^v.^ 
 
 \<Xf>5lAK 
 
 NIHIUSAV 
 
 
 
 
hbl.brti DK 26.B93 1891 
 
 Russian nihilism and exile life in 
 
 3 T153 DD 
 
 TT131 1 
 
 A A^««i7^ 
 
 handle this volume 
 with care. 
 
 The University of Connecticut 
 libraries, Storrs 
 
 ^«s- 
 
 \ 
 
 y\ 
 
 
 
 
■-€L^}^-(2^^cS:'^- 
 
 /^f¥ 
 
^y^.-. 
 
 
 l^niM • pbotncrmph takco lo IrkouuW while Mr. Ilucl wu Investigating the treatment of convicts in Siberia. 
 
assian flihilism 
 
 and 
 
 Exile Life in Siberia. 
 
 A GRAPHIC AND CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF RUSSIA'S BLOODY 
 'SM/' NEMESIS, AND A DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 Exile Life in Its True and HoFPifying Phases, 
 
 GIVING TBB RE;STJL,T OP A 
 
 TDUB THROUGH RUSSIA dND SIBERIQ 
 
 mad:^ by the author, who carried with him i^etters 
 
 OF commendation from both the AMERICAN 
 AND RUSSIAN GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 The Latest, Most Authentic and Thrilling History of 
 
 LIFE IN RUSSIA AND SIBERIA. 
 
 By J. W. ^UBL, 
 
 Author of " The World's Wonders," " Sea and I<and," " Story of Man," 
 
 " I/iving World," etc. 
 
 OVER 200 SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 \ 
 
 PHII.ADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 WEST PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 3941 Market Street. 
 
1>^ 
 
 b 
 
 Copyright, 1891, by 
 
 HiSTORiCAi, Publishing Co. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 PUnjtMCO AND MWUFACTURCD BY 
 
 Historical Publishing Company, 
 
 PMILAOCLPMIA, Pa, 
 
CONTKNTS. 
 
 PAOte. 
 
 Purposes and Auspices of my Trip Through Russia 25 — 32 
 
 CHAPTER I. — Departure from America — Arrival at the first Rus- 
 sian Port — Defensive Strength of Cronstadt — My Arrest as a 
 " Suspect" — Going Through me for Seditious Papers — A Quizzical 
 Tout Ensemble — Droshky Drivers — Engaging a Guide and Inter- 
 preter — Under Close Surveillance — Brought Before the Famous 
 " Third Section " — Stories About the Third Section — Horrible 
 Tragedies Enacted Therein — How Nicholas I. Used to Punish Fe- 
 male Offenders-— My Meeting with Minister Hoffman, and Presen- 
 tation of my Official Letters — He Advises me not to Attempt an 
 Investigation of Nihilism on Account of Dangers I Would be Cer- 
 tain to Encounter— My Introduction to Count Tolstoi, Russian 
 Minister of the Interior — My Letter from Minister W. H. Hunt — 
 A Meeting With the Minister of Police — Etiquette of the Imperial 
 Court — The Want of a Dress-Suit Places me in an Embarrassing 
 Position — An Interview With the Count — He Talks NV^ith me 
 Frankly, and Proffers any Assistance in his Power — Access Granted 
 me to all the Government Records — The Czar Sends a Note Proffer- 
 ing an Interview — I Submit a Series of Questions on Nihilism — 
 One that was Objected to for Decided Reasons — My Second Meet- 
 ing With Minister Pleve— How he Became Minister of Police — 
 He Transmits his Photograph to me in America, With an Auto- 
 graph Letter 33 — 50 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Some of the Unwritten History of Russia— Ex- 
 tent, Population and Manner of Government — Religious, National 
 Debt, Army, and Imperial Expenses — Kief, the Holy City — Num- 
 ber of Imperial Palaces, and How They are Maintained— How 
 Russia was Changed from a Republic to an Autocracy— Early 
 Wars— Chronology of the Ruling Dynasty- Living Members of 
 the Present Imperial Family— How the Grand Duke Nicholas Be- 
 5 
 
g CONTENTS. 
 
 came Commander of the Russian Forces in the War With Turkey- 
 Why his Father Removed Him-Grand Duke Alexis' Appoint- 
 ment as Admiral of the Russian Navy-His Discovery of Nihilistic 
 Sentiments Among the Marines 51—61 
 
 CHAPTER III.— The Three Greatest Characters in Russian His- 
 tory-Some Events in the Life of Peter the Great Never Before 
 Made Public- His Brother an Idiot-His Fight With Five Assas- 
 sins -His Wars AVith Charles XII., of Sweden -Conspiracies 
 Formed Against Him in his own Army— Ordering the Decapita- 
 tion of Three Hundred Men-A Ghastly Incident of the Execu- 
 tion-Peter's Infatuation for a Beautiful Woman-Discovered in a 
 Treasonable Act, she is Ordered to the Block-How Peter Con- 
 ducted Himself at her Execution-" Oh! Beautiful Being, Would 
 that I Could Take Your Place"— He Never Gave a Pardon— The 
 Founding and Building of St. Petersburg-Establishment of his 
 Court at Peterhoff-Striking a Dagger Into the Heart of his Own 
 Son-Securing a Wife for Peter III.— Marriage of Catharine II.— 
 Domestic Intrigues -Peter III. Orders the Arrest of Catharine 
 II. -How the Wily Queen Foiled Her Husband's Purposes— A 
 Midnight Drive from Peterhoflf— Descent of the Horse Guards 
 Under Catharine Upon the Winter Palace -Flight of Peter III. to 
 Cronstadt— A Lovely Letter Which Allured Peter III. to His 
 Death -Assassination of the Czar by his Wife's Orders— Circum- 
 etances Under Which Paul I. was Assassinated— Policies and 
 Wars Under Catharine II.— The Dreadful Massacre of Poles 
 in Warsaw— Catharine's Debaucheries— A Singular Death-Bed 
 Scene 62-76 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Russia's Great Rulers— Difficulties Which Con- 
 fronted Alexander II. on his Accession— The Reforms he Intro- 
 duced—First Overt Act of Nihilists— Attack on the Winter Palace 
 in 1825, and Dreadful Slaughter of the Mob— Alexander Herzen 
 and the Revolutionary Press— History of Serfdom— Manumission 
 of the Serfs- Scheme of Liberation as put into Execution by the 
 Emperor— How the Noblemen Lived in Sumptuous Profligacy- 
 Results of the Liberation— Revival of Nihilism -Inflammatory 
 Organs- A Remarkable Manifesto—" God to be Denied and Every 
 Genius Stifled in its Cradle "—Peculiarities of Russian Stu- 
 dents 77-84 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER v.— The Polish Insurrection— First Attempt on the 
 Emperor's Life—Mysterious Ringing of a Bell in Rappenberg— 
 Second Attempt to Assassinate Alexander— First Arrest of Stu- 
 dents for Incendiary Speeches — Revelations by Netschaief— Com- 
 plete Expose of the Nihilistic Organization — How they Recruit, 
 Operate, and Carry on the Work of Murder 95—99 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Effects of the War With Turkey- General Tre- 
 pofF's Brutality— How he was Shot by Vera Zassulitch — Remark- 
 able Trial of the Assailant— The Court, Threatened by a Mob, 
 Forced to Acquit Her — Collision Between the Mob and Police — 
 Escape of Vera - Her Strange History — Daughter of a Distin- 
 guished General, but Persecuted to the Point of Desperation — ■ 
 Stabbing to Death of General Mezentrieff and Escape of the As- 
 sassin—Attempt on the Life of Alexander II. by Solo vieflF— All 
 the Large Cities of Russia Placed Under Martial Law — Execution 
 of SolovieflF— Futility of Repressive Measures— Correspondence 
 from Nihilists in the Government Offices— First Resort to Dyna- 
 mite—Blowing up a Train Supposed to Contain the Emperor- 
 How and by Whom the Mine was Laid — Experts in the Use of 
 Dynamite Brought into the Service of the Nihilists — A Dreadful 
 Plot — Preparations for Blowing Up the Winter Palace— The Ter- 
 ritic Explosion in Which Forty-five Men were Killed — Accidental 
 Escape of the Emperor — Impressive Scenes — Description of the 
 Winter Palace— Finest Building in the World — Thousands of 
 Workmen Killed During its Construction— How the Royal Family 
 Dine— Establishment of Other Repressive Measures— Count Meli- 
 koflf Entrusted with Their Enforcement— Everyone Ordered Un- 
 der Arrest who Should Appear on the Streets After Dark — Ter- 
 rorism Inaugurated— The Dreadful Third Section— Fate of Muish- 
 kin, who was Lashed into Insanity — A Double Execution— Famous 
 Trial of Sixteen Nihilists — Remarkable Heroism Displayed by 
 Female Revolutionists— A Desperate Fight with the Police — 
 History of Distinguished Nihilists on Trial— Attempted Assas- 
 sination of Gen. MelikoflF— Execution of his Assailant 100—135 
 
 "CHAPTER VII.— The Culminating Event in Nihilistic Venge- 
 ance — Alexander II., His Times and Adversities — A Youthful 
 Witness to the Decembrist's Outbreak — His Early Inclination 
 Opposed to the Will of His Father— Forced into the Army— His 
 Courtsliip and Marriage— Suicide of his Father— Sad Circum- 
 
 V 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 stances under wMcli Alexander Accepted the Crown— The Plot 
 for his Assassination — Laying a Dynamite Mine In Petersburg — 
 Secret Plans of the Conspirators— The City barely Escapes 
 Destruction— Explosion of the First Boom— It Kills Two of the 
 Imperial Guard, and Shatters his Majesty's Carriage— Explosion 
 of the Second Bomb— The Emperor Mortally Wounded— Great 
 Excitement— One of the Assassins Killed by the Bomb he 
 Throws — The Czar asks to be Carried to the Winter Palace — 
 Examination of His Wounds — His Sinking Condition Bulletined 
 by Displaying a Flag from the Palace — Administration of the 
 Last Sacrament — Announcement of the Emperor's Death and its 
 Effect— Accession to the Throne of Alexander III.— Funeral Ser- 
 vices at the Fortress Chapel — Description of the Fortress Chapel- 
 Arrest of the Assassins —Imperial Officers Arrested for Neglect 
 of Duties— Uncovering the Secret Mine — Trial of the Assassins — 
 Description of the Assassins — A Bold Speech — Were the Criminals 
 Tortured?— Condemned to Death -Efforts of a Mob to Rescue the 
 Prisoners — A Desperate Fight in which Several are Killed —One 
 Man Hanged Three Times— Terrible Scenes at the Gallows— x\ 
 Memorial Chapel in Remembrance of the Emperor 136 — 168 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— Alexander III.'s Dread of the Nihilists-Re- 
 moval of the Court Residence to Peterhoff— Description of the 
 Palace Grounds— Bewildering Displays of Gold — How the Em- 
 peror Lives— Precautions Against his Enemies — High Walls, 
 Double Locks and Bars and Three Cordons of Guards— Danger of 
 Assassination — Murder of an Old Gardener by an Imperial Guard- 
 How Nicholas I. Quelled a Mob 169—174 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— The Secret Printing Press— Female Heroism- 
 Personal Characteristics of Leading Female Nihilists— Assassina- 
 tion of Gen. Strelnikoff— Military Execution of Soukahnoff— Prep- 
 arations for the Coronation of Alexander III. — A Description of 
 the Grand Votive Church — Discovery of a Dynamite Mine under 
 the Royal Chapel — The Czar's Visit to Moscow— Secrecy With 
 Which his Movements were Conducted — Postponement of 
 the Coronation— Moscow, the Holy City — Pilgrimage to her 
 Shrines 175—186 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Difficulties of Satisfying the two Antagonistic 
 Factions in Russia — Effects of a Conversation with a Russian 
 Minister^ My Reception by the Terrorists— A Syllabus of the 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CrWat srite Trials, Prepared by a Female Liberalist — The Famous 
 Sixteen Conspirators— Wonderful Sacrifices of Private Fortunes to 
 Aid tue JNTibilists — The Assassination of I'rince Krapotkin — Secret 
 Meetings and Pledges to Destroy the Czar — Too INIany Volunteer 
 their Services as Assassins — Arrest of Goldenberg, the Nihilist, 
 and his Astonishing Confession— A Complete Exposure of all the 
 Terrible Plots laid by Nihilists — Graphic Description of the Dyna- 
 mite Mine near Moscow — How the Conspirators Worked and 
 Averted Suspicion — Mariana Semiovna's Wonderful Zeal, Cun- 
 ning, and Bravery— Resolving to Die Rather than Surrender — An 
 Ingenious Contrivance to Blow up the House and Themselves 
 Should they be Detected— The Siberian TNIines- The Nobler 
 Traits Manllested by Alexander II. — Effects of his Assassina- 
 tion , 187—231] 
 
 EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 CHAPTER Xf .— My Youthful Longings to Visit Siberia— Prepar- 
 ing to Enter the Frozen Wilderness — Exiles in the Central Dis- 
 missal Prison, Moscow— Sad Sights and Affecting Good-byes 
 between Exiles and their Families— Woman's Love the same 
 Everywhere— A Pathetic Incident — A Visit to the Kremlin— A 
 Miraculous Picture of Christ — How Napoleon's Army Tried to 
 Destroy It— The Great Tower of Ivan Veliki and the Gigantic 
 Bell — Off for Nijni Novgorod with an American Companion — A 
 Visit to the Nijni Fair— Daylight and Night-time Scenes — De- 
 scription of Nijni — A Voyage down the Volga and up the Kama — 
 How People Travel on Russian Steamers— Arrival at Perm — Rail- 
 roading Across the Ural Mountains— Appearance of Nijni Tag- 
 ilsk— Visit to the Iron and Malachite Mines — My First Step on 
 Siberian Soil — The Journey to Ekateri neberg, and how Mining 
 for Malachite is Conducted 237 — 258 
 
 CHAPTER XTI.— Preparing for Overland Traveling— Engagement 
 of a Tarantass and Yemtschik— Description of Each— Off with a 
 Dash — Fears and Misgivings— Arrival at the First Post-Station — 
 A Tea Drinking People— Traveling Throu ghout the Night — Some 
 of the Discomforts I Endured— Forty-one H ours in a Tarantass— 
 Arrival at Tieumen, Hungry, Sore, and Inten sely Miserable— A 
 Dinner of Black Bread and Salt— A Talk with the Governor— 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 His History Respecting the Origin of Banishment as a Punish- 
 ment—Boris GodunoflTs Idea— An Enforced Settlement of Si- 
 beria—Privileges of Village Ce zrts— Oiiences Punishable by- 
 Deportation — Those in Exile Gen jrally better Educated than the 
 Masses— How Prisoners are Trai.sported — Driven Two Thousand 
 Miles Under the Stinging Lash— Witnessing the Departure of 
 Exiles from Tieumen— Resumption of my Journey Eastward — 
 Engaging a Tumbril— Bad News— Checked by a Swollen Stream- 
 Trying to Pass the Rubicon— Capsized, Bag and Baggage, in a 
 Swift-flowing Creek— Lost in the Jungles— A Night of Terror — 
 The Most Miserable Twenty-four Hours of my Life — Appearance 
 of a Tartar BeUe 259-277 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— Arrival at Tobolsk— Description of the City— 
 A Famous Bell that was Exiled with the Uglitch Insurrection^ 
 ists— My First Insight into a Siberian Prison — How the Prisoners, 
 Labor — Punishment by the Knout — Heavy Manacles and Theii 
 Effects — Treatment of Female Convicts — Punishment with the 
 Plete — Engagement of Another Interpreter — A Trip by Steamer 
 from Tobolsk to Tomsk— The Ostjak People— How They Capture 
 Fish in the Obi 277—289 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— Debarkation at Tomsk— How Russia Evades 
 the Sacred Law — Description of the Prisons in Tomsk— Depart- 
 ure for Krasnoiarsk by Tumbril— A Horrid Dream — Meeting with 
 a Convoy of Prisoners — Tipping the Chief Guard — Heavy Shack- 
 les Worn by the Convicts —A Pitiable Instance of Maltreatment- 
 Examination of an Exile at a Post-Station — Mortified Ankles and 
 Wrists with the Tendons Exposed — May I Never See Another 
 Sight so Horrible— Appearance of a Female Convi 't in Irons — 
 The Flesh Worn from Her Neck— Wives and Little ('hildren Vol- 
 untarily Accompanying the Exiles 289—301 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— Inspection of the Prison at Krasnoiarsk— Con- 
 victs Driven to Insanity — A Hospital for Maniacs— The Chains 
 not Removed from Exiles who Fall 111 — A Sad Case in Point- 
 Crossing the Yenisei River by Means of a Flying Bridge— Pur- 
 chasing an Outfit in which to Visit Yeniseisk— A Trip Oflf 
 the Highway— Camping Out in a Siberian Forest— What was 
 That?— Exciting Adventure with a Bear— Bear Hunting with 
 Whipa 801—811 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 -(DHAPTER XVI.— Arrival at Yeniseisk— In the Midst of a Fur- 
 bearing Country — Novel way of Catching Bears— Description of 
 the Tundras— Frigidity that Freezes Those who Read About 
 It — Sledging and Camping in a Frozen Wilderness— Witness- 
 ing the departure of Tunguese for their Winter Hunt— Catch- 
 ing Sables— Elk Hunting— How Reindeer are Taken and Do- 
 mesticated , 311—320 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— Siberia Rich in Precious Metals -My Visit to 
 a Mine Worked by Convict JLabor - How the Mining is Con- 
 ducted—Conveying Gold by Convoys to Irkoutsk — My Meeting 
 with an Exile —Determined to Visit His Abode— Description of 
 his Hut— The Exile's Story— Torn Away from Home and Sent 
 into Exile without Trial— Terrible Sufferings on the Transport 
 Route— Sent Down into the Mines — Flagellation with the Scor- 
 pion—Tearing Pieces of Flesh Out of the Back— A Pitiable Tale 
 of Woe— Message which the Exile Begged Me Carry to his 
 Wife 320—324 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— Traveling in a Strange Country after Night- 
 Wolves! A Successful Shot— The Governor's Story— A Terrible 
 Ride to Alexandreffsky Prison— Chased by Wolves— Discharging 
 the Last Shot— Attacked in the Troika— Down Go the Outside 
 Horses— Three Furious Wolves Drag the Driver from His Seat — 
 Fighting with a Gun BaiTel— The most Desperate Encounter 
 ever Described— Succor Arrives, but Too Late to Save the 
 Horses and Driver— My Departure for Irkoutsk— Wolves on the 
 Highway— Why I Slept in a Roadside Inn— Fast Traveling in 
 Siberia 334—347 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— Situation of Irkoutsk— Attending the Races— 
 How Horses are Trained for Racing— Visit to the Prison — Re- 
 fused Admission — Meeting with an Exile from Kara — His State- 
 ments of How Prisoners are Treated at Kara— Brutalities of 
 Vicious Guards— The Russian Law for Punishing Convicts— Pro- 
 bationary Sentences— No Quick-Silver Mines in Siberia— Working 
 Under Ground— Superstitions of Exiles — Political Offenders at 
 R.ira-The Prison Hospital— Punishments that Make Maniacs of 
 tlie Convicts— Dreadful Sights in the Hospitals— Branding of 
 Convicts— Dangers Incurred in Attempts to Escape — How I Veri- 
 fied Stories Told me by Exiles 347—360 
 
IS COHTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. -The Native Tribes of Siberia— Prominence of 
 the Ostjak People— How they Hunt and Fish— The Samoyeds— 
 Kirghiz Tartars, their Proclivities for Robbing and Fighting— 
 The Buriats - The Goldi, their Strange Burial Customs— The 
 Gilyaks- Hunters and Polygamists— Bear Hunting by Gilyaks - 
 How thoy Capture the l^.Tost Dangerous Animals— Festival of 
 Killing the Bear— strange Superstitions and Ceremonies — Amu- 
 lets of Bears' Claws— The Tunguse and Kirghiz — How they 
 Live 360—374 
 
 CH-VPTER XX r.— Making Irkoutsk my Headquarters— Cosmo- 
 politan Character of the Place— Meeting with an American— His 
 Description of the Island Sakhalein— Treatment of Exiles at the 
 Dui Mines— Dreadful Cruelties Practiced on Exiles at the Dui 
 Mines— Rewards Paid for the Heads of Escaping Convicts — How 
 the Gilyaks Hunt Exiles— Description of the Natives on Sakha- 
 lein - Nikolaefsk Prison — Insanity Caused by Brutal Treatment- 
 Attempts to Escape— Killing Convicts for their Clothes— Canni- 
 balism Among a Battalion of Troops — Horrors of a Snow Storm— 
 The Manzas Robbers 374—391 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— Description of Yakoutsk— Belles of Yakoutsk 
 Riding on Oxen Astride— The Coldest Spot on Earth— Killing of 
 Reindeer by Yukaghirs— The Yakutes — Their Peculiar Customs — 
 Riding Reindeer— Settlement of Yakoutsk by Exiles— The Scopsi— 
 A Religious 8ect that Practices Castration— Founding their Faith 
 upon St. Matthew and St. Paul — Doctrines Expounded by Scopsi 
 Priests -How the Operation of Castration is Performed— Similar 
 Practices in Italy and Turkey — Unsexing of Children for Mercen- 
 ary purposes— Penal Quarters at Villiski 391—409 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII.— Interesting Facts Concerning the Lena River— 
 A Description of the Country which it Drains— Early Adventur- 
 ers who Crossed Siberia— A Trip Around the World on Foot and 
 by Ship— Three Famous Voyages Down the Lena— Discovery of 
 Fossil Remains— A Chinese Legend of the Mammoth— Legend of 
 the Samoyeds- A Winged Rhinoceros— Discovery of the Great 
 Mammoth— Scientific Theories — An Island Formed of Mammoth 
 Bones -Captain Nordenskjold's Voyage Through the Arctic Ocean 
 and Down the Lena 409—423 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— Other Penal Mines of Siberia— Dreadful Treat- 
 ment of Convicts at Nertchinsl? — Testimony of Two Gentlemen 
 who Visited the Mines — My Interview with Three Men who had 
 Served Long Sentences at Nertchinsk— Exiles Working Three 
 Hundred Feet Under Ground — Never Permitted to See the Light 
 of Day — Working while Weighted Down with Manacles— How 
 the Men are Punished -Tied Over a Beam and Whipped with the 
 Scorpion — Drawn Up and then Lacerated with the Knout — Beating 
 Convicts into Insensibility or Insanity — Effects of Constant Labor 
 in the Mines — Sights More Terrible than Dancing Skeletons — 
 Witchcraft — Torturing Women Accused of Practicing the Black 
 Art — A Humane Spirit Extending Towards Siberia 423—433 
 
 CHAPTER XXV.— Preparing for My Return to Russia— Troubles 
 with My Bear Skin — Visit to the Convict Mines atXijni Udinsk — 
 Taking a New Route — Dreadful Exposures Experienced on the 
 Return Journey — Virtues of My Guide — Big Game— A Bareback 
 Chase after Siberian Antelope — Wounding of a Big Buck — A 
 Five Mile Race— Securing the Prize — Our Camp at Night— Arrival 
 at Orenberg; its People and Features — The Long Bridge at Sa- 
 mara — Visit to a Serf Village— Great Changes that Have Taken 
 Place Since the Liberation— Relation of Noblemen and Peasants — 
 Comparison of Serfs with Southern Negroes 433—443 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL— Strange Superstition Among the Peasantry — 
 How Rooster Crowing is Interpreted — Pigeons Regarded as Holy 
 Birds— Reverence for Icons— Haunted by Good and Evil Spirits— 
 A Singular Sight I Witnessed in Moscow— The Black and White 
 Clergy— Why the Serfs are so Poor— The Wonderful Splendor of 
 Russian Churches— A Drunken Priesthood— Another Cause for 
 Nihilism— One Hundred Annual Holidays - Agriculture in Rus- 
 sia-Primitive Husbandry— Harvesting with Small Sickles- 
 Threshing with Flails— Women in the Harvest Field, Decked in 
 Gay Colors— Some of the Obstacles to Russian Farming— Division 
 of Lands upon Communistic Principles— What her Agriculturists 
 Most Need— Natural Advantages of Russia— What a Great Coun- 
 try for Emigrants, if the Laws were Liberal 443—452 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL— Renewing Relations with Count Tolstoi— 
 Differences Between Moscow and St. Petersburg— Services at St. 
 Isaac's Cathedral— Description of the Cathedral— Bowing Down 
 Before Images — A Big Thing in Candles— Assuming an Attitude 
 
14 CONTENT!. 
 
 of Prayer Under Diflaculties— Famous Russian Choirs— A P^,,. ■ 
 alytic Carried to the Image of Christ— Faithful Efforts but no 
 Cures— A Te Deum in the Alexander Monastery Sung by Monka 
 and Neophites- $25,000 for a Burial Place in the Monastery- 
 Strange Incident in the Life of a Lady Superior— How She Spent 
 $20,000,000 to Improve the Condition of the Poor— But the Money 
 Belonged to the Church— Her Arrest, Trial, Conviction and Sen- 
 tence—Pardoned by the Emperor and Reinstated— Honored above 
 all other Women— Description of the Monk Choir— Heavenly 
 Music— My Entrancement— Singing for God and the Dead— Dis- 
 turbance Created by the Employment of a Monk Tenor— An Ova- 
 tion that was Next to a Riot— A Silver Sarcophagus Containing 
 the Bones of a Patron Saint— Trouble Caused Peter the Great 
 by Priests who Stole the Sacred Bones— -$250,000 for a Cas- 
 ket 452-462 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII.— A Visit to the Cathedral Kazan— Canoniza- 
 tion of Lady Kazan— Clothed with Vestments of Great Value, and 
 Crowned with Precious Stones— A $100,000 Diamond, and a 
 $500,000 Sapphire— $200,000,000 Invested in Church Property— The 
 Church Supported by Poor People— Holiday Celebrations— Cere- 
 mony of Blessing the Waters— Miraculous Properties Supposed to 
 be Imparted by Priests— Bottling the Waters for Medicinal Pur- 
 poses-Celebration of St. George's Day— Release of Domestic 
 Animals that are Sprinkled with Holy Water— Observance of 
 Recollection Monday— Paganish Rites in the Cemeteries— Revival 
 of Old Jewish Customs- Shocking Bacchanalia in the Cemeteries- 
 Drunkenness and Lewdness among Priests and Parishioners-^ 
 Charging a Fixed Fee for Prayers— No Middle Class in Russia- 
 Government Taxes all Paid by the Poor— How Guild Merchants 
 are Created- Society in St. Petersburg— The Ten Commandments 
 of Catharine II.— Requirements for Admission into Society — 
 Court Balls — Flagrant Conduct as Told in Strange Stories — Wit- 
 nessing a Genuine Russian Dance 462—476 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX.— Summer Cottages of the Ricli at Parvelosk- 
 Life in St. Petersburg During Winter— The Two Principal 
 Streets — Ice Palace on the Neva River and the Grand Balls Given 
 in It— Courtship, Marriage, and Domestic Life in Russia — Courting 
 by Proxy— Beauty Among the Rich and Homeliness Among the 
 I*easantry— Making Love Through Accordians — FatheTJ" C^>»yting 
 
CONTF-NTS. 15 
 
 for their Sons — The Matchmaker— How this P*rofessional Body 
 Plies Her Arts— FedotofTs Celebrated Painting, with a Descrip- 
 tion—A Pleasing Description of a Russian Marriage— Easter Cus- 
 toms in Russia — Who'll be My Butterfly? — The Tribulations of 
 Married Life— How Russians Chastise their Wives — A Painful 
 Incident —Women Declared by the Church to Have no Souls — 
 Worked Harder than Domestic Animals 476 — 492 
 
 HISTORY OF JEWISH OUTRAGES IN 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX.— My Interview with Count Tolstoi Concerning 
 the Jews — Indifference Manifested by the Government — The Czar's 
 Personal Application to Rothschild for a Loan — Abrupt Termina- 
 tion of the Interview— Count Ingatieff's Policy in Dealing with 
 the Jews — How He Issued Dreadful Orders, but Prevented their 
 Execution — His Removal Accomplished by Jews — Bribery in the 
 Imperial Court — Inability to Procure Information of Jewish Out- 
 rages in St. Petersburg— My Decision to Visit Warsaw— Descrip- 
 tion of My Rail Journey fi'om Moscow to Warsaw — Having no 
 Interpreter I Fall into Trouble — Stopping the Train to Let the 
 Passengers get Drunk — Conflict Between Passengers and Troops - 
 How Railroading is Conducted in Russia — Ten Miles an Hour 
 and no Sleeping Car — Humorous Scenes in a Brest Eating House — 
 Why I Got Up and Crowed Like a Rooster — Gaining a Sudden 
 Popularity 492—500 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI.— Arrival at Warsaw— Description of the City- 
 Introduced to the Mayor and Other Functionaries— A Drive with 
 the Mayor — Visit to Lazienski's Park— A Beautiful Lake and Two 
 Ancient Palaces— Description of a Novel Theatre which was 
 Built for Kings— Mementoes of a Glory Now Departed — Poland 
 the Hero's Elysian — Her History Written in Blood -Visit to 
 Wilanow Palace— The Home of Sabienski, Poland's Greatest 
 King— A Property that has Escaped Russian Confiscation — Sights 
 in and Around the Palace -Description of Three Wonderful Sun 
 Clocks— A Drive through the Jewish Quarters — Remarkable Ho- 
 mogeneity of the Race— How the Polish Jews Live, Dress, and 
 do Business— Foul Smells From Foul Bodies— Certain Occasions 
 when the Jews use Bacon— How they Enforce Recognition from 
 the Aristocracy 500—506 
 
16 CONTENT*. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII.— Some of the Causes for Jewish Outrages— 
 Fanatical Zeal and Love of Plunder— Dreadful Riot at Elizabeth- 
 grad — Thirty Jewesses Outraged and Several Killed — Destruction 
 of $1,000,000 of I'roperty — Proclamations Issued Declaring Rus- 
 sian Entitled to all Jewish Property— Mobs, Infuriated with 
 Drink, Wreaking a Dreadful Vengeance— The Riot at Smielo in 
 which Thirty Jews are Killed, and Sixteen Hundred Rendered 
 Homeless — Terrible Massacre at Kiew— Soldiers Aiding the Mob — 
 Refusal of the Governor to Protect the Jews — Outrages at Kief — 
 Stoning Children to Death, Miirdering Old Men, Raping Women, 
 and Burning Jewish Homes — Second Attack at Kief— Desolation 
 Everywhere — Twelve Towns in Flames at one Time — Barreling 
 up Jews and Casting them into the Dnieper — Outrages at Odessa— 
 $1,500,000 worth of Property Destroyed— Third Attack at Kief— 
 The Mob Led by Merchants—The Sarah Bernhardt Riots at War- 
 saw and Kief— The Terrible Riots at Warsaw — Streets Deluged 
 with Blood— Count Ignatieff Held Accountable — Soldiers Uniting 
 with the Mob— No Protection for the Jews 506-618 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII.-The "Red Cock" Crowing over Fifteen 
 Towns— Attacks on the Jews of all Western Russia— 6,000 Jews 
 Driven from their Homes in Minsk, and their Houses Burned— ^ 
 $80,000,000 Worth of Property Destroyed— Red-Handed Mur- 
 der—Lurid Faced Arson and Foul Visaged Outrage Stalking 
 Through Every Jewish Village— 100,000 Jewish Families Reduced 
 to Beggary— Governors of Provinces, Government Othcers and 
 Troops all Encouraging the Mobs— 4,000 Jews Expelled from 
 Kief— A Government Fine for Harboring Jews Over Night — A 
 Governor Ordering 5,000 Jews to Quit His Province— Sad Scenes 
 of the Last Meetings of Jews in their Synagogues— Issuance of a 
 Singular Rescript — The Government's Reply to Jewish Com- 
 plaints-Charging the Jews with Monopolizing Trade and of 
 Swindling Russian Subjects — Appointment of Commissions to 
 Investigate the Causes of Anti-Semitic Prejudices — Dismissal of 
 Commissions that had Made Their Reports Favorable to the 
 Jews — Observations on the Short-Comings of the Government — 
 Are Three and One-Half Millions of People to Perish Because 
 they are Jews? 518—530 
 
 CHAPTER XXX W.— Distribution of the Jews— Poles and Jews 
 Generally Harmonize— Influence of Mussulmans in the Caucasus — 
 Singular Prejudices at Odessa— Other Nationalities than Russiant 
 
CONTENTS. 17 
 
 Opposing the Jews— Causes Assigned— The Cry of" Mad-Dog"— 
 Charges Made Against the Jews— Do they Violate the Laws?— My 
 Experience with Russians— A Land Cursed by Swindlers— An 
 Irish Millionaire's Experience; Laughable, but Typical The 
 Feptember Proclamation Against the Jews Indefensible— A Na- 
 tional and Governmental Weakness— Jews ISTo Worse than Rus- 
 sians— Christians Placed in a Bad Light — How Italians Beat the 
 Jews — A Means by which Russians Might Correct the Evils now 
 Complained Of— A Lesson for Russia and Germany 530 — 535 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV.— Review of My Trip Through Russia and 
 Siberia — The Largest Xation on Earth — The Russians and the 
 Turks — Hideous Evidence of Muscovite Valor —Meaning of the 
 Word Czar— The Czar "Above All," and Chief Counsellor of 
 Deity— Ignorance and Slavery of the Russian Masses— Bound 
 Down by Church and State — Poverty Stricken and Debt-Ridden— 
 Church Indulgences and Government Corruptions — What Russia 
 Must Do to Place Herself on an Equality with Other Civilized 
 Nations — Nihilism Apparently Her Only Hope 536—547 
 
MEMORIAL CHAPEL ERECTED WHERE ALEXANDER IL FELL. l8 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Memorial Chapel Erected Where Alexander II. Fell.., .^.,..., 18 
 
 Types of Russian Character .,.. ^ ... 24 
 
 Harbor and Fortresses of Cronstadt ......,..<..,...,....,. 34 
 
 Custom-house Examination, St. Petersburg, .= .,,... 36 
 
 Street Scene, Showing Droshkies and Drivers 38 
 
 Suspected Peasants Before the Third Section 40 
 
 Count D. R. Tolstoi, Minister of the Interior... 43 
 
 U. S. Minister W. H. Hunt 45 
 
 V. Pleve, Minister of the Secret Police 49 
 
 Holy Mountain Near Kief 52 
 
 Russian Sledges, City of Kief in distance 54 
 
 Principal Street of Kief 56 
 
 Christening a Royal Infant 50 
 
 Pyrotechnic Display in Honor of a Royal Birth 01 
 
 Peter the Great Vanquishing his Would-Be Assassins 63 
 
 Execution by Decapitation of 300 Conspirators 66 
 
 Ropscha Palace, Where Peter III. Was Strangled 74 
 
 Scene in a Serf Village 83 
 
 Serfs Celebrating Liberation Day 85 
 
 A Russian Noble Lady, XVI. Century 88 
 
 Arrest of a Revolutionary Student 90 
 
 The Czar Declaring the Freedom of Bulgaria 101 
 
 Vera Zassulitch 104 
 
 Conducting Solovieff to Execution 109 
 
 Execution of Solovieff Ill 
 
 House from Which the Dynamite Mine vv^as Laid 114 
 
 Reception of the Czar after the Railway-Mine Explosion 116 
 
 Effects of the Explosion 118 
 
 Light Cavalry of the Finnish Guards 121 
 
 Night Patrolln St. Petersburg 125 
 
 19 
 
20 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Leo mZ,l:z "' """"'"' ■■■'z:z: ''' 
 
 Gen. Lorls Melltoff...' ,'.' Jf? 
 
 Funeral of^enCiLi'"."''' *" Execution.. l" ^^4 
 
 Street Along tLSh''^^''"""^* ^'' 
 
 Cellar Room fr«h™^^^^-J ^37 
 
 Appearance of the p^ ' ' Explosion U2 
 
 Conveyino. th' Wn ^?P^^«^'« Carriage .. 144 
 
 ^iew /n XlZnl:Xl "^"^ ^^ ^^^^alace;:;. '^^ 
 
 Swearino.AiWi7 •^^^'^^' a* t^e Moment of li'm ^46 
 
 AlexanderliT '^""^^^'^^Czar "' ^^^^^^^'^ ^eath 148 
 
 Remains of metZlZT" '"^^'^^'dro;^::. ''' 
 
 The Fortress ChapT ^'""^ ^" ^*^*« ^^^ 
 
 Tomb Of the Emperor;: "'Z.' JS 
 
 Lincoverino- the n. ^^^ 
 
 The czar's^^;'^:^^-*^ ''^'^^ z::::: ^^« 
 
 Emperor's Assassins ...:;;.;; 161 
 
 eror's Assassins.. 163 
 
 Driving Alexander irrt^'u- Z ^^^ 
 
 Trialof the Emp L " At/ ' '^'''''' -" ''' 
 
 Execution of the v ""'''"' 
 
 Alexander III and t^T'^ ^'^^^^^''^^ -^ 
 
 Palace of Peterhoff ' ""'''' ^^"^"^ ..::. ''' 
 
 I*ortraits of Fio-hf T '"'",'. ■'^^ 
 
 ^^'>"^^o„or^^^^^'^^^im.t^z::z "I 
 
 ^lew of Moscow frnrn t.'"'V; ^^ 
 
 The Royal Chapel " ' ^''''^ ^"%«-. ...::;:; ; ''' 
 
 ^^omen on a Pii,v^- ""' ■'^l 
 
 Po^ce Su^veinance""' '' ^^^^^ ••:.:.• 1«3 
 
 -s^:^srr^^^"^^^----^^^ •••••■•••••••••••••• ^ 
 
 J^ast Partinra H T''' ^^^^^'^^ 235 
 
 Alexander Iir ^J'^'^^^al Prison.... ■ 238 
 
 Groat Bell and Cver'af m^^' ^^'^ Bering io'se'o; f « 
 
 Familiar Scenes at fh.v-'^^^ ^^^ 
 
 :^-den Chur" i, ^2^ ""^'^^^^'^ ^-^ ■ •■• ''' 
 
 ^' Central Square, Moscow 249 
 
 351 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. -^ 21 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Principal Church in Perm 254 
 
 Russian Church in Tagilsk 256 
 
 Women of Ekaterineberg 258 
 
 The Tarantass 2G0 
 
 Viewof Tieumen 263 
 
 Portions of Tieumen Overflowed 265 
 
 Convict Barge on the Kama River 269 
 
 Prisoners Leaving Tieumen for Eastern Siberia 271 
 
 Traveling by Tumbril 273 
 
 A Russian Ferry-Boat 274 
 
 Upper and Lower Towns of Tobolsk 278 
 
 Administering the Knout 281 
 
 A Convjct Laborer in Irons 283 
 
 City of Tobolsk from the Irtysh River 285 
 
 Russianized Ostjaks 288 
 
 The Gostinnoi Dvor at Tomsk 291 
 
 View of South Side of Tomsk 293 
 
 Post Station and Church on the Highway 296 
 
 A Shackled Convict on the Transport Route 299 
 
 A Convalescent Prisoner in Irons. 302 
 
 Waiting to be Ferried Across the Yenisei River 305 
 
 Siberian Roadside Inn 307 
 
 Bear Hunting with Whips 310 
 
 Hunting Reindeer on the Tundras 314 
 
 Siberian Hunter 321 
 
 Gold Train in a Snow Storm 323 
 
 Arrest of the Pole and his Brother 327 
 
 Russian Veteran Guards 330 
 
 The Exile's Abode 332 
 
 A Fight with Wolves 335 
 
 Alexandreffsky Central Prison 337 
 
 The Treasuiy and Governor's House 341 
 
 The Governor's Race with Wolves 343 
 
 The Author Bargains for Fast Time to Irkoutsk 346 
 
 Horse Racing at Irkoutsk 349 
 
 Gold Mine and Washing House at Kara 351 
 
 Prison Hospital at Kara 35G 
 
 Ostjaks in Winter Dress :. 3fil 
 
 Samoyeds fi'om the Lower Yenisei ♦ 362 
 
 Kirghiz Tartars Abducting Thibetan Women 364 
 
 A Goldi Dead House 386 
 
 2 
 
22 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Pagks. 
 
 Goldi in Winter Dress 367 
 
 Group of Gilyalvs 369 
 
 Festival of Killing the Bear 370 
 
 A Tunguse Family and Birch-Bark Tent 372 
 
 Tungnse Hunters 375 
 
 Arrival of Gold Dust at Irkoutsk 376 
 
 Ainos, Aborigines of Sakhalein 378 
 
 Combat with a Siberian Bear 380 
 
 Military Post at Dui, Sakhalein 382 
 
 Convicts Camping in the Snow 384 
 
 Killing Escaping Convicts for their Clothes 386 
 
 Desperate Combat between Head-Hunters and Escaping 
 
 Convicts 387 
 
 Siberian Peasants Caring for an Aged Convict 389 
 
 A Corean House in Vladivostock 390 
 
 Exiles on the Island of Sakhalein 392 
 
 A Yukaghir and his Wife "at Home" 394 
 
 Views of the Abodes of the Exiles near Yakoutsk 397 
 
 Penal Quarters at Yakoutsk 400 
 
 Exiles' Houses on the Lena, — Houses of Dried Dung 403 
 
 Scopsi Colony Houses near Yakoutsk 405 
 
 Scenes in Villiski 40!» 
 
 Yakute and Reindeer 4U 
 
 Kirghiz of Northern Siberia 4lt 
 
 A Siberian Home 421 
 
 Convicts Must Always Work 42rr 
 
 Branding a Woman Convicted of Witchcraft 438 
 
 Departure from Irkoutsk , 434 
 
 Mining and Way Station on the Route to Siberia 430 
 
 Siberian Antelopes 439 
 
 Railway Bridge Across the Volga at Samara, the t>ot.,*v»t 
 
 Bridge in the World 441 
 
 Russian Agriculture 447 
 
 St. Isaac's Cathedral 454 
 
 Ceremony of Blessing the Waters 404 
 
 Ceremony of Blessing the Cows 4(i7 
 
 A Russian Peasant Village 408 
 
 Celebrating Recollection Monday in the Smolenskl Oemete^^y^ 470 
 
 A Ball in the Winter Palace 472 
 
 View of Nevskoi Prospekt at the Bridge over St. Catharine 
 
 Canal 47r 
 
ILLUSTRATION!. 23 
 
 Pages. 
 
 A Russian Courtship 481 
 
 T\je Matchmaker 483 
 
 Easter Customs in Russia 490 
 
 Scene in an Eating Station at Brest , 498 
 
 Jewish Synagogue at Orel 52:^ 
 
 A Typical Jewish Peddler 535 
 
 The Coronation— State Procession to the Kremlin Palace 54a 
 
 Preparing for the Illumination 550 
 
 The Red Gate at Moscow 552 
 
 The Great Bell at Moscow , 556 
 
 The Royal Regalia 562 
 
 The Great Cannon atMoscow 564 
 
 The Emperor Crowning the Empress , 566 
 
 The Illumination 569 
 
 Imperial Crown of Russia 571 
 
 Peasant Lamenting his Condition 573 
 
TYPES OF RUSSIAN CHARACTER. 
 
PURPOSES AND AUSPICES 
 
 TRIP THROUGH RUSSIA AND SIBERIA. 
 
 No country on the world's broad atlas, whether civil- 
 ized or unexplored, presents so many interesting and 
 anomalous phases as does Russia and its immense de- 
 pendency, Siberia. The very mention of this latter 
 tract of desert waste, its illimitable snow-fields, scintil- 
 lating under a fugitive sun or stretching away in solenni 
 shadows under a leaden sky until it infringes upon a cir- 
 cumambient horizon, excites our wonder and gives us the 
 one idea of dreariness. But ah ! not only is the wilder- 
 ness of Siberia's vast and lonely plain a topic which may 
 infuse the humblest pen with power to write a stirring 
 chapter on wild nature, ferocious beasts, and storm-beaten 
 shores freighted with wrecks of hardy adventurers ; would 
 that there were no more horrible stories of fact connected 
 with the history of that country which, from infancy, has 
 been an immense prison, or battle-ground — a grave-yard 
 of men's ambitions, the penal ground for patriotic expia- 
 tion ! The Mines ! There is no word that so thrills the 
 Russian heart as this. " To the BastileV uttered during 
 the most dreadful days in French history, carried with it 
 but the shadow of a horror comjoared with that awful 
 sentence: '•'■To the Mines of Siberia!''^ in Russia. In 
 E'rance, Marat could only order his victims guillotined, 
 and death came speedily and painlessly. But in Siberia 
 
 25 
 
2C, PURPOSES AND AUSPICES OF 
 
 there was the knout and other instruments of torture add- 
 ed to the sentence which confined men and women to a 
 life in the mines, where no light of day was ever permit- 
 ted to enter, and where the voice of lamentation could 
 never reach a sympathetic car. 
 
 The history of Russia, such as has already been writ- 
 ten, possesses for me an interest felt for that of no other 
 country; and since the revolutionary crisis, which had its 
 beginning or origin in the emancipation proclamation of 
 Alexander II., such startling events have occurred in that 
 nation that, being without parallel, they have focused the 
 interest of the world, until to-day the Czar's dominions 
 have become a country so alien in all its aspects of civil- 
 ization, and rent internally by such horrible atrocities, 
 that its current history is a story replete with exciting sit- 
 uations and horrifying culminations. 
 
 To obtain a true conception of Russia's policy, of her 
 insubordinate elements, of the Nihilistic demonstrations!, 
 of her administration in dealing with the revolutionists!, 
 and lastl}^ of the exile life led by so many thousand 
 persons in Siberia, I personally visited that country und(ir 
 auspices peculiarly favorable for the acquisition of infor- 
 mation I specially desired. Before leaving America I 
 made application to Gen. Green B. Raum, Commissioner 
 of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C, with whom I 
 have enjoyed an intimate acquaintance since boyhood, for 
 such letters of introduction to our representatives in Rus- 
 sia as he might feel disposed to give. The application 
 brought a response more favorable than I had expected, 
 for forthwith he requested the Secretary of State to give 
 me a letter which would secure for me the consideration 
 of our Russian Minister, and, added to this, the General 
 kindly wrote a personal letter to Minister Hunt, which 
 accredited correspondence is herewith appended : 
 
MT TRIP THROUGH RUSSIA. 27 
 
 Department op State, \ 
 
 WAsmNQTON, D. C, June 21, 1882. J 
 
 The Honorable 
 
 WillIam H. Hltnt, 
 
 St. Petersburg!!. 
 Sir: 
 
 At the request of the Honorable Green B. Raum, I introduce to 
 your acquaintance and commend to your courtesy the bearer of this 
 letter, Mr. James W. Buel, of the United States, who is about to 
 visit Russia for the purpose of observing and writing upon the insti- 
 tutions of that country. 
 
