and executive staff sent out from StPetersburg, and a policy of almost unparalleled ferocity inaugurated. In this -manner were the convict settlements of Saghalin organ, and their history, ever since, has been one long-continued narrative of merciless horror, as foul and crime-reek-ing a blot as exists on all the fair escutcheon of civilization. According to the official records of the government, there are altogether fiftyeight of these settlements on Saghalin, which, in their comparative isolation from the outside world, and the meagre knowledge concerning this far-away island, offer a fertile field for the past and continued existence of this barbarous regime of official cruelty. If one, by any possible distortion of the imagination, could imagine a system of misrule and horror greater than even the conditions which Kennan discovered in Siberia, even then he would have but a slight insight into the situation as it has an accurate and certified existence. It would be impossible for the most vivid word-painting or the most Subtle skill of the artist to depict this, the acme, the consensus, of all the misery and horror that can have an existence in this world. And this is the spectacle wit-h which Russia. with her hypocritical vagaries of international disarmament and peace confronts the opening of the twentieth century.

The general desolation and climatic rigors of Saghalin accentuate the sternness of official misrule. Except for a few weeks, of uncertain midsummer sunshine, the island is ice-bound and fog-bound. Nature is without attractions of any kind: never a tree is seen, and scarcely a flower, except for a few months in the year. A gray pall of Arctic chill and cold hangs over the universal desolation, as a spot accursed. Desolation forever reigns, to mark an awful judgment; or as if the glowing hills of Pandemonium had been raised from their dreadful depths, to sully the face of the earth with their most forbidding aspect- Great masses of frowning mountain ranges, perpetually incased in a grim mantle of ice and snow, rise in huge disarray, hurled into unutterable confusion and towering grim, forbidding. and menacing, as if to accord with the ghastly horrors they seek to hide in their adamant bowels. This mountainous condition of Saghalin first attracted Russian official attention. Subsequent surveys revealed the fact that coal mines of considerable value were open to exploitation. which suggested an idea! method of securing a direct financial advantage, and “ kill two birds with one atone,” as it were. By quartering here the real criminals and inconvenient people, who, to the au-

tocmcy, are the most dangerous crlnv inale—political agitator*—it was possible to find free labour to work these mineral deposits, which, in itself, was a commendable feature from an economic point of view; furthermore, the problem was satisfactorily solved of safeguarding against the escape of dangerous convicts. For on Saghalin only the worst class of criminals and the moat feared political deport< es are found, which, however, does not palliate or excuse away the unnecessary and barbarous rigour of the convict system.

The total number of convict* at present quartered on Saghalin is estimated at nearly ten thousand, and one cannot ponder over the lot of these miserable people without a mingled shudder of gloom and horror. The minor malefactors are seldom consigned to the mines, which, in a measure, is an amelioration of their punishment, but of the others it may well be said that at the gates of Saghalin they may figuratively read, “AH hope abandon ye who enter here.” No distinction is made for age, sex, or condition. The prisoners, so soon as they are landed, are sorted according to fhe rigour of the punishment to which they have been condemned The lesser criminals, chained and logged to guard against possible escape, are given occupation above ground as tillers of the soil or prison attendants, subject to the petty whims and cruelty of subordinate officials. Unceasing toils, curses, semi-starvation, the ’’ plet,” a terrible loaded whip, is henceforth their daily lot; but it is a bed of roses compared with the future condition of the more unfortunate deportees, those guilty of real heinous crimes, and those whom Russian officialdomfears even more, political malefactors. These prisoners, so soon as they are landed, are assigned to a distinctive number, and huddled pell-mell, like a horde of wild beasts, into one of the gaping holes in the mountain sides. From that day. until death fortun ately relieves their sufferings, .hey are condemned to a life of fbe most abject misery, degradation and hardship The vast subterannean channels become populous avenues of wild-eyed, frantic maniacs. The isos’ brutal immoralities are prevalent; children are born, but no distinction is made for their condition; the steelhearted overseers give them a distinctive number if they survive to a proper age; infanticide is encouraged and abetted, and thenceforth, although guiltless of all crime, they suffer the fate of their parents. Down in the dark bowels of the earth, denied even a pittance of sunshine or fresh air. these God-forsaken unfortunates toil on endlessly, until first flies spirit, then reason—hideous, shrunken, tortured gnomes and maniacs, they labour on till their doom is happily cut short by death's welcoming hand. One or two. or at the utmost, five years of this living death prevails over the most vigorous vitality; more often long before that time the miserable wretch ends all bv suicide. Small wonder it is that

moet of them live bat * few months; their deaths ere reported by the overseer, and in sickening farce the priest is sent for, sprinkles the accursed •pot with water, and in an unknown grave they are unceremoniously buried. Sometimes the thrill of liberty is too strong to be resisted, a sudden frenzy to escape lights up the en» bruted breast* with the faint hope of despair, and. goaded to fury, the bolder spirit* start an insurrection, overpower their guards, and rush toward the shelter of the gloomy mountain fastnesses. Like mad dogs they •re trailed, surrounded by soldiers, end shot down with no compunction. It is a significant fact that such outbreaks are but of rare occurrence; the pitiless life underground is to be endured as willingly as facing the even more pitiless cruelty of insensible and bloody-minded task-masters above ground. Even if the jealous watch of the guards and the subsequent pursuit are evaded, there lies before the refugee the certainty of a lingering death from hunger and exposure. Prine* Krapotkin mentions a doctor on Saghalin who was authority for the ghastly statement that in the satchels of recaptured convicts were found pieces of human flesh, and other cases of cannibalism have been reported. The only territory near to Saghalin, offering a possible method of escape, if the prisoner is able to escape the drag-net of human blood-hounds on the island itself, is by making the difficult passage on a raft to the mainland. Here, in turn, the savage natives—Gilyaks or Ainos — must be avoided, as the government secures their assistance by rewards for the return of all escaped convicts.

It is in the large mines, where no ehanee of escape is ever offered, that the brutal savagery and relentless ferocity of the Russian task-master find play. As many as five hundred human beings are confined in a stifling dungeon hundreds of feet below the surface, crowded together like rats in a pen. Many of them are insane. and these monsters, in their brutal might, struggling for nature’s first law. beat the weaker under foot, and trample them to death in the brute struggle for the meagre pittance of food allotted to keep alive the thin spark of existence. Hapless the rash official who dares to interfere; he finds himself in a raging mad-house of inhuman beings; his lot is often to be literally torn to pieces by the infuriated mob.

But what a fearful vengeance is wreaked! The food supply is stopped for days, no liberty to the open air is allowed; from the enormous pest-hole come howls of despair, bitter anguish, the unearthly yells of starving madmen. Then a ghastly quiet supersedes this frenzied turmoil. and a little later scores of mangled, emaciated, and crushed bodies are brought to the surface and buried. And so the frightful nightmare goes on from day to day, from month to month, from year to year, the enormous decimations ever surfeited to overflowing by the inexorable grist-mill of Russian justice, a perpetual Black Hole of Calcutta, that never has an endin*-.