 I am Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 J.C.BANCROFT DAVIS, 
 Acting Secretary. 
 
 At the time of writing this letter, Mr. Davis informed 
 me that as Mr. Hunt hud only recently received the ap- 
 pointment as Minister to Russia, and had only departed 
 two weeks previously to take up his official residence, 
 it was probable that I would find Hon. Wickham Hoff- 
 man still acting Charge d' Affaires on my arrival at St. 
 Petersburg, so he kindly gave me the following additional 
 
 letter : 
 
 Department of State, \ 
 
 Washington, D. C, June 21st, 1882. J 
 
 WicKHAJr Hoffman, Esquire, 
 
 Etc., Etc., Etc., 
 
 St. Petersburg. 
 Sir: 
 
 At the request of the Honorable Green B. Raum, I introduce to 
 your acquaintance and commend to your courtesy the bearer of this 
 letter, Mr. James W. Buel, of the United States, who is about to 
 visit Russia for the purpose of observing and writing upon the insti- 
 tutions of that country. 
 
 I am Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 J. C. BANCROFT DAVIS, 
 Acting Secretary. 
 
 Upon showing my letters from the State Department 
 to Gen. Raum he at once wrote and handed me the fol- 
 lowins: : 
 
2S rUM'OSES AWD AUSPICB* OF 
 
 TREASUKY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Office of Internal Revenue, ) 
 Washington, June 21, 1882. i 
 Hon. Wm. Hunt, 
 
 U. S. Minister to Rus^a, 
 
 St. Petersburg, Russia. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Mr. James W. Buel bears letters of introduction to yourself and to 
 Mr. Hofiman from Hon. J. Bancroft Davis, acting Secretary of State. 
 
 I write to commend Mr. Buel to your favorable consideration, 
 and to request that you will introduce him into official circles so as 
 to enable him to make a study of the Russian Government and 
 Russian society. 
 
 I have known Mr. Buel from boyhood and know that he visits 
 Russia with the best intentions. He will be no agitator against the 
 Government, as some Americans have been in Ireland, and he will 
 not betray any just confidence that may be reposed in him by the 
 authorities. I have the honor to be, 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 GREEN B. RAUM. 
 
 With this courteous correspondence I felt assured that, 
 notwithstanding the difficulties which attached to the 
 mission I was about to undertake, my investigations could 
 be prosecuted without fear of serious molestation, for I 
 considered these letters an implied promise from my 
 government to protect me so long as I committed no 
 overt act against Russia, or manifested no revolutionary 
 sympathy, although hundreds of persons have felt the 
 heavy hand of the Czar's police for much less offence than 
 an inquiry respecting Nihilism, two of which mstances I 
 must refer to ; 
 
 Some time during the year 1881 an American citizen 
 arrived in St. Petersburg, as a seaman, without a pass- 
 poit. Without reporting his case to our Minister or per- 
 mit ting him to send any communication to our represent- 
 ative, the Russian authorities searched the unfortunate 
 ni.in and found upon iiis person a letter of recommenda- 
 tion from his employers certifying to his sober and indus- 
 
MY TRIP THROUGH RUSSIA. 29 
 
 trious qualities. This letter was from the Remington 
 Fire Arins Company, and this trivial fact the Russian of- 
 ficers used as a pretext for holding the man as a suspect. 
 They said : " You are a revolutionist, and have been cn- 
 «:ao;ed makins: cartridges and arms for the Turkish Gov- 
 erment to be used against us." They argued this way 
 because the Turkish Government during the war with 
 Russia had purchased large quantities of war munitions 
 from Remington & Sons. The poor fellow was taken to 
 the Fortress prison and there confined on a diet of bread 
 and water for an entire week before the facts accident- 
 ally came to the knowledge of our Charge cV Affaires, 
 who fiercely remonstrated at the outrage, whereupon the 
 innocent captive was liberated. 
 
 Another instance of even greater hardship and injus- 
 tice, is the present confinement of a Jewish-American 
 citizen who entered Siberia without a special permit from 
 the Imperial Police, not knowing that such was required. 
 It is easy to pass the Russian frontier into Siberia, but it 
 is a most perplexing and next to impossible matter to get 
 out again, and this American Jew having business in Si- 
 beria, and beiiig provided with a passport into Russia, in- 
 nocently crossed the Urals, and at the first place he was 
 called upon to show his papers, he was apprehended and 
 thrown into solitary confinement, where he remained for 
 six months, notwithstanding the correspondence that has 
 passed between the Russian authorities and our minister 
 concerning his imprisonment. It is but justice to state, 
 however, that Minister Hunt expressed to me his doubts 
 about the prisoner being an American citizen, though he 
 claims protection from our government ; but the hard- 
 ships and injustice complained of grow out of the priso- 
 ner's inability, through lack of any privileges, to prove 
 his citizenship beyond the passport he held, which, how 
 
30 PURPOSES AND AUSPICES OF 
 
 ever, is not received as evidence because the period of its 
 effectiveness had expired at the time of his arrest, pass- 
 ports being good for only six months from the date af- 
 fixed to tlie visa — Russian consul's certificate. 
 
 Many other instances of intolerance might, and will be 
 cited in the following chapters, and hundreds of cases of 
 unmerciful injustice will be described to show how Rus- 
 sia maintains her autocracy and martial law, while her 
 people groan beneath the burdens of misgovernment and 
 repression. 
 
 Several books on life in Russia and Siberia have 
 api)eared since the Turko-Russian war, but few that I 
 have read treat the subject in a manner that sug- 
 gests a personal visit to those countries by the authors. 
 Mackenzie Wallace wrote a very excellent and reliable 
 Avoi'k on Russia, but it appeared before the war, and 
 though a standard history at the time of its first publica- 
 tion, it cannot be accepted as a history of Russia of to- 
 day, so great have the changes been since that time. 
 During the present year a work has appeared from the 
 pen of Henry Lansdell, entitled ''Through Siberia," 
 that has met with much favor because it treats of a coun- 
 try about which so little is known, and because the au- 
 thor claims to have been a missionary and philanthropist. 
 The facts are, however, that this work, I know, from 
 observations made while in Siberia, to be a pure fiction 
 so far as it relates to convict life ; its statements concern- 
 ing the prisons of Siberia are almost as wide of the 
 truth as any of Munchausen's choice yarns. I do not say 
 this through any prejudice, because I never saw Mr. Lans- 
 dell, and therefore have no private reasons for condemn- 
 ing his work. The London Graphic, reviewing the 
 book, pronounces it an aggregated canard throughout. 
 But I particularize Mr. Lansdell' s fault only because my 
 
MY TRIP THROUGH RUSSIA. 31 
 
 declarations and descriptions in the succeeding pages are 
 directly opposite to his assertions respecting the treatment 
 of exile prisoners in Siberia, and because the Russian 
 Government, having endorsed his work, might lead un- 
 thinking readers to suspect me of misrepresentations;! 
 therefore write this to anticipate any reflections of this 
 character. I was told by many prominent persons in 
 Russia that the Government purchased several thousand 
 copies of Mr. Lansdell's book and has been active in 
 circulating it through several countries, because it repre, 
 sents convict life in Siberia as an existence of elegant 
 ease and epicurean luxury, while it greatly disparages the 
 treatment of prisoners in England and America. 
 
 What I have written concerning Russia is wholly 
 without malice, for I must acknowledge a treatment 
 while in that country of rare courtesy and consideration. 
 I can in a great measure excuse the Government for the 
 policy it pursues in dealing with its criminals. I can 
 readily understand how difficult it is for a ruler educated 
 to autocracy ; one whose remote ancestors were Czars 
 before him, with power so absolute as to repel advice 
 from their own counsellors, except as it was asked for ; 
 one who has been reared in the belief that all the world 
 owes homage to him — I can understand why such an one 
 refuses his ear to the complaints of his subjects, particu- 
 larly when they demand a constitution which would lead 
 to an abridgment of the crown prerogatives whilst con- 
 ferring the first taste of liberty to a people who never 
 drew a breath of freedom. Besides, to acknowledofe the 
 policy of a revolutionary body, however weak, is always 
 ft dangerous precedent, and destructive in its influences. 
 France is an illustration of this fact, and governments 
 have ever regarded it safer to employ the full strength of 
 their opposition, by arms, rather than recognize any prin- 
 
32 PURPOSES AND AUSPICES OF 
 
 ciple, however inconsequential, when incorporated in an 
 edict promulgated by insurrectionists. In this is found 
 ample reason why the Czar confronts Nihilism with ar- 
 mor and steel, and this has brought on an internecine 
 conflict which fills the very atmosphere of Russia with 
 blood, and stamps every highway in that miserable na- 
 tion with red-handed murder. 
 
 It is my purpose to describe, in a dispassionate, ungar- 
 nished way, the crimes of Nihilism, to give some of the 
 previously unwritten history of Russia, and to truthfully 
 tell what I know concerning exile life in Siberia, with ob- 
 servations on the people and mode of living in that won- 
 derful country. I have had every advantage for ascer- 
 taining all the facts, and am frank to say that no ex- 
 cuse is left me if I have made a single misstatement in the 
 nai-rative following. 
 
 J. W. BUEL. 
 
RUSSIAN NIHILISM 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I left America on the twenty-fourth day of j'une, for 
 St. Petersburg, going by way of London, thence to Hull, 
 and at the latter English port I engaged passage on a 
 Wilson line steamer (Marsden) which took me by way of 
 the North and Baltic seas. The latter part of the voyage 
 was particularly pleasant, and occupied less than six 
 days. We put into the port of Cronstadt, which is eigh- 
 teen miles from St. Petersburg, as, owing to the extreme 
 shallow water, vessels of any considerable burden cannot 
 approach nearer the Russian capital. Cronstadt is a 
 small town built upon an island, but though it has no 
 natural defences, it is next to Gibralter in fortress 
 strength. Stretching across the Finland mouth to the 
 two mainlands, are ten forts of almost impregnable 
 strength, and counting the island fort of solid masonry 
 there are mounted more than one thousand immense 
 guns, the fire from all of which may be concentrated on 
 any point of entrance to the Gulf. So perfect are the 
 defences that no fleet, however powerful, could appi'oach 
 within effective range of St. Petersburg without first de- 
 stroying the ten strongest artificial forts of the world ; 
 while to these defences is added a channel of only nine 
 feet, which makes the city safe from invasion b}'- sea. 
 A canal is now being dug, however, by American contrac_ 
 
 33 
 
EXJLii: LIl'K IN SlBdORIA. 35 
 
 tors, from opposite Peterhoff to the Neva, which will 
 admit heavy ocean tonnage, but it w^ill be guarded by the 
 strongest engines of war that can be brought into requi- 
 sition. 
 
 Upon hmding at Cronstadt our vessel was boarded by 
 five customs officials and passport examiners, one of 
 whom detected an informality in my passport, which 
 caused my apprehension as a *' suspect." When leaving 
 Washington City I neglected to have the Russian Con- 
 sul's visa affixed to my papers, and this omission sub- 
 jected me to much suspicion from a Government that 
 naturally supposes every one a revolutionist who is not 
 burdened with incontestible proofs of innocence. 
 
 I would never have been permitted to set foot in Russia 
 but for the letters I bore from the State and Treasury 
 Departments, upon the presentation of which I Avas given 
 a paper containing my promise to report in person at 
 the Third Section in St. Petersburg, on the following morn- 
 ing. I was then allowed to proceed to the city and take 
 lodgings at the Hotel de France, but mider the surveil- 
 lance of the Imperial Police. No hotel in Russia is allowed 
 to entertain any one, whether a native or foreign sub- 
 ject, without first securing their passport, which must be 
 registered with the police, and the names of all guests 
 nmst be prominently posted on a blackboard in the hotels 
 Avhere any one entering can see them. 
 
 I, together with the other passengers, was taken up to 
 the city in a tender and landed at the Custom House. 
 Being wholly unacquainted with the Russian language, I 
 would have fared badly but for assistance tendered me 
 by a fellow-passenger w^ho, kindly sjDoke for me. Ev- 
 ery bit of paper I had, on which there was any writing, 
 was critically examined by a score of underlings and then 
 conveyod to a higher functionary for inspection and 
 
f^^ljjl^lllgjj^gg/jg^gg^gsmm'frmt^imta i n ki^i 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 67 
 
 judgment. My things weie unceremoniously dumped out 
 and all articles of clothing were searched with the care 
 an old soldier manifests when lookirm for carnivorous in- 
 sects. 
 
 After undergoing the customs examination, I passed out 
 into the street and was immediately received by a galling 
 fire of solicitations from droshky driver^, whose unintelli- 
 gible jaljbering and strong entreaties so confounded me 
 that I knew not what to do, as my friend had disappeared, 
 leaving me in a condition which I may well explain as 
 tongues and lungs everywhere but not a voice to speak to 
 me intelligently. 
 
 If there is anything that will make a cynic laugh or 
 startle a cosmopolite with wonder, it is a droshky driver 
 in his quizzical tout ensemble. The mujiicipai law requires 
 him to wear a large, dark-blue stole, gathered at the waist 
 by a band, and on his head he wears a covering which is 
 half hat and half oap ; from under this quaint head- 
 gear emerges a profuse quantity of hair cut in a sharp 
 line all round. H-air cutters in Eussia use a large cup 
 which is inverted and placed over their customer's head, 
 and then, with a large pair of shears, they trim squarely 
 around the cup's edge. The result must necessarily be 
 comical, especially since among no other people does the 
 hair grow so abundantly. 
 
 When I was fia-st assailed by these peculiar, monkish- 
 appearing, but good-natured fellows, and had taken a 
 good look at their peculiar little vehicles, I could not re- 
 frain from laughter, at which, like a number of imitative 
 apes, tliey fell to laughing also. After several minutes 
 spent in contemplating my unhappy condition, the gentle- 
 man "srho had assisted me in the Custom House, appeared 
 agfMn, and engaging a carriage we drove together to the 
 H<^^A de France, whei'e I was duly registered. My next 
 3 
 
38 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Step was to engage a guide, wliich I found in the person 
 of Charles Ivuntze, a German who could speak several 
 languages, whose services to me became absolutely ines' 
 timable. 
 
 It SO happened that at the time of my aiiival m St. 
 Petersburg, Minister Hunt had not yet reached the capi- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 39 
 
 tal, and Charge d' Affaires Hoffman was on a brief visit 
 to Finland ; I therefore had no other resource left me ex- 
 cept to obey orders and trust to luck. In obedience to in- 
 structions I called at the Third Section, where I was as- 
 sured that my passport would be waiting me, but I was 
 referred to another place, and from there to still another, 
 and then back again to the Third Section. This shuttle- 
 cock business continued active for four days, when at 
 length I found that it was a way they had in Russia ; that 
 I was thus kept in momentary expectancy until the au- 
 thorities could take information on me and definitely de- 
 termine my business in the country. At the expiration 
 of thafourth day Mr. Hoffman returned, and upon re- 
 porting my case to him he immediately procured my 
 passport and relieved me from further police surveillance. 
 The Third Section is one of the most noted institu- 
 tions in Russia ; simple, unpretentious in title, but within 
 its now crumbling walls have been enacted some of the 
 most shocking tragedies known in history. It is a build- 
 ing occupying one entire square and divided off into pub- 
 lic offices, audience chambers, and prisons, though it is 
 no longer used for the detention of criminals. Under 
 the iron rule of Nicholas I., those who were ordered to the 
 Third Section rarely ever breathed the air of freedom 
 again, their sentence being either death or transportation. 
 The place derives its name from the fact that the city 
 was formerly divided into three police districts, all under 
 the Minister of Police, whose office was in the Third Sec- 
 tion. It is told by those resident of St. Petersburg at 
 the time that Emperor Nicholas I. had a private office in 
 the Third Section where it vvas his custom to repair at a 
 certain hour each day for the purpose of keeping him- 
 self thoroughly advised on all matters appertaining to the 
 police administration. It is also declared that there was 
 
4e 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IX SIBERIA. 41 
 
 a trap door in the floor of his office which was used for a 
 singular purpose, viz : when any female member of the 
 reigning family was discovered inveighing against his ad- 
 ministration — which was by no means an uncommon oc- 
 currence — the offender was ordered to appear before him 
 at his office. "When there he gave such persons much 
 fatherly advice about their transgressions and, at a sig- 
 nal, the trap door, upon which they were made uncon- 
 sciously to stand, suddenly gave way precipitating the 
 woman to her arm-pits. While in this constrained posi- 
 tion, unable to move, she was severely lashed by a per- 
 son stationed underneath. In this wise the offender 
 was prevented from knowing who was administering the 
 castigation, nor could the person below know whom he 
 was punishing. 
 
 Upon meeting Mr. Hoffman I presented him with the 
 letters I bore, as already quoted, and then asked him for 
 such advice as he mio;ht give that would be serviceable to 
 me. His reply was a genuine surprise, and one which I 
 am not likely to forget soon. Said he : 
 
 *' Your purpose, I discover from Gen. Eaum's letter, 
 is to gather facts concerning Nihilism," 
 
 1 told him that was chiefly the object of my visit to 
 Russia, whereupon he replied : 
 
 *' If my advice is worth anj^hing, I will freely give it 
 to you, and it is this : sto'p where you ar'e; don't take the 
 first step toward investigating that subject. The reason 
 I thus advise you is because Russia is under martial law 
 and the least suspicion excited against one here is lial)lo 
 to be followed by arrest, and once in the toils it is next to 
 impossible to get out. It matters not how much any 
 government may remonstrate against the arrest of its 
 subjects, Russia is not prone to regard them. So, for your 
 own safety, I say abandon the idea of investigating Ni- 
 hilism while on Russian soil." 
 
42 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 I thanked Mr. Hoffman for liis well-intended advice, 
 and then replied : 
 
 " You put the matter in a very gloomy light indeed, 
 much worse than I expected; nevertheless, I don't be- 
 lieve it is customary for an American citizen to give up 
 a mission that he has set his head and heart upon per- 
 forming, because the sun has set before his face." 
 
 He was evidently pleased with my answer, though he 
 sympathized with my poor judgment, for at once he prof- 
 fered such services as he was able to give, and promised 
 to look after me if I should suddenly disappear. At my 
 request he then wrote me the following letter to Count 
 Tolstoi, Minister of the Interior, who is also acting 
 Prime Minister. During the enforced retirement of Al- 
 exander in. Count Tolstoi is practically the Czar of Rus- 
 sia, all audiences on Imperial business being held with 
 the Count and by him communicated personally to the 
 Czar: 
 
 LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 St. Pktersburg, July 21, \ ,„„, 
 August 2d, J 
 
 His Excellency, Count Tolstoi, 
 
 Minister of the Interior. 
 
 Mr. James W. Buel, a citizen of the United States, has come to St. 
 Petersburg, bringing to Mr. Hunt and myself letters of introduction 
 from the Secretary of State at Washington, stating that Mr. Buel 
 comes to Russia with a view of observing and writing upon the insti- 
 tutions of this country, and commending him to our courtesy. 
 
 Mr. Buel himself tells me that his work is upon Communism in the 
 United States, and that in this connection he desires to investigate 
 Communism in other countries under whatever forms it may exist. 
 For this purpose he desires access to certain unpublised documents. 
 Will your Excellency kindly give him such facilities for his work as 
 you may deem proper, and may feel at liberty to give. 
 
 I take this opportunity to renew to your Excellency the assurance 
 "Uf my distinguished consideration. 
 
 WICKHAM HOFFMAN. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 43 
 
 COUNT D. R. TOLSTOI. 
 
 Minister of the Interior and Cliief Councillor of the Czar, 
 
44 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Before leaving St. Petersburg in August, for Siberia, 
 Hon. W. H. Hunt arrived in the Russian capital, and pre- 
 sented his credentials as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 
 Plenipotentiary to the Court at St. Petersburg. I had a 
 very jDleasant interview with him, and through him and 
 Count Tolstoi my request for an interview with the Czar 
 was communicated. Two days later his Excellency, V. 
 Pleve, presented me with an answer from the Czar, who 
 expressed regrets that he was holding his annual confer- 
 ence at Gatchina Palace with his Generals, which would 
 not be concluded for twelve days, but at the expiration 
 of that time it would give him great pleasure to re- 
 ceive me. My time was too limited to admit of so long 
 a delay, as I had already made my prejiarations and en- 
 gaged an interpreter in Moscow to accompany me on my 
 tour through Siberia. 
 
 Upon my return to St. Petersburg, in October, I again 
 
 called on Minister Hunt, who gave me the following let- 
 ter : 
 
 LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 St. Petersburg, October 3, \ , qb„ 
 October 15, /^ **"''• 
 
 The undersigned has the houor to present to his Excellency Count 
 Tolstoi, Minister of the Interior, Mr. J. W. Bnel, a citizen of the 
 United States, who, it is believed, has already been a-ecredited to his 
 Excellency by the late ai^ting Charge d^ Affaires of this Legation. 
 
 Mr. Buel is the bear&r of letters from several distinguished func- 
 tio;;i'-ies in the United States, who vouch for his reliability and com- 
 mea lliim to consideration. Having occasion to obtain some inform- 
 ation from the authorities of His Imperial Majesty's Government, 
 Mr. Buel is desirous of obtaining an interview with His Excellency, 
 which the undersigned trusts may be accorded him. 
 
 Tiie undersigned avails himself of the opportunity to renew to His 
 Excellency the assurances of his distinguished considejration. 
 
 WILLIAM H. HUNT, 
 Envoy Extraordinary, Etc., Etc., 
 
 of the United States of America. 
 
EXILE LirE IX SIBEllIA. 
 
 45 
 
 HON. W. H. HUNT. MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO RUSSIA. 
 
46 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 It is the etiquette of the Court that when a foreign 
 subject desires an interview with any member of the 
 Imperial Court, his request must come througli a letter 
 from the representative of the country to which the 
 ajjplicant belongs, although he may have boon previously 
 recommended. This is the reason this second letter 
 from the Legation was obtained and presented. The two 
 dates affixed to these letters represent tlie difference be- 
 tween the English and Russian calendars, the latter still 
 holding to the ancient style, which is twelve days behind 
 the calendars of all other civilized nations. 
 
 At this season Minister Tolstoi, who had his resi- 
 dence in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, gave audi- 
 ences only twice each week, and as I was misinformed 
 as to the days he had set for this purpose, it was not un- 
 til the third day that I called to . present my letter. It 
 chanced, however, that the Count was not in, but I was re- 
 ceived, nevertheless, by His Excellency, V. Pleve, Direc- 
 tor of the Ministry of the Interior and Privy Counsellor to 
 the Emperor, and Minister of Police. I was pleased to 
 find him a very affable gentleman, and through my inter- 
 preter he promised me every aid I might require in pros- 
 ecuting my investigations. After conversing with him 
 for several minutes he made an engagement to meet me 
 again on the following day, and also to present me to the 
 Prefect of Police on the Monday following — this being 
 Saturday. 
 
 At the time appointed I met the Minister of Police 
 again, and also the Prefect of Police, both of whom 
 gave me considerable information, and at their request 
 I submitted in writing a series of questions on Nihil- 
 ism, the answers to which they promised to give me 
 on the Wednesday following. Parting with them I left 
 my letter of introduction with Count Tolstoi's secretary, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 47 
 
 and on the succeeding day received a note from the 
 Count, written in French, saying he would be pleased to 
 see me at his office at eleven o'clock, Tuesday. 
 
 I was punctual in keeping the appointment, l)ut upon 
 presenting my card to his valet I was told that it was et- 
 iquette of the Court to receive only persons with whom 
 appointments are previously made, and that no one is ad- 
 mitted unless he appear in Court dress — dress suit. 
 Though embarrassed somewhat at first, I was equal to the 
 occasion, for I sent my regrets to the Count, coupling 
 them with the observation that in America every citizen 
 is a sovereign, and that with us dress suits are used only 
 on party occasions ; that it was with inexpressible cha- 
 grin I was compelled to acknowledge the fact that I nev- 
 er owned a dress suit. In a moment after, the valet re- 
 turned and ushered me into the Count's presence, who 
 advanced and greeted me in so cordial a manner, 
 laughingly commenting upon his valet's rigid Court man- 
 nerism, that I entirely forgot the presence of royalty, 
 and entered into conversation wnth a freedom from all re- 
 straint. 
 
 Count Tolstoi spoke with some warmth concerning the 
 reflections cast upon Russia by other civilized countries, 
 and earnestly denied the insinuation that the administra- 
 tion was lacking in mercy or that every measure and pol- 
 icy pursued was not thoroughly justified. He complained 
 that Russia was the most misrepresented country on 
 the globe, and as an earnest of his assertions he prof- 
 fered to me any assistance I might need to loarn any and 
 all facts appertaining to Nihilism, and the manner in which 
 the laws are administered. He gave me access to the Im- 
 perial Library containing all the political records, and as- 
 sured me that I might talk and enquire about Nihilism 
 without the least fear of molestation, though he admitted 
 
48 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 that without a disclosure of my purpose I might have en- 
 countered some trouble. My sole purpose in visiting the 
 Count was to procure from him a promise that I would 
 not he subjected to suspicion or annoyance by reason of 
 any inquiries I might institute, and to this end I frankly 
 told him the purposes of my visit and promised to treat 
 Nihilism in my work with all the fairness that my com- 
 prehension of the subject permitted. Before leaving him 
 he asked me as a favor to incorporate in my book the 
 Government's position taken in the four leading politi- 
 cal trials, viz : the trial of the Emperor's assassins; of 
 those suspected of attempting to blow up the Winter 
 Palace; of the assassins of Gen. Melikoff ; . and the trial 
 of Vera Zassulitch, who shot Gen. Trcpoff, Minister of 
 Police. I told him I should be glad to do him such a 
 favor if he would prepare the matter ; this he agreed to 
 do, and to transmit the manuscript through our consul to' 
 me in America, which promise, however, he did not ful- 
 fill, and I am therefore absolved from the obligation. 
 
 On Wednesday, the day following ni}"^ interview with 
 Count Tolstoi, I called on Minister Pleve again, who gave 
 me answers to the questions I had prepared, but they 
 were of an indefinite character, in fact evasive, and of 
 no value, though Count Tolstoi had also promised that 
 the questions I had submitted — with one exception — 
 should be answered fully. The question to which direct 
 exceptions were taken, was this : 
 
 " Explain why noble families sympathize with the Ni- 
 hilists?" 
 
 This, I was told, involved the entire administration of 
 Alexander II. and to explain it fully Avould expose cer- 
 tain matters which the Government held as strictly pri- 
 vate. 
 
 I was very much interested in Minister Pleve, because 
 of the important part he^., acted in the most thrilling 
 
EXILE LIFE IX 3IBERIA. 49 
 
 drama of Russian history, and I spent nearly an hour in 
 a most agreeable conversation with him, though we had 
 to talk through my interpreter. At the time of the 
 Czar's assassination he was in very high repute as a skil- 
 ful detective, and upon the removal of Gen. Trepoff — 
 after recovering from the wound inflicted by Vera Zas- 
 sulitch — Mons. Pleve was appointed Minister of Police. 
 The assassination of the Czar brought his detective skill 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY, VAJESLAF KONSTANTINOVITCH PLEVE, MINISTER OF POLICE. 
 
 into service again, and it was through his ingenuity that 
 f-.ix of the accomplices were apprehended and brought to 
 trial. His last act of great public consequence was to 
 afiix his signature to the death sentence of the assassins, 
 which many believed no officer had the courage to 
 do, because of the threats made in hundreds of anony- 
 mous communications to kill every officer remotely cou- 
 
50 KUSSIAX NIHILISM AUD 
 
 cerned in the executions. But Pleve did not hesitate, and 
 while his life is yet liable to pay the forfeit of that act, 
 he takes few if any precautions to guard against assas- 
 sination. 
 
 I asked him for his pho-tograph for use in my book, 
 and he promised to have one taken and send it to me at 
 an early day, a promise which he kept, as is seen inlhe 
 following letter : 
 
 St. Petersbourg, Octobre 9, 1882. 
 Monsieur : 
 
 Confarmement a votre desir, je vous envoie ci-joint ma photo- 
 graphic en vous priant de recevoir I'assurance de mes sentiment? 
 distingues. V. PELVE. 
 
 P. S. — Les notes promises vous seront envoyees sans peu. 
 
 translation. 
 
 St. Petersburg, October 9, 1882. 
 
 Sir : 
 
 In accordance with your desire, I send you herewith my photo- 
 graph, wishing you to receive the assurance of my high regard. 
 
 V. PLEVE. 
 
 P. S. — The notes promised you will be sent in a little while. 
 
EXILE LIEE IN SIllERlA. 51 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Provided with what I considered a complete protection 
 from officious servants of the Government, I set about 
 gathering statistics and familiarizing myself with the 
 social and political life of Russia since the accession to 
 power of the Romanoffs. I was somewhat surprised to 
 learn that many interesting portions of Russian history 
 have never been given to the world, because of their 
 reflections on the ruling family, and I now take what I 
 conceive to be commendable pride in presenting several 
 material incidents for the first time in print. It is essen- 
 tial to the thorough understanding of the causes which 
 have combined to render Russia so unhapjDy, by giving 
 life to a movement that is without precedent or simili- 
 tude, that at least a brief or outline history of the coun- 
 try should be familiar to the reader, and it is this which 
 shall l)e my excuse for presenting it here ; added to this 
 general history are several facts which, so far as my 
 information extends, were never before published. 
 
 The Russian Empire embraces an area of 8,444,766 
 square miles, or considerable more than twice the area of 
 all our States and Territories. This vast region, which 
 extends from the arctic to the torrid zone, has an esti- 
 mated population of 85,000,000, and though the, most 
 fertile and extensive agricultural country in the worlds 
 there are proportionately fewer persons following pastoral 
 ■# pursuits in Russia than in any other civilized nation. 
 
 The Empire is divided into about one hundred g(wern- 
 ments, which are ruled directly by Governors whose pow- 
 ers, especially in Eastern Siberia, are almost absolute. 
 Of these governments fifty are in Europe, having a pop- 
 ulation of 66,000,000 ; Poland contains 6,000,000 souls - 
 
52 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILK LIFE IN SIBERIA. 53 
 
 Finland, 2,000,000 ; the Caucasus, 5,000,000. Siberia 
 proper has a population of 4,000,000, and Central Asia 
 3,000,000. These are approximate figures based on the 
 census of 1880. In this broad extent of country about 
 two-thirds of the entire population profess the Greek 
 religion. The Dissenters number about one million ; 
 the Roman Catholics two and one-half millions ; Protes- 
 tants and Mohammedans about the same as the Cath- 
 olics ; Jews, two millions. There are also one quarter 
 of a million Pagans, worshipping idols ; fifty thousand 
 Armenians, and about ten thousand Scopsi, a denomina- 
 tion that will be described fully hereafter. 
 
 Russia's national debt, since the loan of 1882, is about 
 four billion roubles^-the paper rouble being equivalent 
 to fifty cents, makes the. total debt, in United States 
 currency, two billion dollars. The expenses of the Gov- 
 ernment in 1881 were nine hundred million roubles, two 
 hundred millions of which were army appropnations. 
 
 The Emperor is allowed twenty million roubles annu- 
 ally for the support of the forty-four members of the 
 royal family. Russia now has a mobilized array, ready at 
 any time to be called out for service, of over two million 
 men ; and her fleet, consisting of two hundred and sixty- 
 three vessels, carries sixteen hundred and two guns. 
 
 The original settlers of Russia were Sclavonians, whose 
 history in the Empire dates from about B. C. 400. A 
 century later they founded the cities of Novgorod the 
 Great, and Kief — both of which cities afterward became 
 capitals of the country — and Ilmeu. Kief has always been 
 regarded as the Holy City, to which annual pilginmages 
 are made for worship. 
 
 This ancient capital, though much of its former glory 
 has departed, is still one of the chief places in Russia ; 
 among its many squalid appearing buildings, always sug- 
 4 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. oO 
 
 gestivc of grejit poverty, is a palace provided, and still 
 niuii)taiiied, for the Imperial family. In Russia there are 
 twenty-one palaces kept for the exclusive use of the Czar, 
 many of which never once sheltered his Majesty ; they are 
 always kept m readiness for him, however, being attended 
 by hundreds of servants, and having stables containing 
 many fine horses. I was surprised to learn this, and 
 upon asking why such a useless extravagance was per- 
 mitted, was answered : " The Czar is supposed to look 
 after the interests of his entire Empire ; his presence, 
 therefore, may be expected at any time in any jilace 
 therein ; so palaces are provided for his entertainment in 
 various parts of Russia in order that at no time may he 
 have to lodge in apartments not befitting his Majest3^" 
 This answer quite satisfied me. 
 
 The earliest Government of Russia was a Republic, 
 which continued for about one thousand years, when, in 
 851, a violent political disturbance took place which 
 divided the Republic into revolutionary territories and 
 inaugurated a warfare that threatened extermination. 
 The Republic continued to exist in name, however, until 
 862, when a council, chosen from the various factions, 
 with the view of conciliating differences and j^rotecting 
 the counti-y from invasions, which neighboring tribes 
 threatened, convened at Novgorod, and after lengthy 
 deliberations decided to invite a Vara2i:o-Russian , named 
 Rurik, to accept the sovereignty, whi«hhe did, and Rus- 
 sia then became an Empire, Novgorod remaining the 
 capital of the new Government. 
 
 There is very little history known connected with the 
 Rurik dynasty. Vladimir was the greatest sovereign of 
 that House. It was he who introduced Christianity into 
 the Empire in 980, and at his death, which occurred in 
 1015, he was buried at Kief, and the church honored 
 
RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 57 
 
 nis name by declaring him a saint. Dimetrius was also 
 a prominent ruler in the Rurik dynasty, and he is re- 
 garded as a saint by the orthodox church. It was Dime- 
 trius who founded Moscow in the twelfth century. A 
 portion of his skull, the size of a silver half-dollar, is 
 still iDreserved and exposed to view in the Royal Chapel at 
 Moscow. Every day hundreds of pious Russians visit 
 this chapel and reverently kiss the ghastly relic, murmur- 
 ing their prayers, and crossing themselves at the same 
 time. It is said that upon the occasion of a visit to this 
 chapel by an American lady, seeing so strange and dis- 
 gusting a performance by so many mouths, she grew 
 sick and vomited. The act, as I saw it performed by 
 dozens during my visit to Moscow, affected me almost 
 as seriously as it did the lady referred to. 
 
 The house of Rurik continued to rule Russia until the 
 year 1613, when an interregnum occurred, owing to the 
 fact that there was neither issue nor hereditary branch 
 to succeed the last ruler. The Empire continued, how- 
 ever, by the election of Michael Faodorvitch Romanoff 
 ;is Emperor, who ruled from the year 1613 until 1645. 
 He was succeeded by his son, Alexis Michaelovitch, who 
 was the father of Peter the Great. His reign continued 
 from 1645 until 1676. The other rulers then came in the 
 order named. 
 
 Feodor Alexovitch, 1676-1682. Ivan Alexovitch the 
 v., who was an idiot, being senior brother of Peter 
 Alexovitch (Peter the Great), the Government became 
 a duarchy until the former's death, which occurred in 
 1696, when Peter the Great, who was in fact ruler from 
 1682, continued on the throne until his death in 1725. 
 
 Catharine I., wife of Peter the Great, ruled from 1725 
 until 1727, when she was poisoned by Count Ostermann 
 
 Peter 11. , nephevr of Peter the Great, 1727 until 1730. 
 
58 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Anna Ivanovana, niece of Peter the Great, ruled from 
 1730 until 1740, when she was banished to Siberia and 
 died in exile. 
 
 Ivan Antonovitch succeeded, but ruled only one year, 
 until 1741, when he was thrown into prison, where he 
 died. 
 
 Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, ruled 
 from 1741 until 1761. She died without marrying, but 
 adopted the grandson of Peter I., who succeeded her as 
 Peter III., but he ruled only one year, until 1762, when 
 he was strangled by order of his wife, Catharine II. 
 
 Catharine II. ruled from 1762 until 1796. 
 
 Paul I., Catharine's only son, who was declared illegiti- 
 mate, ruled from 1796 until 1801, when he was strangled 
 in his palace by Count Parlen. 
 
 Alexander I. , son of Paul I. , ruled from 1801 until 1825. 
 He died from the ipffects of poisoned feet, the poison 
 being secretly placed in his boots. 
 
 Nicholas I., second son of Paul I., ruled from 1825 
 until 1855, when he ordered his physician to prepare 
 him a dose of poison, which he took on account of his 
 defeat by England and the Allied Forces in the Crimean 
 War. 
 
 Alexander II. ruled from 1855 until 1881, when he was 
 assassinated, after many unsuccessful attempts, March 
 1st, Russian style, 1881. 
 
 Alexander III. began his rule upon the day of his 
 father's (Alexander II.) death, and is now upon the 
 throne, which is like an active volcano under his feet, or 
 a magazine of powder toward which a lighted fuse is 
 steadily burning. 
 
 The members of the ruling family are as follows ; 
 
 Emperor Alexander HI. Alcxandrovitch, born March 
 10th, 1845 ; he married Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmar, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 59 
 
 (lauijhter of Christian IX. Kiim- of Denmark. The Em- 
 
 press, who is a sister to the Princess of Wales and King 
 
 George, of Greece, was 
 born November 2Gth, 
 1847, and married the 
 Emperor, November 9th, 
 1866. She was enga^-ed 
 to the Prince Imperial 
 Nicholas, elder l)rother of 
 the present E m p e r o r , 
 who, however, was seized 
 with a dreadful malady 
 brought on by his own 
 indiscretions, and died 
 before reaching man- 
 hood. On his death- 
 bed he begged his broth- 
 er, who became heir in 
 succession, to marry the 
 Princess, which request 
 was complied with. 
 
 The children of this 
 union are : 
 
 Nicholas Alexandro- 
 vitch, the Prince Impe- 
 rial, who was born May 
 18th, 1868. 
 
 George Alexandro- 
 vitch. Grand Duke ; born 
 May 9th, 1871. 
 
 Xen ia Al exan d r o v n a , 
 Grand Duchess; born 
 
 April 6th, 1-^7:). 
 
 Michael Alexandrovitch, Grand Duke, born December 
 
 5tb , 1878, 
 
60 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Olga Alexaudrovna, born in May, 1882. 
 
 The christening ceremonies of this infant princess oc- 
 curred at Peterhoff, the Czar's present residence, and 
 was one of the most gorgeous affairs that ever took 
 place in Russia. 
 
 Brothers and /Sisters of the JEmperor — Vladimir Alex- 
 androvitch, Grand Duke ; born April 22, 1847 ; married 
 August 28th, 1874, to Princess Marie, of Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin. 
 
 Alexis Alexandrovitch, Grand Duke ; born January 
 rith, 1850. Morganatically married, but his wife was 
 never acknowledged by the Court, and he was compelled 
 to sever his relations with her. 
 
 Marie Alexaudrovna, grand duchess ; born October 17, 
 1853 ; married to the Duke of Edinburg, second son of 
 Queen Victoria, January 23, 1874. 
 
 Sergius Alexandrovitch, Grand Duke ; born May 11th, 
 1857. 
 
 Paul Alexandrovitch, Grand Duke ; born October 3d, 
 1860. 
 
 Uncles and Aunts — Olga Nicolaievna, grand duchess ; 
 born September 11th, 1822 ; married to Charles, now 
 King of "VVurtemburg, July 13th, 1846. 
 
 Constantine Nicholaievitch, Grand Duke ; born Sep- 
 tember 21st, 1827 ; married September 11th, 1848, to the 
 Princess Alexandra Josef ovna, the daughter of Joseph, 
 late duke of Saxe Altenburg. 
 
 There are sixteen other members of the Royal Family, 
 children of the grand dukes and grand duchesses, all of 
 whom receive a large annual pension from the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Few of the grand dukes have held any office requiring 
 active service. The grand duke Nicholas was field Mar- 
 shal at the outbreak of the war with Turkey, but his 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 61 
 
 father, Alexander II., had so little confidence in him that 
 he decided to assign the chief command of the Russian 
 
 forces to one of his old- 
 er Generals. Learning 
 this, Nicholas presented 
 himself before his father, 
 and with pistol in hand 
 declared that rather than 
 suffer such disgrace he 
 would blow his own brains 
 out before his father's 
 eyes. This threat induced 
 the Emperor to give the 
 chief command to Nicho- 
 las, but before a year had 
 elapsed there was such a 
 general complaint of his 
 extravagance and incom- 
 petency that the Czar was 
 forced to remove him and 
 appoint Gen. Skobeleff, 
 the hero of Goek-Teppe, 
 in his place. 
 
 The grand duke Con- 
 stantine was, for some 
 time, rear Admiral of the 
 Eussian fleet, but there 
 developed among the ma- 
 rines such strong revolu- 
 tionary sympathies that 
 in the spring of the pres- 
 ent year he was removed, 
 and the position given to the Grand Duke Alexis. The lat- 
 ter at once began a secret examination of the men in the 
 
fi2 , RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 navj, which resulted iu the arrest mid conviction of three 
 hundred officers and privates iu the marine service, all of 
 whom were sent into exile. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 There are three great historical characters among thi 
 rulers of Russia, viz : Peter the Great, Catharine II., 
 and Alexander II. Of these three the first named is pre- 
 eminent in history, while they all have made popular rep- 
 utations in the order named. 
 
 Even in boyhood, Peter the Great exhibited such traits 
 of character as indicated his special capacity for the po- 
 sition he was hereditarily called to fill. - His brother, 
 upon whom the crown fell by succession, was an idiot, 
 and at a very youthful age the responsibilities of Imperial 
 State, under particularly perplexing circumstances, be- 
 came his iliheritance. 
 
 His early life was characterized by those acts of brav- 
 ery which grew in importance as maturer years came 
 upon him. It is told of him that shortly after his acces- 
 sion to the throne a conspiracy was formed to consum- 
 mate his assassination . Those in the plot had a meeting 
 place in a peasant's house, where they secretly came to- 
 gether and arranged their plans for getting into his bed- 
 room, and for disposing of the body after death. By 
 some means, which tradition docs not explain, Peter 
 heard of the conspiracy, and with a spirit of reckless 
 bravery undertook the task of visiting punishment upon 
 liis enemies. He accordingly posted himself in a i)lace 
 near the house where, unobsei'vcd,, he might witness the 
 assembling of the assassins. When five of the party 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 63 
 
64 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 had collected, and while they were taking an oath to 
 accomplish his murder, Peter broke in the door, and 
 with no other weapon than his powerful arm, he rushed 
 upon the affrighted men and knocked them into a condi- 
 tion of insensibility, then taking away their daggers he 
 kept them as a memento of his adventure. 
 
 This great ruler was only seventeen years of age when 
 he ascended the throne, but he was both warrior and 
 statesman ; a sovereign full of ambition and the courage 
 to force any extremity. His first desire was to extend 
 his Empire, and this he undertook by engaging Charles 
 XII., of Sweden, in a war which lasted, through shifting 
 fortunes, for many years. At the beginning of this war 
 Russia did not extend further north than the Neva River, 
 the territory lying beyond belonging to Sweden. As a pre- 
 liminary to the acquisition of Finland, Peter the Great 
 wrote a letter to Charles XII., asking the favor of build- 
 ing a small country residence on the north bank of the 
 Neva. He had already founded St. Petersburg, and his 
 request for permission to build a small house, even on 
 Swedish territory, but adjoining his own dominions, was 
 construed by Charles as nothing more than a natural de- 
 sire, as the spot selected was embowered by beautiful 
 trees and occupied a delightful site, commanding an ex- 
 tensive view up and down the river. The request was 
 therefore granted, and the wily Peter thus obtained his 
 first footing on Swedish soil, which he never relinquished. 
 It was a small house, in which Peter held counsel with 
 his officers, and one portion was fitted up for a workshop, 
 for, although Czar, he was a skilful mechanic, whose chief 
 delight was the turning-lathe and handling of all kinds 
 of workmen's tools. 
 
 Before engaging in war, Peter equipped himself fully 
 by building a large fleet, providing abundant munitions. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 65 
 
 enlarging and drilling his army, and preparing all his 
 forts and other defenses. 
 
 When he had thus carefully arranged for a powerful 
 campaign, war was declared, upon some trivial diplo- 
 matic pretext, and there followed a twelve years' contest 
 that has rarely been equalled for fierceness in all history. 
 
 Btit the fortunes of war were all against him until his 
 exchequer was nearly exhausted, his troops were beaten 
 and driven at every point, the army became insubordi- 
 nate, and there appeared no hope ; yet Peter was one of 
 those rare characters that knew no such word as fail ; ev- 
 ery blow he received only served to impassion him to 
 more determined acts. While in this extremity three 
 hundred of his oiSicers conspired to sacrifice him, and had 
 arranged all their plans. At the last moment he heard 
 of the conspiracy, and forthwith covertly despatched a 
 force of trusted men to arrest them, not in a body, but one 
 at a time so that no alarm might be occasioned, for he real- 
 ized how little sympathy there was among the people for 
 his administration. When all the arrests were made, and 
 the men conveyed to Moscow, he attended upon them in 
 person and announced their fate, which was to be decap- 
 itation. Peter was an interested spectator of the execu- 
 tions, his calculating deference being manifested by the 
 following incident : Among the number sentenced to 
 death was a young, gallant officer who had been a great 
 favorite of the Czar's. This man, as he laid his head 
 upon the block, in order to avert his gaze from the exe- 
 cutioner's sword, by a great exertion contrived to turn 
 his face sideways, which lifted one of his shoulders upon 
 the block. On seeing this Peter rushed up and catching 
 hold of the hair of his victim, violently drew back the 
 head into proper place, at the same time administering 
 this rebuke : 
 
66 
 
 RUSSIA2^ NIHILISM AN© 
 
 "A brave and considerate fellow indeed, who would 
 disgrace the headsman by causing him to cut your should 
 rather than your neck." 
 
 er 
 
 thtl T\r '"■ ^""" '"*''*''■ '^^ '^■''^^"io"'' at Moscow 
 
 that another conspiracy, was discovered, headed bypZ 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 67 
 
 ter's favorite mistress, a woman wiio is represent, d as 
 exceedingly beautiful and possessing such charms of per- 
 son as won from the Czar an affection that subordinated 
 his judgment and rendered him almost plastic in her 
 hands. She had arranged to deliver him into the power 
 of his enemies, but her purpose was disclosed to Peter in 
 time for him to foil the conspimtors and bring them to a 
 judgment similar to that previously administered in Mos- 
 cow. The woman was among those adjudged guilty of 
 treason, and she was brought to the block arrayed in a 
 long white robe covered with beautiful lace ; around her 
 neck she wore a circlet of diamonds, a gift from the 
 Czar, and her uncommonly long, black hair was allowed 
 to hang disheveled over her shoulders. She is reported 
 to have presented an appearance which would have turned 
 any heart but that of the inflexible Peter, and even upon 
 him she produced such an impression that he broke into 
 tears, and throwing himself upon her neck in an agony 
 of grief exclaimed : 
 
 " Oh, beautiful being, I would gladly exchange places 
 with you this sad hour, but pardon you I cannot. It is 
 the Czar's duty to see no one convicted without just 
 cause, so is it the Czar's duty to see the law rigidly en- 
 forced." 
 
 Then after kissing her many times, he ordered her 
 head hiid upon the block, and a moment after signaled 
 the headsman to do his bloody work. 
 
 It is true that during the forty-three years of his 
 administration Peter the Great never pardoned a single 
 convicted offender, and it was his pride to declare the 
 fact. 
 
 Though desperately beaten on nearly every battle-field 
 for nine years, and until a further continuance of the 
 struggle appeared hopeless, still the Great Peter sue- 
 
68 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ceeded iu inspiring his army with his own dauntless spirit 
 At length fortune changed in his favor, and soon hop v 
 blazed up all over the once desjjairing Empire. The* 
 battle of Pultova, which was fought under Imperial lead- 
 ership by the flower of both armies, resulted in Peter's 
 favor, and was so complete an overthrow of Swedish 
 influence and power that it was the last blow struck on 
 either side. Charles XII. was himself desperately 
 wounded, his army almost annihilated, and he was ready 
 to sue for peace at any price. A treaty followed soon 
 after, which ceded to Russia nearly all that territory now 
 known as Finland, but the Government of Finland has 
 ever remained isolated from Russia, for the reason that 
 it has a limited constitution and is a Dukedom. 
 
 At the conclusion of peace Peter renewed the building 
 of St. Petersburg, intending that it should be the capital 
 of the Empire. He soon removed from his little palace — 
 which was called ' ' palace ' ' because it was the Royal resi- 
 dence — to a spot eighteen miles west of the city, where 
 he built another palace, and called the place Peterhoff . 
 There were two houses constructed for his residence, 
 ])oth of which are ycry small, one of them being beauti- 
 fully situated on a bank of the Finland Gulf, and the 
 other in a delightful wood, before Avhich was made a large 
 flsh pond. He bestowed such attention on the grounds 
 at Peterhoff that they are regarded as the most pictur- 
 esque in all EurojDe. 
 
 He concentrated so much of his ambition on St. Peters- 
 burg, however, that notwithstanding the fact of its estab- 
 lishment on an extensive morass, he expended the means 
 which have made it next to Paris in architectural beauty, 
 with broad streets and numerous parks, graceful monu- 
 ments, and the finest Imperial palace in the world. He 
 fostered the arts and sciences, gave encourag^ement to 
 
EXILE LIFE II^^ SIBEHIA. 69 
 
 every commendiible enterprise, and made Russia a power 
 equal to any in Europe, 
 
 Generous in sustaining every scheme which he con- 
 sidered would advance the national interest, and genial 
 in his intercourse with those he met in diplomatic or 
 court relations, yet his stern determination and inflexi- 
 ble heart made him often appear like a man destitute of 
 human feeling and wholly without mercy. He had but 
 one son, who possessed many of the traits characteristic 
 of the sire ;. this youth had an abnormally long head and 
 a strange visage which foreboded dark purposes. When 
 only fifteen years of age he became a disturbing factor 
 in the Empire by attempting to incite a rebellion against 
 his father ; so persistent was the youth in fomenting dis- 
 cord that his father ordered him thrown into prison, but 
 he was not so strictly confined as to prevent intercourse 
 with many officials whom he tried to influence against 
 the Czar. So incensed at length did Peter become that, 
 alone, he repaired to the prison, and with his own hand 
 struck a dagger into the heart of his recreant son. 
 
 The second greatest character in Russian history, as 
 before mentioned, was Catharine II., who was a Germajti 
 princess brought to Rusisia under the following circum- 
 stances : 
 
 Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, whjS 
 
 without issue, though upon the throne from 1,741 until 
 
 1762, In order to retain the throne in the family, ahe 
 
 adopted a grandson of Peter I., whom she raised at 
 
 Court under Imperial tutelage. When the yomig Peter 
 
 aj^proached his adolescence Elizabeth grew anxious for 
 
 him to fix his intentions upon some princess who might, 
 
 as Empress, reflect credit upon himself and the nation, 
 
 but P«»ter was so diffident that he had to be coerced into a 
 
 courtship. To this end the Empress sent for four Ge»- 
 5 
 
70 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 man princesses all about the age of the youthful Peter, 
 to visit her d uring the approaching winter. The girls were 
 brought to Russia in a post-chaise, and upon their arrival 
 they were met by the Empress, who observed a remarka- 
 ble difference between Catharine, one of the quartette, 
 and the other three princesses. This difference consisted 
 in a bold, frank, careless air manifested by Catharine 
 as she entered the Royal presence, whilst her three com- 
 panions exhibited such modesty and awkward diffidence 
 that Elizabeth declared, within half an hour after receiA'^- 
 ing them, that Catharine should become wife to her 
 adopted Peter, 
 
 ' The two were brought together and their respective suits 
 vicariously pleaded with such persistency that although 
 Catharine could scarcely endure the Prince Imperial, yet 
 she was induced to marry him. This union was a most 
 unfortunate one, as will appear hereafter. 
 
 Upon the death of Elizabeth, Peter I. became Czar 
 under the title of Peter III. He was a weak ruler and 
 directly opposite in desposition to Catharine, whose am- 
 bition was as all-absorbing as that displayed by Peter 
 the Great. After one year of contention Catharine took 
 up her residence at Peterhoff , while Peter III. remained 
 at the Winter Palace with his mistress, the Countess Stro- 
 ganhoff . This woman gained such an influence over him 
 that he decided to marry her. To accomplish his pur- 
 pose he had first to get rid of Catharine, which he at- 
 tempted to do by preparing charges against her of trea- 
 son and inconstancy. Following these he issued an 
 order for her arrest, Avhich was to take place the morn- 
 ing following. 
 
 It Avas Catharine's good fortune to have a friend at 
 Peter's Court who, learning of the secret arrangement to 
 bring her to trial, which would have resulted in her ban- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 71 
 
 ishmont, drove quickly to Peterhoff and acquainted her 
 fully of the conspiracy. Catharine was not a woman to 
 quail or grow sick at heart over this discouraging news ; 
 but with a quick perception and the determination to 
 dare and do, she called her waiting maid, whom she im- 
 plicitly trusted, and ordering her sleigh to be quickly 
 brought, she drove with all possible dispatch to St. Pe- 
 tersburg and drew up her foaming horses before the bar- 
 racks of the Imperial Horse Guards. It was one o'clock 
 in the morning when she awakened the chief officer, and 
 with speech that characterized her as a puissant queen, 
 she told him of the conspiracy and demanded his assist- 
 ance. The officer was thus placed in a truly dangerous 
 position, for his acts must now be treason either to the 
 Emperor or Empress, for obedience to one would be 
 treason to the other. In the moments of his indecision 
 and while Catharine was haranguing the officers and men 
 with words of burning eloquence, a young lieutenant 
 named Potemkin drew his sword from its scabbard and 
 holding it ak)ft declared his allegiance to the Empress 
 and offered his services and life in her behalf. This 
 sj^irit became at once contagious, and in an hour's time 
 the Horse Guards, to a man, swore fidelity to her and 
 promised to execute all her orders. 
 
 Catharine seized the advantage which was now clearly 
 hers, and while Peter was reposing in the arms of his 
 mistress, unconscious of betrayal, the strategic Queen 
 burst in upon the Winter Palace with her faithful force, 
 intending to summarily arrest and execute her faithless 
 husband. But the Emperor was aroused in time to effect 
 his escape down a private stairway and, half clothed, his 
 identity was so concealed that he fled undetected toCron- 
 stadt. Here he was comparatively safe, as there was no 
 force in all Eussia that could have successfully assaulted 
 this the strongest fortress in the Empire. 
 
72 EUSSIAK NIHILISM AN© 
 
 Catharine assumed control as Empress without incur- 
 ring any opposition, and conducted the Government for 
 a period of three months without holding any communi- 
 cation with the dethroned Emperor. She was not satis- 
 fied, however, with the apparent acquiescence in her rule, 
 for thers was a feeling of insecurity, occasioned by a 
 dread of some conspiracy which might arise against her 
 and restore the Emperor, so she concocted a diabolical 
 plan for his assassination, the details of which show her 
 to have been a cunning, but heartless woman. 
 
 Having thoroughly conceived her purposes, Catharine 
 wrote a lengthy letter, filled with the most affectionate 
 declarations, to the despondent Emperor, in which she 
 reminded him of their early courtship, the love that he 
 bore for her before the poisonous influences of imperial- 
 ism and sovereignty had alienated him ; she avowed her 
 inexpressible love for him still, which, she claimed, w;is 
 only realized when cruel circumstances had so strangely 
 separated him from her ; she also absolved him from cen- 
 sure for the part he had taken, throwing all the guilt 
 upon those who had, through jealousy, influenced him to 
 do that which she declared was foreign to his naturall y 
 pious and loving nature. She also pointed out the evil 
 suffered by the nation by reason of a disgraceful act 
 which had brought nothing but sorrow to them both. 
 These specious j^retenses were concluded by a cordial in- 
 vitation which she extended him, announcing that, being 
 so anxious for a reconciliation she would grieve her- 
 self to death if it were denied, she had arranged to give 
 him a I'oyal diimer at Peterhoff, at which would be \)yqs- 
 ent a special compan}"" of his friends to welcome him 
 back again to his loving wife and the throne of Russia. 
 
 This letter, so skilful in its construction, completely 
 captivated Peter, for being of a despondent nature he 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 73 
 
 only needed the effervescent spirit of such a communi- 
 cation to dissipate the gloom which had gathered so 
 densely about him. His friends, however, thought they 
 detected the signs of a conspiracy in the missive, be- 
 cause not a single sentence accorded with the nature of 
 Catharine, whom they knew to be ambitious, despotic 
 and unscrapulous. They therefore strongly advised him 
 not to accept the invitation, but he could discover noth- 
 ing in the communication beyond that which promised 
 him a restoration to power. 
 
 He accordino'lv ordered his yacht and sailed across to 
 Peterhoff , his heart exulting with proud expectations and 
 without tlie slightest suspicion of the dreadfnl death that 
 he was hastening to. Upon reaching Peterhoff ho was 
 astonished to find no preparations for his reception, but 
 even this did not excite in him the least apprehension. 
 Arriving at the Palace he was told that the Empress had 
 arranged to meet him at the Ropscha Palace. 
 
 Still unsuspicious, he entered a carriage which was 
 placed at his disposal, and drove to Ropcha, which is 
 about twenty miles from Peterhoff, where he first be- 
 came alarmed by failing to observe anything that indi- 
 cated an expected visit from him. But he was now too 
 far advanced into Catharine's territory to turn back, for 
 flight could not have saved him. Entering the Palace he 
 Avas met by an officer, who, with profound obeisance ad- 
 dressed him as "Your Majesty," and conducted him 
 into the reception room where a score more of officers 
 greeted him in a manner becoming his rank. Being seated 
 he enquired for Catharine, and was told that Her Majesty 
 was in the toilette room with her maids, but would appear 
 presently . 
 
 In a short time dinner was announced, and he was in- 
 vited to accompany the officers to the dining hall, where 
 they assured him Catharine would appear at once. 
 
74 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Everything was of such strained and uncertain charac- 
 ter that Peter's alarm momentarily increased until when 
 he sat down at the table his face blanched with fright. 
 Calling again for Catharine and receiving an unsatisfacto- 
 ry answer, Peter arose from the table and exclaimed : 
 
 ^ f\ 
 
 "^^^J^f^ 
 
 ^ , 
 
 j^r5_. 32=3^5) __ ^_f~^ _ 
 
 ROPSCHA PALACE, WHERE PETER III. WAS STRANGLED. 
 
 " I perceive, gentlemen, that I have been grossly de- 
 ceived, and that instead of inviting me to a reconcilia- 
 tion with the Empress, this is a scheme to assassinate 
 me." 
 
 As these words were uttered Count Oraloif approached 
 him suddenly from behind, and throAving a napkin around 
 his neck exclaimed : 
 
 ** Yes, and it shall be as painless as we can make it." 
 
EXILE LIFE IX SIBERIA. 75 
 
 The Emperor had time then only to cry, "Shame! 
 shame ! ' ' when the napkin was drawn so tightly that he 
 soon died of strangulation 
 
 Catharine had but one child, a son, who was declared 
 illegitimate, and when he ascended the throne as Paul I. a 
 revolution was averted only by the most obsequious 
 promises to pacify the people. He ruled for five years, but 
 with such dissatisfaction that a conspiracy was organized 
 against him in his own palace ; the conspirators forced 
 themselves into his private study, and presenting a letter 
 of abdication demanded that he should sign it. This he 
 refused, whereupon Count Parlen, assisted by six others, 
 drew a napkin about his neck and strangled him to death 
 in the same way in which his father was executed 
 
 The reign of Catharine II. was marked by the great 
 progress Russia made, notwithstanding the wars she pre- 
 cipited which drew so heavily upon her treasury. She 
 did more for St. Petersburg even than Peter the Great, 
 some of her principal works being the construction or 
 three canals which run through the city and connect the 
 Volga with the Neva river, by which boats may run 
 through from the Caspian to the Baltic sea. Her politic 
 measures were no less important, for she confirmed the 
 abolition of the secret state inquisition ; she also educated 
 seven thousand children, and among many other acts of 
 public charity she established a foundling asylum at St. 
 Petersburg, and also one at Moscow. These institutions 
 are the largest of the kind in the world. The one at 
 Moscow receives an average of one hundred foundlings 
 every day, while the one in St. Petersburg receives half 
 that number. 
 
 Her entire reign was distinguished for the successful 
 wars she waged against Turkey, at one time pushing her 
 arms so far that Constantinople would have been com- 
 
7G RUSS.IAW NIHILISM AND 
 
 pelled to capitulate, but for the intervention of other 
 powers. Her efforts to annex Poland precipitated a 
 great civil war which resulted, through the intrigues of 
 Russia, Austria and Prussia, in an assault on ^Varsaw and 
 the most dreadful massacre that the pen of history has 
 perhaps ever recorded. 
 
 In 1784 Catharine gained complete possession of the 
 Crimea and the adjacent islands ; she then established 
 the great foi-t of Sevastopol, which became such a prom- 
 inent point of attack in the Crimean war of 1853-54-55. 
 
 Her private life was marked by the most demoralizing- 
 excesses, which she took no pains to conceal. She be- 
 stowed every honor within her gift upon Potemkin, 
 the lieutenant of the Horse Guards who espoused her 
 cauf?e against Pet^r HI., and her favors were not limited 
 to offices of preferment. She had seven favorites who 
 were her daily companions and counselors, and these are 
 remembered in St. Petersburg by a large bronze statue of 
 Catharine, around the pedestal of which are grouped 
 smaller statues of the favored Septemviri. 
 
 Her araliition was abnormal, being irrepressible even 
 m the last moments of her life. When conscious that 
 death was at hand, with great effort she rose up so far as 
 her strength would allow, but fell back with these last 
 words : 
 
 " Bring me the crown, that I may feel it on my head 
 oncx; more bcfbre I die. The crown! the crown 1 " 
 and whisijering these words she expired. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 77 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 Thh third and last distinguished historical character of 
 Russia is Alexander II., whose tragic death, March 13, 
 1881, startled the world. While I have selected as strik- 
 ingly great, in the Romanoff dynasty, only three rulers, 
 I would hare it understood that my estimation of these 
 sovereigns is based entirely ujxin the civil policy which 
 they pursued, and their influence in promoting the com- 
 merce and arts of Russia. There were greater warriors 
 on the throne of Russia than Peter the Great, among 
 whom I may mention Tamerlane, Ivan IV., surnamed 
 the Terrible, and Vladimir the Great, but I have not at- 
 tempted to outline a general history of Russia, as that 
 task has been accomplished already by several writers 
 whose works have become standard in the various civil- 
 ized countries. My purpose in introducing Peter the 
 Great, Cathaj-ine II. and Alexander II. as pre-eminently 
 prominent sovereigns was to utilize their administrations 
 as a specially appropriate prelude to the subject of Rus- 
 sia's internal revolution. Their several policies and ten- 
 dencies serve to illustrate the mercurial and violent na- 
 ture of the Russian people, a^ well as the burdens 
 they have had to endure, and with the foregoing epitome 
 of the two greatest administrations in Russia an intelli- 
 gent comprehension of that which is to follow may be 
 had. 
 
 When Alexander came to the throne there was every- 
 thing to discourage him. His father had died under the 
 most lamentable circumstances ; the Crimean war fail- 
 ure had caused mutterings and a restlessness among the 
 people which seemed to threaten disruption, if not revo- 
 lution ; there wa« an empty treasury gaping at a debt of 
 
7d 
 
 RUSSIAN KIHILIbM AUD 
 
 ALEXANDER II,, LATE EMFEROK OF RUSSIA. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 79 
 
 frightful proportions ; and as the war with the Allied 
 Powers had not yet terminated, he reached the throne in 
 time to be held responsible for the downfall of Sevasto- 
 pol. 
 
 Nicholas I. was a despot whose iron hand had crushed 
 out every semblance of liberty, and the people were 
 naturally distrustful of the son of such a man, but the first 
 acts of Alexander II. was to reduce the public burdens 
 and inaugurate social reforms of great consequence to 
 the people. At the conclusion of peace he reduced his 
 army to the lowest possible limits compatible with the 
 safety of the Empire ; he next established trial by jury, 
 devised a code of laws for the restraint of the roj'^al fam- 
 ily, and so mitigated the censorship of the press that 
 immediately literature was stimulated and with it fol- 
 lowed a rapid progress in all the arts and sciences. But 
 in making these reforms he met with a stubborn opposi- 
 tion from the noblesse, so that they finally became as- 
 laws observed only in the l)reach. An author writing at 
 the time oa the profession and practices of the adminis- 
 tration observes : 
 
 " 111 the administration of justice we find on the one 
 hand publicity and ample show of discussion during the 
 proceedings, and in the jury-box ; on the other a practice 
 which removes inconvenient persons from the cognizance 
 of a tribunal, and sends them ' administratively ' to Si- 
 beria. On the one side abolition of corporal chastise- 
 ment as a criminal and disciplinary punishment ; on the 
 other, incessant floggings in secret. On the one side a 
 recognition of the principles of self-government in the 
 provinces and towns ; on the other, the impossibility of 
 turning this to any practical use through fear of Gov- 
 ernors, TMinisters, Councillors, or Chiefs of Gendarmes. 
 On the one side a strict demarcation of power among 
 
80 RUSSIAN NIHILISM Aim 
 
 the various authorities, and a distinct separation of Judi- 
 cial from administrative functions ; on the other, an un- 
 bounded exercise of arbitrary power by higher police 
 officials, who in their turn are ruled over by the ' Third 
 Section,' whose supreme command overrides everything 
 else." 
 
 Although the reforms sought to be established by 
 Alexander were suggested by an honest intention to 
 remedy many crying evils, instead of eradicating, or 
 even ameliorating any of the vicious practices so long 
 complained of, seem to have served no other purpose 
 than that of creating an inveterate hostility to him person- 
 ally, which culminated, after five misuccessful attempts, 
 in his assassination. 
 
 We are now brought to a period in Russian history 
 where Nihilism had its beginning, for, strange enough, 
 this bloody creature of a disordered if not frenzied con- 
 ceptiron had its birth in tbe very cradle of emanci^Dation. 
 
 Communism was a disquieting, if not dangerous factor 
 in Russia as early as 1825, when a band of conspirators 
 attempted to substitute constitutional for despotic Gov- 
 ernment through the assassination of Alexander I., but 
 there was a great dissimilarity in the two organizations, 
 found in the fact that Communism of that time had a 
 defined policy and a formulated idea of the Government 
 it proposed to establish, while Nihilism is exactly what 
 the word implies, " nothing ;" a determination to wreak 
 vengeance without considering either the means or 
 result. 
 
 Russian Communism in 1825 had its origin in a grow- 
 ing discontent with existing institutions and a desire to 
 see them replaced by laws more in accordance with mod- 
 ern ideas. This disposition, which was first manifested 
 among the nobles, grew out of that vast wave of thought 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 81 
 
 to which the French Revolution gave rise, and, to some 
 extent, to the unsettling forces set free during the great 
 struggle with Nui^oleon I. 
 
 The close of the life of Alexander I. was embittered 
 by the reflection of how much he had done for his people 
 and the ingratitude they had returned. From time to 
 time ho received mysterious messages containing warn- 
 ings that his life and throne were in danger. His mind 
 became so gloomy under these threatened calamities that' 
 he died of a broken heart at Togaurog. 
 
 An interregnum endued, during which, while Nicholas 
 was refusing to exclude his elder brother from the throne 
 and while Constantine was undetermined whether or not 
 to swear allegiance to his younger brother, the Commun- 
 ists gained strength and their plans coherency. The re- 
 sult was a military insurrection in December, 1825, 
 which terminated in a dreadful carnage. The attack was 
 made on the Winter Palace by about five thousand men, 
 who gathered in the Alexander Square in broken ranks, 
 and Avith such weapons as they could collect. The mob 
 was met by a battery of heavy artillery, planted in front 
 of the Ministry of Justice, one hundred yards from the 
 Palace, which, with grape-shot, opened fire on the crowd 
 until nearly three thousand of the revolutionists were 
 mangled in instant death or left dying in a sea of blood. 
 
 This dreadful slaughter suppressed Communism until, 
 upon the accession of Alexander II., Alexander Herzen 
 organized a revolutionary committee and established a 
 printing ofiice in London, where Nihilistic literature was 
 printed and used to inflame the passions of adventurers 
 and tliose who were conscious of Russian oppression. 
 This committee had its branches in Paris, Berlin and 
 Geneva, but was making little progress when the Em- 
 peror declared, by act of emancipation February 19, 
 
82 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 1861, the freedom of Uie Serfs. This was a blow at the 
 Russain nobility which proved disastrous to their inter- 
 ests and led to evils far beyond those anticipated by the 
 Emperor. 
 
 The history of Serfdom may be briefly told, and as it 
 is essential to a correct understanding of the emancipa- 
 tion proclamation and its consequences, is herewith 
 given : 
 
 The original settlers of Russia being from the east and 
 south, the nomadic disposition which characterized them 
 continued to be a feature of the Government, until meas- 
 ures were taken, at first of a mild, persuasive nature, to 
 induce a permanent settlement of the people, in order 
 that agriculture might be promoted. Incursions from 
 neighboring tribes for purposes of forage and reprisal, 
 followed by hordes who retaliated upon the invaders, be- 
 came so general as to prevent any attempt to engage in 
 productive industry, until in 1592 Boris Godunoff, of 
 the Rurik dynasty, became convinced that there could 
 l)e no progress or cohesion in his Empire unless the per- 
 nicious custom was abolished. He accordingly promul- 
 gated a peremptory decree, forbidding peasants from 
 changing their residence or appearing off their communal 
 estates without a permit from the Governor of their re- 
 spective districts. All efforts to enforce this decree 
 proved futile, because no adequate punishment was pro- 
 vided for its infraction. 
 
 Determined in his purpose, however, Godunoff had 
 enacted and put into execution another law which gave 
 the right to any nobleman — which was a wealthy class 
 of landed estate owners, whose occupation was chiefly 
 stock i-aising — to hold in bondage all the peasants em- 
 ployed by him, and also the further right of forcibly 
 taking and owning as slaves any peasant whom he might 
 
EXILJi LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 83 
 
 '*>4-- 
 
84 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ftnd off the communal estate on which such peasant was 
 recorded as a resident. This latter law gave the noble- 
 men absolute ownership of the serfs thus forced into 
 bondage, with the right tp dispose of them the same as 
 other chattels. The law remained unchanged until dur- 
 ing the reign of Nicholas I., when that sovereign issued 
 another decree taking away from the noblemen the right 
 cf selling their serfs except as they might be disposed of 
 with the estates of their masters. 
 
 So extensive did this system of slavery become that in 
 the year 1858 it is computed there were 47,100,000 per- 
 sons in servitude, more than one-half the entire popula- 
 tion of European Russia. Of this number M. Rambaud 
 estimates that 20,000,000 were Crown peasants, 4,700,- 
 000 were peasants attached to estates, which were the 
 Appenages of the Crown, laboring in mines and factories 
 belonging to the Crown ; 21,000,000 belonged to private 
 individuals and 1,400,000, were domestic seiwants. 
 
 The serfs of the Crown and of the Appenages might 
 be considered as free men, subject to the payment of a 
 rent, and bound onl}'' to perform certain defined obliga- 
 tions to the State, while they were permitted to enjoy a 
 restricted local self-govcrmnent. To emancipate these 
 involved only an Imperial edict of manumission, Avhich 
 was done gradually by a series of ukases, the first of 
 which bore date July, 1858. 
 
 The emancipation of those serfs belonging to private 
 owners, however, was a task not so easily performed, for, 
 as Rambaud observes, " the liberation of these 22,400,000 
 human beings was to constitute the most prodigiou^s social 
 revolution that has been accomplished since the French 
 Revolution." Farticularly was the task a difficult one, 
 since the scheme provided for the liberation of the 
 set'fs under such conditions as left them in possession of 
 
EXILE LIFB IN SIBERIA. 
 
 85 
 
8() RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 the estates they had cultivated, but imposed obligations 
 upon them which may be summed up in the following : 
 
 1st. The peasants were to be invested with the privi- 
 leges of free cultivators. 
 
 2d. They were to have, under conditions expressed in 
 the decree, the full enjoyment of their enclosure, and 
 also of a portion of productive land suflScient to enable 
 them by industry to discharge certain obligations to the 
 State. This enjoyment might become absolute posses- 
 sion of the enclosure by purchase. 
 
 3d. The noblemen were to surrender to the peasants 
 all the land actually occupied by them, a maximum and 
 minimum J:)eing fixed for each commune — the serfs lived 
 in communes in a manner which will be explained here- 
 after. The average allowance was nine acres of arable 
 land to each male serf ; the allotment differed greatly, 
 however, in different districts, according to the charac- 
 ter of the soil ; in some rich localities as little as three 
 acres were g:ranted each serf, while in the*'most unpro- 
 ductive portions as much as twenty-five acres was thtj 
 portion. 
 
 4. The Government obligated itself to organize a syf^- 
 tem of laws through which the serfs were to be enabled 
 to discharge their obligations to the State. 
 
 5. The domestic servants were to be granted an unco 3- 
 ditional freedom after serving their masters for the period 
 of two years. 
 
 6. The owners of the land and serfs were to receive 
 compensation, for the property thus yielded, by a money 
 payment, which was based upon the rents they had re- 
 ceived and the value of their serf labor, which was to be 
 calculated at a yearly rental of six per cent; " so that, 
 for every six roubles which the laborer had earned an- 
 nually, he had to pay on^ hundred roubles to his 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 87 
 
 master as his capital value to become a free holder." Of 
 this sum, twenty per cent, was advanced by the Govern- 
 ment to the noblemen (owners) which was to be refund- 
 ed by the freed peasants in installments extending over 
 fifty-nine years. To secure this repayment, the Govern- 
 ment imposed a tax on the commune, making the house- 
 holders of each Mir, or village, individually responsible 
 for the eiftire sum, charging on each commune a portion 
 of the redemption dues and otlier imperial taxes propor- 
 tionate to the number of males in the census list, which 
 is revised and republished annually.* 
 
 This Imperial ukase of emancipation went into effect 
 February 19, 18(31, and immediately produced a violent 
 feeling, which for a time threatened civil war. We, in 
 America, who know the effect of President Lincoln's 
 manumission proclamation, can readily understand the 
 lebellious spirit which must have animated the Russian 
 r oblemen, for though there was a compensation fixed by 
 the Government, by which the serf owners were to re- 
 ceive a money consideration, yet the scheme of payment 
 i\^as of such a character as to be practically valueless to 
 ihc noblemen. It was a virtual confiscation of both their 
 lands and serfs. 
 
 Under the system of serfdom there developed a no- 
 blesse class of aristocracy, who practiced the most extrav- 
 agant indulgences, maintaining fine country seats in 
 France, Switzerland and Bavaria, dressing in a garb of 
 richest splendor when in Russia, keeping scores of mis- 
 tresses, and breathing nothing but the atmosphere of 
 profligacy. 
 
 They not only derived an income from their pastoral 
 estates, but encouraged their more ambitious slaves to 
 
 * Russia, Fast and Present, by H, M. Chestet. 
 
RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 engage in business in tlie cities. Thousands of serfs of 
 quick intelligence were glad to pay their masters the sum 
 
 A RUSSIAN NOBLE LADY OF THE XVITH CENTURY. 
 
 of one thousand roubles annually for what they could 
 earn in commercial undertakings. But there are hun- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 89 
 
 dreds of instances in v/hich greedy masters compelled 
 their serfs, who had prospered in business ,l:o pay them 
 ten times the amomit they had thus agreed to accept. 
 There was a law which made noblemen amenable to con- 
 tracts thus entered into with their serfs, but it was ren- 
 dered inoperative by the right of the owner, at the ex- 
 piration of such time as he had agreed to grant freedom 
 to his slave, to compel his serf to abandon business and 
 return to the comnmne. 
 
 Suddenly stripped of their wealth, and entirely unac- 
 customed to any employment, the noblemen were left in 
 a sorry condition by the Imperial ukase of 18G1. Being 
 from almost time immemorial used to princely revenues, 
 and with a power which exalted their pride to the very 
 limit of aggrandizement, the aristocratic lords were pre- 
 cipitated, in a day, to the level of their minions, and we 
 are not surprised to learn that they felt bitter toward 
 the Government. This intense hatred soon developed 
 into an active opposition, which culminated in Nihilism. 
 The noblemen were educated, and their former position, 
 an aroma of which still clings to them, gave them that 
 influence among the ignorant classes which they have 
 wielded so potentially ever since. Keeping behind the 
 scenes themselves, they have used those whom flattering 
 speech and promises of an Utopia could beguile, to 
 commit revolutionary acts. The students, who are al- 
 most continually committing some overt act against the 
 Government, are the sons of those old noblemen who 
 have transmitted their grievances and who look to the 
 second generation for areclaimationof their rio;hts. 
 
 There is a vast difference between Communism and Ni- 
 hilsm in Russia, the latter being far the more radical and 
 aggressive, with less direction of purpose. During the 
 early years of Alexander I., and following quickly upon 
 
90 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 91 
 
 the overthroTT of Napoleon, Russia, in common with all 
 Europe, shouted herself hoarse in an enthusiasm for na- 
 tionality. At this time the " Slavophils " were the na- 
 tional reactionists, with many discordant elements which 
 prevented homogeniety among them. 
 
 During the reign of Nicholas the existence of CYen a 
 shadowy form of liberalism was rendered impossible by 
 the energetic action of thousands of secret police, 
 though at Moscow there were individual liberalists, no 
 two being in concert, however, so that of an organization 
 there was not the least semblance. But toward the 
 close of Nicholas' reign a group of students in the Uni- 
 versity of Moscow began a discussion with the view of 
 securing refuge from the absolutism which hedged them 
 about in almost helpless conscription of thought and ac- 
 tion. This idea was no doubt created by a study of He- 
 gel's and Schelling's philosophy, particularly the former, 
 which excited such an interest among the students that 
 there developed a mania for his works to the neglect of 
 all other studies. 
 
 There were two parties among these incipient philoso- 
 phers, one of which was under the leadership of Alexander 
 Herzen, who inclined to French Socialism, while the other 
 branch recognized as their champions Aksakof, Kiriec- 
 vskis and Samarin, who clung tenaciously to the Hege- 
 lian school until they progressed into Romanticists. 
 Their ideas finally crystalized around the belief that 
 Western Europe was in a vortex of ruin, while Russia 
 alone remained in that state of youth and vigor as gave 
 promise, through the adoption of measures they advo- 
 vocated, of reaching the highest plane in science, art and 
 cultured civilization. 
 
 To better accomplish their purpose, these fanatical 
 students adopted the garb of the peasantry, wearing their 
 
92 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 shirts over their trowsers and going about in sleeveless 
 jackets to the great astonishment of Moscow. This 
 move was to obtain the favor of a major class as well 
 also as to manifest their sincerity. 
 
 Hegel's philosophy of history taught that a new race, 
 to have dominion over the world, must be the messengers 
 of new ideas and principles ; the discovery, therefore, of 
 the system of Russian Communism by Baron Von Hox- 
 thansen in 1842, was accepted by the Slavophils as a rev- 
 elation of the idea and principle upon which was to be es- 
 tablished the Pan-Sclavonic nation of the future. This 
 firmly imbedded belief became, as it were, the very con- 
 stitution of Communism, and was the basis upon which 
 Herzen builded his Socialism. Associated with the dem- 
 ocratic tendency of tlie Slavophils to regenerate the nation 
 through the common people, was their fidelity to the 
 Church, which it was positively believed had protected 
 them from Protestant infidelity and Papal oppression. 
 
 This school of enthusiasts, though small in numbers for 
 several years, had no little influence, and by the mani- 
 festation of almost unexampled persistency they at length 
 began to grow in numbers with great rapidity, while 
 with their growth they became more pronounced in a 
 developing sympathy with extreme radicalism. 
 
 In 1860 the celebrated novelist, Ivan Tourguenief , in 
 a popular story, applied the term ''Nihilists" to the 
 /Hegelian Slavophils, whom he accused of a desire to de- 
 stroy everything. But the word " Nihilism" was used 
 as a synonym for scepticism many years before by Roy- 
 ercollard and Victor Hugo. Alexander Herzen has 
 been credited with being the founder of Nihilism, but 
 this is a mistake, the real part he acted being that of an 
 Evangelist of Nihilistic doctrines in Russia. Associated 
 with Herzen were Tsbernikevski and Bakunin, the latter 
 
EXILE LIFE m SIBERIA. 93 
 
 'y^' whom Kuccesded Herzen in the editorship of the 
 famous Kolokol. Under Herzen this organ advocated re- 
 forms and the introduction of Socialism with a modera- 
 tion, however, in all its articles which made it respected 
 hy all parties, but under Bakunin it changed from a 
 radical into a revolutionary journal and in a fiery, un- 
 reasonable manner advocated the subvei-sion of both 
 Church and State, even at the expense of chaos. The 
 violent manner in which Bakunin agitated his declared 
 Nihilistic purpose may be better judged by the fol- 
 lowing extracts from a manifesto, which he issued in 1868 
 on behalf of an oro-anization calling itself the " Alliance 
 Internationale cle la Democratic Socialiste^'^ of which he 
 was the head : 
 
 "Brethren, I come to annoiHice unto you a new gospel, 
 which must penetrate to the very ends of the world. 
 * * The old world must be destroyed and replaced 
 by a new one. * * * Xh^ Lie must be stamped out, 
 and give way to Truth. * * * Xhe first lie is God; 
 the second lie is Right, * * « ^nd when you have 
 freed your minds from the fear of a God, and from that 
 childish respect for the fiction of Right, then all the re- 
 maining chains that bind you, and W'hich are called science, 
 civilization, property, marriage, morality, and justice, 
 will snap asunder like threads. * * * Let your own 
 happiness be your only law. * * * Our first work' 
 must be destruction and annihilation of everything as it 
 now exists ; yoU must accustom yourselves to destroy^ 
 everything, the good with the bad ; for if but an atom of/ 
 this old world remains, the new will never be created. 
 
 It is unfortunate that some zealous pupil of the fanati- 
 cal agitator did not accept this advice and begin the 
 work of destruction, for the upbuilding of a new world, 
 by putting a quietus on Bakunin. 
 
94 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Another writer of seditious pamphlets in Russia makes 
 
 use of this lano'uaoe : 
 
 o o 
 
 "Down with instruction and science; we have had 
 enough of it for a thousand years. The thirst for it is 
 an aristocratic one which, like the desire for conjugal 
 felicity, engenders a love of wealth. We must extirpate 
 this taste, and develop in its place drunkenness, backbit- 
 ing, and a corrujDtion till now unknown. All geniuses 
 must be stifled in their cradles. So ^ve shall arrive at a 
 perfect equality." 
 
 It is diflicult to find a reason why such insane declara- 
 tions find favor among any people, much less among the 
 Nihilist teachers, who belong to the more intellio;ent and 
 educated class. Yet accordins; to the declarations made 
 by Solovieff, the Emperor's would-be assassin, in his 
 confession, more than three-fourths of all the Nihilists 
 with Avhom he was connected were formerly students of 
 the universities. 
 
 Signor Arnando, who has made a special study of Ni- 
 hilism, and who writes so intelligently on the subject, says : 
 *'' The association of so many Russian youths of culture 
 with doctrines so utterly at variance with common sense 
 and humanity, may be explained in three ways. Fir^t, 
 the Russians understand science easily, and like the study 
 of it, provided it is all prepared for them by others. 
 This accounts for the fact that Russia has produced very 
 little original talent. Secondly, the rising generation 
 shows a great tendency toward idleness, and a great lik--| 
 ingfor conversations and discussions. It has two defects : 
 It is too easily excited iind never thoroughly investigates 
 a subject. The Russian youths are intelligent, and ap- 
 propriate with extraordinary promptitude all that comes 
 to them from abroad, but they take it as it comes and 
 build their own theories upon it. Thirdly, as Professor 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 95 
 
 Fleury has remarked, all the young men and women that 
 frequent the universities show the same inaptitude for 
 reasoning and abstract ideas ; their minds seize and retain 
 particulars and details, but with difficulty surmount the 
 conception of generality and collectiveness." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Trouble grew apace in Russia after the liberation of 
 the serfs, in which even the freedmen were inclined 
 ai^ainst their sovereign. They began to grumble because 
 t)„e Czar had not given them their freedom without im- 
 posing a burden which it would require years of hard 
 Inbor for them to remove. 
 
 In 1863 Poland, that had dreamed of an untrammelled 
 autonomy, at least since 1815, became the scene of .a 
 b'oody insurrection, while all over Russia blazed up in- 
 cendiary fires, and St. Petersburg was threatened with 
 destruction. It was a gloomy period, but Alexander did 
 not exhibit any other disposition than that of determina- 
 tion. He argued that if a people will not be satisfied with 
 the perfecting of reforms as rap-idly as the condition of 
 affairs would permit, the safest policy to pursue was coer- 
 cion. Accordingly the insurrection in Poland was put 
 down by a liberal, if not unmerciful, use of ball and 
 steel. He now began to receive mysterious warnings 
 that his life was in danger, but reckoning these as the 
 idle fancies or ulterior designs of zealots, he gave no heed 
 or care to such communications, until April 16, 1866, a 
 young Pole named Karakozoff, who was employed by 
 the revolutionary committee, made an attempt upon the 
 Emperor's life. It was on Sunday afternoon, when the 
 
II G RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Czar was about to take his customary walk in the Sum- 
 mer Garden. A large crowd had collected near the 
 gates f I'onthig the quay on the Neva to witness his Maj- 
 esty's departure. At the moment he was crossing the 
 pavement to enter his sledge, a man stepped hurriedly 
 ^for\yard from the crowd and presenting a pistol, which 
 he had drawn from beneath a large cloak, fired at the 
 EmjDcror. Fortunately for his Majesty a peasant hap- 
 pened to be standing very near the assassin and having 
 observed something suspicious in the movements of the 
 criminal, jumped forward in time to knock the pistol up 
 and thus save the Emperor's life, when immediately the 
 man was arrested. The peasant who had saved the Czar's 
 life was named Kamissaroff, and in gratitude for his es- 
 cape the Emperor granted a liberal annuity to the fortu- 
 nate peasant, besides creating him a noble. 
 
 As an example of the number of superstitious stories 
 that were universally accepted by the common people as 
 true, and were gravely published in the Russian papers 
 as authentic facts, the following may be quoted : 
 
 At three o'clock on the day when the attempt was 
 made, the jDeople of Rappenberg, a small town in the 
 Government of Riazan, which was the native place of 
 Kamissaroff, were startled by the detonating peals of 
 the alarm bell. On rushing to the church to learn the 
 cause, the people were greatly terrified to perceive that 
 there was no one in the belfry ; that the rope still hung 
 unmolested on a hook in the wall, and that the bell had 
 rung of itself. Three days later the St. Petersburg pa- 
 pers reached Rappenberg, containing an account of the 
 attempt on the Emperor's life, when Instantly the people 
 were satisfied why the mysterious warning had been 
 given. 
 
 It wus only natural that this first attempt on the life of 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 97 
 
 the Czar, whose reign had been consistently marKed by a 
 long series of popular reforms, should produce through- 
 out the Empire a feeling of intense Indignation, but at 
 the time it was hoped that Karakozoff' s crime was noth- 
 ing 'more than the rash work of a small and not \evy 
 powerful revolutionary party in Poland. All such hopes, 
 however, were soon dissipated, and from the facts brought 
 out at the trial it became evident that the Nihilists were 
 already a strong and dangerous organization, with a code 
 of laws and disciplined forces, as will hereafter be ex- 
 plained. 
 
 Karakozoff was brought to trial, found guilty and con- 
 demned to be hanged, but the sentence of death was 
 commuted by the Emperor to transportation to Siberia 
 for life. 
 
 The following year, 1867, another attempt to assassi- 
 nate the Czar was made while his majesty was driving 
 through the streets of "Paris, with his two sons and the 
 Emperor, Napoleon III. This second attack was also 
 made by a Pole, named Berezovsky, who fired at the Em- 
 peror, but happily with imperfect aim. No further overt 
 act of the Niliilists was committed until in 1870, when a 
 party of students were arrested for incendiary speeches 
 and the publication of a paper filled with i evolutionary 
 articles intending to incite the people against the Czar. 
 Among the sixteen that were arrested at this time was one 
 named Sergius Netschaief , who disclosed the furious zeal 
 with which Russian students of the advanced school em- 
 brace the 'wildest doctrines of Socialism. In addition to 
 this he also described the Nihilist organization, and as 
 these statements have been frequently verified by other 
 Nihilists who turned informers after their arrest, they 
 may be accepted as true. 
 
 The organization is divided into groups of members, 
 
98 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 each group having either five, ten or fifteen members wiao 
 are under the authority of a chief, who alone is in imme- 
 diate communication with the commander of twenty 
 groups. These commanders hold intercourse with the 
 executive committee, but only through a delegate. The 
 executive committee forms the center of the Nihilist party 
 and serves to the maintenance of the most strict and se- 
 cret discipline. The slightest act of treachery or disobe- 
 dience to its orders is punished by death. Many bodies 
 of murdered men have been discovered in the cities or 
 highways of Russia, a small dagger piercing the corpse, to 
 which a scroll was attached bearing the significant in- 
 scription, "Death for Treachery," 
 
 Recruiting the ranks is done in this manner : There 
 are recruiting oflicere whose duty it is to search out per- 
 sons whom it is desirable to have in the organization, and 
 this is done in the following way : A man of apparent 
 intelligence but of evident poverty, of whom there aiv. 
 thousands in every part of Russia, is, for instance, scon 
 haunting some park or public place for Avant of occupa- 
 tion. The recruiting officer watches him from day to duy 
 until satisfied that the man is in sore need, when he cas- 
 ually approaches him and engages at first in a gonenil 
 conversation. An acquaintance is thus formed, and famil- 
 iarity sooa draws from the man an admission of his 
 poverty and a desire to engage in anj^thing that promises 
 even such compensation as would afford him a livelihood. 
 The oflScer suddenly rememl3ers that he has a friend who 
 is desirous of engaging a confidential agent, and proffers 
 an introduction and recommendation. The poor fellow 
 is, of course, elated at the j^rospect of securing employ- 
 ment and is punctual in keeping the appointment, which 
 is arranged for. He is told by the third person that a 
 vacancy exists, who offers the position with a salary of one 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 99 
 
 or two hundred roubles per month to the happy expect- 
 ant, who is immediately engaged. The poor man is re- 
 quired to report from day to day at the headquarters of 
 his employer, but has nothing in particular to do for per- 
 haps two or three months. He is gradually prepared in 
 the meantime for serious service by prejudicing his mind 
 against the Government and in favor of the Nihilists, who 
 are represented as a band of patriots whose aims are all 
 for the eradication of evils which have long oppressed the 
 people. Thus, without acquainting him with the duties 
 he is -expected to perform, the person controlling his 
 services at length fortifies him for the obligation which he 
 is soon after compelled to take. When these prepara- 
 tions are completed the man may be called on to assist in 
 laying a dynamite mine, lighting an incendiary fire, or to 
 commit murder. If he rebels at such orders he is told of 
 his engagement and that his services belong to the execu- 
 tive committee of Nihilists who will hold him to a serious 
 accountability. In other words, there is the alternative 
 of death or obedience, for he is now known to the com- 
 mittee without in turn knowing the members, and it is 
 only in rare instances that he will incur the danger which 
 he is soon convinced will surely follovv disobedience. 
 
 In this way hundreds of recruits are made in addition 
 to the large number who volunteer their services. Th^e 
 expenses of this bloody organization are defrayed out of 
 a general fund which is created by subscriptions raised by 
 committees in foreign countries, particularly in Switzer- 
 land, France and England, and also by contributions from 
 noblemen, whose influence and purses are almost univer- 
 sally placed at the disposal of the revolutionary party. 
 
loo EtlSSIAI^ NIHILISM AND 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The war with Turkey, declared on April 12, 1877, as 
 Tnight be expected, gave fresh life and energy to lae 
 cause of Nihilism, which had for its object the securing 
 of liberty at home. This war was ostensibly waged for 
 the protection of Christians who were living under Mos- 
 lum rule. When peace was concluded and a Representa- 
 tive Chamber was opened in Bulgaria, Russia was the 
 only European- country that did not enjoy a constitu- 
 tional Government more or less developed. The action 
 of the Czar in declaring the freedom of Bulgaria and 
 granting special privileges and autonomy to tliat country, 
 while refusing like privileges to his own people, infliuned 
 the Nihilists anew and greatly strengthened their organi- 
 zation. 
 
 For a while the Nihilist leaders believed that the end 
 they had in view could be attained l)y striking a mortal 
 blow at officialism, and this is proved by the fact that — 
 not counting the attempt made at Paris by the Polish 
 advocate Berezovsky — an interval of no less than thirteen 
 years elapsed T)etween the attempt made on the Empe- 
 ror's life by Karakozoff and that made by Solovieff in 
 1879. In that interval General Trepoff, then Police 
 Master of St. Petersburg, was severely wounded by Vera 
 Zassulitch ; General Mezentrieff , Chief of the Secret Po- 
 lice Department, was mortally wounded ; and General 
 Drenteln, his successor, was shot at. Of all that have 
 within the last thirty years occupied the high post of 
 Police Master of St. Petersburg, General Trepoff, without 
 doubt, was the most energetic and most zealous. But 
 like most comparatively irresponsible officials, he was fre- 
 quently apt to take the law into his own hands, and dur- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
1Q2 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ing his tenure of power succeeded iir amassing an enor- 
 mous fortune. Thus, once when on a visit of inspection 
 at the Fortress, one of the political prisoners, a certain 
 Bogolouboff , not having saluted him — though it was later 
 most clearly proved that he had done so — had his cap 
 knocked off by the irate Genei-al and was ordered to be 
 Avhipped, a sentence which, though manifestly in viola- 
 tion of all Russian law, was executed within twenty-four 
 hours. The whipping, somehow, in spite of all efforts to 
 have the affair hushed up, got public, and more than one 
 paper even ventured to expose the illegal nature of the 
 punishment. Vera Zassulitch, who had not long quitted 
 one of the Government educational institutes, and who, 
 as was alleged, had been on intimate relations with Bogo- 
 louboff, heard of the humiliation to which he had been 
 subjected and determined to revenge him. For this 
 purpose she came up to St. Petersburg from her country 
 home in the Government of Yaroslaff, and presenting 
 herself at the Police Master's official residence on one of 
 his public reception days, whilst pretending to give a 
 petition into his hands, drew forth a pistol from under 
 her coat, and wounded the General so sc^'crely that his 
 life for several days was despaired of, and he was com- 
 pelled to retire finally from all public duties. The woman 
 was arrested, and after long preliminary examinations was 
 brought to trial.' There was no doubt of her guilt, nor 
 did she in any way attempt to deny it ; but on the con- 
 trary gave to the court a full and precise account of the 
 reasons that had prompted her to commit the crime. 
 The effect of her defence was so great that the jury, after 
 a short deliberation, brought in a verdict of not guilty. 
 The Litenaya, a Avide street in tvhich the court where 
 she was tried is situated, Avas throi*ged with a crowd of 
 people anxiously awaiting the result, and when the fact 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. lU3 
 
 of her acquittal became known, the verdict was received 
 with the most uproarious applause, and a serious collision 
 took place between the people and the police, in the 
 course of which several persons were killed, but Vera 
 was rushed away by the sympathizing mob and concealed 
 in a neighboring house. What is most remarkable, how- 
 ever, is that the metropolis press, without a single excep- 
 tion, warmly approved of her acquittal, one paper declar- 
 ing the verdict to be "the voice of God;" and the 
 Moscow Gazatte^ the avowed organ of the Retrogradists, 
 was singular in its condemnation of what it declared to 
 be "a gross miscarriage of injustice." 
 
 A resident of St. Petersburg, who was present at the 
 trial of Vera Zassulitch, and who w^as familiar with her 
 life, gave me the following history of the woman : She was 
 the daughter of a Russian officer in high rank, and at the 
 time of committi;ig the crime was twenty-eight years of 
 age. She was a well educated and attractive lady, but 
 so thoroughly imbued with revolutionary doctrines that 
 she sacrificed all other interests for the cause of Nihi- 
 lism, though it is not known that she contril>uted any- 
 thing more dangerous than her influence ; notwithstand- 
 hig this, for more than eleven years preceding her attack 
 upon Gen. Trepoff, she endured continual persecu- 
 tions at the hands of the police, and it is to the sympa- 
 thy universally evoked by the account of her sufferings 
 that she mainly owed her acquittal from the teriible 
 crime of which she was manifestly guilty, and that tin; 
 great populur enthusiasm with which the verdict was re- 
 ceived in Russia is due. At the age of seventeen, while 
 jvymg to support herself as a bookbinder at St. Peters- 
 burg, she was arrested, owing to being the intimate school- 
 friend of a young lady named Netchaieff, whose brother 
 had just been implicated in some conspiracy at Moscow . 
 
104 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 According to some accounts, Vera Zassulitch acted a^ a 
 species of go-between and letter-carrier ; but this is not 
 confirmed, and, be her offence what it miglit, she was 
 closely imprisoned for two years Avithout the slightest 
 shadow of a trial. A few days after her release, more- 
 over, she was again arrested for no ostensible reason, 
 and carried off this time to Eastern Russia, and might 
 
 VERA ZASSULITCH. 
 
 have i)crishod with cold on the journey had not a kind 
 gendarme lent her his cloak. She remained at Kre.stsi, 
 in the province of Novgorod, under police supervision 
 for two more years, and in 1871 was allowed to go to 
 Tver to live with a brother-in-law, also a political exile. 
 The latter, however, getting into trouble, owing to the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 105 
 
 dissemination of prohibited books,* Vera Zassulitcb was 
 once more arrested and brought to St. Petersburg. In 
 1873 she was transferred to Kharkoff, and in 1875 was 
 at last liberated. From that time she appears to have 
 lived in retirement until July, 1876, when her feelings 
 were excited by the details of the cruel treatment of a 
 political prisoner named Bogoluboff, who had been flog- 
 ged by order of General Trepoff, the Prefect of Police 
 at St. Petersburg, for some act of insubordination, but 
 mainly because he had neglected to take off his cap on 
 meeting that official for a second time in the prison pre- 
 cincts. As Vera Zassulitcb well knew the hardships of 
 prison life, and the tyranny of the officials, this story 
 made an intense impression on her mind, and, after wait- 
 ing some time to see if any official notice would be given 
 to the affair, she determined to take the matter in hand 
 herself, and, in her own words, "At the price of my 
 own ruin to draw public attention to the affair, and prove 
 that a human being may not be insisted in that way with 
 impunity. It is a terrible thing to raise one's hand 
 against a fellow creature, but I could find no other 
 means. ... It was all the same to me whether I 
 killed or wounded the Prefect, and when I fired at him I 
 did not aim at any particular place." To be brief. Vera 
 Zassulitcb sought an interview with General Trepoff in 
 his reception room, and then and there shot him in the 
 side with a revolver. For this she was brought to trial 
 early in the month, the jury before whom she appeared 
 being half composed of Government officials, the re- 
 mainder being formed of persons in good position. The 
 result was a verdict of " Not Guilty," a decision which was 
 greeted with tremendous enthusiasm by an audience com- 
 posed of some 600 persons, the applause being taken up by 
 the crowd outside. On her appearance a perfect tumult en- 
 
lOG RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 sued, and numerous arrests were made by the police, sev- 
 eral of the rioters being* shot. Had she not escaped, 
 through the aid of friends who had a closed carriage in 
 waiting, expecting her acquittal, Vera Zassulitch would 
 no doubt have been re-arrested and tried before a mili- 
 tary Court Martial, in which event she would have been 
 convicted and executed. But on the other hand, so 
 great was the popular sympathy for her that had the ver- 
 dict of the jury been " Guilty," no one who is acquainted 
 with the intense feeling manifested in her interest can for 
 a moment doubt that the mob would have rushed into the 
 court-room and torn to pieces not only the jurors but also 
 the judges and prosecutors. She is supposed to be in 
 Switzerland, under protection of an assumed name and 
 the revolutionary party, but others stoutly maintain that 
 she was captured and secretly put to death. 
 
 Later events have proved that the acquittal of Zassulitch, 
 even more than the clemency shown to Karakozoff, was 
 a mistake. The Nihilists only became bolder in their 
 operations than they had shown themselves to be before. 
 The attack on Mezentrieff soon followed. In spite of 
 the hateful office which he held, the high character he 
 bore had long won for him general and ungrudged es- 
 teem. The plot against him was most cautiously planned 
 weeks before it was carried into execution. A thorough 
 bred horse and a well furnished droshky were hired, and 
 for some mornings w^ere regularly to be seen standing at 
 the corner of Michel Square and the Italianskaya street, 
 which the General invariably passed while taking his 
 usual early morning walk. On a morning of June, 1877, 
 as was afterward proved, the three or four droshkies 
 that happened to be in the street waiting to be hired were 
 engaged by persons privy to the plot, so that any attempt 
 to arrest them could be rendered, if not impossible, at 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 107 
 
 least very difficult. As the General, in company with 
 M. Makaroff, his aid-cle-camp, approached the corner, a 
 man extremely well dressed came quickly up as if intend- 
 ing to speak to him, and with a dagger stabbed him twice. 
 The blows were so instantaneously given that M. Makar- 
 off, who just then had fallen a few steps behind, had no 
 time to interfere, the assassins having leaped into the 
 droshky th'at was waiting and drove off down the Sado- 
 vaya street and across the Nevski at a furious rate. It 
 is true that a soldier, who had seen the whole affair, pur- 
 sued the criminals for some little distance, but they were 
 suon out of sight, nor were the real murderers arrested 
 till after the terrible assassination of March 13, 1881. In. 
 th« meantime, M. Makaroff hurried up to the Gen- 
 eral and raising him up with the assistance of those who 
 had run to the sj)ot in answer to his cries for^help, asked 
 him how he felt: "I am dying," was the reply, and 
 whcTi conveyed home the doctors who were summoned de- 
 clared that there was no hope of recovery. He, however, 
 lingered in great agony till about five o'clock in the after- 
 noon. The crime, from its daringness and from the well 
 arranged skill with which it was carried out, naturally 
 caused a great sensation, and the question, what measures 
 should be taken for the prevention of such crimes in 
 the futurCj was anxiously debated by the Imperial Min- 
 isters in council. 
 
 It would api^ear that no decision was immediately come 
 to. But before long a fresh and all but successful at- 
 tempt on the life of the Emperor convinced those in 
 authority that in the war they had to wage with the 
 party of Terrorism there could no longer be any dallying, 
 but that the sternest measures of repression must be 
 adopted. On April 14, 1879, the Emperor was taking his 
 usual early stroll round the Winter Palace, when on com- 
 
108 RUSSIABT NIHILISM AND 
 
 ing near to that part of the building which adjoins the 
 Hermitage on the Millionaya side, he met an individual 
 who stopped as if to salute him, but drawing out a six bar- 
 reled pistol, fired deliberately three times at the Emperor, 
 none of which, however, took effect. The would-be as- 
 sassin was at once seized by the police and bystanders, 
 though not before he had made a most desperate resist- 
 ance, and had shot one of the crowd. As soon as he was 
 secured he was seized with fainting, and the fact that 
 poison was found under his finger-nails and about him 
 led to a suspicioin that he had poisoned himself . Emetics 
 were at once administered, and he recovered. On being 
 questioned the prisoner stated that his name was Ivan 
 Solovieff , and that he was employed in a provincial branch 
 of the Ministry of Finance, Considerable anxiety was 
 excited by the curious coincidence that for three days 
 before the attempt placards had been posted on the walls 
 of St. Petersburg, from the Secret Executive Committee, 
 and addressed to " Mr. Alexander Nicolaievitch," and de- 
 claring that the invisible advocates of the people had set 
 themselves to clear out the Augean stable of despotism, 
 but that neither the Caar nor any member of the dynasty 
 had been threatened. After declaring against the army, 
 *' a cruel and insatiable army-of thieves," the tribunals, * 
 *' a mockery of justice," and the generals, " so many 
 satraps," the document concluded, "Think, Alexander 
 Nicohiievitch, where this must all lead. You go directly 
 to perdition, and therefore we spare vour life." 
 
 It would seem that the Emperor's suspicions had been 
 excited by something that struck him in Solovieff's gait 
 and manners, and that he had furtively made a signal to 
 a soldier who was on guard close by, but that the latter, 
 failing to understand the Emperor's meaning, only came 
 up aftei* the assassin had fired a third time. Although 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 lOS 
 
ilO RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 the balls missed, the escape of the Emperor may be 
 almost regarded as miraculous, and was due to the for- 
 tunate circumstance that the Czar, having observed some- 
 thing suspicious in Solovieff, almost before the first shot 
 was fired, hurried forward in a zigzag direction, and 
 turned under the nearest gateway. That same day a 
 'Council of Ministers was held under the immediate pres- 
 idency of the Emperor, and it was decided to declare 
 St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kieff, Odessa, and other large 
 cities of the Empire in a state of siege, and to appoint 
 military Governors, wath all but unlimited powers, over 
 provinces of which these cities were the capitals. Thus 
 General Guerko, who had won to himself no little renown 
 in the march across the Balkans during the Turkish cam- 
 paign, was made military Governor of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Solovieff was soon brought to trial and convicted, and 
 on June 9th his execution took place publicly in a field 
 near the Smolensk Cemetery at St. Petersburg. At an 
 early hour crowds had collected round the scaffold, and 
 when the condemned man arrived it is estimated that 
 fully 6,000 spectators were present. Soon after 9 o'clock 
 the authorities made their way to the place of execution. 
 The scaffold was a plain wooden structure, painted 
 black, and surrounded by an iron rail ; outside this rail 
 was a strong guard of both infantry and cavalry. At a 
 quarter to ten the cart arrived in which Solovieff was 
 seated firmly bound. He was dressed in the black coat, 
 white trousers and cap usually worn by criminals of the 
 higher class, in addition to which a large black label was 
 hung round his neck, on which were the words, " State 
 Criminal." He was unbound, and, having ascended the 
 steps which led to the scaffold, with uildaunted firmness, 
 stood calmly regarding the crowd while the sentence was 
 once more read to him. The newspaper reporters alone 
 
EXILE LITE IN SlBEaiA. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 seemed to attract his attention. The priest then stepped 
 up to him, but his offers of consolation were quietly and 
 politely refused. The hangman then placed the white 
 shirt and cap on the unfortunate man, and exactly at ten 
 o'clock, amid the noise made by a band of drummers se- 
 lected from the different regiments, the board was 
 dragged away, and after a brief struggle SoloviejK ceased 
 to exist. The body in half-an-hour's time was removed 
 by a strong escort of Cossacks to the place of burial. 
 
 The futility of all repressive measures was, however, 
 made evident by subsequent events. The work of the terror- 
 ists was not interrupted for a single day, as we now know 
 from the confessions subsequently made by one of their 
 agents, a certain Goldenberg, during his imprisonment in 
 the Fortress. Manv of the stories concernino: their activ- 
 ity are mere fictions, but the following has been vouched 
 for on the best authority: Oue day General Drenteln, 
 the successor of Meventrieff, found on the table in his 
 office a threatening letter, and when he had read it, he 
 laughingly turned to his private adjutant, the only official 
 then in the room, with the remark: "They might as 
 well write their letters on clean paper." The next morn- 
 ing another letter was discovered on the same spot, apol- 
 ogizing for the " unseemly appearance of the letter of 
 yesterday," and exiDressing a hope that the present one 
 would meet with the General's approval. Three years 
 later, after the arrest of Rousakoff and the other crimi- 
 nals concerned in the assassination of the Emperor, proofs 
 were forthcoming of the actual complicity in the proceed- 
 ings of the Nihilists of more than one trusted official in 
 the Secret Police Department. But, as I have said, the 
 party of terror all this time continued their work. Ac- 
 cording to the statement made by Fliaboff at the great 
 State Trial in March, 1882, the central committee decided 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 113 
 
 in August, 1879, to make a mine under the railroad from 
 Krusk to Moscow, about 17 versts from the latter city, 
 the mine to be blown up when the train should pass with the 
 Emperor and his suite on their return from Livadia in 
 the Crimea. A small house was hired near the railway, 
 and an undereartli passage was dug from the house up to 
 the right-hand rail, the work being carried on with the 
 greatest circumspection. It is strange and at the same 
 time shows how ineffective Eussian police administration 
 is, that a work of such dimensions and requiring a long- 
 period of time for its execution, could have been carried 
 out without exciting the suspicions of the police ; the more 
 so as it had been noticed that carts and wagons containing 
 packages more or less heavy were frequently of an even- 
 ing driven into the courtyard and there unloaded. The 
 Imperial authorities, it is true, wisely adopted the most 
 strmgent methods of precaution. Thus not only one r»r 
 two pilot trains were sent along tlie whole line, but thfi 
 train in Avhich the Emperor was traveling was made to run 
 along the left instead of the right track. The explosion, 
 which took place on the evening of Dec. 1, 1879, proved 
 to be extremely violent. It tore up the ground for a consider- 
 able distance, destroyed several of the carriages, and severe- 
 ly wounded four or five persons. But, of course, it did not 
 touch the Emperor, who had already passed half an hour 
 previously in another train. "When the place was search- 
 ed, it was discovered that the criminals, the principal ones 
 being Fliaboff and his mistress, must at the moment the 
 connecting wire was fired have escaped through the back 
 door of the house, and availing themselves of the dark 
 night easily succeeded in escaping. The house was found 
 to be furnished in such a manner as to perfectly disarm 
 all suspicion. On the walls were hung portraits of the 
 reigning Emperor and Empress as well as of the crown 
 
114 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AK& 
 
 prince and princess, whilst a lamp was burning before the 
 holj image of St. Nicholas in the corner of the room front- 
 ing the door. Behind the sofa the lower part of the wall 
 close to the floor had been removed, from which point the 
 
 excavation had l)eeii in.iuc. The greatest indignation w^as 
 excited throughout Russia by the news of the attempt, 
 and the most enthusiastic popular greeting accorded to the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 115 
 
 Czar, who in his speech to the Moscow authorities alluded 
 to his escape with devout thankfulness, but added : " The 
 Revolutionary spirit must be exterminated, and I therefore 
 turn to you and all well-thinking men for help in eradi- 
 cating the evil, which has taken decj) root." Curiously 
 enough, this dastardly outrage occurred after a sj^ecial 
 act of clemency. At a trial of Socialists which took place 
 at St. Petersburg, one young man, Mirsky, who attempt- 
 ed to assassinate General Drenteln, being condemned to 
 death, was subsequently reprieved ; while another, named 
 Karkoff, had his sentence remitted from hard labor in the 
 Siberian mines to ten years' imprisonment in a fortress. 
 Though numerous arrests were made, no real clue was 
 discovered, and the true history of the attempt became 
 known only after the death of the late Emperor. Nor 
 were the terrorists discouraged by their repeated failures. 
 Several of the leaders of the movement, amono; others 
 the notorious Hartmann, arrived in Russia from abroad ; 
 the services of experts well versed in the preparation of 
 dynamite explosions, as for example, Kiebalchitch, were 
 secured, and Fiiaboff had placed under his immediate or- 
 ders forty-seven men who were pledged to obey him im- 
 plicitly and to carry out blindly his instructions whatever 
 they might be. It was now resolved to strike a mortal 
 blow, not only at the Emperor but at the whole Imperial 
 Family, and the newly formed scheme for its atrocious 
 boldness can only be compared with the famous Gunpow- 
 der Plot in England. It was determined to blow up that 
 part of the Winter Palace in which the rooms of the Em- 
 peror are situated, the explosion to take place directly 
 under the large dining saloon, and to be fired at a time 
 when the Emperor, his family and guests were already 
 seated at the table. Wild as the attempt may appear, 
 the preparations for its execution were carried on with 
 
116 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 mm . 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 117 
 
 greater success than many might suppose to be possible, 
 owing to the habitual laxity with which the officials whose 
 special charge it was to guard the palace, performed their 
 duties. In the course of subsequent investigations it 
 came out that more than one hundred and fifty persons, 
 supposed to be connected with the lackeys and servants 
 of the palace, had for years been living in the building un- 
 provided with any kind of passport and free from all sur- 
 veillance. Equally lax was the watch kept over the nu- 
 merous workmen almost constantly employed in repairing 
 one or another portion of the palace. Even to the pres- 
 ent day it is not positively known who placed the in- 
 fernal machine in the vault where some carpenters and 
 bricklayers were engaged working. Against those ar- 
 rested no sufficient evidence could be brought. They 
 were evidently mere decoys, and the real criminal, the 
 chief carpenter, succeeded in escaping. On February 
 17, 1880, a dinner party took place at the palace, the 
 principal guests being the Prince of Bulgaria and the 
 Duchess of Edinburgh. The dinner was fixed for six 
 o'clock, but the EmiDcror remained in his private room a 
 few minutes, not more than five, talking with the. Prince, 
 and to this unintended delay must be attributed the es- 
 cape of the Emperor and his guests. They had scarcely 
 crossed the threshold of the room when a terrible crash 
 was heard, a large hole was torn in the floor immediately 
 in front of the Emperor, huge candelabras were thrown 
 from the table and lustres torn out of the wall, while the 
 whole place was covered with clouds of dust, masses of 
 broken glass, and fragments of shattered furniture. At 
 the same moment the gas throughout the palace was ex- 
 tinguished. As soon as lights could be brought, mes- 
 sengers were sent to make enquiries about the Empress, 
 who was lying ill in a distant room of the palace, and 
 8 
 

 "''' '"'■ "' 'ii"ili"iiiiiiiM I m'jar.tui 
 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 U) 
 
 who, happily, had not in any way been injured, a minute 
 search was set on foot and the extent of the catastrophe 
 soon became known. In the vaulted room, where the in- 
 fernal clock-machine had been placed, were "a number of 
 soldiers belonging to the Finland Regiment and waiting 
 their turn to go on duty in the })alace. Eight of these were 
 instantly killed and forty-five were terribly wounded. The 
 clock had been mounted so as to explode precisely at live 
 minutes past six, by which time it was expected the Empe- 
 ror and the others would have taken their places at the table. 
 
 The Czarevitch and the Grand Duke Vladimir were 
 the first to reach the guard-room after the explosion in 
 the palace, arriving there just as the officers, fearing dan- 
 ger to the Emperor, were about to lead the remaining 
 sentinels to the Imperial apartments. The Grand Duke 
 Vladimir hastened to the barracks to give the alarm, 
 and brought back the Preobrajensky Guards to the pal- 
 ace. It is said that at the moment of the explosion 
 bombs were thrown in the streets outside the palace, 
 some of which exploded under a private carriage, but 
 the facts are, the cavalry, telegraphed for as soon as the 
 alarm was given, galloped off in such haste that many of 
 their cartridges were jerked out of their cartouche cases, 
 and the streets were strewn with these explosives, which, 
 of course, went off under the wheels of passing vehicles, 
 the occupants of which were arrested by the police and 
 bystanders who were ignorant of what had really oc- 
 curred . 
 
 In striking contrast with the domestic treachery which 
 encompassed the Czar in his palace is the fidelity 
 of the Finnish soldiers who formed his body-guard, 
 who, through all political ordeals and insurrectionary 
 conflicts never once faltered in allegiance to their 
 bovereign. Horribly sudden as the whole mur- 
 
120 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 derous surprise was, not one of the injured men 
 would leave his post until their own officer in charge, 
 who was himself wounded, came to give the word of 
 command. 
 
 The Czar is said to have been very much affected ; so 
 much so as at one time almost to have lost his self-com- 
 mand. When, however, Lord Dufferin called to con- 
 gratulate him upon his escape, the Emperor remarked 
 that it was to Divine Providence he stood indebted, and 
 that God having mercifully delivered him twice from 
 very imminent peril, he was content to trust his life for 
 the future to His protecting hand. The Duchess of Ed- 
 inburgh displayed great fortitude and presence of mind 
 in the trying crisis. This was the more noticeable 
 from the fact that Her Imperial Highness was much af- 
 fected on the occasion of Solovieff' s attempt, being then 
 in a delicate state of health. 
 
 After the explosion the Emperor left tHfe Winter Pal- 
 ace, and went under escort of thirty Cossacks to the old 
 Paul Palace, where he slept. Next day, on his way to 
 attend the Te Deum in the Imperial Chapel in the pal- 
 ace, he stopped before the officers of the Finnish Eegi- 
 ment, and thanked the colonel for the manner in which 
 the soldiers had fulfilled their duty, referring to the fact 
 that all the sentinels remained at their posts, notwith- 
 standing that a company of the Preobrajensky Regiment 
 had arrived to relieve them. 
 
 On Friday following the soldiers of the Finnish Guards 
 who were killed by the explosion were interred with great 
 solemnity, the funeral being attended by the Grand Duke 
 Constantine and many generals and staff officers. The 
 coffins were borne to the grave by officers, and there was 
 an immense crowd of spectators. General Gourko, in 
 an order to the troops announcing the interment of their 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 121 
 
 UGHT CAVALRY OF THE FINNISH GUARDS. 
 
^^^ RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 comrades, said : ' ' May tlie honorable conduct of the men 
 who were wounded by the explosion convince the insane 
 crimnials who planned the attempt that neither their en- 
 deavors to bribe the soldiers nor the fear of death itself 
 canshake the loyalty of the troops." The Emperorand 
 the Czarevitch attended the funeral ceremony celebrated 
 in the barracks previous to the starting of the procession 
 for the place of interment, and afterward visited the 
 wounded men in the hospital. It is a remarkable coinci- 
 dence that it was this same Finnish regiment which in 
 1825, was suddenly called to the Winter Palace to over- 
 awe and supercede the Grenadiers, whose loyalty was 
 doubted ; and it was to them that Alexander, then only a 
 child of seven, was entrusted by his father Nicholas 
 Takmg the little Grand Duke Alexander by the hand, he 
 ^aid, "I confide my son to your care; I't will be your 
 duty to defend his life." The roush Finns, it is said 
 were moved to tears. They took up the child in their 
 arms, passed him from rank to rank, and swore to form 
 a rampart of their bodies behind which he should be safe 
 The building where the explosion took place, which is 
 the largestandfinest palace in theworld, is the usual win- 
 ter residence of the Czar and his Court. On one side it 
 fronts on the river Neva, while on the other there is a large 
 open space called the Palace Square, in which stands 
 Alexander's Column, a monolith of red granite ei^rhty 
 feet high. On the right of the palace is Peter's Square, 
 which contains the celebrated statue of Peter the Great,' 
 and the Field of Mars, a parade ground large enough for 
 40,000 men to manoeuvre in. On the east side of the 
 palace, and connected with it by a covered way, is 
 the Empress Catharine's Hermitage, now a museum. 
 The Nevski Perspective is in front of the Admiralty 
 and close to the Imperial Palace, which, after being 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 123 
 
 burnt down in 1837, was rebuilt in six months in the 
 middle of winter by order of the Emperor Nicho- 
 las. Each story was dried with immense fires as soon as 
 erected, and several thousand workmen met with their 
 death during the rebuilding, in consequence of the alter- 
 nate exposure to the excessive heat while at work in the 
 apartments, and the rigorous temperature outside. The 
 palace, which ts painted a brick red, is four stories 
 high, or about eighty feet. The frontage is 445 feet in 
 length, and the breadth 350 feel:. The principal en- 
 trance is from the Neva, and "leads by a magnificent 
 flight of marble steps to the State Apartments of the 
 palace. A gateway in the centre of the building, facing 
 Alexander's Column, opens into a large court. The in- 
 terior is most gorgeous, suites of splendid halls being 
 filled with marble, malachite vases, and pictures ; whilst 
 the Crown and other jewels are of almost inestimable 
 value. The Czar has his apartments on the first floor 
 and in the corner of the Winter Palace that overlooks the 
 Neva and the Admiralty. The Empress inhabits the 
 other corner, and between the two is the family dining- 
 rcK)m. At one and six o'clock the Czar, the Czarina, 
 and the Grand Dukes Alexis, Sergius, and Paul formerly 
 met for breakfast and dinner. The Czarevitch and the 
 Grand Duke Vladimir, who are both married, have 
 also general invitations to join the Imperial circle ; but 
 the other members of the family wait until they are 
 bidden. Six covers are always laid, and the service 
 is performed by three French maitres d'hotel^ who 
 relieve each other every fortnight. The arrangement 
 of the apartments is similar to that of Yersailles, 
 there being a multitude of small rooms, and an im- 
 mense number of civil and military officials having 
 their abode here in separate suites of rooms. The 
 
124 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 guards' room, beneath which the charge of dynamite waa 
 deposited, is on the ground floor, and was formerly the 
 sleeping apartment of the Grand Duke Nicholas Avhen r 
 child. 
 
 The indignation excited by a crime that involved the 
 lives of so many who, even adopting the views of its per- 
 petrators, were completely innocent, was greatly in- 
 creased in consequence of the general belief that on the 
 approaching 19th of February an imperial manifesto 
 would be issued, conferring political rights on Russian 
 subjects more in accordance with the ideas of the nine- 
 teenth century than those hitherto accorded. That all 
 this was more than more rumor, is certain from papers 
 known to have been left by the late Emperor, and in ac- 
 cordance with which the zem-stra, or provincial assemblies, 
 would have been granted representative rights which 
 they have long petitioned for but never obtained. We 
 can scarcely wonder that all such constitutional reforms 
 were abandoned, and it speaks much in favor of the late 
 Emperor, that even after February 17, he still had suffi- 
 cient nerve and belief in the future of Russia, to 
 refuse to adopt measures of an exclusively repressive 
 and retrograde character. On the 25th of February a min- 
 isterial committee " for the preservation of Imperial order 
 and public safetjs" was established under the presidency 
 of Count Loris Melikoff , which became an order in its 
 enforcement little less than terrorism. A night patrol 
 was organized in St. Petersburg which summarily ar- 
 rested every crowd, numbering more than five persons, 
 caught upon the streets after ten o'clock at night, and 
 single individuals were required to have their passports 
 constantly with them if they appeared away from their 
 homes after dark. But this was not the most serious re- 
 striction placed upon the personal liberty of cj*izen8 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 125 
 
 throughout Russia. The order became finally the means 
 which malicious persons utilized to destroy their enemies. 
 It was only necessary to report, under oath, the active 
 
 THE NIGHT PATROL IN ST. PFTERSBURG. 
 
 sympathy of any person with the Nihilists to secure their 
 imprisonment, and execution or transportation to Siberia. 
 Thus a cowardly criminal could gQ before the Third Seo- 
 
1 26 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tion chief and make oath that he had detected his v,,ekgh< 
 bor ill the act of circulating revohitionaiy papers, or com- 
 mitting some other prohibited act, and upon this infor- 
 mation the unfortunate, and perhaps innocent person, 
 would be summarily arrested and taken off to the Fortress 
 prison. Hundreds of instances occurred in which blame- 
 less men were torn from their families in the middle of 
 the night, and without being permitted to say even good- 
 bye to their wives or children, were ruthlessly carried to 
 that dreadful political prison from which they either ' 
 never departed alive or were sent across the desert wilds 
 of Siberia to sp^nd the remainder of their wretched Uvea 
 in exile. 
 
 In 1878 no less than one hundred and ninety-thre^ 
 persons were brought to trial at one time, charged 
 with various grades of treason and conspiracy against tKc 
 Government. Among the prisoners who were condemned 
 was a spiritq^ and intelligent man named Muishkin, whe 
 was once a justice of the peace, and proprietor of a print' 
 ing-office from which forbidden books were issued. In 
 1875 he went to the distant forests of East Siberia with 
 the intention of freeing the famous thinker and critic, 
 Tchel:'nieshevski, who had been in penal servitude, for 
 twelve years for his connection with a secret society, but 
 he wa§ unsuccessful. His speech before the tribunal 
 brought tears to some, caused others to turn pale, to 
 tremble, or to become furious. He was condemned to 
 twenty years' penal servitude at the Central Prison at 
 Kharkov. Single-handed, and with no other implement 
 than his hands, this gigantic minded nlan began to make 
 an underground passage in his prison to effect his escape. 
 He had nearly finished the tunnel when it was discovered ; 
 he was unmercifully lashed then, and, like many other 
 Russian political prisoner!, b« has since become mad 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 127 
 
128 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 from the barbarous treatment he received. Muishkin's 
 insanity;. dates from October, 1880. 
 
 But condemnations and repressive measures in no "wise 
 deterred the Nihilists, who, in fact, became bolder and 
 more revengeful. In the meantime the Government was 
 active in bringing to punishment those arrested for treas- 
 onable crimes. In November, 1880, sixteen Nihilists of 
 both sexes were arraigned for treason in St. Petersburg. 
 The principal prisoner was Kviatkovski, who was accused 
 of contributing to the revolutionary organ WiU of the 
 People, and also of being connected with the conspiracy 
 to blow up the Winter Palace. Others were charged 
 with complicity in the murder of Prince Krapotkin, in 
 Solovieff's attempted assassination of the Czar; others 
 in the attemi)t to blow up the Imperial train at Moscow ; 
 two in the attempts at Alexandrovolsk and Odessa to 
 assassinate Imperial officers, and two others of being 
 connected with secret printing presses. Several of the 
 prisoners were arrested on their own confession, so brave 
 and fanatically patriotic to their purposes were some of 
 the Nilhists. Upon this trial it was proved that a car- 
 penter named Stephen Chalturcn,or Halturin, who form- 
 erly lodged in the basement of the Winter Palace, was 
 the author and most active agent in the palace explosion. 
 Some of these prisoners were uncommonly well dressed 
 and presented a generally intelligent appearance. Kviat- 
 kovski and Presniakov were convicted and executed in 
 the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul on the 5th of No- 
 vember, 1880. The public were rigidly excluded from the 
 scene of execution, and but one foreign correspondent was 
 permitted to be present. Early in the morning the two 
 prisoners were taken from their cells, and as usual were 
 driven to the scaffold in a cart, riding with their backs to 
 the horses, and bearing a placard with the inscription 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 129 
 
 *' State Criminal " on their breasts. At the glacis of the 
 fortress where the scaffold had been erected the prisoners 
 descended and mounted the scaffold barefooted, where- 
 
 MDMB. OLGA NATHANSON. STEPHEN SHIRAIEV. MDLLE. EUGENIA FIQNBE. 
 
 PORTRAITS OF LEADING NIHILISTS. 
 they were clad in the long penitential shirt of condemned 
 parricides and were pinioned to two upright posts while 
 
^^^ RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 their sentence was read out to them. This over a 
 priest came forward with a cross, which both kissed, Ld 
 then bssed one another, while he recited some prayers. 
 The executioner then adjusted the rope, and raisincr the 
 condemned men high in the air caused their speedy strang- 
 ulation The ground was kept by a detachment of the 
 i^in and Guard, who were on duty in the Winter Palace 
 on the night of the explosion. 
 
 Five others of those condemned at the same trial, No- 
 vember 10th, were Kviatkovski, Shiraiev, Mdlles. Fie.- 
 ncr, Ivanova, and Griasnova, whose portraits are ^iven 
 Alexander Kviatkovski, of noble descent, the most im* • 
 portant of the prisoners, was arrested by the St Peters- 
 burg pol.ce in December, 1879, at the same time as 
 Mdlle Figner. Three mines ready for explosion, but in 
 dissected pieces, were found in their lod^ng, as well as 
 dynamite and fulminate, with revolvers, poison, and the 
 plan of the Winter Palace, in which, later on, the explo. 
 sion took place. ^ 
 
 The evidence which came out at this trial disclos(.d 
 thatXviatkovski, who headed the Terrorist party, was 
 one of those concerned in the explosion of the Winter 
 Palace on April 14, 1880, when eleven men were kilh:d 
 and sixty-six were wounded ; that he was an indirect 
 party to the attempt o,i the Emperor's life by Solovieff 
 on April 2, 1879; and that he took part in the secret 
 congress of the Terrorists at Lipetsk, in 1879, where a 
 series of attempts on the Emperor's life were decided 
 upon, m addition to other less well-known offences 
 
 Mdlle. Figner, daughter of a high Russian official, 
 was twenty-two years old. She was acquitted of anv 
 participation in tlie Winter Palace conspiracy, but 
 was condemned to fifteen years' penal servitude on 
 the charge of her connection with the Terroristic- party 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA, 
 
 131 
 
 LEO HARTMANN. 
 
132 RUSSIAJ^ NIHILISM AND 
 
 and for publishing forbidden works. The Court, pitying 
 her youth, begged of the Czarevitch to change her sen- 
 tence into transportation to Eastern Siberia, where her 
 sister was ah'eady in exile. Mdlle. Figner had been a 
 medical student, and she also studied music at the Con- 
 servatoire, St. Petersburg. Her voice is said to be one 
 of the most beautiful in Europe. 
 
 Shiraiev, of a peasant family, had been studying in a 
 veterinary institute. He lived some timie in London and 
 in Paris, and on his return to Russia, in 1879, he joined 
 the Terrorist party, and with Hartmann prepared dyna- 
 mite for mines. He took part in the secret congress, 
 and with Hartmann again was a party in the Moscow ex- 
 plosion, December 1, 1879. He directed the digging of 
 mines near Odessa and Alexandrovska after this, and 
 shortly after was arrested by the police at St. Petersburg. 
 Condemned to be hung, his sentence was remitted into 
 one of penal servitude for life. 
 
 Mdlle. Ivanova, daughter of a major, is the heroine of 
 one of the most extraordinary transactions for a young 
 lady of her age (then only twenty-two years). When 
 the secret printing office of the Terrorist organ JSFarod- 
 naia VoUa (People's Will) was discovered, she, with 
 Mdlle. Griasnova and three men, revolvers in hand, kept 
 the police at bay for three hours, firing more than one 
 hundred shots. The gendarmes answered by volleys at 
 both the windows and the doors, and only succeeded in 
 overcoming the party when their stock of cartridges was 
 exhausted. One of the printers, an unknown person, 
 l)lcw out his brains on seeing the inevitable end, the four 
 others surrendered. Mdlle. Ivanova's hands and legs 
 Averc tied with ropes, and she was tlirown on the ground ; 
 in this state she reproached her comrades for lack of en- 
 ergy in seif-defense. The gendarme officer, hearing 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 133 
 
 that, struck ber in the face with the butt end of his re- 
 volver, and kicked her severely. She comphiined of the 
 man — then a witness against her — before the court mar- 
 tial, but the officer, though he could not deny the fact, 
 disregarded her words. 
 
 The two printers, Ivanova and Griasnova, were con- 
 demned to fifteen years penal servitude, but at the solic- 
 itation of the court-martial, the heir apparent changed 
 the sentence of the former to four years penal servitude, 
 and transportation to Siberia for the latter. Among 
 others, Papov, son of a priest, was convicted about the 
 same time by a court-martial held at Kiev, and sei^ 
 tenced to be hung. He stood at the head of that party 
 of Socialist propagandists whose distinguishing feature 
 is that they do not practice any illegal measures either 
 for self-defense or for propagandism. His boid and 
 straightforward speech before the Court was the cause of 
 his condemnation to death, but his sentence was subse- 
 quently altered by the Emperor into penal servitude for 
 life. 
 
 Dr. Weimar, whose trial at St. Petersburg in the spring 
 of 1880 caused such a sensation throughout Europe, was 
 condemned to jDenal servitude at the same time as Mrs. 
 Olga Nathanaon. Dr. Weimar was accused of helping 
 two other Nihilists, Mirski and Solovieff, in their crim- 
 inal designs. He gave his horse to Mirski for his attempt 
 on the life of Drenteln, Chief of the Third Section of 
 the Emperor's Chancellery, and bought the revolver for 
 Solovieff. In the month of October Olga Nathanson be- 
 came mad in the fortress of St. Petersburg, before she 
 could 1)6 sent to Siberia. The real cause of her insanity, 
 it is alleged, lies in the fact that she, with three other 
 young fridiids, was the subject of criminal violence on 
 the part of the prison officials. 
 
134 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 The next atteiupt at assasrsinadou occurrGcl dircctlv 
 after the adoption of the repression measures of 1880. 
 when the Armenian General Loris JNIelikoff was appointed 
 Chief of the Executive, with unlimited powers, and had 
 inaugurated a more rigid policy than even his predeces- 
 sors. The attack was, no doul^t, directly attributable to 
 the execution of a sub-lieutenant named Donbrovin, which 
 
 GENERAL L(#RIS MELIKOFF- 
 
 occurred at St. Petersburg, and upon which occasion Gen- 
 eral Gourko issued an order to the troops in which 
 he cited the example of Donbrovin as a proof that the 
 aim of the revolutiom'sts was to make the military their 
 accomplices. General Melikoff warmly approved this 
 accusation and made many threats, declaring his purpose 
 to deal with the Nihilists despotically, and indeed he 
 did l)ring many of the revolutionists to judgment. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 135 
 
 Many messages, containing desperate threats, were 
 sent to Melikoff, which caused that astute official to ob- 
 serve special care, but a determined fellow who^e naius- 
 
 I could not find in the records, caught sight of Gen- 
 eral Melikoff as he was leaving his carriage to enter 
 the Third Section, and made a vicious attempt to shoot 
 him, discharging a pistol twice at the General but with- 
 out effect. The assassin was arrested and being brought 
 
136 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 to trial was convicted aud publicly executed. The pris- 
 oner was enveloped witli a black shroud, only the face 
 being exposed, and, seated upon a peculiar kind of a 
 chair placed on a box wagon with the back toward the" 
 horses, lie was driven slowly through the streets, pre- 
 ceded and followed by mounted guards. The engraving, 
 besides giving a portrait of General Melikoff's assailant, 
 shows the method by which prisonei-s condemned to 
 death are conducted to the place of execution. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The culmination of that desperate, unreasonable ven- 
 geance which animated the Eussian Nihilists was reached 
 on the 13th of March, 1881, when the Czar Alexander II., 
 who deserved little but praise from his countrymen, and 
 whose name must ever be associated v/ith the greatest r3- 
 forms ever projected by a Eussian ruler, was struck 
 down, after five previous attempts, in a horrible death. 
 We can only measure the full terribleness of that most 
 atrocious act, by calling to mind the agony Ave ourselves 
 suffered in the assassination of our honored and chosen 
 rulers, Lincoln and Garfield. Autocrat though he was, 
 Alexander TI. possessed such qualities of heart and mind 
 as made him very dear to the n)asses of his subjects. 
 Unfortunately he was cradled in adversity and brought 
 up through circumstances which enforced his familiarity 
 with conspiracy. 
 
 Born April 29, 1818, Alexander was only seven 3'^ears 
 of age when the famous conspiracy of the '* Decem- 
 brists " — Eussia's first oj^en cry for a constitution — ^])roke 
 out agaiust his father on his accession to the throne, 
 
138 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 which rooted in him a horror of reform and made his 
 reign one continuous repression of hberty and speech. 
 Alexander was provided with a tutor who inspired him 
 witli a love for literature and romance, but he was not per- 
 mitted to follow this gratifying and peaceful inclination. 
 Nicholas, of iron will, compelled him to abandon e very- 
 pursuit that promised contentment, and at seventeen 
 Alexander became his father's Aid-de-Camp and com- 
 mandant of the Lancers' Guard. But the boy Prince 
 Imperial could not cultivate a love for the military, and 
 after a short service so weary of spirit did he become 
 that his father, much against his will, gave Alexander a 
 vacation, during which he visited Germany and there 
 wooed and won the Princess Maria of Hesse Darmstadt — 
 a veritable love-match. Upon his return to Russia with 
 his young and loving bride, Alexander interested himself 
 in cncourao-ino' education and founded a chair of Finnish 
 literature. In 1850 he visited Southern Russia, where af- 
 ter campaigning for two months in the Caucasus, upon 
 "Woronzow's recommendation, the order of St. George was 
 conferred upon him. But under Nicholas all persons, even 
 heirs to the throne, were inconsequential unless they had 
 won honors upon the field of battle or by diplomacy re- 
 dounding to his advantage. Thus, beyond certain disagree- 
 ments with the " Old Russian " party, whose idol was 
 his younger brother Oonstantine, and a decided though 
 silent disapproval of his father's policy in bringing on the 
 Crimean war, there was little to observe in the Czare- 
 vitcli's unassuming life until the fateful day when defeat 
 and disappointment drove his father to seek surcease iu 
 death. In his dying moments, March 2, 1855, Nicholas 
 called Alexander to his bedside, and taking his hand, 
 said: "My son, I now bestow upon you the crown of 
 Russia, in succession to your dying father ; you will, I 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 lijy 
 
140 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 am Sony to say, find the burden heavy," and then ex- 
 pired. 
 
 How Alexander II. took up the scepter of Government 
 and wielded it for the benefit of his subjects has already 
 been told, and now remains the bisk of describing how, 
 after several diabolictil attempts, he was at last stricken 
 down by the fell hand -of assassination and left the whole 
 civilized world weeping beside his bier. 
 
 It was the custom of the Czar to take mid-day lunch 
 every Sunday with his sister in the Michael Palace, which 
 stands not far from the center of St. Petersburg, in a con- 
 siderable forest of trees sun'ounded l)y a high wall. This 
 custom being well known, a body of Nihilists set about to 
 compass his assassination in the following manner : 
 
 Two of the conspirators engaged a cellar-room under 
 a large, lead colored, four-story building which stands on 
 the corner of Little Garden street and the Nevski Pros- 
 pekt, and immediately facing the large bronze statue of 
 Catharine II. This place was chosen because there arc 
 only two streets leading from Michael Palace, viz. ? 
 Little Garden street from the east, and an exit south 
 into a narrow street running jjarallel with the Catharine 
 Canal. As the former was generally used by the Czar, 
 because of its smooth pavement, it was here that the 
 conspirators decided to make most ample preparations to 
 aocomplish their deadly purpose. 
 
 Tlie cellar-room engaged was used for a considerable 
 time as a milk and cheese depot, the better to enable the 
 assassins to disguise their real occupation. During this 
 time they excavated a tunnel entirely across the street and 
 pl'iced therein the enormous charge of sixty pounds of 
 dynamits, which was connected by an electric wire, so that 
 the mine could be discharged at asiy instant. It is de- 
 clared by those familiar with the destructiveuess of this 
 
EXILE LIFE m SIBERIA. 
 
 141 
 
 most powerful explosive, that had the mine been ex- 
 ploded it would have razed fully one-half of the entire 
 city and killed thousands of people. 
 
 It is astonishino^ how OTeat a work was carried on in 
 
 so central a place without detection, particularly since 
 the fact is known that General IVIelikoff received several 
 letters notifying him that the end of the Czar Alexander 
 was near at hand, and also, that his assassination would 
 
U2 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
£XrLE L.EFE IN SIBEEIA. 143 
 
 be accomplished on the very day it was brought about. 
 This hitter iuformation Melil?;off communicated to Alex- 
 ander and begged of him not to go out on that day, 
 but such threats had become too common for this one to 
 be specially observed. 
 
 The dynamite mine being completed and ready for its 
 deadly work, which it was expected to perform on Sun- 
 day afternoon, March 13th, 1881, the assassins posted a 
 watch to give information when the Czar should come 
 driving from the Michael Palace toward the Nevski Pros- 
 pekt. But to make their purpose more certain, although 
 it was only on extremely rare occasions that the Emperor 
 ever left the palace by the Catharine Canal street, yet in 
 view of the possibility that on this occasion he might do 
 so, another party of Nihilists were stationed along this 
 street, two of them taking their positions near the gate. 
 These two were each provided with Orsini bombs — glass 
 balls the size of a hen's egg, loaded with dynamite — while 
 two others stood on the ice in the canal, also having 
 bombs in their pockets, while a woman, Sophia Perofs- 
 kaja, stood at the corner of the palace grounds from 
 whence, by waving a handkerchief, she could signal the 
 four conspirators if the Czar should leave the palace by 
 Little Garden street. 
 
 Shortly before two o'clock in the afternoon his Maj- 
 esty drove out of the palace grounds by way of the 
 canal, but scarcely had he proceeded a rod from the gate 
 tvhen one of the conspirators threw a bomb which burst 
 !o far to the rear of the carriage that its force was ex- 
 pended on two of the Cossack guards, who were instantly 
 killed, together with their horses, while the rear of the 
 Imperial carriage was shattered, but the Czar received no 
 injury. 
 
 The report was so great that many persons were imme- 
 
144 
 
 BUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 diately attracted to the spot. The Czar stepped out of 
 the carriage, though his coachman urged him to resume 
 his seat, and advanced toward Colonel Dvorl^etsky, Chief 
 of Police, who as usual, was following behind in a sledge, 
 
 III 1 
 
 „-.^ 
 
 ^Pl 
 
 
 P 
 
 
 " 
 
 pf^r^^^y^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^^^8 
 
 
 Htl 
 
 
 ^^m 
 
 ■BUHI^^^B 
 
 
 ^Hhb 
 
 
 •M 
 
 
 
 P 
 
 
 ■■wi 
 
 l^^l 
 
 
 R 
 
 i ■ ■ ^ 
 
 ■ 
 
 HH 
 
 
 s 
 
 * ■ 
 
 _ 
 
 H 
 
 
 TiijM 
 
 ■.:,alM 
 
 
 ^^^Bnl^^fi^^ hi" iL 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ' 
 
 "^^3m|H 
 
 
 ilB 
 
 and who had already seized the culprit, who was struggling 
 violently with the Colonel and trying to use a pistol and 
 dagger. Assistance was at hand, however, and the as- 
 sassin was soon disarmed ; he proved to be ayoung student 
 named Risakoff, belonging to the Institute of Mining 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 145 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 147 
 
 Engineers. A moment after, several officers congratu- 
 lated the Czar uj)on his marvellous escape, to whose kind 
 words he replied: "Give God the praise," and then 
 piously crossing himself, he gave directions concerning 
 the care of the wounded and started, on foot, toward the 
 Winter Palace. He had taken less than a half-dozen steps 
 when another bomb was thrown which struck and burst 
 at his feet with most horrible effect. The Czar reeled 
 and fell amid a cloud of smoke, uttering but a single cry,' 
 "Help !" The force of the explosion was so great that 
 all the glass in neighboring houses- was broken, the assas- 
 sin, Elnikoff, was himself mortally wounded, and a boy 
 was instantly killed, while eleven of the Czar's body- 
 guard were seriously injured. 
 
 Staff Captain Novikoff was the first to reach his Ma- 
 jesty, and throwing himself weeping at the Emperor's 
 side, exclaimed, "Good God! What has happened to 
 your Majesty?" The Emperor remained motionless, and 
 Novikoff, with the assistance of some sailors, who had 
 hurried to the spot, lifted him up, himself holding the 
 wounded Czar around the body and breast, while the sail- 
 ors, without letting go of their carbines, held the feet. 
 The Emperor then attempted to lift his hand to his 
 bleeding brow, murmuring, twice the word "Cold." 
 Novikoff was just about to take his handkerchief from 
 his pocket to bind around the Emperor's head, when the 
 Grand Duke Michael came 'up and, bending down close 
 to the Emperor's face, said, " How do you feel?" What 
 his Majesty replied it was difficult to catch. The Grand 
 Duke ordered the sailors to throw down their carbines, 
 and then, taking a cap from one of the bystanders, placed 
 it on the Emperor's head. They then began to mov 
 forward. Novikoff asked the Grand Duke whether ht 
 would allow the bearers to carry the Emperor into the 
 
148 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 149 
 
 nearest house for the purpose of applying bandages to 
 the wounded parts. The Emperor, who evidently re- 
 tained consciousness, on hearing this, whispered in broken 
 anguage, "Carry to palace, there die," and some few 
 more words which were unintelligible. 
 
 He was placed in Colonel Dvorketsky's sledge and 
 driven directly to the palace, followed by an immense 
 crowd of sorrow-stricken citizens, many of whom were 
 crying like children who saw before them the mangled 
 body of a beloved father. 
 
 Upon reaching the palace the Emperor was carried up 
 stairs into his study, where a bed was improvised, upon 
 which he was laid for a surgical examination. Six of the 
 ablest surgeons in St. Petersburg were instantly called, 
 but the moment they saw how dreadful were his wounds 
 they frankly told him there was i>o hope for recovery. 
 His Majesty suffered excruciating agony so long as con- 
 sciousnees lasted ; both his legs were crushed and cut in a 
 shocking manner, the femoral arteries being severed, fi'om 
 \vhich alone he must have died through hemorrhage had 
 there been no other injuries ; but portions of g iiss were 
 driven into tha lower parts of his body, while there were 
 also two severe cuts in his face from which large pieces 
 of glass were extracted. Seeing that death was inevita- 
 ble, the Court Chaplain administered the last sacrament 
 during a short interval of consciousness and, while the 
 surgeons were considering an operation on the Emperor, 
 hie Majesty surrendered the crown forever, at 3 :35 p. m., 
 one hour and fifty minutes after receiving his wounds. 
 Surrounding his bedside at the time of dissolution was a 
 large number of the Imperial family, including the Czare- 
 vitch and Czarina, who mai.ifested such grief as is rarely 
 witnessed. 
 
 During the painful suspense which followed the first 
 10 
 
150 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA, 151 
 
 news of tho fatal jittack on the Emperor an enormous 
 crowd of people gathered in Alexander Square fronting 
 (he palace and gave expression to a sorrow deep-felt and 
 inconsolable. At intervals of every fifteen minutes a flag 
 was displayed from the palace which indicated the Em- 
 peror's condition, and as each time showed him to be 
 more rapidly sinking the crowd became more demonstra- 
 tive in their grief. When at length the Emperor's death 
 was announced by raising the Imperial standard at half- 
 mast, the assemblage fell upon their knees and became 
 mute in silent prayer. 
 
 On the same evening of the Czar's death the troops in 
 St. Petersburg and members of the Imperial family, ac- 
 cording to their custsom, kissed the Bible and then took 
 the oath of allegiance to the new Czar, who repaired to 
 the Winter Palace Chapel and in the presence of the State 
 and church dignataries placed the Imperial Crown of 
 Russia on his head and was proclaimed Emperor, under 
 the title of Alexander III. 
 
 After assuming the crown the new Emperor and Em- 
 press drove to their own palace, where they remained until 
 his manifesto of March 27tli Avas issued, desiffnatiniji: his 
 brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, regent in case of his 
 own death before his son, the present Czarevitch, at- 
 tained bis majority. 
 
 The remains of the dead Emperor lay in state for one 
 week, during which time expressions of sympathy and 
 horror at the dreadful act which brought aboiit his 
 death, poui'ed In upon the Royal Family from every na- 
 tion of the earth, besides hundreds of beautiful tokens, 
 from contemporary sovereigns in Europe, such as wreaths 
 of silver, crowns, crosses and mottoes, most artistically 
 worked^ of the same precious material. On Sunday, 
 March 20th, the body of the Emperor was taken to the 
 
152 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Fortress (Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, where it was de- 
 posited in a marble sarcophagus beside the remains of his 
 loved Empress, who died of a lingering illness one year be- 
 
 fore. After the workmen had deposited the coffin in the 
 vault beneath the Fortress church, and removed their 
 tools, the Governor of the city went down into the pit 
 afone, swung to and locked the heavy door, and on 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 153 
 
 emerging, handed the key to the chief of the new Czar's 
 household, and it was afterward deposited in a place of 
 security in the Winter Palace. 
 
154 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 The Fortress Chapel is one of the most elaborate and 
 gorgeous, in interior decori>tion, in the world. It is the 
 repository of all members of the House of Romanoff 
 since the time of Peter the Great, with the single excep- 
 tion of Peter II., who, dying in Moscow, was by his own 
 request buried there. The interior presents a rare com- 
 bination of gold, silver and tinsel work, giving an ap- 
 pearance of fairy-like splendor. Arranged around the 
 single immense room, in two rows, are the marble sar- 
 cophagi enclosed by an iron railing. From the ceiling 
 is suspended a rich canopy reaching down over the 
 sacristy, while the pillars are decorated with standards 
 taken in the wars with Franc?, Sweden, Poland, Turkey 
 and Persia. There are also several silver and gold icons 
 — sacred images — before which candles are kept con- 
 stantly burning. On the sarcophagus of Alexander II., 
 and also on that of the Empress, there is placed a gold 
 crown inside of which a small lamp is always burning, 
 which, throwing its rays through interstices of the 
 crowns, produces a beautiful effect. On the wall, imme- 
 diately opposite, are hung the emblems of mourning pre- 
 sented by other countries after the Czar's assassination, 
 and also wreaths of immortelles which are replaced, from 
 time to time, by those who revere his memor}-. 
 
 Directly after the Czar's death, Minister Pleve, who 
 had been commissioned to the position he now holds for 
 his services in detecting those concerned in the palace ex- 
 plosion of 1879, was called upon to discover all the con- 
 spirators concerned in the commission of the dreadful 
 crime, and so thoroughly did he prosecute his investiga- 
 tions, that scarcely had the Czar.been laid aAvay, before 
 he procured the arrest of Nicholas Jelaboff, Soi^hie Pe- 
 rofskaja, Hessy Helfmann, Nicholas Kisakoff, Gabriel 
 Michailoff, Jean Kibaichich, and several others wha 
 bowever, proved their iuuowence. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 155 
 
 THE FORTRESS CHAPEL— LAST RESTING PLACE OF THE IMPERIAL UEAD. 
 
156 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN» 
 
 Directly after these arrests were made another import- 
 ant step was taken in consequence of discoveries made in 
 examining tJie premises and opening the dynamite mine 
 laid in Little Garden street. It was proved that the 
 police had information in connection with the mine 
 
 TOMB OF THE EMPEROR IN THE FORTRESS CHAPEL ONE WEEK AFTER BURIAL. 
 
 .which if utilized would have led to the arrest of the con- 
 spirators and prevented the Czar's assassination. The pub- 
 lic oflScers accused of a criminal neglect of their duties 
 were Major General Constantine Mrovinsky ; Paul Teg- 
 leff, chief officer of the Spassky District ; General Fur- 
 soff, chief of the Secret Section of the Prefecture, and 
 
158 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 two State Councillors. It was asserted that Mrovinsky 
 had been instructed by Tegleff to make a thorough in- 
 spection of Kobezeff's quarters, whose milk and cheese 
 shop had been reported as being a headquarters for the 
 Nihilists. This investigation was not made by Mrovin- 
 sky, while Tegleff was charged with neglect in not en- 
 forcing the order, as he had direct information of Kobe- 
 zeff's plot. Fursoff was also brought to trial because he 
 took no measures to verify the suspicions which had been 
 communicated to him, and because he did not inform his 
 superiors of what was taking place until the evening of 
 the assassination. It was shown that the three officers 
 did visit Kobezeff's shop, but that finding his papers reg- 
 ular they made no examination of the premises. 
 
 It was three days after the assassination before the police 
 entered the shop, there being grave fears excited that an 
 attempt to do so would cause an explosion of the mine. 
 The greatest precautions were observed after an entrance 
 was at length made, when a tunnel was discovered lead- 
 ing across the street, and two batteries in wooden boxes 
 were found, with their wares ready for use. Had the 
 two poles of the batteries been brought in contact (and 
 they were not more than three inches apart) an instan- 
 taneous explosion would have followed. It is therefore 
 an act of singular fortune that the mine was uncovered 
 without causing a calamity of gigantic proportions. 
 
 The assassins, arrested through the skilful detective 
 ability of Pleve, were brought to trial on April 9th. 
 The Judges, who were presided over by Senator 
 Fuchs, held their sittings in the Circuit Court of the Li- 
 tejnajaProspekt. Both the inside and the outside of the 
 building were carefully guarded by police, who prevented 
 all persons except those furnished with special passes 
 from entering;. At each end of the dock also stood tw« 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 159 
 
IGO RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 gendarmes with drawn swords, and in front of the pris- 
 oners sat their counsel. The Procurer, or Crown Advo- 
 cate, sat at the end of the judicial bench, and on a table 
 in the centre of the room were the mute evidences of the 
 prisoners' guilt in the form of bom.bs, bottles of explo- 
 sive liquids, etc. Above hung a i)icture of the late Czar, 
 draped in black hangings. The proceedings ^ere ex- 
 ceedingly simple. First the indictment was read, and to 
 this each prisoner in turn replied by a long speech, in no 
 way repudiating his or her complicity in the Revolution- 
 ary movement, although some denied l>eing concerned in 
 the actual assassination of the Czar. The prisoners were 
 six in number : Eisakoff, the man who threw the first 
 bomb (Elnikoff, who threw the second, died from the ef- 
 fects of the explosion) ; Sophie Perofskaja, the well- 
 known female conspirator, who gave the signal by wav- 
 ing a handkerchief on the opposite side of the canal ; 
 Jelaboff, the organizer of the attempt, and an agent in 
 the third degree of the Revolutionary Executive Commit- 
 tee ; Kibaichich, who appears to have prepared the ex- 
 plosive liquids; Ilessy Helfman, a JcAvess, who was ar- 
 rested in the Nihilist laboratory in Telejewskaja street a 
 day or two after the attemj)t, and Gabriel Michaeloff , who 
 was arrested while entering one of the Nihilists' resorts 
 which had been discovered and occupied by the police. 
 After the prisoners had made their speeches, witnesses 
 were examined, having been previously sworn by minis- 
 ters of their own persuasion. These pastors ranged from 
 a Moslem mollah to a Dominican monk, and contributed 
 a picturesque air to the scene. Then the Procurer, M. 
 Mouravieff, commenced his summing-up of the charges 
 against the i^risoners, seizing the occasion for a political 
 denunciation of the Revolutionists and the countries which 
 sheltered them, and going minutely into the character and 
 
EZJLE LIF:e IN SIBERIA. 
 
 161 
 
 career of the various prisoners. Of these Sophia Perofs- 
 kaja alone belonged to the cla'=!=! of nobles. She 
 
 fled from home at the age of fifteen, and is stated 
 to have lived thereafter on her own resources taking, in 
 
162 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 late years of her life considerable part in the >'ihilists' 
 plots. She it was who gave the signal for the explosion 
 on the Moscow line when the pilot train was wrecked. 
 Her grandfather was a Minister of State, and hor father 
 had been Governor of St. Petersburg. She had for some 
 time been the companion of Jelaboff, who is said to have 
 been the type of a Kevolutionary leader, and one of the 
 most important members of the party. Kisnkoff, who 
 had been a pupil of the School of Mines, andK.ibaichich, 
 once a member of the Academy of Engineers, were por- 
 trayed as simple instruments inJelaboff's hands, and also 
 INIichaeloff, who was a poor, uneducated peasart. To the 
 Procurer replied either the prisoners or their counsel, as 
 the former thought proper, and Jelaboff made another 
 oration in favor of his Socialistic opinions. 
 
 There is nothing in the annals of criminal jurisprudence 
 of more thrilling interest, in the display of unexampled 
 fortitude and fanatical heroism, than is shown in the 
 record of this great political trial. So ^refit was the 
 thirst of these criminals for the approbation of their com- 
 patriots, that when this opportunity came for immolating 
 themselves in the cause of anarchy, they unflinchingly 
 acknowledged their guilt and dared the Imperial power 
 to expend its vengeance on them. To the question put 
 to them by the Court : " Are you guilty or not guilty?" 
 Jelaboff, the arch assassin, responded: "Guilty, audi 
 would to God that my crime- had been greater. Of no 
 act in my life am I so proud, and it gives me a felicitous 
 l)leasure in acknowledging the part I took in assassinat- 
 ing the Emperor. Not that I entertained a special i)cr- 
 sonal dislike for him, but because, as a patriot, I de- 
 tested the policy which he pursued for the oppression of 
 his subjects. The fate which overtook the dead Emperor 
 awaits his successor as surely as there is a God who 
 reekons the crimes of oi:)pressors." 
 
164 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Jelaboff would have said much more had he not been 
 restrained by the bailiffs, this much of his speech being 
 delivered in spite of their efforts to enforce his silence. 
 The sentiment he expressed was re-echoed by his accesso- 
 ries, so that nothing remained for the Court to do but hear 
 testimony from the Government witnesses and to pass 
 sentence of death upon the accused. It has been stated, 
 but not confirmed, that after the prisoners were sen- 
 tenced and returned to the Fortress prison, one or more 
 of them were sul)jected to the most agonizing torture, in 
 order tr) force from them a confession that would expose 
 all their associates in crime, and whatever in^)rniation 
 they possessed of the Nihilists' plots and intentions. 
 There appeared in several daily papers published in 
 America, a lengthy correspondence from abroad, detail- 
 ing elaborately the punishments inflicted u[)on the con- 
 demned ; that red-hot needles were introduced beneath 
 their finger nails, and that the nails on their toes were 
 torn off, after which fire was applied to the bared flesh ; 
 but tht)U2:h one gentleman in St. Petersburi; assui'ed me 
 that such torture was really committed upon Jelaboff, yet 
 I feel assured there is not the least truth in such report. 
 Indeed, two gentlemen who were witnesses of the execu- 
 tion, and who were near enough to Jelaboff to observe 
 fully his condition, particularly as his feet were bare, de- 
 clared to me that the story (,i torture was an absurdity. 
 My j)urpose in mentioning the report here is only to give 
 it denial, which is an act of justice to the Russian Gov- 
 ernment that I cannot consistently withhold. 
 
 The day for the execution of the six criminals was 
 fixed for April 15th, but the sentence was commuted as 
 to Ilessy Ilelfmann, to exile in Siberia for life, owing to 
 the fact that she was about to l)ecome a mother. 
 
 On the 13th of April a mad attempt to rescue the prison- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 165 
 
 ers was made by a mob of nearly two hundred persons, 
 who forced their wa}'^ into the large court of the Fortress 
 and demanded the production of the culprits. A large 
 force of soldiers and police attacked the would-be rescm- 
 
 ers, killing some and wounding several, while nearly all 
 the others were arrested ; on the persocs*of twenty of 
 those arrested bombs were found, but why none of them 
 were used is a question difficult to answer. 
 11 
 
l(jt) 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 It was expected that at the execution another attempt 
 would be made to rescue the condemned, to meet which 
 a large body of soldiers was ordered to escort the cul- 
 prits and form in hollow square around the gallows. 
 This served to prevent any demonstration upon the part 
 of sympathizers, for although the crowd who witnessed 
 the execution numbered not less than five thousand per- 
 sons, perfect order was maintained; indeed, strange 
 enough, there was no sympathy whatever manifested for 
 the assassins. 
 
 As the condemned mounted the gallows there was an 
 oppressive silence wholly unrelieved until Eisakoff fainted 
 as the noose was being adjusted about his neck ; the 
 others manifested perfect composure to the last. The 
 execution, however, proved a sickening scene, for in ad- 
 dition to the feeling created by reason of Eisakoff faint- 
 ing, the rope which suspended Michaeloff broke, so that 
 the half-suffocated criminal fell in a heap on the platform. 
 Unable now to stand, he was picked up in a limp condition 
 by two deputies who adjusted another rope about his neck. 
 But astonishingto relate, again the rope broke, and thus the 
 horrible scene of hanging one man three times was wit- 
 nessed, which drew forth many expressions of disgust from 
 the crowd, who jeered at and reviled the executioners. 
 
 Thus terminated the last act connected with the most 
 exciting and dreadful incident in Eussian history. The 
 love borne for Alexander II., by a very large majority of 
 his subjects, was greater perhaps than that shown by the 
 Eussians for any other sovereign, and as time passes their 
 appreciation for the many good qualitieSy which he un- 
 doubtedly possessed, rapidly increases, as may be seen by 
 the demonstrations still made to keep his memory fresh 
 in their hearts. A memorial chapel was erected over the 
 spot where the Emperor received his fatal wounds, which 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 167 
 
1C8 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 was dedicated to his remembrance on the 29th of April, 
 1881, by the Metropolitan Archbishop Isidore. There 
 were present at the services an immense crowd of citizens 
 from every part of the Empire, nearly all the Imperial fam- 
 ily, Ministers of State, and many foreign ambassadors. 
 The ncAV Emperor and Empress were the only notables 
 absent, a fact much commented upon at the time, as it 
 was an evidence that Alexander III. entertained fears for 
 his own life, and therefore would not trust himself among 
 a promiscuous assemblage, even though his person were 
 guarded hy a multitude of soldiers. 
 
 The chapel thus erected was a light frame structure 
 covered with immortelles and beautiful flowers contribu- 
 ted from relatives and sj^mpathizers at home and abroad. 
 During the present year, however, a more substantial 
 chapel was built to replace the original one, in which 
 there are three altars covered with a full service of 
 church plate of gold and silver of the finest chased Avork- 
 manship. If is intended to erect a magnificent memorial 
 church on the spot, which is regarded as sacred, out of 
 the voluntary contributions made for that purpose by 
 faithful subjects of the Empire ; to this end a repositorv 
 is affixed to the chapel which is daily filled by small of- 
 ferings from the hundreds of peasants who repair to the 
 place to offer up prayers. A guard is constantly sta- 
 tioned before the chapel to guard its treasures, and all 
 footmen passing the shrine reverently remove tluMr hats 
 and cross themselves as a token of the love they bear for 
 the Emperor's memory. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1G9 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 When Alexander III. assumed the royal purple, which 
 had been crimsoned by his father's blood, everyone confi- 
 dently predicted u great change from the previous ad- 
 ministration. S" seriously was the nation shocked by 
 the death of Alexander II. that there was a revulsion in 
 public sentiment against the anarchists, and in favor of the 
 autocracy; many leading Nihilists even, particularly in 
 London and Geneva, expressed chagrin and condemnation 
 at the assassination, which produced an effect in Russia to 
 the serious detriment of Nihilism. But this sympathy 
 was short-lived, a fact which I have no hesitancy in de- 
 claring was due wholly to the retirement Alexander III., 
 thus giving incontestable proof of his alarm. Not satis- 
 fied with the protection afforded him at his palace in St. 
 Petersburg, he removed his State residence to Peterhoff , 
 where special arrangements for his security were provided. 
 
 Upon a hill, overlooking the Finland Gulf and com- 
 manding a beautiful, though distant view of Cronstandt, 
 stands the Imperial Palace, a large and elegant structure 
 with all the accessories of royalty. There is a large fish 
 pond, and an immense lake adjacent, its shores embow- 
 ered by lofty trees and its bosom studded with beau- 
 tiful islands, on one of which there is an ornate building- 
 provided especially for the Emperor to dine in during 
 the summer months. The palace grounds are, beyond 
 compare, the finest in all Europe, far surpassing those 
 around the Great Trianon in Versailles ; indeed, they ap- 
 pear more like fairy-land than the surroundings of a self- 
 exiled potentate. Such fountains can be seen in no 
 other place, and are positively bewildering in their 
 beauty. One of these, called the Golden Stairway 
 
i 70 RUSkTAN NIHILISM AND ' 
 
 Fountain, h extravagant with magnificence. It consists 
 of twenty-four steps, each twenty feet long, one foot high 
 and one foot in breadth, of ^mre gold. Of course 
 the steps are not solid gold, for there is not suffi- 
 cient of the precious metal in all the world to cast so 
 many blocks of such a size ; but the sheets of gold used 
 in making them are of enormous value, in fact princely. 
 This fountain leads down from the Court entrance of the 
 palace, and as the water pours over in a succession of 
 cascades, glimmering with a golden sheen, the effect is 
 bewitching in its incomparable splendor. But there are 
 many other fountains on the grounds of only secondary 
 importance, on which gold is a conspicuous feature, 
 blending inartistic beauty with statues of men, animals, 
 fowls and reptiles. 
 
 But the new Czar takes no pleasure in surroundings 
 so grandly beautiful, for looking only to a retreat that 
 promises security from Nihilistic consi3iracies, he makes 
 his residence in a small cottage on thePeterhoff grounds, 
 which is enclosed by a double wall ten feet high and t^^o 
 feet thick. There is only a small garden about this 
 humble building, in which the Czar takes occasional 
 walks, but never except in some disguise, on account of 
 a distrust which he has for every servant about him. A 
 oarty of Cossacks are day and night on guard around the 
 ?ner wall, and a full company of Finnish guards are al- 
 ",/ ys on duty, mounted, around the outer wall ; so that 
 a, oody of men who would attempt to forcibly reach the 
 Emperor, could only do so by dispersing two lines of 
 guards and overcoming a large body-guard that attends 
 his Majesty. But even these precautions do not com- 
 prise all the measures taken to preserve the Czar's life 
 from assassination. He has given an imperative order to 
 his guards to shoot down, without challenge, any one who 
 
172 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 shall approach within fifty feet of him in his garden 
 without special permission. During my stay in St. Pe- 
 tersburg, in July, 1882, a melancholy incident of this 
 ridiculous order occurred, which shocked the whole city. 
 It being a warm day, the Emperor went into his garden, 
 and while passing along one of the gravelled walks, he 
 discovered a shrub that had been broken down by some 
 careless act. Not far from him was an old man, beyond 
 sixty years of age, engaged in cultivating flowers ; the 
 Czar beckoned to him, intending to instruct him to 
 bind up the broken shrub. In obedience to the tacit 
 call, the old man started over to where the Emperor was, 
 but when he approached within the forbidden distance, 
 a guard, who had not observed the Emperor's motion, 
 fired upon the innocent old gardener, killing him instantly. 
 It is said the Czar was very much angered at the guard, 
 and that besides having his victim buried with the honors 
 accorded a faithful soldier who dies on duty, he also 
 granted a pension to the nnirdered man's family. 
 
 But in addition to these precautions, there are three cor- 
 vettes stationed in the gulf facing the grounds enclosing 
 the Czar's cottage, armed with long-range rifle-guns, to 
 guard against approaches by sea. No boat, however 
 small, is permitted to land before the Emperor's grounds ; 
 electric lights are kept burning all night on the corvettes, 
 which flood the sea and shore with radience and enable 
 the naval guard to detect any craft which might ap^jear 
 ap[)voaching the royal residence. 
 
 Occasionally the Emperor visits his palace at Gatchi-^ 
 na, twenty miles inland from Peterhoff, where equally 
 strong measures for his protection are provided, ^hen 
 muking the trip between these two places he is in dis- 
 guise and never allows any intimation of his visit to be an- 
 nounced beforehand. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 173 
 
 This isolation, through fear, is an invitation to danger, 
 and serves to exalt Nihilism far beyond its own inherent 
 strength. How great the contrast between Alexander 
 III. and Nicholas I. is shown in the following liistorical 
 incident. le 1854, whe« Russia wa.s staggering under 
 destructive defeats from the Allied Forces, a plague seized 
 upon the people, so that they died in great numbers. 
 Ignorant, superstitious and rebellious, a cry was raised 
 by his subjects that Nicholas had ordered all the waters 
 of Russia poisoned ; that he had colluded with the phy- 
 sicians of his Empire to destroy his people because they 
 grumbled at extravagances practiced in conducting the 
 war. This senseless cry soon grew into a concerted plan 
 for vengeance, which more than three thousand men as- 
 sembled in Alexander Square to put into execution. The 
 Emperor, who was in the Winter Palace, immediately 
 comprehended the danger of his position, and with quick 
 perception, seized upon the only possible plan that could 
 save his life. 
 
 The palace being surrounded escape was imposible, 
 while there were no soldiers whom the Czar could sum- 
 mon to his aid. Ha.stily putting on his Imperial helmet 
 and regimentals he declared to the attendants his inten- 
 tion of boldly facing the mob. All attempts to per- 
 suade him from this purpose being unavailing, his aid-de- 
 camp begged to be allowed the privilege of accompany- 
 ing him, but this Nicholas refused, saying : *' If my life 
 is to be taken it would avail nothing to sacrifice yours 
 also." With this he descended the stairway and alone 
 marched out into the mob who, awed by his majestic 
 manner, gave way and permitted him unmolested to gain 
 the Alexander Column. Being now in the very center of 
 his enemies, he mounted upon a block which stood be- 
 side the column and in a stentorian voice shoated : " Obil- 
 
'174 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 dren I Dogs 1 Down upon your knees!" As though 
 stricken by a stroke from heaven, that vast assemblage, 
 who had before been hovvling for the Emperor's blood, 
 dropped upon their knees with one accord and then 
 shouted: "Brave Nicholas! we hail you Emperor of 
 all Russia ; long live your Gracious Majesty !" 
 
 This incident serves to show the mercurial disposition 
 of all Russians. Brave themselves, nothing excites in 
 them such admiration as an act of defiance when dan- 
 ger threatens. 
 
 A knowledge of Russian character leads directly to 
 the belief that if Alexander III. would assume a fearless 
 attitude, by presenting himself before his people, like 
 one under the asgis of patriotic resolution, h© would dis- 
 pel the specter of assassination and be hailed as a sover- 
 eign worthy the scepter he holds. But so sure as he 
 continues to manifest fear, and cowers before an exag- 
 gerated idea of his enemies, so sure will he be hurled from 
 the throne by either a gigantic insurrectionary movement 
 or fall a victim to some fanatic now plotting his destruc- 
 tion. No measures of protection, however rigid, can 
 save him, for assassins will spring up in his most secret 
 chamber, among those most implicity trusted, or reach 
 him through tunnels, which desperate Nihilists never tire 
 of digging. This is even now his dread, for before com- 
 ing to the throne he had his chin shaved every morning, 
 but since then no razor has touched his face ; not a mouth- 
 ful of food or wine is taken by him now until all the 
 dishes set before him are tasted by his butler ; the room 
 in which he sleeps is secured by two immense iron doors, 
 while the windows are provided with heavy bars, so that 
 household enemies may not steal upon him at night. 
 The humblest peasant m all Russia would not exchange 
 places with this unhajipy autocrat, whose crown weighs 
 opon him lik« a besom pf dQath. 
 
mSILE LIFE m SIMaUA. 175 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The cessation of crime which followed the assassination 
 of Alexander II. inspired the law and order class of Russia 
 with the hope that Nihilism had spent its force and would 
 permit the results of that desperate work to determine 
 their purposes. But this hope was soon dispelled, for in 
 the succeeding fall fresh outrages were reported, which 
 were followed by a more retributive or vindjctive policy of 
 police surveillance. About the same time there came re- 
 ports of the most brutal attacks being made upon Jewish 
 merchants in several districts of lower Russia, a descrip- 
 tion of which: will be given hereafter. 
 
 Among the more harassing difficulties with which the 
 Government had to deal were the secret printing offices. 
 These breeders of sedition appeared in every large city, 
 and their products were scattered through every hamlet 
 in the nation. When one office was discovered and de- 
 stroyed another quickly took its place, so that suppres- 
 sion has rather worked against the Government. Many 
 of these offices became the scene of bloody conflicts be- 
 tween the Nihilists and police, in which not a few women 
 took active part, displaying a desperate bravery rarely 
 exhibited by the sex. In fact there has been a heroism 
 manifested by female Nihilists surpiissed by no incidents 
 of individual fearlessness in all history. 
 
 Vera Zassulitch, whose shot inaugurated terrorism, 
 was the most modest of her sex. In the court room she 
 blushed when she perceived any one staring at her. 
 Eugenia Figner, a charming lady and an accomplished 
 singer, got her eight years in the Siberian mines by sit- 
 ting in a parlor playing the piano for weary hours, try- 
 ing to drown the noise made by the secret printing-press 
 
176 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 in the adjoining room. Anna Lebedeff, a priest's 
 daughter, in the disguse of the wife of a switchman, 
 
 KATHEBINE H1.1IKRCLIDZB. 
 
 SOPHIA BAKDIN. 
 LEADING FEMALE NIHILISTS 
 
 ANNA lUlUKKUtF 
 
 lived in a watch-house on the railroad, and was found oi\ 
 a box filled with dynamite, chatting with the switchman. 
 Sophie Perof skaja, the daughtei' of a general and senator, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBEKIA. 177 
 
 who declined the dignity of maid of honor to the Em- 
 press and entered the Nihilist fraternity, dug the Mos- 
 cow mine and directed the late Czar's assassination. 
 Sophie Bardin, who was welcomed as a shining star in the 
 literary horizon, wrote a few poems which, though gems 
 of Russian literature, were treasonable, and the singing 
 of them is a State crime. 
 
 The Soobotin and Lubatovitch sisters were ladies of 
 many accomplishments and noted also for their beauty 
 and purity, yet they stimulated their male colaborers by 
 many acts of cunning and recklessness. The two former 
 acted as spies, and actually secured from a leading offi- 
 cer all the immediate plans of Gen. Ignatieff for over- 
 coming Nihilism, besides finding out, through a different 
 source, the persons in their party against whom the Gov- 
 ernment had suspicions. The two latter distributed 
 incendiary literature not only throughout Moscow and St. 
 Petersburg, but in the very offices of the police authori- 
 ties. Helene Rossikoff planned the robbery of the treas- 
 ury at (yherson, from the vaults of which were taken 
 1,500,000 roubles ($750,000) for Nihilistic purposes. 
 Mary Griasnova incited three of her comrades, who were 
 detected conducting a revolutionary organ, to defend 
 their property against an attack made upon them by 
 nearly twenty policemen. In this fight she killed two 
 officers and wounded three others, though she was herself 
 seriously shot and had to fire from a prostrate position. 
 When her companions surrendered she reviled them as 
 cowards, and nothing silenced her but death, Avhichcame 
 after a lingering agony of three days. M'Ues Toi-porkoff , 
 Hamkrclidze, Khorjevski, Ivanova, and many other 
 women have signally distinguished themselves among the 
 Nihilists as leaders of great power, while their examples 
 have all served to infuse their confreres with dietermina- 
 
171 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 tion to dare and do without regard for the results which 
 their desperate acts might entail. 
 
 On the 28th of Fcln-uary, 1HSl>. Ih<' scono of srrious 
 
 disturbance was transferred from St. Petersburg to 
 Odessa, where General Strelnikoff, the Public Prosecutor 
 at the Kieff Military Tribunal, who distinguished himseJf- 
 in various Nihilist trials, was shot in broad daylight on 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 179 
 
 the Boulevard in that city. Three men were concerned 
 in the murder ; two were captured , but the third es- 
 caped. The Czar was so angered at the news tliat lie at 
 first ordered the prisoners to be executed within twenty- 
 four hours, but afterward changed his mind and decided 
 that they should be tried in due form. Accordingly they 
 were tried and sentenced to death on Saturday, March 
 11th. The funeral of General Strelnikoff took place on 
 Sunday morning, March 5th, with full military honors. 
 Curiously enough, this crime happened within a few 
 hours after the commutation by the Czar of the sentence of 
 death passed on the prisoners in the Trigonia trial. One 
 man alone, Soukahnoff, was excepted, owing to his being 
 a lieutenant in the navy. He, however, was spared the 
 disgrace of dying at the hands of the hangman, but was 
 taken to Cronstadt and shot by a detachment of marines. 
 
 It is the custom observed by all of Russia's former 
 Emperors to repair to Moscow six months after assuming 
 the title of Czar, and there, in the Royal Chapel, be 
 crowned according to ceremonies prescribed by the Greek 
 Church, for it must be understood that in tradition, 
 though not in fact, the Church is more potential than the 
 Czar. These ceremonies are magnificent beyond descrip- 
 tion and are participated in by every one who can crowd 
 into the city. They are invariably followed by a season 
 of festivities which frequently last for thirty days. 
 
 Owing to apprehensions of an attack being made upon 
 his person if exposed, Alexander III. still wears the 
 crown which he placed upon his own head the day of his 
 father's death. Several notices were semi-officially given 
 at various times to the effect that the coronation services 
 would occur at Moscow, and during my visit to that city, 
 in August, 1882, great preparations were being made for 
 the positively promised eveAit. The Royal Chapel, which 
 
180 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 is used upon no other occasion, was being sumptuotiBly 
 decorated, and three hundred Court waiters had just been. 
 sent down from St. Petersburg, whose services were ex- 
 pected to be required at the Imperial feast, which was to, 
 follow the coronation. In addition to these preparationb> 
 made on so grand a scale, th& Great Votive church wp*s 
 thrown open for public inspection upon the presentation 
 of permits issued only by the City Metropolitan. Thid 
 church is used only once during each Czar's reign, the^'i 
 occasions being the day following the coronation, when 
 the Emperor and Empress repair to its sanctuary for 
 blessings of the Church, and where they also listen to 8. 
 sermon prepared specially for their benefit, lliis sacred 
 edifice stands upon an elevation commanding a fine view 
 of the city, and is an object of veneration to all Museov- 
 ites. With the exception of tlie Winter Palace there is, 
 perhaps, no building in all Kussia that can compare whh 
 it in magnificence. It is built of. marble taken from the 
 Finland and Siberian quarries, and polished until all i>:s 
 walls, floors and pilasters reflect images like a looking- 
 glass ; the dome is covered with gold, and there are many 
 gold and silver candelabras and ioons, while in the inte- 
 rior of the dome is a painting of the Trinity involving a 
 marvellous conception. The principal figure measures 
 thirty feet between the out-stretched hands, though the 
 altitude is so great that it appears almost the natural size 
 of a man. There are two chairs reserved for the Em- 
 peror and Empress, w^hich are stationary, fronting the 
 chancel, that for both beauty and value exceed the throne 
 chair in St. George's room of the Winter Palace. They 
 are made of tvory-colorcd marble, mosst exquisitely en- 
 chased with gold flower work, while the seats and cush- 
 ioned back* are covered with gold pUtes studded with 
 precious stones forming the national coat of arms. 
 
12 
 
1^^ RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Every day, for more than a month, the people ex- 
 pected to receive definite announcement of the Emperor's 
 coming, until the shocking news was received instead 
 that a dj'namite mine hud been discovered beneath the 
 Koyal Chapel. This fact immediately dissipated further 
 expectation, and it was then predicted that the coronation 
 would not take place before the following year. No an- 
 nouncement, however, was madeby the Government, and 
 preparations continued to be made. During all this time 
 Count Tolstoi was in communication with the Nihilists, 
 who' promised to guarantee the safety of the Emperor at 
 the coronation services if he would, j^revious to the oc- 
 currence, publish his annual manifesto granting liberty to 
 certain of their compatriots then in exile or held in the 
 Fortress prison. 
 
 Suddenly, without any notice whatsoever, the Czar ap- 
 peared in Moscow. Before leaving St. Petersburg he 
 had ordered every one off the streets by 12 m., on the 
 night of September 15th. No one understood why such 
 an order w^as given ufitil the next day, when it w^as learned 
 that the Emperor had departed by special train at one 
 o'clock, A. M., for Moscow. He also took the precaution 
 to line the rail route with thirty thousand troops, string- 
 ing them out so that the men were formed eighty feet 
 apart extending all the way between the two cities, and a 
 pilot engine was run half-a-mile ahead of the Imperial train 
 to report any obstructions which might appear. Thus 
 the Czar made his first trip to the "Holy Mother-" (a 
 title long since given to Moscow by devout Muscovites), 
 but it was not for coronation purposes, as many at 
 first supposed. He visited the great exposition then 
 being held, also the Imperial Palace in the Kremlin, 
 but there was a large cordon of soldiers surround- 
 ing him wherever he went, besides a special guard with 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 183 
 
 ^m 
 
 THE ROYAL CHAPEL, MOSCOW. 
 
184 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 baj'^onets at a " present." After spending four days in 
 Moscow, and giving notice that he would remain one 
 week longer, so as to continue the impression that the 
 coronation would take place, he mysteriously disappeared 
 again and turned up at St. Petersburg. It was two days 
 after- his departure before the people learned positively 
 that their Emperor was not in Moscow, or credited the 
 report that the coronation had been postponed. 
 
 The fear which possesses Alexander III. has caused 
 a renewal of the agitation first begun during the 
 reign of Catharine II., for a removal of the Imperial 
 Court from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where it remained 
 established once for nearly five hundred years. It is 
 claimed that St. Petersburg is not a representative Eussian 
 city, being too cosmopolitan in population, and Euro- 
 pean in architecture ; that it is for these i-easons the Nihil- 
 ists make their headquarters there, so that their commu- 
 nications with foreign emissaries may be more direct. 
 Moscow, on the other hand, is intensely Asiatic in all its. 
 characteristics and particularly loyal to the Greek Church . 
 This fact is outwardly indicated by the first sights which 
 strike the visitor upon entering the city, for rising up to 
 immense height, like a beautiful mirage, are hundreds of 
 glittering domes, surmounted by golden crosses, while 
 others counterfeit the blue cano})y of heaven. There are 
 no less than four hundred and sixty-six churches, sixty- 
 two monasteries, and over two hundred chapels in Mos- 
 cow, all of which are sustained in a style of magnificence 
 found nowhere else in the world. These princely edi- 
 fices, and the pious reverence of her population, have 
 caused Moscow to be called the "Holy City," and so 
 sacred is she regarded that every year long pilgrimages 
 are made by Russian peasant Avomen to pay their devo- 
 tions and pray before her holy shrines. In this respect 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 185 
 
186 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Moscow is to Russians what Mecca is to the Mohamme- 
 dan world. 
 
 It is not a matter for sm'prise therefore that there is 
 such general desire among the people for the Emperor's 
 removal from European influences, and his complete coa- 
 lescence with Russian style and ideas as taught by the 
 great Vladimir. Indeed, there is a large party in Russia 
 that w^ould be delighted if there were a wall around the 
 Empire large enough to forever keep out everything 
 European . 
 
 In the foregoing history of Nihilism I make no pre- 
 tense of presenting a complete description of all the out- 
 rages perpetrated by this bloody organization, but have 
 rather sought, by presenting the more important acts and 
 crimes of the association, to indicate its strength, coher- 
 ency and purpose (if it may be said Nihilism has any 
 clearly defined purpose). Anarchists are not generally 
 known to consider cause and effect, but like violent ma- 
 ni9.cs', strike in obedience to a distracted mind, having the 
 one desire to kill, ruin or subvert. Nihilism has now 
 grown so strong that no one can compute its power ; no one 
 can judge of Russia's future, but all may well prophesy, 
 by the clouds which lower so bodingly over the nation, 
 that there is a Nemesis ready to dash out of the elements, 
 with fire and sword, at the Empire's heart. 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 187 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 In the preparation of this work on Nihilism I found 
 many difficulties obtruding upon me from the beginning, 
 which it was wholly impossible to remove or reconcile ; 
 these annoyances arose from the extremities of two irrec- 
 oncilable parties whose sympathies seek favor from all 
 who investigate the insurrectionary causes so seriously 
 disturbing Russia. Having been admitted to Govern- 
 ment circles in St. Petersburg, I was sought to be the 
 medium through which the Government might justify its 
 repressive measures and demonstrate the wisdom of its 
 laws ; so speciously did one officer of the Ministry pre- 
 sent to me the causes and inordinate assumptions of 
 Nihilism that, I must confess, he disposed me favorably 
 to his conclusions, which might have influenced me 
 throughout, in my investigations, but for a later contact 
 with liberals and terrorists. Through an introduction, 
 which it would not be just to explain, I was received con- 
 fidentially by several leaders in the revolutionary move- 
 ment, who presented to me their grievances ^d^ demo- 
 cratic needs in so forcible, if not convincing a manner, as 
 to materially change the opinions incited in me by 
 the Minister. I therefore found that in any event my 
 work must meet with much disfavor in Russia, if not 
 subject me to the suspicion of preconceived preju- 
 dices. This I am very anxious to avoid, and that 
 there may be no real ground for such a charge, in 
 addition to recording my own observations and results 
 of an honest investigation of Nihilism, I herewith pre- 
 sent an ably written syllabus of the leading State trials 
 of political offenders that have taken place in Russia dur- 
 ing the past five years. The author of this most intei-- 
 
188 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AW& 
 
 esting chapter is a distinguished Russian lady, a resident 
 of St. Petersburg, and one whose liberal ideas recom- 
 mend her opinions to all thinking people. She belongs 
 to the Liberal Party, but prefers that her name should 
 not be disclosed, for reasons which will readily appear to 
 any one who has read the preceding chapters on Russian 
 Nihilism : 
 
 Of all countries in the world, Russia can of late years 
 claim the sad distinction of having produced in greatest 
 numbers the abnormal growths of a deeply convulsed 
 intellectual soil. The well known "Nihilists" (christ- 
 ened by Tourguenieff for all eternity), the boisterous, 
 pugnacious, ranting, yet talented and comparatively harm- 
 less boys of twenty and thirty years ago, have been suc- 
 ceeded by another and far more dangerous generation — 
 boys also, most of them, but who have developed the 
 quiet, dogged resolution, the merciless, unswerving se- 
 quence of thought and act, the unreasoning self-sacrifice 
 which lies at the core of the Russian nature when power- 
 fully aroused. The earlier ones contented themselves 
 with general fault-finding (in many cases with but too 
 much reason), with noisy denunciations of everything 
 and everybody, from existing social principles to poetry 
 and ladies' fancj^-work, with sweeping and often ludi- 
 crously absurd negations of all that is not positive science 
 or material improvement. Not so the latter, the so- 
 called " socialists " — for that name begins very generally 
 to supersede tlio old one. Their j)redecessors' much-aired 
 grievances, instead of evaporating in more or less violent 
 talk, have with them settled into a dark purpose, which 
 they pursue literally to the death — to their own death 
 most frequently, sometimes also to that of their selected 
 victims. They take the risk and pay the forfeit man- 
 fully, stubbornly. The many criminal State-trials of th« 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 189 
 
 A^t five years have amply shown that Russia has been 
 visited by a virulent paroxysm of that form of political 
 aberration which made so great a patriot and so pure a 
 man as Mazzini an advocate of political murder, and 
 armed the gentle hand of the romantic, tender-souled 
 boy Sand with the assassin's dagger. On the 16th of 
 November, 1880, the execution of two important leaders 
 of the deadly secret organization called "the terroriz- 
 ing fraction" atoned for the long series of murderous 
 attempts against the Emperor's person which followed 
 the assassination of Prince Krapotkinin February, 1879. 
 
 The trial which preceded, conducted before the St. 
 Petersburg Military Court, was on so unusually large a 
 scale, involved so many points and persons, and resulted 
 in such vast and important revelations, that an account 
 of the judicial proceedings on this momentous occasion 
 may prove not uninteresting to American readers, and 
 may shed light on some of the questions concerning which 
 the intelligent curiosity of the cultivated public of this 
 country (Russia) has long been awakened. 
 
 On the 6th of November sixteen persons were brought 
 to trial for heavy political «ffenses before the St. Peters- 
 burg Military Court. Great and unusual precautions had 
 been taken to insure an undisturbed course to the judicial 
 proceedings. The general public were not admitted ; tick- 
 ets were distributed ; and it was noticed by an eye-witness 
 that although the audience was so numerous as to fill the 
 hall, it was composed of persons wearing the military or 
 civil uniform, there being present only four persons in the 
 ordinary garb of private gentlemen. Although the report- 
 ers of the press were admitted, the several dailies and 
 weeklies had been notified to abstain from publishing their 
 own reports from shorthand notes as is usual in such cases, 
 and to limit themselves to copying the full-length report 
 
190 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 which would appear in a series of numbers of the daily 
 *' Government Gazette." The sixteen prisoners entered 
 the court escorted each by two gensdarmes, and took 
 their phices in a calm and dignified manner. In spite of 
 great differences in their social rank, education, even 
 race and religion, one characteristic feature was common' 
 to all — they were very young; all, with one exception, 
 under thirty, one-half under twenty-five. There were 
 three women in the number — girls of twenty-one, twen- 
 ty-two, and twenty-three years of age. The single 
 exception was one Mr. Drigo, aged thirty-one, a land- 
 holder and business man of good standing, who was 
 merely an accessory to the revolutionary party with 
 regard to certain money matters. From the personal 
 facts and antecedents concerning the prisoners, given in 
 curt and dry phrase by the Act of Accusation, it appears 
 that of the thirteen men one was a Catholic, of Poli&h 
 family settled in Little Russia, and two were Israelites ; 
 that two never received any education at all, and seven 
 did not complete their education, but left the University, 
 or the Technological Institute, or Teachers' Seminary, or 
 other schools or colleges, in the first, second, or third 
 year of the course. Alexander Kviatkovsky, aged twenty- 
 seven, the most prominent among the prisoners, was one 
 of these ; but he must have been endowed with great nat- 
 ural parts and moral powers. From the first moment the 
 general attention was centered on him, and his personal 
 appearance is thus described by the correspondent of the 
 Augushurger Zeitung: "Kviatkovsky has a very intel- 
 ligent face ; long dark-blonde hair and a full beard 
 frame a set of features expressive of great energy and 
 power of will. He both bears himself and speaks well 
 and with ease." He immediately and naturally assumed 
 the attitude of a leader among his companions — a posi- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. xJ)l 
 
 tion which they all seemed tacitly to acknowledge, as 
 though from long and habitiud deference, and to which 
 he was fully entitled, as proven by disclosures at the 
 trial. It was remarked that although he appeared to 
 have surrendered himself from the first, and witli the 
 utmost philosophy, to a fate against which he knew that 
 not the ablest defence could prevail, he was unremittingly 
 anxious to shield his followers, and never missed an op- 
 portunity of taking the whole blame upon himself and 
 exonerating them from this or that charge, on the ground 
 of having been used by him as blind tools, and kept in 
 ignorance of his purposes. 
 
 The first day of the trial Avas almost entirely consumed 
 by the reading of the Act of Accusation. That this docu- 
 ment should have grown to so unusual a bulk is not to 
 be wondered at, since it covered a space of two years, 
 and contained a detailed relation of all the criminal acts 
 perpetrated in that interval by members of the ultra- 
 socialistic party, in which all prisoners then present at 
 the bar had directly and personally participated. The 
 Act was divided under ten different heads, comprising 
 the following offences: Participation in the murder of 
 Prince Krapotkin, the Governor of Kharkoff, in Febru- 
 ary, 1879 ; in Solovieff's attempt on the Emperor's life 
 in April of the same year ; in the socialistic-revolution- 
 ary convention which took place at Lipetsk in the follow- 
 ing June, and at which the subsequent attempts were 
 planned, it being at the same time resolved to use dyna- 
 mite instead of ordinary weapons ; in the ensuing three- 
 fold murderous attempt in November, 1879, by means of 
 dynamite mines laid under railway tracks at three different 
 places, of which one proved useless as his Majesty changed 
 his route at the last moment, another took no effect from 
 unknowa causes, probably unskilful management, and the 
 
192 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 third did by its explosion cause the destruction of the 
 Imperial train, but did not endanger the Emperor's per- 
 son, owing to his having passed the spot a few moments 
 before in an ordinary train ; in the laying of a powerful 
 dynamite mine under one of the apartments in the Win- 
 ter Palace, resulting in the terrible explosion of the 17th 
 of February, 1880, which caused the loss of eleven lives, 
 and more or less severely injured fifty-six persons. Fur- 
 thermore, several of the prisoners were accused of organ- 
 izing and entertaining an active secret press in the capi- 
 tal, for the purpose of printing and spreading abroad 
 revolutionary proclamations, flying numbers of seditious 
 and terroristic papers, as also of forging passports and 
 other documents ; the same prisoners being moreover ac- 
 cused of having offered armed resistance to the police, 
 who surprised them in their hiding-place with the press 
 in full activity. The prisoner Presniakoff was charged 
 besides with having fired at two persons who aided a dis- 
 guised policeman in arresting him on one of the public 
 streets, wounding both and causing the death of one. 
 Lastly, all the prisoners were "accused of belonging to 
 the secret society of the socialistic-revolutionary party: 
 whose ol)ject is, by sedition and violence, to subvert the 
 State institutions and social order, and which has mani- 
 fested its existence by a long series of the heaviest politi- 
 cal offences." They were also all charged, with three 
 exceptions, with having lived under numerous assumed 
 names, supporting tlieir aliases by forged passports and 
 other documents ; while the prisoner Drigo was accused 
 of having supplied the socialistic-revolutionary party with 
 the funds necessary for carrying out their very expensive 
 undertakings and machinations. 
 
 The question of funds is one which has considerably 
 puzzled public curiosity. People cannot carry on cosllly 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 193 
 
 mining-works in different parts of the country and secret 
 l)ublisliing on a large scale, travel at the shortest notice 
 from end to end of so vast an empire, hire and buy 
 houses to conspire and work in, and maintain a large 
 number of subaltern agents, mostly needy young men, 
 who in devoting their time and enercries to "the work " 
 give up their only chance of earning even a precarious 
 livelihood, — people cannot do all this without spending 
 large sums of money ; and where docs the money come 
 from? — for it is a curious but well-established fact, that 
 men as a rule are more lavish of their lives than of their 
 purses. The accusation against Mr. Drigo answers this 
 question very fully and very strikingly ; and as he 
 pleaded guilty, with only a distinction of degree in the 
 offense, and his case, therefore, presented no difficulty or 
 complication, it may as well be disposed of now, at this 
 early stage of the proceedings. 
 
 Though there may have been small contributions for 
 revolutionary purposes from the less needy members of 
 the party, it is now proved that the great bulk of the ex- 
 pended funds were derived from the private fortune of 
 Demitri Lizogoub, a prominent leader executed in 
 August, 1879. This gentleman, judging from no other 
 data but those supplied by the Act of Accusation, the 
 speech of the counsel for the Crown, and the few simple 
 remarks offered by Drigo in his own defence, appears to 
 have been by no means an ordinary character. Having 
 early come into an inheritance consisting of landed prop- 
 erty to the amount of something over one hundred and 
 eighty-seven thousand roubles (exactly half of that sum 
 in dollars, at the present low rate of exchange), as was 
 testified by his brothers at his trial, he immediately be- 
 gan quietly to turn every acre into money, which he con- 
 sistently applied to the uses of " the party," limiting his 
 
194 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AI» 
 
 personal expenditure to the trifling sum of five hundred 
 roubles a year. He evidently looked on his wealth as a 
 sacred deposit, of which he was but the steward, in con- 
 science bound to husband it for the furtherance of <' the 
 good cause," allotting to himself only the merest pit- 
 tance necessary for actually supporting life. So thor- 
 oughly did he carry out his sternly-planned self-denial, 
 that at the time of his death barely thirty thousand 
 roubles could be found of his considerable patrimony. 
 Repeatedly implicated in political machinations, and once 
 already placed under temporary arrest, Lizogoub found 
 it unsafe to remit the required sums directly and in his 
 own person to the respective agents, as also to attend 
 himself to the final liquidation of his still remaining es- 
 tates, — a measure which became doubly urgent after he 
 was again and definitely arrested in 1878. Some time 
 before this event, he had placed his entire fortune, by 
 means of full powers of attorney, in the hands of hi^ 
 neighbor and early friend, Vladimir Drigo, and used to 
 give him private directions as to the payment of more or 
 less considerable sums, from one hundred roubles to one 
 thousand and upward, and at different times to sundry 
 individuals who proved to be revolutionary agents of the 
 deepest dye. Even fi-om his prison in Odessa Lizogoub 
 managed, by contrivances which have not been found out 
 to this day, and which seem to imply connivance from 
 quarters where such would least be looked for, to keep 
 up an active correspondence in shoi-t notes with his po- 
 litical friends and Drigo, who continued to carry out his 
 orders with respect to further payments out of his prop- 
 erty. One of these notes, bearing the postscrii)t, pathetic 
 in its simplicity, " / tru>it you,''^ cameinto the hands of 
 justice, and wa.s shown to Lizogoul)'s two brothers, who 
 recognized it as being in their brother Demitri's hand- 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA, 195 
 
 writing. Drigo meanwhile, urged hy his friendship for 
 
 the prisoner, worked hard and anxiously to accomplish 
 the final liquidation, — partly by effecting sales in his own 
 name, partly by transferring large sums into his own 
 hands and those of other trusty friends, as the only way 
 of securing means of existence to Lizogoub in the future, 
 no more tragical issue of his trial being at first antici- 
 pated than a rigorous banishment. But a judicial sen- 
 tence is usually accompanied by degradation ; that is to 
 say, the condemned person is stripped of his rank and all 
 civil rights and privileges thereto pertaining, and dis- 
 abled from holding property, which, if he is in ijossession 
 of any, is either confiscated to the Crown or passes to his 
 heirs as though he were dead, as the sentence may be. 
 The most ordinary mode of eluding this severe clause, 
 which would leave a condemned 2)risoner penniless, is by 
 fictitious mortgages aiid bills, the friendly holders of 
 which foreclose at a given moment, and thus rescue the 
 prisoner's real estate or movables from the law, and 
 either apply the income to his needs, or, by liquidation, 
 secure for him a capital. This operation Drigo was anx- 
 ious to accomplish in Lizogoub' s behalf, but the fatal ter- 
 mination of his friend's career rendered further efforts 
 unnecessary; and, besides, not much of the fortune was 
 left, as has been seen. From the moment of Lizogoub' s 
 death, Drigo's connection with "the joarty" entirely 
 ceased, and none of its members received from him any 
 more pecuniary assistance. The latter fact was duly no- 
 ticed in the Act of Accusation as an extenuating circum- 
 stance. He was ouly charged with having supplied cer- 
 tain persons with funds, not his own indeed, but which 
 he knew would be used for illegal purposes. The case 
 against him was very fairly stated thus: " The person 
 who gave the money might be ignorant of the meditated 
 
I'JG RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 crimes for the perpetration of which it was raised, but it 
 could not be unknown to him that the supplies which 
 passed through his hands were destined for revolutionary 
 purposes." Drigo did not deny the fact of having paid 
 sums of money to sundry persons, strangers to him, by 
 Lizogoub's order ; but pleaded that, placed as he was, he 
 could not act differently ; nor did he admit having any 
 knowledge whatever of their illegal character. He abso- 
 lutely denied ever having belonged to the revolutionary 
 party himself, a denial borne out by his antecedents, 
 which showed him to have been a model landlord, looked 
 up to by all his neighbors, and never implicated in any 
 political troubles before he' consented to take on himself 
 the full management of Lizogoub's property. "I was 
 guided in my actions solely by my friendship to Lizo- 
 goub ; and if friendship constitutes a political offense, in 
 that case I must plead guilty." With these simple words 
 he closed his brief defence. The sentence passed against 
 Drigo was, in consideration of his exceptional position 
 and honorable character, as mild as could be expected, — 
 degradation and simple banishment to the Government of 
 Tomsk, in Western Siberia. 
 
 When, after the Act of Accusation had been read, 
 the prisoners were asked in the usual form whether they 
 pleaded guilty or not guilty, they did not attempt una- 
 vailing denial ; all, with one exception, pleaded guilty in 
 the main, but with certain qualifications and more or less 
 nice distinctions as to details, shadings of opinion or in- 
 tention. Some, while avowing tliat they belonged to the 
 socialistic-revolutionary party, denied all connection with 
 that fraction of it which advocated terrorization. One 
 said : *' I admit that I am a socialist, but I am not a rev- 
 olutionist." Kviatkovsky and one other allowed that they 
 had taken part in the socialistic convention at Lipetsk, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBEISA. \V7 
 
 but would not concede that the ensuing attempts gainst the 
 Czar's person had l>een there resolved upon, except the- 
 oretically and conditionally : "Should certain contingencies 
 take place, it was to be done ; should they not, it might be 
 left undone." " It was decided," explained his compan- 
 ion, "to repeat tlie attempts, should the Government per- 
 sist in the line of conduct it had pursued towards the 
 'party' and the people. But the Convention did not 
 discuss the questions as to how it was to be done, by 
 whom, and under what circumstances; so there was no 
 talk of mining and dynamite." 
 
 At the preliminary examinations the prisoners had 
 made confessions even more ample than they appeared 
 willing to indorse before the court. They may have been 
 advised by their counsel not to criminate themselves un- 
 warily, nor to make unnecessary admissions. Still, on 
 the whole, denial was certainly not the line of defence 
 which they adopted. Among the witnesses who would 
 be summoned to confront them they knew that one waste 
 be brought forward whose deposition would be evidence 
 most damning and conclusive against them — a witness 
 from tliG dead as it were, and one of their own number. 
 Goldenberg, an Israelite aged twenty-four, the mur- 
 derer of Prince Krapotkin, did not take his place on the 
 prisoners' benches with his sixteen companions, being 
 shortly re^jorted in the Act of Accusation to ' ' have 
 died in the fortress, on the 29th of July, 1880." His 
 act and his fate are not the least striking feature of 
 this extraordinary trial. He wrote and signed a relation, 
 most full and elaborate, not only of his own doings in the 
 service of the revolutionary party, but of all those of his 
 feilow-conspirators in which he had borne a part, or of 
 which he had a knowledge ; he laid bare all that was 
 known to him of the secret central organization called 
 13 
 
li)8 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 " the directing and the executive committees;" he left 
 out no detail, no name. Then — he committed suicide! 
 Were it not for this last circumstance he would stand 
 branded as the blackest of traitors, and we should be 
 disposed to yield Init scanty credence or sympathy to the 
 long preface in which he exiwunds his motives and aims, 
 even though it contains much weighty reasoning, much 
 deep, apparently genuine feeling awakened by the sor- 
 rowful retrospect and gloomy anticipations natural to a 
 spirit sobered by long confinement. As it is, we may at 
 least suspend our judgment, give the unfortunate youth 
 credit for sincerity, and wish that the sad reflections 
 wrung from him by suffering and despondency should 
 gain ground among his former associates, who would 
 possibly cease from their murderous machinations with 
 very weariness, if they could but once become convinced 
 that by persisting in them they only disgrace and undo 
 the cause which they seek to uj)hold. 
 
 Goldenbcrg begins by professing himself a member 
 not only of the socialistic-revolutionary party, but of 
 that fraction of the same which under the denomination 
 of " disorjranizers " or "terrorists" has undertaken to 
 subvert the whole now subsisting order of things, and to 
 compel the Government, by sheer force of intimidation, 
 to desist from its entire political course, and especially 
 the repressive measures which it has long pursued against 
 such of the association as fell into its hands. " I am an 
 advocate of political murders," he adds, " in so far as 
 they are substitutes for free speech, as they undermine 
 the public confidence in the government and its organi- 
 zation, and as a given agent of the government has 
 deserved his doom — that is, in so far as he is obnoxious 
 to the socialistic party." Then, after touching shortly 
 on the grounds which made him proclaim himself the 
 assassin of Prince Krapotldn, he goes on: 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 199 
 
 I 
 " A long interval of time has elapsed since then Solitary con- 
 finement, like every evil thing in the world, has its good side, which consists 
 in enabling a man to think, and think freely, unhindered and unswayed by the 
 course of events. I have done so, and found that after traveling so arduous 
 and bloody a road nothing is done anywhere, not among the people, not 
 among society, not among the youth of the land, and that the struggle still 
 continues — a most wearing struggle : men perish, and perish without end, in 
 dungeons, in Eastern Siberia, lastly on gibbets. I especially centered my 
 thoughts on the proceedings of the terrorists, and came to the conclusion that 
 they had entered on a mistaken course ; that while they strive with their 
 whole souls, with all their might, for the most natural and undoubted human 
 right — that of political liberty — they have not chosen the right means to 
 attain it. I found that political murders not only had not brought us nearer 
 to that better state of things for which we all long, but had on the contrary 
 made it incumbent on the Government to take extreme measures against us ; 
 that it is owing to that same theory of political murder we have had the mis- 
 fortune of seeing twenty gibbets raised in our midst, and that to it we are 
 indebted for the dreadful reaction which lies with crushing weight on all 
 alike. I reflected that the sociahsts ought to have known and remembered 
 that the Government is able to put forth the same means, but with an amount 
 of might which must destroy all that crosses its path. . . . Such were 
 some of the cheerless conclusions to which I came after much thinking. Of 
 course, I might have persisted in my former convictions. I might have gone 
 on leading men to death, and have calmly died myself on the gibbet, had I 
 known that I should be the final expiatory victim, that my death would close 
 this sad and horrible period of our social development. But the thought that 
 my death-sentence would not be the last, that more would follow and inevi- 
 tably call forth new reprisals, which in their turn would be visited on the party 
 by still severer measures, and thus the number of the victims would go on in- 
 creasing, until the Government would after all come out victor from the 
 unequal conflict, from which it never can desist as long as the entire move 
 ment is not put down — this thought filled me with inexpressible dread. . . . 
 I stand aghast at the certainty that persecution must at last overcome, sup- 
 press for a long time, the general active stir so healthful in itself in favor of 
 political reform, and that we shall then bitterly regret having manifested our 
 activity in so harsh a form as to drag to perdition numbers of unheeded vic- 
 tims." 
 
 There is nothing in all this that the most earnest, 
 nj)right lover of his country could not endorse ; no sound 
 head, no feeling heart, but must deplore with the solitary, 
 brooding prisoner the fatal excesses which he denounces, 
 and wish that all his associates might come to the same 
 tardy, dearly-bought insight. Can we refuse him our 
 
200 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AKD 
 
 sympathy when he expresses ji passionate desire "to put 
 an end to all these evils, to assist in bringing about a 
 speedy transition to another and better state of things, 
 to save many from the death-sentence impending over 
 them?" But when he tells us by whatineans he intends 
 to achieve all this, we look at each other in puzzled be- 
 -vvilderment : can he seriously think he will save his 
 friends by turning informer against them? Does he 
 blind himself to the ugly word by the pompous phrase- 
 ology in which he clothes it? 
 
 " I have nerved myself to a most dire and terrible act; I have resolved to 
 employ a remedy which makes my veins throb painfully, aud my eyes over- 
 flow with burning tears. I have resolved to repress within myself all feeling 
 of either enmity or affection, and to perform another great act of self-denial 
 for the good of our young men, of our society, of our beloved Russia. I have 
 resolved to lay open the entire organization, all that is known to me, as a 
 preventive against the dreadful future which awaits us, against a whole series 
 of executions and other repressive measures." 
 
 It would certainly be a satisfaction to be quite sure that 
 the converted terrorist meant well, and if he did commit 
 suicide after completing his revelation there would be 
 little doubt of his sincerity. Still, the connection be- 
 tween the end which he proposes to himself and the 
 means which he takes towards it is very difficult to estab- 
 lish — so much so that there have not been waitting scep- 
 tics who entirely disbelieved in his death, and considered 
 the report only as a clever mise en scene to avoid his per- 
 sonal appearance in the witness-box and a possible reac- 
 tion of feeling, or simply to shield him from the ven- 
 geance of the betrayed. I have heard many persons says : 
 
 "Goldenberg is fast becoming the hero of a cycle of legends. . . . Some 
 believe he is not dead at all, but is only kept in concealment ; and that he 
 suffered himself to be moved to a full confession by the promise of a very 
 large sum of money and impunity. Many persons in the best circles share 
 the behef that he is alive." 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 201 
 
 Yet his suicide was foi malh^ announced in the ISfarod- 
 naya Volia, the secret revolutionary organ. 
 
 Meanwhile, and whatever be the true solution of this 
 obscure and distressing point, Goldenberg's deposition, 
 which occupies a great many newspaper columns, is one 
 af the most extraordinary, the most thrilling documents 
 which it is possible to read. Not the most exciting 
 memoirs penned by a gifted hand in stirring times, not 
 those of Oellini himself, can surpass in fascination this 
 unadorned, unimpassioned narrative. We need only fol- 
 low its consecutive statements, but slightly commented 
 on or corrected in the subsequent answers of the prison- 
 ers, the final speeches for the accusation or the defence, 
 to see the whole strange drama enacted before our eyes, 
 appalling in its very homeliness and in its utterly com- 
 monplace details. The whole thing looks so familiar and 
 at the same time so wildly unreal, that we are tempted to 
 rub our eyes and ask, where a^e we? Are these things 
 done in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century? Are 
 these the men — the boys — whom we have sympathized 
 with and soothed in their grievances, their aspirations, 
 their alternations of despondency or exaltation? 
 
 Here is a circle of young people, with nice, homelike 
 names, gathered round a tea-table with its hissing samo-^ 
 var — a scene which every Eussian woman has presided 
 over a hundred times. The young men are mostly stu- 
 dents of the universities of Kieff or Kharkoff ; the oii-js 
 belong to the same class of unquiet spirits. They talk 
 much and loudly, their animated gestures and excited 
 faces show that they are discussing one of those burning 
 questions du jour which in a certain circle turn every so- 
 cial gathering mto a pandemonium on a small scale, 
 where through dense clouds of cheap cigarette-smoke 
 eyes flash, arms are flourished, voices ring, sharply iso- 
 
202 RUSSIAN NIHILIS:\r AND 
 
 lated or blended into a general din ; where there is every- 
 body to speak and no one to listen. Weal! have assisted 
 at some of these unparliamentary debates, where the 
 newly-brewed thought revels in ungovernable fermenta- 
 tion. But hark ! the theme is somewhat startling : it is 
 a question of life or death which is being canvassed. 
 Judgment is being passed on the governor, Prince Krap- 
 otkin, whose brutal ill-treatment of the students — both at 
 their last mass-meeting, when a troop of Cossacks rode 
 into the midst of them plying their nagaikas (horsewhips) 
 right and left, and later in the prison to which many 
 were summarily consigned — calls for retaliation. And 
 now a newly-arrived guest addresses the circle, ?,nd is 
 listened to as one whose word claims authority. Golden- 
 berg writes : 
 
 " I wished to alleviate the lot of the prisoners, and also to take vengeance 
 on Prince Krapotkin, as the cause of their sufferings. I came to the conclu- 
 sion that the best means to compass both these ends would be to kill 
 him, as a sure way to turn the attention of both Government and public to 
 the fate of political prisoners in general. ... I did not at once declare 
 my own determination to do the deed, but only expressed my opinion that 
 such a measure ought to be taken against him — an opinion to which all re- 
 sponded approvingly. There was much discussion concerning the manner 
 in which it should be done, so as more forcibly to influence the public. I 
 and two others (one a woman) were for an open act, but the majority were in 
 favor of secret assassination. . . . The question was decided in this 
 sense, much against my earnest wish." 
 
 This was in the last days of December, 1878. From 
 that time to the 21st of February following Goldenberg, 
 faithfully aided by a crowd of associates — some of whom 
 he knew only under their assumed names, since one and 
 all they lived with forged or borrowed passports — coolly 
 prepared the execution of the decree. Not less than 
 twenty persons are named as having indifferent ways as- 
 sisted him. One of them, Goldenberg's inseparable 
 attendant, entreated his friend to yield to him the honor 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 203 
 
 of the execution ; " but I told him and Zoubkavsl^y that 
 I would shoot the man who should interfere with rae and 
 kill the prince in my stead." This young zealot was 
 Kobyliansky, one of "the sixteen," then not quite 
 twenty. " The little Pole," as he was called with some 
 degree of contemptuous pit}^ afterward boasted to friends 
 at a distance from Kharkoff that lie was the murderer, 
 but at the trial denied having even had any knowledge of 
 the contemplated deed, and altogether was the only one 
 of the party who bore himself in a way which showed 
 him to be a poor feeble-minded creature. The two con- 
 spirators dogged the Governor for weeks, and more than 
 one opportunity was missed ; one day a fog made it too 
 uncertain to tire, another day the distance was too great ; 
 one evening they met him in the theatre, '* but he was 
 with his wife and daughter, and they did not wish to en- 
 danger them." At length, on the 21st of February, as 
 Prince Krapotkin was returning home alone between nine 
 and ten at night, Goldenberg, who was pacing the side- 
 walk before his house, ran up to the carriage, tired a 
 well-aimed shot through the open window, and disap- 
 peared in the darkness. Favored by the night and 
 watched over by friends, he had no difficulty in escaping 
 from the city. The death of the victim ensued only a 
 week later. 
 
 The scene changes to St. Petersburg. We find there 
 Goldenberg, safe and undaunted, busily planning a more 
 terrible sequel to his first successful crime, and sur- 
 rounded by a numerous set of new acquaintances and as- 
 sociates, of whom he distinctly states that he did not 
 know the real name of one. "The little Pole" still 
 hovers admiringly round him, with unabated ardor. But 
 his most constant companion is a young man lately ar- 
 
204 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 rived from a distant province, with a deep-set purpose 
 in his heart. The three frequently visited together a 
 shooting-gallery, where the new-comer assiduously prac- 
 tised his eye and hand. What his purpose was did not 
 long remain a secret. At a meeting held with amazing 
 recklessness, almost openly and within general hearing, 
 at a much-frequented tavern in one of the most crowded 
 streets, that purpose was declared and discussed. The 
 question propounded was the exj)ediency of a decisive at- 
 tempt on the Czar's life, to be undertaken by a man of 
 strong nerve and unswerving resolution. There was no 
 lack of volunteers. Goldenberg coolly proposed him- 
 self, on the ground that he had been tiied and had noth- 
 ing to lose, — his life being already forfeited by reason of 
 one murder. His offer was rejected on account of his 
 Hebrew nationality and religion, for fear that so desper- 
 ate a deed might throw too great an odium on his entire 
 race, since Christian communities have ever been but toe 
 prone to hold it collectively responsible for offences com- 
 mitted by individuals belonging to it. " The little Pole,' 
 baffled in his ambition at Kharkoff , was anxious to obtain 
 the far higher distinction of laying low so much more 
 exalted a head. But he was set aside at once as entirely 
 unfit for so responsible and terrible a mission. His being 
 a Pole was judged a sufficient objection, since the conspir- 
 ators did not wish the regicide to be attributed to national 
 animosity. None but a Russian hand should be raised 
 against the head of the Russian people, that the world, 
 well aware how deeply the almost religious feeling of loy- 
 ally is rooted in every Russian breast, might from the 
 enormity of the deed judge of the magnitude of the pro- 
 vocation and the deadliness of the resolve. These youth- 
 ful enthusiasts seem to have approached this culminating 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 205 
 
 a 
 
 ai|t of their politicul creed with a certain degree of diwe, 
 somewhat m the .spirit of Brutus : — 
 
 " Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, . . . 
 
 Alas! 
 Cgesar mtist bleed for it ! And, gentle friends, 
 Let's kill hkn boldly, not wrathfally. . . . 
 
 This shall make ' 
 O.ur purpose necessary and not envious, 
 Which, 90 appearing to the common eyes, 
 We sliall be callted purgers, not murderers." 
 
 At last Solovieff, the new arrival, declared the debate 
 xjeelees, since he was determined to strike the blow him- 
 self, whether empowered to it or not, having come from 
 Saratoff for no other purpose. He added that this re- 
 solve had originated in his mind independently of any in- 
 stigation, and that he would yield the execution to no 
 other person; that should "the party" decide to ad- 
 journ or forego it, he would separate himself from them 
 and act on his own responsibility. ' ' It was his idee fixe,'^ 
 said Kviatkovsky, when questioned on the subject. Noth- 
 ing now remained but to settle questions of preliminaries 
 aiid details, of which the most\urgent wtv« to give secret 
 warning to "the illegal parties" — as they are expres- 
 sively named from the fact of their living illegally under 
 assumed names and with false papers — to leave the city 
 at once, so as to involve as few persons as possible in the 
 coming catastrophe. Tt is well known that the meditated 
 attempt was committed by Solovieff on the 14th of 
 April ; that he failed, and paid for his fanaticism with 
 his life. 
 
 But by far the most thrilling pages in Goldenbei'g's 
 narrative are those in which he describes, with the life- 
 like vividness of ,an eyewitness, the mining of the rail- 
 way ti'ack on the outskirts of Moscow, which ended in 
 the explosion of the 1st of December. At the coiiventioii 
 
206 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 held by the leaders of the socialistic party at Lipetsk in 
 the preceding June, and whose doings and resolutions de- 
 serve a separate paragra[)h, the regicide question had 
 been amply discussed. It was settlf d in the affirmative. 
 Whether only *' theoretically and conditionally" or in a 
 definite form, as to time and place, ways and means, is 
 of no material importance. Enough that very soon after 
 the convention separated, several of its most prominent 
 members, with a dogged stubbornness of purpose and an 
 ahnost incredible recklessness of danger and detection, 
 set to work to carry out the very ela))()i-ate preparations 
 for a great final and, as they confidently imagined, uner- 
 ring coup. The revolver was discarded for a surer and 
 even more deadly agent — dynamite. A sufficient quai^- 
 tity — three pouds, about one hundred and twenty pounds 
 — was secretly manufactured in St. Petersburg and sent 
 off to Moscow under the care of two passengers who took 
 it as a favor with their own luggage, never suspecting 
 that the box labelled "Crockery" contained anything 
 else, and on arriving in Moscow left it, as directed, in the 
 luggage-room " till called for " by the person to whom 
 they had been requested to hand over the check. Three 
 pouds more were taken to Kharkoff by tAvo of the con- 
 spirators, who carried it simply in their trunk. This 
 trunk they kept for some time at their hotel, then had it 
 conveyed first to the lodgings of a student, and lastly to 
 those of a lady friend, both of whom belonged to " the 
 party," yet were not informed of the contents of the 
 "trunk, part of which was afterward carried as ignorantly 
 by a third jberson to Odessa, and there safely received. 
 That no accident should ever have happened in all these 
 peregrinations seems ahiK)st miraculous. But the manu- 
 facturing and transporting of dynamite was the least part 
 of the undertalcing. Much the most difficult task was 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 207 
 
 the long and wearisome mining process, the difficulty 
 being greatly increased by the inexperience of the labor- 
 ers, the scarcity and imperfection of the tools, and the 
 necessity of submitting to countless discomforts in order 
 to preserve the silence and outward tranquillity indispen- 
 sable to avoid a detection always imminent at the best. 
 Nor would it have been possible to achieve even the pre- 
 liminaries without the assistance of the female associates, 
 an assistance which was rendered with unremitting: cheer- 
 fulness, unflagging presence of mind, and absolute self- 
 devotion. Goldenberg shared for a time the excitingf 
 life and labors of his Moscow friends. And if, as is 
 averred, some of them had been dravvn into the current 
 of sedition and conspiracy mainly by a certain adventur- 
 ous restlessness of spirit, a craving for release from the 
 tame routine of modern life ; surely they must have 
 been amply satisfied. Such a state of constant alarm, 
 perpetual watchfulness, hair-breadth escapes, familiarity 
 with peril even to the blunting of the keen-edged sense 
 of danger, is just what we look for in one of Cooper's 
 Indian stories or a Highland talcj but is infinitely startling 
 in the midst of a modern, orderly, civilized community. 
 Thoroughly and cunningly had the enterprise been 
 devised to the smallest details. A house situated in close 
 vicinity to the track had been purchased under the name 
 of one of the conspirators — assumed of course — who settled 
 in it with one of the young women who shared the secret 
 and gave herself out as his wife, and a few companions, 
 male and female. Several more took possession of fur- 
 nished lodgings hired in the city itself by another such 
 fictitious couple, who used to come over for the day. The 
 house was too small to accommodate permanently so 
 many inmates. Besides, it was deemed advisable not 
 to affront the wondering gossip of a prying neighbor- 
 
20S RCJSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 hood, which would infuUibly have been started on the 
 right scent by such an overcrowding of narrow quarters. 
 The city-lodgings, moreover, were to facilitate communi- 
 cations, and, in case of need, to favor concealment and 
 flisrht. The direction of the work was entrusted to the 
 nominal owner of the house, known under the nickname 
 of "the Alchemist." A subterranean gallery had to be 
 'conducted to the track, passing under the embankment. 
 One or more openings were to be bored through the 
 track itself , and iron pipes containing dynamite were to 
 be inserted into the holes. The distance was somewhat 
 longer and the labor rather harder than had been antici- 
 pated. The sides and roof of the gallery, dug in the 
 soft earth l)y hand and shovel, were prevented from fall- 
 ing in by boards, which were placed triangularly, tent- 
 \visie — a piece of work which necessitated a most uncom- 
 fortable twist of the body, since in no place was there 
 suflScient height to stand up. The whole stock of toolsg 
 consisted of two shovels and a sort of scoop, like tha 
 used by gro.cers, to smooth the sides of the gallerj 
 before placing the boards ; the auger or borer and the 
 pipes lay in readiness — they had been ordered in Mos- 
 cow, the workmen of course being ignorant of their des- 
 tination. The auger was afterward sent to St. Petersburg, 
 where it turned up in the secret printing office and served 
 as one of the most convincing items of evidence. The 
 earth was taken out on sheets of tin plate, provided with 
 casters and running on rails — an ingenious contrivance of 
 ' ' the Alchemist." Each load was brought under the hatch 
 or shaft cut in one of the rooms on the ground-floor, and 
 raised by means of ropes, worked from above by a spe- 
 cies of roughly constructed windlass. The greatest dif- 
 ficulty was how to dispose of the earth and rubbish. At 
 first it was spread out and smoothly trodden down in the 
 
EXILE IJFE IN SIBEIMA. 201) 
 
 yard ; then they began to fill the cellar with it, and lastly 
 took to shovelling it into the larder on the ground floor, 
 which at one time was crammed so tightly that the walls 
 gave way, and boards began to fall out of them. Diffi- 
 culties increased as the work advanced. A wooden post 
 on which they stumbled gave them very much trouble. 
 Stt;nes greatly obstructed their advance as they neared 
 the embankment. In one place water oozed through the 
 top of the vault and threatened an inundation, so that it 
 had to be pumped out ; and once the work was inter- 
 rupted for two days. Lastly, and in spite of ventilation- 
 pipes laid in every convenient place, the air grew more 
 and more oppressive and scarce, not to mention the dan- 
 ger of being buried under crumbling masses of earth — a 
 danger which became so great that "the Alchemist" 
 always carried poison about him, to insure himself a 
 prompt and painless death, should the expected catastro- 
 phe really come to pass. The fatigue, the hardship, and 
 the sufferincr must have been terrible to men for the most 
 part unused to numual lal)or. Yet this seditious house- 
 hold seems to have been by no means a gloomy one. Its 
 members were united ; the self-imposed duties were dis- 
 charged with enthusiastic emulation. Only one proved 
 "a wretched workman, and so lazy that he was dis- 
 carded ; " another was in bad health, and for that reason 
 was sent off on some easier errand, not without taking 
 with him a small stone from the gallery " as a keepsake." 
 One of the youngest members, though miserably ill all 
 the while, and probably consumptive, was the most inde- 
 fatigable laborer of all. His deep conviction of working 
 for the good of his country supported him through hard- 
 ship and pain. But even aside from the ultimate object, 
 the well-known beneficent, exhilarating power of worh^ 
 the actual process of labor in itself, independently of 
 
210 
 
 RUSSIAX NIHILISM AN© 
 
 every association or ambition, must have made itself felt 
 in heightened pulse and genial flow of spirits. These 
 fanatical young miners must often have rejoiced at some 
 obstacle overcome by patience, at some success achieved 
 
 under difficulties by some simple but clever contrivance, at 
 some gossip outwitted, without reflecting at every instant 
 that the result for which they strained nerve and brain 
 was to be death to many, and in all probability to them- 
 selves. There is a freshness and cheeriness about this 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 211 
 
 part of Goldenberg's relation which is very j)athetic 
 when contrasted with the circumstances under which he 
 wrote. He dwells on little incidents of no importance 
 whatever with respect to the momentous facts of which 
 he treats, but full of interest and dramatic vividness, as if 
 even in the dreary, hopeless solitude of his prison cell he 
 still enjoyed the whiff of life and liberty wafted into his 
 living grave by the retrospect of those days of lawless- 
 ness and danger, but also of daring and enthusiasm. He 
 writes : 
 
 " We worked very assiduously, beginning generally about six in the morn- 
 ing ; by eight we usually had placed one pair of boards, when we came in to 
 tea. We then worked on till two, our dinner hour ; took a short rest, and 
 worked again till ten. ... I remember that once, during the first days 
 of my stay, the former owner of the house, Anna Trofimoff, came in to get 
 some sweet meats which she had left in the larder. This happened in the 
 morning, and she was met by Hartmann, as the rest were all underground. 
 Mariana Semiovna [the -lady who played housekeeper to the party], being 
 aware that the larder was choke full of earth so that several boards had burst 
 out of the sides — a state of things which could not fail to excite the visitor's 
 attention — professed to have lost the key, and so kept her away from it. 
 Another morning Anna Trofimoff came in with a relative of hers, to take 
 away some other things. At that very moment Mariana Semiovna was ap- 
 proaching the house with her marketing. We did not wish her to be met by 
 Anna Trofimoff, who might have noticed the large quantity of her purchases, . 
 60 we rapped on the window and signed to her not to come nearer; she un- 
 derstood us and retired. She was quite equal at any time to take care of herself 
 and us. Thus once, when Anna Trofimoff 's servant Mary came in and made 
 some remarks which caused us to feel uncomfortable, Mariana began to talk of 
 her housekeeping, and how the cat had drunk all the milk, and so turned off 
 the conversation. ... I also remember that Hartmann once forgot to 
 shut and lock the door of the kitchen, where we had cut the hatch. Next 
 morning an old man came, whose name I do not remember, but who used to 
 live in the house before it was sold, and, on entering, remonstrated with 
 Hartmann on the imprudence of leaving the door open. We were in the 
 next room, and hearing this were greatly frightened, lest the old man might 
 have noticed our work : but he had not." 
 
 The women shared the household duties with as much 
 eagerness and good-will as the men jointly pursued their 
 
212 RUS^AN NIHILISM AND 
 
 underground work. Nor was their assistance limited to 
 this humbler sphere. When the day and hour of the 
 Emperor's passage was announced in the papers, and the 
 roles had to ]>e finally distributed for the closing scene, it 
 was Sophia Perovsky Avho was ordered to stand on the 
 track, watch for the train, and give the signal l)y waving 
 her handkerchief. " She was greatly pleased," says 
 Goldenberg, " that this duty had devolved upon her, and 
 repeatedly told me that she considered herself fortunate." 
 Meanwhile it was known that the police hovered alarm- 
 ingly in the neighborhood, as they always do around 
 every railway station on the imperial itinerary ; and it 
 '*^as' unanimously resolved, in case of surprise, to blow up 
 the house, but on no account to surrender alive. From 
 that moment Sophia Perovsky or another continually 
 mounted guard with cocked revolver in the room where 
 the dynamite was kept in two large bottles under a bed, 
 ready at any moment to fire into it. 
 
 Shakespeare might have dramatized this sketch ; hn{ 
 could he have improved it ? 
 
 Lipetsk is a small and rather insignificant town mid- 
 way between Moscow and KJiarkoff , in the Government 
 of Tamboff. It glories in some springs of ve»*y mild 
 mineral waters, which in the short midsummer* season, 
 with the orthodox accompaniment ctf noisy banJs of mu- 
 sic and noisier casino^ attraafc considerable crowds of 
 doubtful refinement, representatives of the )s»econd-l];ind 
 world of fashion, when the place flares up for a few 
 weeks into a sort of hectic, fictitious life. It was here 
 that Kviatkovsky, Goldenberg, and their friends, aftci" 
 the failure of the 14th of April, met by previous ap- 
 pointment toward the end of June, openly, in the public 
 gardens, mindful of the fact tliat privacy is nowhe^-e 
 more undi^Rrbed than in a throng, and that it ip sirfest 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 213 
 
 to talk secrets with doors wide oiDen. These desultory 
 meetings and preliminary conferences went on for some 
 
 days, until all the leaders, convoked from diiferent parts 
 of the empire, were assembled. Then, when the serious 
 14 
 
214 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 business had to be attacked, it was deemed advisable to 
 adjourn to more secluded spots, and the party used to 
 saunter singly, or in small groups, into a neighboring 
 wood, or to row themselves across the river, and hold 
 their seance in an open meadow. The points to be dis- 
 cussed and resolved upon were all-important : they were 
 the expediency of renewed attempts against the Czar's 
 life at no distant period, and the urgency of giving the 
 party ** a stronger, more compact organization." Gol- 
 denberg says : 
 
 " The first of these points was readily disposed of. I and several others 
 spoke in favor of a prompt execution of the intended regicide, in order quickly 
 to convince the Government that harsh measures would not put a stop to the 
 movement directed against it, and that therefore it would have to make con- 
 cessions. ... I moreover moved the assassination of the Governors- 
 General of Odessa, Kieff, and St, Petersburg, though, of course, only in case 
 that it should not interfere with the regicide, which was to be our first and 
 principal object." 
 
 It is especially impressive and painfully significant to 
 find these sanguinary measures countenanced by a young 
 man, Goldenberg's particular friend, whom he expressly 
 mentions as " one of the gentlest and most humane of 
 men, held in profound esteem by the entire revolutionary 
 party, although he belonged to one special faction of it. 
 1 should remark," he adds, " that he was not very favor- 
 ably inclined to the terrorizing system, and had but lately 
 joined it, moved solely by a revengeful and embittered 
 feeling against the Government in consequence of a long 
 series of cruel persecutions, which had impressed him the 
 more deeply that some of those who had suffered death 
 had been his associates and friends,." 
 
 Little contradiction, then, was encountered by the 
 resolution decreeing a further continuance of tlie "ter- 
 rorizing system.*' The difficulties of the organization 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 215 
 
 question were much greater. It was, indeed, a compli- 
 cated question , at least practically ; for in theory all had 
 long felt the absolute necessity of greater unity, of more 
 concerted action. The different fractions of the social- 
 istic or revolutionary party, distinguished by various 
 shadings of opinion not merely as to the means to be em- 
 ployed, but frequently as to the ultimate objects to be 
 pursued, preserved toward each other an^ indifferent, 
 sometimes almost hostile, attitude, and carried on a sep- 
 arate propaganda by means of their several secret organs 
 printed and disseminated by different centres, which dis- 
 claimed all connection with each other. It was to con- 
 ciliate these dissentions, to merge all the various frag- 
 mentary cliques into one vast co-operative organization, 
 that so many leaders met at Lipetsk. It was an almost 
 hopeless task ; and though they did achieve a certain re- 
 sult, and even produced a sort of statute, — which, how- 
 ever, was never printed, — it was, on the whole, a very 
 imperfect and makeshift performance. There was to be 
 a " directing committee," which, from the nature of the 
 duties it assumed, might be called a superior agent ; 
 while the " executive committee " clearly ought to have 
 taken an inferior position. On this Goldenberg, with a 
 characteristic directness which at once discloses the 
 feebleness of the organization, remarks : 
 
 "But our people generally objected to subordination, and therefore the 
 executive committee was not really placed under the control of the directing 
 committee. The latter was bound to know all that was going on in the ter- 
 roristic faction, and indeed, in the entire revolutionary party ; in its hands 
 were centred all the resources of the party, and it was to provide the neces- 
 sary means for whatever undertaking was in hand. The ' executive ' was to 
 consist of persons whose duty it was to take an active part in such undertak- 
 ings, of course with the knowledge of the directing committee. It does not 
 follow, however, that the initiative of a given undertaking belonged exclu- 
 sively to the directing committee ; far from it. The executive also had the right 
 of making motions and submitting them to the higher committee. There was 
 
216 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 no such thing as a strict line of demarcation between the two, as can be seen 
 from the fact that a member of the directing committee could not issue binding 
 dispositions without the sanction of the executive, nor take on himself execut- 
 ive acts. It was, moreover, resolved to have agents of two degrees ; those 
 of the first degree to be invested with greater trust, those of the second with 
 lesser. The duty of these agents was to fulfil whatever was imposed on 
 them. The directing committee was to reside in St. Petersburg, the mem- 
 bers of the executive wherever their presence and services would be needed." 
 
 Oue of the prisoners completed tliTs account at the 
 trial by remarking that "the distinction between the 
 members of the organization and its agents was real and 
 important. It was resolved that persons who were as yet 
 little known, but whom it could be hoped to find useful 
 and reliable in the sequel, should be attracted by every 
 possible means, and tried occasionally in small things, 
 with great care to find out, above all, whether they 
 approved of the general programme of the party, and 
 were fit to be trusted with the execution of more impor- 
 tant missions. 
 
 This is, indeed, the very infancy of co-operation ; and 
 if so many desperate deeds were achieved, or at least at- 
 tempted, it is to be attributed not so much to the effi- 
 ciency of the association, lacking as it was in blind dis- 
 cipline, that main nerve of every secret society, as to the 
 powerful individuality of some of its members, acting 
 severally or in groups. Goldenberg's rather naively 
 worded statement, *'our people generally objected to 
 subordination," sets forth in homely fashion a lesson 
 taught by the whole history of Russia ; namely, that 
 "our people," though able at any moment to muster a 
 superb array of personal capacities, intellectual and 
 moral, have always been, through lack of training or 
 some more deep-lying natural bias, singularly unapt for 
 prolonged combined action. We are born protestants, 
 every one of us ; and however we may yield up our will 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 217 
 
 to external guidance, there always remains an indestruc- 
 tible nucleus of reasoning sdf^ which rebels and shrinks 
 from going all lengths merely because we are told to do 
 so, even in a cherished cause, and under approved leader- 
 ship. This quality, like every other, has its good and 
 evil sides. It has at times disastrously asserted itself in 
 our history — as when, enforced by petty rivalries and 
 mutual jealousies, it retarded by more than one score of 
 years the final liberation of our land from the Tartar 
 yoke, which might have been thrown off earlier by the 
 united action of our several princes. Yet, on the other 
 hand, when called into play by honest motives, it con- 
 tains, perhaps, a safeguard against that passive subjec- 
 tion to mere authority which makes men follow a waving 
 banner when it has ceased to be anything but a rag of 
 silk or buntings and stake their lives and souls on a 
 watchword after it has long been only the empty shell of 
 an idea. However that may be, this key-note makes 
 itself distinctly heard through the uproar of our late 
 troubles. It rings out very clearly in Solovieff's declara- 
 tion that, should his associates unanimously disapprove 
 of his project, he will separate himself from them, and 
 pursue it at his own risk, and on his own responsibility 
 before the law and before his conscience. We may be 
 very sure that the knot of underground workers on the 
 outskirts of Moscow would not have been deterred from 
 their undertaking by the most positive prohibition from 
 their party's highest authorities ; they would simply have 
 seceded, and gone on doing what they considered right 
 and necessary. 
 
 One item of the unwritten statute seenis to have been 
 most consistently carried out — that of secrecy. The 
 means employed were twofold : first the lavish use of 
 false papers, most of the agents being provided with sev- 
 
218 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 eral names and passports to match; second, the strict 
 observance of the rule to keep every agent as much as 
 possible in the dark concerning everything but the par- 
 ticular "job" imposed on him, and, as far as feasible, 
 in ignorance even of his fellow-conspirators, who were to 
 be introduced to him as occasion required, and as the 
 more knowing agents saw fit. No agent was, on any ac- 
 count, to discover himself even to his nearest and dearest 
 without the authorization of a superior agent. This sys- 
 tem must have produced a most intricate social statusb, 
 and made daily life a network of imbroglios to Avhich old 
 Spanish comedy was simple and transparent. What a 
 curious state of mind to live in, when a man was liable 
 at any moment to see some inoffensive comrade — a light- 
 hearted sister, or cousin, or young lady friend — appear 
 in the character of a blood-thirsty revolutionist : to rec- 
 ognize in the stranger to whom he was formally intro- 
 duced his dearest friend, whom he thought of as hundreds 
 of miles distant ; to form new friendships without ever 
 knowing his new friends' real names, or their knowing 
 his I In short, every man must have livacl under the be- 
 wildering imiDression that everybody, himself included, 
 was, or might prove to be — somebody else ! Indeed, the 
 sedulous observance of these aliases and disguises almost 
 suggests an amused suspicion that this, as one mightterm 
 it, masquerading part of conspiring was not v. ithout exer- 
 cising a peculiar attraction on the youthful i)lotters, afte)' 
 they had been duly prepared and electrified at frequent, 
 though generally not numerous, meetings by the well 
 directed harangues of able and experienced agitators 
 Goldenberg has in one place very graphically described, 
 in his unadorned style, these match-and-guni^owder ex- 
 periments. The meeting of which he speaks had been 
 arranged at the house of a schoolmaster, and was at- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 219 
 
 tended by some twenty persons, young men and young 
 women. Says Goldenberg : 
 
 "I spoke about the purport of the terroristic movement; alluded to regi- 
 cide, of course only theoretically, without even hinting that such an act was 
 really in contemplation. My object was merely to feel my ground, and find 
 out the views of the young people on this topic. I took care not to overstep 
 plausible bounds, and did not expatiate on the greatness of our power and 
 resources. Closely observing the impression which my speech produced on 
 fhe young people, I came to the conclusion that they did not fully comprehend 
 me, and that all the things I was talking of were rather novel to the major- 
 ity of my audience; at the same time, I could see that I had aroused in them 
 the wish to elucidate all these questione. The second meeting took place at 
 the house of a student ; it was attended by fort}' persons — the former twenty 
 and twenty more, whose names I cannot remember at this distance of time. 
 
 . . . The result of these meetings was that our young people took the 
 greatest liking to them, and began to manifest an almost passionate desire to 
 Lave them frequently repeated." 
 
 That so powerful and far-reaching a weapon should 
 not be neglected by the leadei-s of the party when they 
 discussed the practical questions of ways and means, was 
 but natural. Accordingly we find it decreed that, " apart 
 from political murders and regicide, a vast plan of agita- 
 tion shall be pursued among ' the young people,' the 
 army and peasantry." It is well known, however, that 
 in the two latter classes, from organically historical 
 causes which it would take a separate; paper to investi- 
 gate, revolutionary agitation has always signally failed, 
 to the confusion and not unf requently the personal danger 
 of the agents employed. 
 
 Such were the principal acts and resolutions of the 
 famous socialistic convention held at Lipetsk in June, 
 1879, the immediate sequel to which were the threefold 
 railway mining attempt and the crowning scene of which 
 we still have to record. But in describing the horrors of 
 the 17th of February, 1880, and all that followed it, we 
 are deprived of our invaluable guide, Goldenberg's depo- 
 
2:^0 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 gition. The daring revolutionist's career came to a close 
 with those last busy days which he spent with his mining 
 friends near Moscow. He was sent oi¥ by them to 
 Odessa for the dynamite forwarded to that city several 
 
 weeks before, and now rendered useless by the Emperor's 
 change of route and consequent cessation of the mining 
 operations on the track, as it was thought the reinforce- 
 ment might be available for the Moscow mine, and insure 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 221 
 
 more complete success. In Odessa, Goldenberg had in- 
 terviews with several associates, received the dynamite, 
 and having packed it in his trunk, together with sundry 
 bottles of wine and cans of preserves, — a very welcome 
 offering from tlie ladies of the party to their Moscow 
 friends, — he was calmly proceeding on his way to the lat- 
 ter when he was arrested at Telizavetgrad, a railway sta- 
 tion half-way between Odessa and Poltava. This hap- 
 pened five daj^s before the explosion on the Moscow track. 
 Yet, even though deprived of the valuable information 
 concerning the preparations for the final coup of the 17tli 
 of February, whicli a continuation of Goldenberg' s nar- 
 rative would doubtless have afforded us, we still find in 
 tlie examinations of the prisoners and witnesses, as well 
 as in the speech of the counsel for the Crown, sufficient 
 scraps and traits from life to enable us to piece together 
 :i very vivid picture of the dismay and confusion which 
 nmst have arisen in the Winter Palace when that tremen- 
 dous crash broke in upon the compliments with which the 
 Emperor was welcoming Prince Alexander of Hesse, who 
 was that evening to be his guest at a family dinner in the 
 privatQ apartments. Officials wildly rushing into the 
 lower story, under the impression that either the steam- 
 boiler or the gas had exploded ; the alarm-bell of the 
 co7ys~de-garde ringing frantically at the same time ; the 
 shrieks and groans of the dying and wounded, who 
 struggled painfully from under the debris of the demol- 
 ished guard-room, or lay helplessly crushed beneath them 
 (sixty-seven persons in all!); lastly the sudden report 
 that one of the three carpenters in whose room the ex- 
 plosion was discovered to have taken place was missing, — 
 all this must have combined into a scene of uproar and 
 terror not easily matched outside of a beleaguered and 
 bombarded city. The report about the missing carpen- 
 
222 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ter, which was speedily confirmed, restored some degree 
 of order and composure, by giving a definite object to the 
 hitherto aimless search and random surmis,es of the 
 panic-stricken inmates. It was soon evident that this 
 man, and no otlier, had been the doer. He had been 
 seen in the basement and in his room a quarter of an 
 hour before the explosion ; had then been found busy in 
 the dark at something or other by one of his comrades, 
 who on entering had offered to strike a light, but had 
 been roughly prevented by him ; and from that moment 
 the carpenter had entirely disappeared. Further inqui- 
 ries showed that this person, who called himself Baty- 
 shkoff, had been employed in the palace over six months, 
 and, while he approved himself a well-behaved, thorough 
 workman, had been noticed by his companions and su- 
 periors as a man of education, highly intelligent, and 
 fully capable of taking a plan and making a correct draw- 
 ing. About a month before the explosion he had brought 
 a heavy chest and placed it in his room, and, on being 
 asked what he did it for, had jestingly answered that he 
 meant to hoard a treasure from his earnings in the palace. 
 Subsequent investigations and various discoveries, — such 
 as a cleverly-sketched plan of the Winter Palace, on 
 which were some words in his handwriting, his identifica- 
 tion by witnesses from a photograph, etc., — proved be- 
 yond a doubt that the supposed Batyshkoff was no other 
 than Khaltourin, a notorious revolutionist, who, under 
 the greatest variety of aliases, and as far back as 1875 
 and 1876, had been plying an active " agitation " among 
 the working-classes, and organizing the secret association 
 known under the name of "Northern Workingmen's 
 League." He was specially fitted for this circle of ac- 
 tion, being himself one of the working-class and by birth 
 a peasant, who, by self-education and a course of studies 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 223 
 
 in a technical school, had qualified himself for the part 
 of a leader. He was never found after his disappearance 
 from the palace, and we cannot help wishing he may 
 have effected a final escape, as it is known that he was in 
 the gripe of a foe as implacable as human justice, — con- 
 sumption, which in our clime seldom gives long respites 
 to its victims. He had been talking of going south, and 
 seems also to have had a vague intention of making his 
 way to America, to found or join some agricultural colony 
 on socialistic principles. 
 
 It was, of course, not for one moment supposed that 
 this attempt, j^lanned as it was on so gigantic a scale, 
 with such far-reaching foresight, executed with such un- 
 exampled daring and infallible precision, should have 
 been the isolated deed of one fanatical schemer. Its 
 connection with the vast terroristic system, suspected 
 from Ihe first, was soon established by the concatenation 
 in which it was proved to stand with certain other facts, 
 revealed a short time before, but not yet fully explained 
 — facfs which, by the light now shed on them, stood 
 forth in their full significance, too obvious to need more 
 than 1 ecording, in order to bring the last crime home to 
 the contra! influence from which so many others had 
 emanated. 
 
 It is now that the name of Kviatkovsky first becomes 
 conspicuous. Until the Yery moment of his arrest, this 
 remarkable man, one of the "master-spirits" and mo- 
 tive ])owers of the whole engine, had contrived to escape 
 a notoriety which must have deprived the party of one 
 of its most gifted leaders, and had worked steadily and 
 cove:tly in the dark, participating, indeed, in all the 
 mor( ! important machinations, putting in an appearance at 
 Lip( tsk, but reserving to himself more especially the 
 bsiK tiing of that chief lever of all, the seqret press, 
 
224 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 whose discovery and suppression quickly followed his 
 arrest and the search instituted in his lodgings as early as 
 the 6th of December, 1879. Some articles produced by 
 this search were deemed, not unreasonably, to be con- 
 clusive evidence of his complicity in his party's crown- 
 ing act of frenz3^ Yet Kviatkovsky himself, from 
 reasons difficult to fathom, saw fit utterly to deny to the 
 last having been concerned in this particular act, or hav- 
 ing had previous knowledge of it, even while protesting 
 that he had no hopes that such a denial could save his 
 life, which he admitted to be forfeited on many other 
 grounds, each of them sufficient to seal his doom. It is 
 hardly to be supposed that so clear-headed a man should 
 have expected his word to prevail against such circum- 
 stantial evidence as the following articles found in his 
 own room : ( 1 ) a plan, very correctly drawn from mem- 
 ory, of the Winter Palace, with some words aud short 
 notes proved to be in Khaltourin's writing, and found 
 crumpled up on the floor in a corner, amid a heap of 
 waste-paper; (2) three portable mines, complete and 
 ready for use; and (3) a passport under the name of 
 Batourin, one of Khaltourin's well-known aliases. Yet 
 he persisted in his most incredible statement that he 
 knew nothing of the plan until it was found in his room, 
 and that he had not the remotest suspicion by whom it 
 could have been brought or left there ; that the passport 
 had been given him to keep by a friend, who himself had 
 it from an unknown workingman, and that he had never 
 been told Batourin's real name. As for the mines, he 
 simply declined telling who had brought them to his 
 rooms. 
 
 But this search, exhaustively carried on all through 
 the evening and night (from 6 p. m. to 5 a. m.), led to 
 even more important results, as hinted above. It em- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 225 
 
 braced not only his own room, but that of Eugenie 
 Figner- — a young lady of considerable ability and educa^ 
 tion, Kviatkovsky's devoted fellow-worker, and to whom 
 he seems to have been atta<,'hed 1)}^ more than the bond of 
 a common cause. She was one of the sixteen prisoners 
 at the bar. Both of course lived under assumed names. 
 Her ostensible occupation was music, to which, as a 
 measure of precaution, she devoted enough time every 
 day to enable her cook to depose at the trial that " the 
 lady was mostly playing on the piano in the absence of 
 the gentleman, who used to go out early in the morning, 
 and to come home only to dinner and tea." The same 
 witness, however, added that both *' the lady" and her 
 sister, who at one time stayed with her, " used to write 
 a great deal," — a piece of information which, consider- 
 ing her connection with the manager of the secret press, 
 was not interpreted in her favor. But then, nothing 
 much more criminatino; could have been adduced against 
 them both than a simple enumeration of the articles 
 found in their lodgings. In Eugenie Figner' s room, a 
 glass vessel with dynamite ; a bundle of white paper, the 
 size and shape of JSFarodnaya Volia (Will of the Peo- 
 ple) ; and six hundred and fifty-three copies of odd 
 numbers of that jDaper itself. In the dining-room , forty- 
 five copies of a proclamation issued by the executive 
 comittee on occasion of the late railroad explosion near 
 Moscow. In Kviatkovsky's own room, packed in a 
 trunk, proof-sheets of the JSFarodnaya Volia ^ and other 
 products of the "free press;" forty-five copies of 
 a revolutionary programme of action ; several manu- 
 scripts containing seditious matter, evidently ready for 
 the press ; a proclamation " To the brave Cossack army," 
 and sundry letters ; lastly, a package of forged pass- 
 ports, certificates, and other documents. Kviatkovsky, 
 
226 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 aware of the Unanswerable nature of the evidence, did 
 not attempt denial for his own part, but only used every 
 effort to clear his friend by asserting that the crimina- 
 ting articles found in her bureau had been laid there by 
 him shortly before the search, in her absence and with- 
 out her knowledge. In his defence — for he, in common 
 with several of his companions, had refused the assist- 
 ance of the counsel proffered him by the court — he main- 
 tained this point as earnestly as his denial concerning his 
 complicity in the catastrophe at the Winter Palace. 
 
 The next important disclosures were made at the lodg- 
 ings of another active accomplice, searched a few days 
 later, on the 16th of December. From the nature of the 
 articles found in his possession it was evident that this 
 person — an inferior clerk in some government office — was 
 chiefly employed, probably on account of his skill in pen- 
 manship, in the manufacture of those false documents 
 with which agents were so lavishly supplied, A com- 
 plete set of the necessary materials and implements, to- 
 gether with a handsome collection of autograph signatures 
 of high officials, were discovered in a large leathern trunk, 
 besides a number of proof-sheets and papers similar to 
 those confiscated in Kviatkovsky's rooms, and the usual 
 accompaniment of dynamite ohligato. Moreover, the 
 owner's connection with the secret press was made pat- 
 ent by the presence of a quantity of type of a size cor- 
 responding to that of the " Narodnaya Volia.'" But the 
 final and most tragical event came to pass a few weeks 
 later, on the 30th of January, 1880, when the police 
 descended in force, assisted by a party of gendarmes, on 
 the revolutionary printing office itself, after having first, 
 by long and patient si)ying and ferreting, ascertained be- 
 yond the possibility of a mistake that it was organized in 
 a private lodging kept by one of those fictitious coujiles 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 227 
 
 who form so conspicuous a feature of these strange 
 times. The scene wiiioh ensued must have been chaotic ; 
 for it is a hopeless task to try and elicit anything \fke a 
 consistent, orderly narrative from the mass of fragment- 
 ary, individual evidence given by the different actors. 
 Their statements are not contradictory, only vague and 
 confused ; like those of men who have been engaged in 
 action too exciting and too rapid to be able to account for 
 it minutely in cold blood. So much is certain : the door 
 was not opened in obedience to repeated summons, and 
 had to be burst in ; the p5lice, when they at length 
 forced their way into the rooms, were confronted by 
 utter darkness, silence, and clicking revolvers ; a violent 
 blind scuffle ensued, in which about sixty shots were ex- 
 changed, without serious results, on account of the dark- 
 ness. At last there was a cry, " We surrender !" "How 
 many are you;" was asked. "Five!" answered a fe- 
 male voice. Another waiS heard in angry remonstrance : 
 " Cowards ! was it not agreed that we were all to light it 
 out ! And now you skulk behind and leave us women in 
 the front." In another moment, and after some strusr- 
 gling on the part of the men, four persons, two of them 
 women, were secured and bound, while six revolvers were 
 picked up from the floor. 
 
 One of the police officers who advanced into the 
 other rooms to look for his. prisoner, was greeted on the 
 threshold of the furthest one by a double report ; and 
 when a lamp was at length brought in (it must be re- 
 membered that our private houses are not lit with gas), 
 he beheld a ghastly sight ; a man lying dead upon a mat- 
 tress on the floor, shot through the head, — evidently an 
 act of suicide, committed as a last resource against sur- 
 render. Both balls, from two shots fired in immediate 
 succession, had entwed the right temple through the 
 
228 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 same opening almost simultaneously, leaving a, black and 
 carbonized edge around the wound, but had issued from 
 the skull, after traversing the brain, in two different 
 places, — through an opening just above the left ear, and 
 another in the crown of the head. When the prisoners 
 had been disposed of, and the search could begin without 
 further disturbance, the first thing that was discovered, 
 thrown into a corner of the room where the dead man 
 lay, and wrapped in some old matting, was the identical 
 auger which had been used for boring purposes in the 
 Moscow railway mine. The rest of the booty made up a 
 most formidable inventory : a printing press in perfect 
 working order ; about 25 pouds (1,000 pounds) of type, 
 4,000 copies of the '''■N'arodnaya VoUa," heaps of 
 forged documents, — passport blanks, certificates of dif- 
 ferent kinds, etc. — together with everything necessary 
 for the fabrication of those documents, some dj'namite 
 of course, two pamphlets on the preparation of the sub- 
 stance, several plans illustrating the process of blowing 
 up a rapidly advancing train, and many other things, be- 
 sides the six revolvers and three dajzijers. This was 
 certainly sufiicicnt to justify the accusation in affirming 
 that " these lodgings contained, besides the secret print- 
 ing office, the central agency for the manufacturing of 
 false papers and supplying therewith all persons for 
 whom it became necessary to assume an ' illegal ' posi« 
 tion, as well as a laboratory for the preparation of dyna- 
 mite and other explosive substances." 
 
 The separate charge against theiDrisonerPresniakoff — 
 given in the Act of Accusation under the head of 
 " Armed resistance to the agents of the law, as expressed 
 by two shots fired by the prisoner, wounding one and 
 causing the death of the other of hi« captors" — presents 
 no particular interest or complication, and may therefore 
 
EXILE LITE ter SIBERIA. 229 
 
 be dismissed with the brief remark that the prisoner's 
 guilt was amply proved. It remains to record the sen- 
 tence, pronounced late in the evening of the seventh day 
 of this long and laborious trial. For Kviatkovsky, Pres- 
 niakoff and three more, it was death by hanging ; for 
 the remainino; eleven, banishment to Siberia in dif- 
 ferent grades of severity, with or without imprisonment 
 and ^ hard labor, and for terms varying from fifteen 
 to twenty years. At the same time the latter prisoners 
 were recommended to mercy, and considerable commu- 
 tations proposed for all. In its final form, the sentence 
 condemned only two to hard labor in the mines for fif- 
 teen years. Of the rest, some were sentenced to hard 
 labor, not in the mines but in state factories, for four 
 and eight years ; some to banishment to more or less 
 remote parts of Siberia ; while Drigo and one other es- 
 caped with a very mild sentence, simply obliging them to 
 reside hereafter in the Government of Tomsk, the most 
 western, and consequently most civilized, region of Si- 
 beria. Degradation was passed alike against all. In 
 confirming the sentence of the court, the Emperor fur- 
 ther commuted the death penalty of three of the five 
 condemned prisoners to exile, with imprisonment and 
 hard labor for life. To Kviatkovsky and Presniakoff, 
 however, the imi)erial mercy did not extend ; and they 
 suffered death on the IGtlvof November, within the walls 
 of the fortress. 
 
 It is but fair to state that, throughout this long and 
 fatiguing judicial procedure, the treatment used towards 
 the prisoners was uniformly considerate and polite, the 
 mode of addressing and questioning them scrupulously 
 courteous; also, that the counsel for the prosecution in 
 their speeches not only evidently strove to remain within 
 the strict bounds of impartial justice, but repeatedly 
 15 
 
230 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 showed a leaning towards leniency. Thus, in referring 
 to one of the female defenders of the printing office — a 
 woman of the peasant class who had lived there ostensi- 
 bly as cook — the orator parenthetically expressed hope 
 that the judges would find it not inconsistent with their 
 duty to visit her with the lightest possible punishment, 
 in consideration of her ignorance, almost even of reading 
 and writing, and of her utter want of culture amounting 
 to stupidity, and accompanied by partial deafness. All 
 this is in kee^Ding with the serious and dignified spirit in 
 which our lawyers, since the great judicial reform, regard 
 their profession. That compound of unseemly virulence, 
 ferocious vindictiveness, and bombastic phraseology 
 which, under the name of reqisitoire, is tlie disgrace of 
 French criminal courts and the glory of an aspiring pro- 
 tureur du roi — or de Vempereur, or de la republique, as the 
 case may be — is utterly repugnant to the deep humane 
 bent of the Russian nature. A Russian j^rocureur would 
 scorn to dig into the past life of an unfortunate prisoner, 
 in order triumphantly to drag to light his most trivial 
 youthful peccadilloes, nay ! his schoolboy pranks, and by 
 dint of cruel ingenuity to force and twist them into so 
 many proofs of a precocious viciousness, an unnatural pro 
 pensity to evil, until he stands before society a predestined 
 criminal, a monster branded even before he failed, and 
 now placed entirely out of the pale of humanity. Ever 
 since the European judicial forms and institutions were 
 transplanted into Russian soil, and quickly took root in 
 it, our parquet has been remarkable in the discharge of 
 its duties by a moderation and humane regard to fairness, 
 which prove it to have thoroughly grasped the higher 
 sense of its responsible and so often painful functions. 
 It could not be otherwise in a country where the common 
 people call prisoners of all kinds, without distinction of 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 231 
 
 rank or degree of criminality, by a generic name mean- 
 ing " unhappy ones," but conveying a shade of infinitely 
 deeper and tenderer pity than can be rendered by the 
 English word. When the chained gangs of malefactors 
 — and alas ! political convicts were not exempted from 
 the practice — used to be led across the whole Empire on 
 4;heir endless, weary march to Siberia, the population of 
 the villages would pour out to meet them, and may be 
 escort them a short distance, not with insults and impre- 
 cations, but with gentle words and outstretched offerings 
 of food and even money. Now that convict trains and 
 convict cars run oti all the lines, and have done aAvay with 
 this long preliminary torture, popular sympathy still as- 
 serts itself at the railway stations, and many a douceur 
 of tobacco, delicate wheaten bread, or small coins, is 
 handed in at the windows, 
 
 Siberia! the mines! Horror-laden, these words loom 
 out mysteriously, an awful impersonation of the great 
 bleak North, which ajopears in a vague remoteness, as a 
 limbo of punishment, desolation and despair ! And truly 
 it were difficult to overrate the dreadful import of those 
 names. The vast arctic continent with its huge, slug- 
 gish, silent rivers, its immense lowering forests teeming 
 with fur-bearing game, its still more immense expanses of 
 eternall}'- snow-bound plains, its hidden ore, its convict 
 colonies, is not a cheerful picture to contemplate, at least 
 not this side of the picture. But there is another side to 
 it. The statesman and political economist sees in this 
 gigantic appendage to Eussia a great promise for the 
 future, a rich reserve of potential resources. He watches 
 rejoicingly its growing cities, its incipient colonization, 
 its developing industrial and commercial enterprise, the 
 progress of culture which slowly bat surely spreads, 
 bringing with it its thousand demands of intellectual and 
 material refinement, where till lately money-making 
 
232 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 reigned supreme in its most vulgar, unmitigated coarse- 
 ness. And he knows that these results are in great part 
 effected by the influx of the Russian element by means 
 of convict transportation. It would take me far beyond 
 my present limits, and away from my present theme, to 
 discuss this very extensive and intricate subject. But it 
 will not be inconsistent with either to attempt a sketch of 
 the probable future career of the hundreds of young men 
 who of late years have trodden the long, dreary road to 
 the far East. 
 
 Let us follow those whose doom is heaviest. Few of 
 them — probably none — will end their allotted term at 
 the mines or State factories. An untimely death will 
 doubtless end the sufferings of many, enfeebled from ill 
 health brought on or aggravated by confinement, hard- 
 ships, or climate, before the tardy hand of mercy can 
 reach them. Yet, wonderful to say, many more survive 
 the horrors of the first years than would seem possible 
 for men of gentle nurture and unhardened body. If 
 they are resigned and quietly behaved, they will after a 
 while — three, four, or five years instead of the fifteen or 
 twenty of their sentence — be brought under one of the 
 so-called ' ' gracious manifestoes ' ' which are always being 
 issued on occasion of birthdays, births, marriages, etc., 
 in the Emperor's immediate family, and transferred to 
 some one of the convict colonies, from which in due 
 time they will be released in like manner and allowed to 
 live within some particular rural district, at a great dis- 
 tance from city or town, and under strict surveillance of 
 the local police. Gradually the range widens, till it 
 comprises district towns ; the surveillance is lightened ; at 
 last the capital of the Government itself is opened to 
 the half-pardoned convict, and with it society and re- 
 sources of every kind. Society, indeed, is apt to lionize 
 him. It now depends in a great measure on himself, hifl 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 233 
 
 good sense and abilities, to shape his further fortunes. 
 Men of education and scientific or technical attainments 
 are in as great demand, and for the same reasons, in our 
 far east as in the far west of this country. And when 
 by the end of ten or twelve years, as is generally the 
 case, and after having previously been transferred to the 
 more populous and civilized western <jrovernments, the 
 political convict is restored to his rank and privileges, 
 freed from all disabilities and finally recalled from ban- 
 ishment, it is by no means rare to see him return to the 
 shores of the Baikal of his own free will , to settle there 
 for life. I have known such lawyers, physicians, engi- 
 neers, miners — able and energetic men, who had come to 
 love the wilderness, with its wide opening's, its large hos- 
 pitality, its manifold possibilities, and would not have 
 exchanged it, except on compulsion, for what they had 
 already learned to call the cold, narrow spirit of the over- 
 crowded cities of the old world ; though heaven knows 
 they need not have objected to any portion of even old 
 Russia on account of over-crowding ! One young law^- 
 yer in particular do I remember. He was little over 
 thirty, sturdy of frame, and keen of look ; his manners 
 had lost the polish of his early social training, and ac- 
 quired a certain not unpleasing self-relying nonchalance. 
 He had come to St. Petersburg on a hurried trip to see 
 his friends, assert his newly-recovered rights, and trans- 
 act some business ; but all his thoughts were centred on 
 a speedy return to Irkoutsk, where he had left a promis- 
 ing and already flourishing practice, some half-started 
 ventures in a mining enterprise, and, as he almost hinted, 
 a fairer attraction than all these, in the form of a well- 
 dowered daughter of some wealthy merchant. He was 
 so enthusiastic in his descriptions as almost to become 
 poetical, and every day he was detained in the capital 
 appeared to him a real loss. Such political exiles as are 
 
234 KUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 not deprived of their liberty, but only bound to reside 
 within certain assigned districts, of course have all the 
 more chances in their favor. The intercession of friends 
 at home also does much to shorten their term and hasten 
 their transfer to cities or more habitable regions, if they 
 behave judiciously, and have not the exceptional ill-luck 
 of falling under the rule of some of those ignorant and 
 wantonly brutal officials, whose number diminishes with 
 every year, and who will soon live only in local traditions, 
 the indignant records of the contemporary press, or the 
 memoirs of some prisoners endowed with literary talent. 
 
 The assassination of our Emperor, Alexander II., is of 
 too recent occurrence, the particulars of which, and of 
 the trial of his murderers are too well known by all the 
 civilized world for me to enter upon a consideration of 
 any of the circumstances connected therewith. All Rus- 
 sia mourns his loss as a grateful child would that of a kind 
 and indulgent father. 
 
 No sovereign, not Elizabeth herself, had done for his 
 people spontaneously what Alexander II, had done for 
 his. Splendidly supported by his nobility, he had car- 
 ried out the abolition of serfdom with a high hand, with 
 precipitation almost, and intolerance of all gainsaying 
 which was the very recklessness of an honest determina- 
 tion to do right quickly, and at all cost. This gigantic 
 act was followed, with scarce breathing time between, by 
 one of hardly less importance — the judicial reform, in- 
 troducing open courts of law and public trial by jury. 
 Then came the partial enfranchisement of the press 
 after the model, very imperfect indeed, of the French 
 press-laws under Napoleon III., but expressly announced 
 as preliminary and temporary. Was that the man, was 
 that the sovereign, to be requited with an assassin's ball? 
 
 Nothing was less justifiable than the shot fired at the 
 Emperor in 1866, but so naturally kind-hearted andmer- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 235 
 
 
236 RUSSIAN NIHIX.ISM AND 
 
 ciful was he, that there are few now who doubt if left 
 to himself he would have spared the life of his murder- 
 ous assailant. Had he followed the merciful dictates of 
 his own heart, the first "misunderstanding" between 
 him and his people might never have arisen. If at 
 that critical hour there were any by his side who took 
 advantage of the disturbed state of the monarch's spirit, 
 thrown off its balance by this gratuitous, most unmerited 
 assault, to whisper to him counsels of wrath and reprisal,' 
 to increase their own importance by an exaggerated show of 
 devotion and alarm, to urge him into a course of general 
 suspicion and reaction, under pretence of insuring the 
 safety of his person, endangered by his too confiding 
 neglect of their previous advice — if any such there were, 
 Heaven forgive those men ! History will not, if she 
 ever lays hold of their names. 
 
 A passing misunderstanding I Fifteen years bk)tted 
 out of a country's life ! A couple of hundred years 
 from now posterity will mention the name of Alexander 
 II. with the reverence of a martyred saint, and place 
 him in that galaxy of human satellites whose deeds still 
 fill the world with radiance. But we are not poj'terity. 
 We are burdened with affections which keep us down 
 and prevent our soaring to a bird's-eye view of our own 
 times ; so we see the accessories which will wane into the 
 indistinct back-ground of the ages some day, but which 
 stand out at pi-esent clear and mournful. A few hundred 
 human lives sacrified may be a very paltry item ; hardly 
 
 ISO to us, however, when they happen to be those of our 
 brothers, our sons, our lovers, our friends — of *< our 
 boys," in short. It is vain that history sternly points 
 to other lands and other times, and reminds us that with 
 such as these, crushed, laid low, with all their budd'ng 
 promise, their splendid powers, their daring aspiratioT^, 
 the path of all human progress has been strewn < 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The interest which I hope has been inspired in tiie 
 reader by a perusal of the preceding pages, will, I trust, 
 increase in the following chapters describing my observa- 
 tions while in that most desolate, wild and so little 
 known portion of the earth— Siberia. 
 
 Looking back to the time when I was first able to read 
 imperfectly, I can remember my longings to visit, as an 
 adventurer, that wonderful country, about which so many 
 thrilling stories were told ; of its vast arctic expanse ; the 
 homes of wretched exiles in eternal isolation from the 
 world, as it were ; of packs of hungry wolves chasing or 
 devouring travellers ; of how the wild boar and Eussian 
 bears are hunted, and many other printed relations des- 
 criptive of Siberia's frozen wilderness. Year by year 
 this desire intensified, until the outrages of Nihilism at 
 last determined me upon a visit to Russia, and an inves- 
 tigation of that subject naturally took me far into the 
 interior of Siberia, where my ambitions were at length 
 fully gratified. 
 
 Before leaving St. Petersburg I learned by chance that, 
 notwithstanding the correctness of my passport, it would 
 be necessary for me to procure a special permit before en- 
 tering Siberia, or it would be impossible for me to return 
 again without putting our minister to the trouble of se- 
 curing my liberation through official correspondence, 
 237 
 
238 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 which even might not 
 be successful. After 
 procuring such pass- 
 port as was necesary 
 I took the train for 
 Moscow, where I 
 spent several days 
 viewinoj thhio-s of in- 
 terest in that quaint 
 I old capital. Among 
 § the many places of 
 ^^ special importance I 
 
 visited m Moscow 
 £ was the celebrated 
 
 < Central Prison, which 
 
 1 is a depot where is 
 Q collected all offend- 
 
 < ers whether political 
 
 2 or otherwise who 
 " have been sentenced 
 ^ to exile in Siberia. 
 
 < It must be remem- 
 w bered that capital 
 B punishment is not 
 
 < practiced in Eussia 
 w except for high trea- 
 '^ son. Convicts for 
 
 other high crimes are 
 sentenced to varied 
 terms of imprison- 
 ment or banished to 
 different parts of Si- 
 beria according to 
 the degree of crime ; 
 rthe most dangerous 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 239 
 
 criminals are sent far east to the mines ; others are 
 confined in Siberian prisons, whilst those guilty of 
 minor offenses are sent to swell penal colonies in vil- 
 lages which are under police surveillance. But all pris- 
 oners sentenced to Siberia are first brought to Moscow 
 and lodged in the Central Prison, from whence they 
 are taken under convoys, in relays of generally three 
 hundred, to the place of banishment. 
 
 This prison is constructed to hold twenty-five hundred 
 convicts, a number which it not unfrequently contains. 
 All the prisoners wear long, rough coats having an orange 
 colored square patch sewn into the back. There are two 
 yards, in one of which are the minor criminals unfet- 
 tered, while in the other are those convicted of serious 
 crimes ; these wear large chains on their feet attached to 
 which is an iron ball weighing about twelve pounds. 
 
 The saddest sights to be witnessed at this prison are 
 the wives and little children of the convicts, who have 
 travelled many weary miles to say a last good-bye to those 
 they love, or who have decided to accompany their rela- 
 tives into exile. The number of wives w^ho voluntarily 
 join their husbands^ in banishment is truly astonishing, 
 and is a striking exemplification of that truthful saying : 
 ''Nothing can equal a woman's love." The parting 
 scenes, witnessed almost weekly at this prison, are often 
 inexpressibly sad, one of which I now recall only to re- 
 awaken the sorrowful sympathy I then experienced. A 
 young, handsome fellow who, I was told, was a political 
 offender, had been brought to Moscow with a large party 
 of prisoners four days before I saw him. While engaged 
 with my interpreter making inquiries I was greatly 
 startled by a sudden scream, when, upon looking around 
 to discover the cause, I saw a young woman bearing a 
 little babe on her left arm, while her right was clasped 
 
240 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tightly about the young fellow's neck; they were both 
 crying and trembling in an agony of poignant grief. 
 
 Amid choking sobs they talked in their native tongue, 
 which to me was unintelligible, but I soon saw that the 
 young man was expostulating with the woman about 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 241 
 
 something which only added to their already overwhelm- 
 ing sorrow. My interpreter soon gained for me the par- 
 ticulars, which were these : The young man was the hus- 
 band of the woman and had been convicted in the city of 
 Yaroslaf upon a charge of printing and circulating revo- 
 lutionary literature, his sentence being hard labor in the 
 Siberian mines for a period of ten years. When taken 
 to Moscow the young wife was not permitted to accom- 
 pany him on the train, but so strong was her attachment 
 that she determined to see him at least once more, and 
 gathering up her little girl babe, started alone, on foot, 
 for Moscow, one hundred and seventy-five miles distant. 
 Day and night she pushed as rapidly along as her feet 
 could carry her with the burden of her child, fearing that 
 she might not arrive before her husband's departure, 
 until on the morning of the fourth day she reached Mos- 
 cow and had the inexpressible satisfaction of greeting hor 
 shackled and grief-burdened husband. This meeting 
 served only to increase their agony, for the wife insisted 
 upon accompanying her husband into exile, while he, 
 with feelings of wounded pride, could not consent, and 
 bade her. return home. I left them still clasped in each 
 others' arms, crying bitterly, and never learned afterward 
 whether or not the young wife became an exile for her 
 husband's sake. Such incidents as these, however, are 
 very common at the Central Prison, but they only pre- 
 pared me for much more sorrowful sights which I was to 
 witness in Siberia. 
 
 Before leaving Moscow I went through the Kremlin, 
 which is an immense wall, 7,280 feet in circumference, 
 within which are many, in fact nearly all, the interesting 
 features to be found by a visitor in the city. In 1812, 
 when besieged by Napoleon, by command of Russia's 
 greatest field marshal, Suwarrow, all of Moscow was 
 
242 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ALEXANDER III. AND THE CZARINA ENTERING THE KREMLIN AT MOSCOW, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 243 
 
 burned except within the Kremlin, but even this wonder- 
 ful citadel did not escape injury, as several mines were 
 sprung beneath it by the French. Napoleon took pos- 
 session of the Kremlin and had his quarters in the palace, 
 which is inside the walls, but there being no means for 
 provisioning his array, he was compelled to retreat with 
 the most disastrous results that are recorded in all 
 history. 
 
 The Kremlin is entered l)y five gateways, to each 
 of which some tradition attaches. The "Redeemer's 
 Gate" is the most important; over its arch is hung 
 a picture of Christ, so ancient that no one knows its 
 history ; many verily believe that it was hung over the 
 gateway by the Madonna herself. It is told and believed 
 by all devout Muscovites that the French tried to remove 
 this picture because they thought its frame was solid gold ; 
 to accomplish this, they placed ladders against the wall, 
 but every attempt to mount Avas frustrated by the ladders 
 breaking; they next tried to batter down the wall with 
 cannons, but the powder would not ignite ; fires were 
 then built under the cannons, but when they did explode, 
 it was backward, killing many artillerymen. They 
 next tried to l)reak the picture down with stones, but 
 never a stone could be made to strike it. It is a fact, that 
 one of Napoleon's powder trains accidentally exploded 
 near the gate, which destroyed man}^ surrounding build- 
 ings and cracked the tower and archway up to the holy 
 image, but the picture and lamp which hung before it 
 escaped injury. 
 
 The buildings inside the Kremlin include churches, 
 monasteries, arsenals and museums, all of the Tartar style 
 of architecture, surmounted by belfries, turrets, donjons, 
 spires, sentry-boxes fixed upon minarets, domes, watch- 
 towers, etc., and having walls pierced with loop-holes 
 
244 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 and crenelated crowns after the fashion of fortresses in 
 the middle ages, the whole presenting a picture of great 
 
 THE GREAT BELL OF MOSCOW, AND IVAN VELIKI TOWER. 
 
 variety and pleasing aspect. The best views of Moscow 
 are obtained from the Sparrow Hills (from which Napo- 
 leon first sighted the city), the tower, or from the Moskva 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 245 
 
 Rekoi bridge, which crosses the Moskva river near the 
 south wall. 
 
 The great tower, Ivan Velihi, is 325 feet in height, 
 which may be ascended by a succession of very steep, 
 narrow stairways. It was erected by Boris Godunoff in 
 the year 1600, and contains forty-three bells of various 
 sizes, some of which are pure silver. The great bell, 
 "Czar Kolokel," which was cast in 1730, was hung in 
 the tower, but fell seven years later when the upper por- 
 tion of the tower was burned. Its immense weight 
 caused it to sink very deep into the earth, where it remained 
 one hundred years, until Nicholas I. caused it to be 
 mounted upon a pedestal where it still stands. This bell 
 is twenty-one feet in height and weighs 400,000 pounds ; 
 its value, estimated at the price for old metal, is 
 $200,000. A large piece, broken out of the bell by the 
 fall, lies beside it, and the clapper is in the chamber 
 underneath. 
 
 It was on Saturday, the 12th of August, that I left 
 Moscow for Nijni Novgorod, in the company of Captain 
 Spicer, of New London, Connecticut, and an interpreter 
 named Smith, who is a native of Jersey City, New Jer- 
 sey, but for the past seven years has been a resident of 
 Moscow, where he acts as guide and interpreter for 
 American visitors. Capt. Spicer was also enroute for Si- 
 beria, being interested in the fur trade, and intending to 
 explore northern Siberia in quest of fur-bearing animals. 
 His company was very acceptable to me, for I saw only one 
 other American while in Moscow, the Eev. John Hall, 
 of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church. New York 
 City, who was spending his summer vacation in Russia ; 
 and in Siberia I did not expect to meet with any one who 
 could speak my language. 
 
 The distance from Moscow to Nijni is 273 miles, which 
 16 
 
f4i) KUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 is accomplished by rail in 13 hours. I remained in Nijni 
 over Sunday and Monday to attend the great fair which 
 is held there annually from August 1st to October 1st ; 
 though in ordinary times the town does not contain a 
 population of more than 45,000, yet during the fair there 
 maybe seen fully 200,000 persons here engaged in barter. 
 The city, which is generally called Nijni, to distinguish 
 it from Great Novgorod, appears to have been founded 
 in 1222, and as early as 1366 fairs were annually held 
 there. In 1641 a charter was granted to the Monastery 
 of St. Macarius, 71 miles below the town, empowering the 
 monks to levy taxes on the trade carried on at Nijni. This 
 privilege they continued to enjoy, much to their gain, 
 until 1751, when the trade, which Avas created by the 
 fair, became so nearly free that the revenue, which now 
 became the Government's, did not exceed $500. Statis- 
 tics show that from 1697 to 1790 the value of the an- 
 nual trade* carried on at this fair increased from $60,000 
 to $22,500 000, while now it is estimated at $80,000,000 
 annually. 
 
 The town is situated on a hill at the very center of that 
 water communication which joins the Caspian, Black, 
 White and Baltic seas, besides it is the eastern terminus 
 of the world's railway lines, and the point of contact of 
 European industry and Asiatic wealth. Below Nijni is a 
 vast bottom land over which flows in spring and winter 
 the confluent waters of the Volga and Oka rivers. Dur- 
 ino- the summer season the waters recede, leaving this bot- 
 tom of sand ready for the purpose to which it is so well 
 adapted. Immediately a tattoo of hammers begins which 
 ceases neither day nor night until the whole vast phiin is 
 covered with frame shanties of every conceivable descrip- 
 tion, into which fabrics of every design and complexion 
 are crammed ; the articles thus exposed at the fair come 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 247 
 
 FAMILIAR SCENES AT THE NIJNI FAIR. 
 
248 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 from all parts of the Empire as far east as Kamschatka, 
 while China, Thibet, Hindoostan, Tartary, and even 
 Japan are well represented when the fair opens. Such a 
 con2;lomeration of sights and smells can be fomid at no 
 other place in the world as in Nijni ; during the day-time 
 there is a jam and bustle among buyers and sellers who 
 crowd the sidewalks and streets, so that passage through, 
 on foot, is almost impossible. Beggars, organ-grinders, 
 auctioneers, jugglers, performing bears. Punch and Judy, 
 and an olla prodi'ida of jumbling jacks and catch-on-as- 
 you-please kind of attractions are crowded in among the 
 legitimate features of the fair. When night throws its 
 shadows over the bustling scene, there is a magic change 
 in the panorama ; a million lights blaze up and throw 
 flickering rays, like dancing jinnii, over a weird en- 
 semble. The shops are closed about ten o'clock to give 
 place to a revelry of chaotic choruses. Open air concerts 
 are on every side, in which the chief features are half- 
 naked women howling bacchante songs and kicking at a 
 space much above their heads. Among these depraved 
 artistes Circassian girls are more numerous, those beauties 
 of the Caucasus we read so much about, but who, in fact, 
 are fair and luscious only at a distance of one thousand 
 leagues from the observer. Polish girls are also plentiful 
 in these bazaars of freedom, and as a class they are very 
 handsome. I saw two negro women (who were from 
 the West Indies) at one of the concerts, who attracted 
 as much attention as an Indian Rajah would in the United 
 States. They were rated far above ordinary mortals, and 
 had for escorts distinguished government officials, who 
 hung on their words like bumble bees on the honey of 
 fresh clover blossoms. 
 
 I perambulated around through the fan- and night 
 scenes until exhausted nature could perform no more, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 24y 
 
 when I retired to a room in which there were already 
 thirteen other occupants snoring off the potations they 
 
 WOODEN CHURCH IN NIJNI-NOVGOROD. 
 
 had indulged. I had an old quilt to repose on, which 
 sinelt like a Dutch cheese factory freshly stirred up, and 
 
^DU RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 resembled the last assault in a Polish insurrection. But 
 putting a clothes-pin on my nose, I lay down and slept 
 with my eyes wide open to prevent being surprised by a 
 lot of murderers, whom I very agreeably supposed the 
 thirteen howling stump-suckers to be. 
 
 My visit to Nijni proper was much pleasanter because 
 I could not see so much. The town has a Kremlin in 
 imitation of that in Moscow, a grim, loose-jointed citadel, 
 having battlemented walls and mediaeval towers surround- 
 ing a score or more of Byzantine churches with cupolas 
 running up in bunches until their apexes terminate in 
 gilded crosses. Most of these churches are wooden struc- 
 tures, made in the ornate style peculiar to Russia and 
 Turkey, adapted equally well for devotional exercises or 
 a bonfire. 
 
 All the large cities on the Volga (Samara alone ex- 
 cepted), Saratof, Simbirsk, Kasan and Nijni-Novgorod, 
 are situated on the picturesque and hilly side of the 
 Volga — that is, on its right bank, for the left bank is 
 flat and featureless throughout. The only thing which 
 distinguishes Nijni-Novgorod from the others is that its 
 range of hills is higher and its situation consequently 
 more imposing, while the intervening country between the 
 village of Podnoveye and Nijni is eminently picturesque. 
 Two white buildings, the Pajorski Monastery and the 
 St. Mary's Institution for girls, are conspicuous amidst 
 the varied foliage which surrounds them ; and the white, 
 crenellated walls of the ancient kremlin, creeping up the 
 precipitous slope of the hill, flanked here and there by 
 small, square, minaret-shaped towers, with the old town 
 reposing under the shadow of its Fortress and looking 
 down serenely on the busy scene below, give to Nijni- 
 Novgorod an appearance unique among Russian cities. 
 The town of Nijni consists of two parts — the old town, 
 
252 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 nestling around its kremlin, and proudly disdainful of 
 the commercial advantages offered it by the jproximity of 
 two great rivers ; and the new town, consisting of the 
 new quays built along the right bank of the Oka, and 
 the new streets which have sprung up behind them. 
 AVhen the fair is held at this town, the view from the 
 Moura\neff Tower is perhaps the most remarkable in the 
 world. There, embraced within the compass of a glance, 
 is the whole scene of the Great Fair of Nijui-Novgorod. 
 A huge, flat, sandy plain, flanked by two great rivers, is 
 covered over with houses of different colors, mostly red 
 and yellow, made of brick and wood and matting ; mil- 
 lions of the world's richest merchandise stored or strewn 
 in every direction ; barges warped along the quays of 
 two rivers still busily engaged in unshipping their ex- 
 haustless cargoes. At one glance you see all this. Ev- 
 erywhere you meet outward signs of the devotion of the 
 people, and, in all the hurry of business, a moujik never 
 passes a shrine without stopping and making the sign of 
 the cross. It will not be deemed strange, then, that the 
 fair is opened by a grand religious ceremony in a church 
 in the great square. 
 
 I left Nijni at noon on Tuesday by steamer, for Perm, 
 which is four days' journey, or about six hundred miles. 
 The steamers which ply on the Volga are all named after 
 North and South American rivers, but they resemble 
 very little the steamers that are run on our American 
 waters. Nearly every one in Russia travels third-class, so 
 that there are three classes jDrovided for, by building the 
 boats with three cabins, one above the other. Our voy- 
 age was a particularly delightful one, the weather being 
 pleasant and our steamer moderately fast. The Volga 
 is a large stream, but has a channel almost as treacher- 
 ous as the Missouri. On each side there is a wide, level 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 253 
 
 stretch of bottom, which is overflowed during spring 
 time, until the river becomes many miles in width, which 
 of course causes a constant change of channel. 
 
 After a run of seventeen hours we landed at Kasan, a 
 quaint, old, Asiatic looking town, full of Tartar people 
 and Tartar customs, but I did not stop over, as nothing 
 of special interest is to be found in the place. Twenty 
 miles below Kasan we came to the mouth of the Kama 
 river, and here I was greatly reminded of the junction 
 of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as the appearance 
 is almost identical. "We left the Volga and turned up 
 the Kama at four o'clock in the afternoon, so that a 
 beautiful view was afforded of the meeting of waters and 
 a changing landscape. Our progress was now less rapid, 
 for there was a strong current against us. The scenery, 
 however, was more varied than that along the Volga, 
 though at no place were there any high hills, such as we 
 almost constantly pass on American rivers. 
 
 We reached Perm on Saturday afternoon and were 
 compelled to lie over until Monday morning, as no 
 trains leave there on Saturday evenings. The town con- 
 tains a mixed population of about 30,000 souls, whose 
 principal occupation is handling ore ; there are several 
 reduction works and also a Government mint in the place, 
 giving employment to a large number of persons. Perm, 
 though an old place, has grown to importance within the 
 last ten years. Alexander II. conceived the construc- 
 tion of a railroad across Siberia, and nearly all necessary 
 arrangements for its building were completed, when his 
 tragic death immediately stopped the enterprise. Sev- 
 eral years had been spent by three different commissions 
 who were sent to select the most feasible route across the 
 Ural mountains. One of these commissions reported in 
 favor of a route by way of Orenburg, which, it war 
 
254 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILIS3I AND 
 
 strenuously claimed, would be more practicable because 
 of its southern position. The other commission in- 
 
 sisted that the passage at Nijni Tagilsk was preferable, 
 besides it would prove immediately remunerative by 
 reason of the large amount of mineral which woulcl 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 255 
 
 be shipp^ed from the Demidoff mines at Ekaterineburg. 
 These reports were followed by a long period of indecis- 
 ion on the part of the Emperor, who finally spoke so 
 favorably of both routes that he promised to give them 
 government assistance. The construction of a railway 
 from Perm was begun first, and in 1878 it was opened 
 for traffic from Perm across the Urals to Ekaterineberg, a 
 distance of three hundred miles. Work progressed 
 more slowly on the southern route, and when the Em- 
 peror died it ceased entirely, before any portion of the 
 road was ready for business. 
 
 Perm, like all other Russian cities, is chiefly conspicu- 
 ous for its churches, which abound on every side and are 
 the most ornate feature of the place. 
 
 I left Perm on Monday morning, and began my jour- 
 ney across the Urals, which I had supposed were a range 
 of high mountain jDcaks perpetually covered with snow. 
 I was therefore very much astonished to find them hardly 
 more than ordinary hills, the highest point in the range 
 bfdng only 5000 feet above sea level. The scenery was 
 also very disappointing, as there was scarcely any veg- 
 etation visible except a forest of slender joines, with 
 here and there a larch that seemed too lonesome for 
 healthy growth. 
 
 At eight o'clock in the evening we had passed over 
 the mountains, almost without knowing it, and stopped 
 at Nijni Tagilsk, where I left the train to visit the great 
 Demidoff mines of copper, malachite and iron. This 
 place, which is the gateway to Asia, lies within the Sibe- 
 riaii line, and is very prettily situated at the base of the 
 Ural range. It is an important commercial town of sixty 
 thousand inhabitants, most of whom are engaged in 
 mining. Nearly all of Russia's iron is produced here, 
 and among the manufactured j)roducts Russia-Iron (the 
 
RUSSIAN CHUKCH IN TAGILSK. 
 
 25$ 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 257 
 
 process of which is a secret known only to Tagilsk man- 
 ufacturers) is the principal article. Many years ago the 
 mines were operated by convict labor, but Prince Demi- 
 doff purchased them from the Government, since which 
 time they have been woiJvcd by paid miners and forgers. 
 There is a beautiful granite monument, surmounted by a 
 bronze statue of Prince Demidoff , in the southern part of 
 the city. 
 
 Remaining over at Tagilsk one day, I proceeded by 
 rail to Ekaterineburg, which is another town built in an 
 immense mineral district, but the principal product is 
 malachite. From Tao-ilsk to Ekaterineburo; the railroad 
 runs along the mountain base ; on one side hills green 
 with pines, and on the other a level plain stretching away 
 until it meets the horizon, with scarcely an object to re- 
 lieve its solitary wilderness of almost boundless expanse. 
 
 The city contains a population of thirty thousand, 
 but more Asiatic than Russian. I was rejoiced to find 
 three Americans, residents of the place, with whom I be- 
 came acquainted, much to my advantage. These mines, 
 which also belong to the Demidoff descendants, are very 
 interesting, particularly to those who have never wit- 
 nessed malachite mining. This mineral, of which I never 
 saw any specimens in America, is very precious, selling 
 at the mjnes at from |1 to |5 per pound, according to 
 the size of the pieced. When polished, the stone presents 
 an almost emerald green and is very hard. 
 
 The Demidoffs pay annually, in taxes to the Govern- 
 ment and Commune, $100,000, and employ 50,000 la- 
 borers. Before- the emancipation they owned 56,000 
 male serfs, a large number of whom still remain on their 
 original estates and work in the mines, but receive ridic- 
 ulously small pay, compared with wages in America. 
 Common laborers receive about twenty cents a day ; pud- 
 dlers seventy -five «ents, and the^best rollers $1.25. 
 
258 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 During my short stay in Ekaterineburg I saw many 
 strange sights, but none which excited my curiosity more 
 than the women, whom I met in great numbers on the 
 streets. Generally speaking, they were quite handsome, 
 with features somewhat like their Georgian sisters in the 
 
 South Caucasus. But their good looks were hardlv se 
 interesting as the curious costumes they wore, and tha 
 street manners which they affected. It was a strange 
 blending of the European and Asiatic. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 259 
 
 Siberia is rich in precious stones, and Ekaterineburg is 
 famous for its lapidists. Very near the town are found 
 beryl, topaz, aqua marine, c'brysolite, and other gems of 
 great beauty , which are cut and set by jewelers in the 
 city and sold at prices which I regarded as wonderfully 
 cheap. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 After visiting the malachite mines in Ekaterinebm'g, 
 I instructed my guide to engage a vehicle to carry us on 
 to Tieumen, which was to be our next stopping place. 
 He was gone for some time, and upon returning told me 
 that it would be necessary to show my special permit to 
 the authorities before a vehicle could be secured. Thus 
 far I had only to show my regular passport, but now I 
 produced the special permit given me at St. Petersburg. 
 As the reading matter on it was in Russian (of which I 
 was as ignorant as of the hieroglyphics on Cheops) I had 
 little idea what request it contained. My guide, who 
 could speak but not read the language, took the paper to 
 an officer, who told us it was a podorojna , or permit from 
 the Government to pass freely in and out of Siberia, and 
 also containing an order, addressed to all post-keepers, 
 to facilitate me in my journey by providing such convey- 
 ances as I might desire. We were now intelligently in- 
 formed of what to do, so in the evening we engaged a 
 tarantass and yemstchih for our journey ; the former is a 
 four-wheeled vehicle setting low like a phseton, and hav- 
 ing a large cover behind, which may be raised or lowered 
 at will. It is light, but drawn by three horses, the mid- 
 dle one working between shafts over which there ia a 
 
260 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 douga, or broad bow, to which bells are often attached ; 
 the outside horses work in traces, one of which is fast- 
 ened to a shaft and the other to the end of the si:)indle, 
 which extends about three inclies outside the hub of the 
 front wheel. YemstcJiik simply means driver 
 
 I had engaged this outfit with the expectation of start- 
 ing for Tieumen on the following morning, but this ar- 
 rangement did not suit either the owner or driver, who 
 insisted on an immediate departure or pay for the time 
 
 THE TARANTASS. 
 
 lost. It was now almost eight o'clock, but as Capt. 
 Spicer, who was still with me, felt no hesitancy about 
 proceeding at such an unseemly hour, we made ready and 
 took our places in the vehicle. Our guide sat beside the 
 yemstchih^ while Spicer and I occupied tlie one large seat 
 mside. Before leaving, however, we contracted to pay 
 two cents a verst, equivalent to three cents per mile, for 
 the driver and conveyance, a sum which we thought was 
 Very cheap. 
 
 The sun had now sunk well down behind the Ural hills 
 ■ — I can't help calling them hills because they are nothing 
 more — ^when, with a crack of the whip and an expression 
 
aXIUC LIFE IN SIBBRIA. 261 
 
 which nothing but a Siberian horse could understand, we 
 darted off in a cloud of dust, through the town and out 
 upon the great waste of a wonderful country. My feel- 
 ings were not altogether pleasant, for so strange did 
 everything appear that, despite myself, visions of wild 
 Tartar hordes, under some modern Genghis Khan, would 
 dart up in my imagination, to dispute our way ; or else 
 an unfamiliar sound would strike my ear like the bark of 
 a famished wolf calling his pack to the pursuit. 
 
 Along we flew in a swift gallop without for a moment 
 slacking pace, passing no one, nor having our imageries 
 relieved by any pleasing scenery ; nothing but a level, 
 illimitable expanse of prairie ; no farms, no baying dogs, 
 no lowing cattle nor squealing swine ; the voice of nature 
 was as mute as the songs of the dead. Thus we jour- 
 neyed for more than two hours, when through the riven 
 clouds there broke out a flood of moonlight by which we 
 saw ahead the outlines of a house. It was the first post- 
 station out of Ekaterineburg ; our yemstchih drove into 
 the yard on a dash and then shouting stoi to his horses, 
 he stopped with such suddenness that my companion and 
 I were thrown forward against the driver's seat. 
 
 We did not delay here long, taking only sufficient time 
 to change horses and drink a glass of tea. In this con- 
 nection I wish to say that no where in the world can 
 such tea be had as in Russia or Siberia. I have drunk 
 this delightful beverage in nearly all parts of the world, 
 including San Francisco, where I indulged my love for it 
 in a Chinese restaurant, and my opinion is that the Chi- 
 nese make the poorest, while the Russians make the best 
 tea to be found anywhere in the world. The excelleuc* 
 of the tea made in Russia is partly, if not wholly, du«. 
 as they themselves claim, to the fact that tea shipped 
 over wate/ V)B€s much of its flavor and essential quality, 
 17 
 
S63 RuesiAK laHiLisM jmno 
 
 All tea used in Russia is brought over-land from th# 
 Chines© provinces, generally packed in the shape of 
 bricks and exposed to the atmosphere, there being a be- 
 lief that if packed in cases it loses much of its natural 
 excellence. Everybody drinks tea in Russia ; if you 
 enter the home of either prince or peasant in that coun- 
 try you are at once invited to drink tea. A vessel called 
 a Samovar is in every house, which is kept constantly 
 heated, in which tea is made always ready for use. Tea 
 therefore is the great national drink ; but there is also a 
 spirits, distilled from potatoes, called Vodkas which is 
 something like the Irish poteen, that is a very popular 
 drink among the jDcasantry and priesthood. So, whether 
 entertained in the home of an IspravniJc — a Russian Gov- 
 ernor — or stopping at a Siberian post-station, you will be 
 called on to slake thirst, either in a tipple of vodJca or a 
 glass of tea — tea cups are not used. 
 
 After less than a half -hour's delay we were called to 
 take our places in the vehicle again, when cheerily our 
 driver cracked his whip over the fretting ponies' heads, 
 and sent them off in a run that at first nearly took om' 
 breaths. 
 
 It was now almost midnight, but still the gray streaks 
 of day and bright lustre of a noble moon were with us. 
 In fact at this season of the year there is scarcely any 
 night in the latitude I was now travelling. Tired with 
 so much pounding as I had been subjected to for 
 several hours, my eyes grew languid, but it seemed that 
 each time I began to doze, in my comjjulsory bolt up" 
 right position, our driver would run us over a log 
 with such disturbing force that I either plunged into my 
 companion or he into me. In fact we had to keep awake 
 that we might not butt one another's brains out. 
 
 "W« continued in this rapid, iiurly-burly, jerking. 
 
BXILE ^I^£ JN tiMhmRlA. 
 
 26d 
 
 wretchedly uncomfortable style of traveling for forty-one 
 hours, having changed horses about t)very two hours, 
 when at last we reached Tieumen, which is two hundred 
 and tive miles from Ekaterineberg. I was so sore, stiff 
 
 and exhausted 
 when we arrived at 
 Tieumen that I 
 felt like a Fakir 
 who, to do penance 
 for some imagina- 
 ry sin, assumes 
 one position with- 
 out changing, un- 
 til all his joints 
 ossify and refuse 
 to articulate. The 
 first thing I want- 
 ed was everything 
 at once, viz. : a 
 bath, something 
 to eat, a bed, mus- 
 tard plasters for 
 my back and 
 knees, ice-water to 
 drink ; and above 
 all, I wanted to 
 know how to get 
 back again to 
 Ekaterineburg 
 without having to 
 travel in the manner I had come. 
 
 Fortunately it was only a little after mid-day when we 
 arrived, and dinner was ready ; so I quickly washed my 
 face, after first rubbing a long, broad, deep crick out of 
 
264 RUSSIAN KIH1LI8M ANO 
 
 my back so I could bend over, and then fell to with vo- 
 racious greed to devour — black-bread and salt. It's 
 a way they have in that country. It must, undoubt 
 edly, be the product of some religious inspiration, 
 for I can't imagine anything else potential enough to 
 curtail the diet so extravagantly ; but whatever the cause, 
 black-bread (which is eaten after a thick hiyer of salt is 
 spread over it) and tea constitute almost the exclusive 
 diet of tlie native Siberians. By dint of expostulation 
 and particularly by promises of a large reward, I ob- 
 tained a piece of steak, which was as succulent and tender 
 as any I ever before ate. It is astonishing how these 
 people subsist on so limited a diet, and my wonder was 
 all the more increased when I learned that choice steaks 
 can be had for four cents a pound, while fish are even 
 cheaper. There is very little agriculture in Siberia, the 
 occupations chiefly followed being mining, inn keeping, 
 fishing and raising stock. Immense herds of horses and 
 cattle roam all over the country, the property of herds- 
 men who raise them for export, home consumption 
 being scarcely thought of. 
 
 I was so completely used up, so to speak, that after 
 dinner I called to the landlord to show me a bed, into 
 which I soon cast my wearied body and soul. After a 
 two hours' rest, I awakened and, though still in an ex- 
 hausted condition, reflected upon how precious was my 
 time, arose, took another glass of tea, and sauntered out 
 into the city in quest of information. 
 
 Tieumen is situated on the Tura river, which flows by 
 the Tobol into the Irtysh and Obi, and it is at this point 
 that steamboat conveyance is taken to those rivers, and 
 to the towns of Tobolsk, Omsk and Tomsk. The town 
 is subject to great overflows every spring when the ice 
 braaks up, and gorging below the bridge sonietimes 
 
MULLLM LITE IN SLBliKlA, 
 
 ^t^ 
 
266 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AXD 
 
 inundates the whole city. It has a population of 16,- 
 000, with thriving manufactories of iron, earthenware, 
 glass, cloth, carpets and leather ; but the houses are 
 mostly built of wood, and the place has a mean and 
 dreary aspect. It is in one respect the mdst import- 
 ant town in western Siberia, for it is here that all 
 the prisoners are first brought before their distri- 
 bution to the penal settlements and mines further east. 
 There is one building in the city, devoted to educa- 
 tional purposes, which cost $100,000, and is the finest 
 structure in all Siberia ; two specially important facts 
 connected with this institution are, that it was built by a 
 man who started with nothing, has acquired a large 
 fortune in Siberia, and donated the building to the 
 Government ; the other peculiarity is found in the build- 
 ing being furnished throughout with American furniture, 
 as is also the home of the liberal donor. 
 
 I found also here in Tieumen an American gentleman 
 who very kindly introduced me to the Governor and sev- 
 eral other functionaries, with whom I became intimate 
 enough to announce the object of my visit and to request 
 of them such information as I needed. 
 
 To a question which I asked the Governor respecting 
 the origin of punishment of offenders by exile, he made 
 answer : 
 
 " I do not know exactly when the practice begun, but 
 a well-known writer, M. Keclus, says the first degree of 
 banishment was promulgated by Boris Godunoff when, in 
 1591, he sent nearly five hundred of the Uglitch insur- 
 rectionists into exile, locating them not far from Tieu- 
 men. This story, however, is more traditional than his- 
 torical, though it may be true. But it is an established 
 fact that near the close of the seventeenth century several 
 thousand of Little Russians, who had revolted in the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 267 
 
 [Jkarine and were overcome by Great Eussia, were sent, 
 in chains, to various parts of Siberia. After this, trans- 
 portation for all manner of serious offenses became com- 
 mon. A large number of religious dissenters, with their 
 families, were deported in 1682, and compelled to settle 
 in the Baikal district. Peter the Great also banished 
 many of the Strelitz, a tribe from southern Russia, who 
 were so wedded to bows and arrows that they refused to 
 use any other arms. They caused no little trouble by 
 their treachery, and finally rebelled against their sov- 
 ereign. During the reign of Elizabeth many distin- 
 guished persons, accused of political unfaithfulness, were 
 sent to the far eastern provinces, among whom were 
 Tolstoi, Munich, Meuchikoff, Dolgornki, Biron, &c., 
 who were afterward permitted to return. In 1758 began 
 the first deportation of Poles, but under Catharine II. 
 thousands of these unhappy people were thrust into exile. 
 Nine hundred, who had served under Napoleon, were 
 convicted of treason and sent to the Yakoutsk district. 
 In 1826 three thousand Decembrists, who tried to assas- 
 sinate Nicholas and provide a constitution, were sent to 
 Siberia, followed in 1830 by a deportation of 80,000 
 Poles." 
 
 The original idea of Godunoff, which was to use Si- 
 beria as a place of punishment, grew into a fixed purpose 
 under Nicholas I. and Alexander II., to not only banish 
 offenders merely to punish them, but to make banishment 
 a means for settling Siberia. They very correctly argued 
 that here was a larger portion of the Empire, rich in min- 
 erals and boundless in agricultural possibilities, lying idle 
 because none would settle in it. They therefore con- 
 cluded to enforce an industrial occupation of the country. 
 To this end not only were murderers and political offend- 
 •rs sent to Siberia, but colonies were established by the 
 
268 ltT7ML4J!r NIHILISM ANB 
 
 deportation of those guilty of petty crimes. A privilege 
 was given the peasantry to establish village courts, called 
 Zemsta, to "which they might summon, or forcibly take, 
 any one of their number charged with being untrue or im- 
 provident, incorrigibly bad, lazy, a common drunkard, or 
 village nuisance, and upon conviction he could be sent to 
 Siberia. This practice was very extensive a few years 
 ago, and is not uncommon now. Such convicts, how- 
 ever, are not held, as prisoners, to any special labor, but 
 are sent to increase colonies that pursue any calling they 
 choose to obtain a living. 
 
 The Governor further told me that t^iere are thirty- 
 four offenses punishable by transportation to Siberia. 
 The first and greatest crime in Russia is treason, Avhich 
 is punished by execution, but for no other crime is the 
 death penalty inflicted. The following offenses are pun- 
 ished by exile : insubordination to lawful authority ; 
 stealing official documents ; escape or abetting the es- 
 cape of prisoners ; embezzlement of Government funds ; 
 forgery ; blasphemy (though it is a dead-letter law) ; 
 dissent and heresy (rarely enforced) ; sheltering or 
 giving aid to escaping convicts ; counterfeiting ; being 
 taken on suspicion and found without a passport ; va- 
 grancy, coupled with suspicious conduct ; murder or 
 accessory thereto ; attempted suicide ; mayhem ; assault 
 with deadly weapon ; seduction and rape ; subornation ; 
 ill(\i:::il holding or transfer of property ; arson ; burglary ; 
 theft ; horse-stealing ; debt ; dishonoring the Emperor's 
 name ; assuming false titles ; beastiality ; usury or extor- 
 tion (rarely enforced, though a common offense) ; eluding 
 military service; smuggling; illicit distilling; and the 
 l)ractices of the Scoptsi, of which I will write fully here- 
 after, when describing their settlement. 
 
 I was told that for the past ten years, the number of 
 
KtiLB Lira m sibsria. 
 
 269 
 
270 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 exiles sent annually to Siberia was about 20,000, of 
 which 12,000 are sent to the eastern district under seiv- 
 tence of hard labor in the mines. I was permitted to 
 visit the Tieumeu prison, in which there were confined 
 nearly five hundred prisoners, awaiting orders to be sent 
 further east. Of these five hundred there were nearly 
 one hundred who could read and write. This indicates 
 the intelligence of the criminals sent into exile. It is a 
 statistical fact that of Russia's entire population only 
 five per cent, can read and write, the lowest average of 
 education to be found in any civilized country on the 
 globe. Now, when we compare this fact with the prison- 
 ers at Tieumen, of whom twenty per cent, could read 
 and write, we are forced to the irresistible conclusion 
 that Russia's criminals are from her best educated peo- 
 ple. 
 
 All prisoners sent from Moscow are taken by rail to 
 Nijni-Novgorod, where they embark on a barge, which 
 is towed by steamer to Perm. This barge is built ex- 
 pressly for the purpose and will carry from seven to eight 
 hundred. 
 
 From Perm they are transported by rail to Ekaterine- 
 berg, and from that point they are taken to Tieumen by 
 vagons. "Why they are not required to walk this latter 
 distance I cannot understand, particularly since beyond 
 Tieumen the prisoners are compelled to walk to what- 
 ever place they are destined, which is not generally less 
 than 2,000 miles further east. Sometimes it occurs that 
 there is special haste to get the prisoners to Irkoutsk or 
 Yakoutsk mines, before severe weather begins in the fall, 
 and for purposes of expedition they are taken by barge 
 on the Irtysh and Obi to Tomsk, from which latter place, 
 however, they must walk voluntarily or be driven like 
 refractory brutes under the stinging lash. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. SI 71 
 
 On the morning after my arrival in Tieumen, as I had 
 been told by the Governor the previous evening, a party 
 of three hundred prisoners were taken out of their 
 
 PRISONERS LEAVING TIEUMEN FOR EASTERN SIBERIA. 
 
 stockade and started to Chita, which is a penal settle- 
 ment in the Trans-Baikal. It was raining very hard, but 
 Ul« •Um«att wsro aot permitted to inter£«r9 with tkt 
 
5^72 KUBSIAW NIHILISM AITO 
 
 programme. About fifty soldiers acted as convoy-guard, 
 who marched out on foot in two files with the exiles he^ 
 tween them, followed by weeping women and a largft 
 number of curious citizens. At the' suburbs of the place 
 horses were in waiting for the soldiers, but there was 
 nothing but a hard, foot journey before the unfortunate 
 prisoners, about one-third of whom carried heavy chains 
 on their wrists and ankles. I was affected almost to 
 tears by the sight, every phase of which was inexpres- 
 sibly sad. 
 
 I stayed over at Tieumen one day longer to gather 
 some additional facts and wait for more clement weather. 
 Capt. Spicer had intended to leave me here and start by 
 tarantass northward, but concluded to accompany me to 
 Tobolsk, where he could take a steamer on the Irtysh, 
 and have a journey to the Gulf of Obi, from which point 
 he decided to begin skirting Siberia across to Kam- 
 schatka. On the following day we engaged anew kind of 
 conveyance, as from appearance it promised more com- 
 fort than we had found in the tarantass. This vehicle 
 was what the Russians call a tumbril; I supjiose they de- 
 rive the name from the English tumble, because it goe? 
 tumbling over the road like an acrobat, bounding up in 
 dreadful jerks aud coming down like a pile driver. 
 
 A small steamer plies between Tieumen and Tobolsk, 
 but at uncertain intervals, and gets through with greater 
 uncertainty, so we adopted the overland route and started 
 about three o'clock in the afternoon. The road was 
 very muddy and our progress slow, which saved us from 
 the sore affliction we suffered in the rapid tarantass. At 
 the first station we halted to change horses, the post- 
 keeper told us that the roads were almost impassable and 
 that a creek, five versts further on, was so swollen that 
 •roMing would be very dangerous. Neveitlielsss w» con* 
 
"TRILIS LEFIC IN SIBERIA- 
 
 iiz 
 
874 . vUSSIA^^ NIHILISM AND 
 
 eluded to push oia and meet whatever adventure chance 
 might visit upon us. We drove with all possible speed, 
 in order to reach the creek before darkness set in, as ab- 
 sence of light always multiplies dangers. We ar- 
 rived at the stream about seven o'clock and found it 
 rushing madly over its banks, carrying driftwood of logs, 
 trees, brush, etc., so that our resolution gave way and we 
 thought of returning to the post-station to spend the 
 night. Before deciding finally, however, a moujik — local 
 resident peasant — appeared , whom we accosted and asked 
 if there were any ferry-boat available that could set us 
 across. He admitted that much danger would be in- 
 curred in an attempt to pass the stream, but agreed to 
 get a boat, which lay moored one mile further up the 
 creek, and set us over for five roubles. This proposition 
 at once decided us, and without further delay we drove 
 up to where the boat lay and prepared to embark. The 
 boat was a flat scow with gunwales not more than a foot 
 out of water, and that it had been put to much service 
 was evidenced by the rot that had struck in and weakened 
 every board about it. The horses were so tractable, for- 
 tunately, that no difficulty was experienced in getting 
 afloat. The moujik used a long pole to push the boat 
 off, but once getting started, our frail craft begun to 
 spin around like leaves in a whirlwind. It now looked 
 doubtful about getting across without swimming, but 
 manfully we all pushed with poles, by which we managed 
 to near the opposite shore about six miles below the point 
 from whence we started. Prospects were brightening 
 every moment, when suddenly our boat struck a pro- 
 jecting log — they are called sawyers by Mississippi 
 river pilots — and before we could shift our cuds of to- 
 bacco, over we went, tumbril, horses and men, into the 
 water, while the boat, bottom side up, went on down the 
 
IXILE LITi: IN SIBERIA. 275 
 
 sicream, still spinning around like a graceful coquette who 
 has just jilted her lover. It so happened that the water, 
 where we were capsized, was not more than three feet 
 deep, and we were able to keep our feet. My first act 
 was to grab two of the horses by their bridles, while 
 Capt. Spicer and our two men seized the tumbril and 
 righted it ; by skilful and instantaneous action we pre- 
 vented the horses from becoming tangled, and soon had 
 the satisfaction of getting on shore with no other incon- 
 venience than wet clothing. But our more serious diffi- 
 culty was yet to come, for it had now grown quite dark 
 and was still threatenino; rain. We had landed and were 
 on solid earth, but our surroundino-s were somethins: like 
 the jungles of Central Africa. There was no semblance 
 of a road leading out of this swampy, brush-grown place, 
 nor did we have so much as a match to light our way. 
 But, figuratively speakings shutting our eyes and trusting 
 to Providence, we started the horses along in the direc- 
 tion we supposed the road lay. After about one hour or 
 more of this delightful pic-nicing excursion in the garden 
 of the gods, we found ourselves — lost. I had a compass 
 in my pocket, but it might as well have been on top of 
 the north-pole, for having neither a light nor the eyes of 
 a nocturnal varmint, we ' ' couldn 't see the point. ' ' With 
 nothino but wet clothes and wetter blankets our condi- 
 tion was similar to that which the man fell into who in- 
 vented a new oath. But, as if dissatisfied with our cir- 
 cumstances, old Pluvius pulled out the stop-cocks of 
 heaven and deluged us with a rain of nearly six hours 
 duration, while the frogs, betAveen dashes of rain, croaked 
 all manner of requiems around about us. If a pack of 
 wolves had descended upon us about this time I would 
 have gladly assisted them to ravish my body, and yet 
 every strange sound that seemed to presage an attack 
 
0% BXTBSiAK NIHILI8H AMD 
 
 iTom these chronically hungry desperadoes, produced a 
 momentary fear that made us forget our other misery. 
 
 Nothing could be done except face the artillery of mis- 
 fortune, so we unhitched the horses and made them fast 
 to our vehicle. Then came the rub of standing round 
 and taking tu*Pns in saying such bad words as a distressed 
 soul may be inspired to utter under the circumstances. 
 
 Morning broke at last, but such a morning as would 
 shame creation, for the rain still poured down, until what 
 wasn't mud was water, and what wasn't water was a dis- 
 tillation of exquisite melancholy. Frozen and drowned 
 though we were, there was still enough aggravation left 
 in our natures to stimulate us to renewed endeavors to 
 get out of the woods — or purgatory, which is a more 
 appropriate term. 
 
 So confused were we by the desperate experience un- 
 dergone that wretched night that it was late in the after- 
 noon before we found the road again, and when we did 
 find it there was nothing to make us proud except tike 
 realization that we still lived. Through mud up to the 
 axles we plodded along, hungry, exhausted, wet, mad and 
 intensely miserable, until twelve o'clock the following 
 night before reaching the next station. So thoroughly 
 worn out was I that upon entering the station I threw 
 myself upon a bench ^nd did not stir again until morn- 
 ing, though the master tried every way to arouse and 
 direct me to a comfortable bed. The opiate of exhaus- 
 tion was so powerful, in fact, that I no longer felt the 
 wet clothes that were on me, or took time to wish I waff 
 in dear America. 
 
 Renewing our journey about noon, the sun came oui 
 again, and we gradually forgot the miseries through 
 which we had passed and began to find, one by one, some 
 little pleajBure* in life. The roads also gradually becam© 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 277 
 
 more tolerable, while along the highway we met occa- 
 sional groups of Tartars, and passed through Tartar vil- 
 lages which presented many whimsical characteristics. 
 In Siberia (where less than one-fifth the population is 
 Russian) as in Eussia, we found images of the Madonna 
 hung up over doors, in Avindows, on walls, nailed to 
 posts, strung up before ordinary village notices, and, in 
 short, we found them everywhere, while little candles 
 were burning before them all. The Tartars are very nu- 
 merous throughout Siberia and are proud of their history, 
 which is crowded with adventure and red with blood. 
 They are the same people as those who, under Genghis 
 Khan, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, over- 
 ran all of northern Asia and then penetrated Eussia, 
 striking the Muscovites such strong blows that they al- 
 most accomplished the conquest of that nation. 
 
 The Tartar women still hold to the ancient Moslem 
 practice of wearing veils over their faces when strangers 
 are near, which, I must say, is very kind of them, for as 
 a stranger I speak, who having seen some few Tartar 
 faces, am very thankful that I was not permitted to see 
 more ; a Chinese god is beautiful when brought in com- 
 parison with the most distinguished Tartar belle. 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 Tobolsk Is but^ little more than one day's journey 
 from Tieumen by steamer, but we encountered so many 
 difficulties that it was more than two days before we 
 reached the city, though the distance by land is but litt\« 
 mare than half what it is by water. , 
 
 I had now reached one of the great Siberian prisoiis. 
 18 
 
171 
 
 BUBSIAK KIHILISM AlfO 
 
 and my investigations became more interesting here be- 
 cause of immediate contact witli some initiatory horrors 
 wliich previous study and reading liad partly prepared 
 me for. 
 
 Tobolsk is a city of nearly 40,000 inhabitants and was 
 the first capital of 
 
 Siberia, the whole of 
 that enormous terri- 
 tory being acquired 
 in seventy j'^ears of 
 the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. The town was 
 originally built on a 
 high hill, having pre- 
 cipitous sides, and 
 around itwas a strong 
 wall over the ramp- 
 arts of which still 
 glisten and frown 
 several large cannons . 
 Entrance to this part 
 of the city is through 
 fortress gates, to 
 gain which passage 
 must be made up a 
 steep, winding road- 
 way. As the town 
 grew, for lack of 
 on the hill, 
 
 space 
 
 building began on the 
 
 plain below, until now the lower portion of the city ifs larger 
 
 and more regularly built than that on the hill. 
 
 The population of Tobolsk is composed of Russians, 
 Tartars and Germans, the latter race being much more 
 
BXELH LITE IN SIBERIA. 279 
 
 numeroua than circumstances permitted me to believe 
 until I had thoroughly convinced myself. They are an 
 object of bitter prejudice to the Russians, who very fre- 
 quently visit upon them rank injustice ; knowing this, I 
 was very much surprised that the Germans composed 
 nearly one-sixth of the entire population. Being some- 
 what familiar with the German language, I found it now 
 very serviceable to me, for I secured introductions to 
 several prominent persons of that nationality who took 
 much pains to make my visit both pleasant and profitable. 
 
 In Upper Tobolsk is a fine and celebrated cathedral, 
 near which is hung on a tripod the Uglitch bell, with 
 which is connected a singular history, to this effect : The 
 bell was orginally in the turret of a cathedral in Uglitch, 
 Russia, where, for many years, it called the faithful to 
 assemble for worship. But in 1591 a great insurrection 
 took place in Uglitch, against the Czar Godunoff, on 
 which occasion the rebels used this bell to signal their 
 uprising and attack upon the Goverment officers. These 
 insurrectionists were very strong in numbers, and were 
 not overpowered for several months, but when their sub- 
 jection was at last accomplished, Boris Godunoff issued 
 an order of punishment against the bell, in obedience to 
 which it was thrown down from the turret, its ears were 
 broken off, and then a company of men were made to 
 publicly flog it. To this was added a decree of banish- 
 ment, so that the bell was taken, with several thousand 
 of the insurrectionists sent into exile, to the district of 
 Tobolsk. The disgrace which thus fell upon the bell for 
 aiding the rebels, has been so far removed now that it is 
 again used for calling Muscovites to prayers. 
 
 There is very little of interest to be seen in Tobolsk 
 outside the prisons, which are three in number, and gen- 
 erally contain from 1,000 to 1,200 prisoners. They are 
 
380 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 located near a large pleasure garden, and directly under 
 a commanding view from the fortress. I managed to 
 secure an introduction to the chief jjrison guard, who 
 being able to speak a little German readily answered such 
 inquiries as I addressed to him, and also, after much per- 
 suasion and the gift of several roubles, finally gave me 
 permission to go inside the prisons. This privilege was 
 much more than I had expected, but I soon learned from 
 experience that a few roubles, judicously used, could be 
 made a magical sesame that would open any door in 
 Russia. 
 
 The buildings are of brick with small, square win- 
 dows, provided with double glass to keep out the cold. 
 As I entered, two guards stepped forward with fixed bay- 
 onets and followed me wherever I went in the prison. 
 The chief officer also accompanied me, and from him I 
 learned that Tobolsk was formerly the station to which 
 all hard-labor convicts were sent, but as mines became 
 developed further east the prisons here are now used to 
 confine convicts one year before sending them eastward ; 
 it is only a comparatively small number who are de- 
 tained at Tobolsk at all, those in confinement being crim- 
 inals who have committed some new offense while on the 
 transport route, or convicts who have been retaken after 
 an attempt to escape. 
 
 Large workshops adjoined the prisons, in which all 
 those able to labor were busily employed ; there were 
 shoemakers, tailors, wagon-makers, cabinet-makers, etc. 
 All these were compelled to perform a certain amount of 
 labor each day or be knouted, which is no more than a 
 playful frolic between the floggerand his victim — accord- 
 ing to Mr. Lansdell, the philanthropist. This method of 
 punishment, though ostensibly abolished, is inflicted on 
 some poor convict at the Tobolsk prisons every day, as 
 
EXILE LIFE IN" SIBERIA. 
 
 281 
 
 several citizenB assured me. A gentleman who had wit- 
 nessed several such floggings, described the process as 
 
 ADMINISTERING THE KNOUT. 
 
 follows : The culprit is taken to a room where there ii 
 a large pUlar, to which two rin^s aje attached at an «1«- 
 
282 KU8SIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 vation of about seven feet from the floor. Here he is 
 stripped entirely, but a light cloth is placed about his 
 loins, not as an act of clemency, however, but of de- 
 cency ; the poor victim, now panting and quivering at 
 the ordeal which he anticipates, is then bound about the 
 wrists with strong cords which are drawn up and fastened 
 to the rings, raising him almost off his feet. Two pro- 
 fessional floggers now enter the room in response to a 
 summons, bearing knouts in their hands. These instru- 
 ments of torture, rather than punishment, are composed 
 of several rawhide thono-s bound tosrether at one end in a 
 handle one foot long ; each thong terminates in a knot, 
 which serves the purpose of giving additional force to 
 each stroke and of greatly increasing the punishment by 
 bruising the flesh where each knot strikes. The floggers 
 begin their work generally by flourishing the knout sev- 
 eral times about their heads without striking the victim, 
 so as to take him by surprise, as it is believed a keener 
 agony is produced by striking when the victim is least 
 expecting it. When the whipping begins, however, it is 
 laid on by the floggers alternately, who strike all over the 
 body, so as to j^roduce the largest surface of suffering. 
 With every stroke either several great blue welts rise un- 
 der the thongs, or, if the flesh be particularly tender, 
 gashes are made from whence streams of blood pour. 
 But it is said there is less suffering from cuts than 
 bruises, the former healing up rapidly, while the latter 
 not infrequently fester and cause an illness from whi(!h 
 many die. There are hundreds of instances, however, 
 where men and women have died under the administra- 
 tion, and in nearly all cases where as many as one hun- 
 dred lashes are given, the victim becomes unconscious 
 and does not revive for hours afterward. 
 
 Among the workman I noticed not a f«w who wore 
 
EXILK LIFE IN SIBERIA. J85 
 
 chains similar to those I saw on the prisoners at Moscow. 
 Upon inquiry respecting the cause of this, an intelligent 
 guard told me, through my interpreter, that the prison- 
 ers thus subjected to additional punishment were crimi- 
 nals who had been convicted of aggravated offenses, such 
 as unprovoked murder or serious political crimes, and 
 that the sentence they were under was hard labor for a 
 long period of y^ars (or for life) and without mercy. 
 
 Through curiosity T approached 
 
 very near a half-dozen or more 
 
 of these shackled convicts, so 
 
 that the effects of their chains 
 
 were j)lainly visible ; in some 
 
 instances large abrasions were 
 
 noticed on their wrists, which 
 
 must have given extreme pain, 
 
 while in others the flesh under 
 
 -^i.^^ii M ii«ss^K>*^^— the galling irons was so black 
 
 ^ f\-W^ki^^ ^^ ^^ S^^^ ^^ appearance of 
 
 ^:^>^Afe'|WJ^ -" mortification. I could not 
 
 ^^- :f ^^^^^^^^* discover what effect the heavy 
 
 anklets had, as large, extreme- 
 
 A CONVK.T LABORER IN IRONS. , i ■,.-, .^ n i 
 
 ly coarse socks hid the flesh, 
 but from outward indications I should judge the 
 ankles were badly swollen. When at work, the wrists of 
 these convicts were bound with a chain which gave 
 about two feet of free action to the hands, but when not 
 at labor the wrists were brought together and fastened ; 
 in addition to this, a strong leathern strap was attached 
 from the wrist bindings to double chains on the legs and 
 ankles, so that the hands were confined in one position ; 
 hard labor was far more preferable than idleness, when 
 bound in such heartless manner. 
 
 Women convicts were subjected to as severe treatment 
 
284 BUSSIAN NIHILISM iLND 
 
 as the men, except their labor was hardly so taxing. 
 They were chiefly employed scouring the prisons, cook- 
 ing, and washing clothes, })ut I noticed a few who were 
 engaged in making baskets and polishing leather. Their 
 sex did not exempt them from the knout or plete. This 
 latter instrument of punishment is made of several short 
 but thick birches tied together at'one end, the others be- 
 ing left loose so as to strike in several places on the flesh 
 at each blow. 
 
 Having passed through the prisons, I had now seen 
 quite enough of Tobolsk, and made my preparations to 
 leave for Tomsk. Capt. Spicer had already left me the 
 day after our arrival in Tobolsk, taking steamer for 
 some destination on the Obi, which he himself had not 
 finally decided upon. The guide whom we had employed 
 at Moscow also accompanied him, to my great satisfac- 
 tion, for I had long since learned that, besides knowing 
 but little of the Kussian language, he was incontinently 
 stupid, and his services were by no means satisfying. 
 Capt. Spicer, however, was an old Arctic whaler, and 
 was now going among the Esquimaux, whose tongue he 
 could speak ; he was therefore content to take the guide 
 with him as a servant. 
 
 I had no difiiculty in securing another interpreter in 
 the person of a German named Schleuter, who was a res- 
 ident of Tobolsk, speaking the Russ, Tartar, Samoyede, 
 Gilyak, and other languages used by the vai-ious tribes of 
 north and eastern Siberia ; he had also made several trips 
 across the continent, and was well versed in all the char- 
 acteristics of both country and people. This engage- 
 ment was a particularly fortunate one, for through 
 Schleuter I obtained much information which, without 
 his services, must have remained undisclosed to me. 
 
 Mjy experience with the tarantass and the tumbril, 
 
2Hfi RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 I must confess, greatly prejudiced me against them as 
 modes of conveyance, and as there was a tri-weekly ser- 
 vice of paddle-wheel steamers between Tobolsk and 
 Tomsk, I decided to travel to the latter city by boat. 
 Accordingly, in obedience to my instructions, Schleuter 
 purchased such things as we might need on the trip, and 
 on Wednesday afternoon we embarked for a six days' 
 voyage to Tomsk. As we backed out into the stream — 
 the Irtysh River — a beautiful view of Tobolsk was had, 
 reminding me of the appearance 1 had conceived of mid- 
 dle'century castles inhabited by the lords of rich manors, 
 with hundreds of outbuildings for the shelter of their 
 subjects. This creation was intensified by a recollection 
 of the country in which I was now traveling, and by 
 the peculiar features and faces that surrounded me. 
 
 There were perhaps one hundred and twenty-five pas- 
 sengers on the steamer, but of this number not mor« 
 than twenty occupied first-class accommodations. My 
 interpreter was quite willing to travel second-class (the 
 fare being fourteen roubles), but I preferred that he 
 should go first-class so that I might have the benefit of 
 his company constantly, particularly as the first-class fare 
 was only twenty roubles ($10.00). But this passage 
 money di^ not include table fare, which amounted to 
 about $1.25 each per day. 
 
 I have seen no little gambling in my life, but never 
 before did I make a journey on a steamer where all the 
 passengers were gamblers. As all Eussia is a tea drink- 
 ing nation, so are all Russian subjects inveterate card 
 players. In fact the national laws foster gaming, for 
 the Government has a monopoly of card manufacturing, 
 the revenue from which is applied to the support of the 
 foundling asylums at Moscow and St. Petersburg. 
 
 Night and day all the passengers, men and women, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 28 ^J 
 
 Were busily engaged throwing cards in a game I never 
 saw played before, but which resembled "Napoleon," 
 a game quite common in England, in which the players 
 lay wagers on how many tricks they can take. 
 
 But except at night, when I backed Schleuter in a 
 game, I was too much interested in the scenery to take 
 any interest in cards. After we passed out of the Irtysh 
 into the Obi river our steamer made more frequent land- 
 ings and an opportunity was had to learn something of 
 Northera Siberia. At the towns of Shapsink, Sahabinsk, 
 Solkin and Surgat we met hundreds of Ostjaks, who 
 are a race of people inhabiting the northern portion of 
 the Tobolsk and Tomsk Governments. They live by 
 fishing and hunting, chiefly by the former, and are as 
 filthy in their person as the Digger Indians of New Mexico. 
 They swarmed about our boat wherever we landed and 
 besought the passengers to buy their fish and game ; ducks 
 they sold at ten kopecks (five cents) a brace ; grouse at 
 fifty koj)ecks (twenty-five cents) a pair ; while fish were 
 so cheap that an American would not receive them as 
 a gift and peddle them at a Negro barbecue at such 
 prices ; sturgeons, which is perhaps the best fish found 
 in Siberian waters, were offered at two kopecks (one 
 cent) per pound, or a fish weighing ten pounds might 
 have been purchased,' by a little higgling, for about sevem 
 cents. Many other species of fish were offered at one- 
 half cent per pound. 
 
 These Ostjaks take all their fish from the upper streams 
 in winter time, their mode of fishing being as follows: 
 A hole is cut through the ice, over which a spring rod is 
 placed, having several lines and baited hooks. Little 
 balls of clay are heated and thrown into the stream , which 
 cause the fish to rise from hollow beds in the river, where 
 they ©olloct in »chooli. When the fish mov« out of their 
 
288 
 
 EU8SIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 places they invariably swim some distance up stream at 
 which time they see the bait and take it with great vora- 
 
 KOSSIANIZED OSTJAKS. 
 
 •iouaness. Sometimes a dozen lines set in this way will 
 take as many as a dozen fish atj^ufe Ufiie. After the fisli 
 
EXILE LITE IX SIBERIA. 289 
 
 ■♦ 
 
 are caught they are packed and frozen, in which condi- 
 tion they are sent to all parts of Russia, or sold at inns 
 and to jDassengers along the steam or post-routes. 
 
 The Ostjaks, who number about 30,000, inhabit that 
 portion of Siberia lying between the rivers Irtysh and 
 Obi, and as far north as Obdorsk. They are nomadic 
 and^ live in a diffused state in tents which they call 
 youts. 
 
 The Obi is a stream of considerable width, and its 
 course lies through a plain without even once passing a 
 moderate sized hill. The scenery is therefore very mo- 
 notonous, and but for the peculiar people met with there 
 would be nothing on the water-route between Tobolsk 
 and Tomsk — 1,600 miles — to excite the least interest. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 We arrived at Tomsk late Tuesday night, and so anx- 
 ious was I to leave the steamer, which had been little 
 more than a prison to me, that I called to Schleuter and 
 had him prepare for immediate debarkation. "We en- 
 gaged a droshky and drove to a hotel , the Russian name 
 of which I have forgotten, but in English it was the 
 Tomsk Tavern, so my interpreter told me, kept by a 
 pleasing old fellow whose patronymic — Honkhorainiski 
 — I could not well forget, because it is so suggestive of 
 hog and hominy. 
 
 I was shown to a room in the hotel, the furniture of 
 which was principally icons and candles. I might call 
 them images, but not in the presence of a Russian, unless 
 I wanted to insult him; an icon, therefore, needs some 
 explanation. The religious Muscovite is technical to a 
 
9G0 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 point of punctilliousness ; he observes that biblical iis- 
 junction which forbids the making of idols or images for 
 worship ; but his construction of the divine command is, 
 to say the least, about as badly mixed as was the Irish- 
 man who attended the accouchment of a double-headed 
 calf. A farmer coming by noticed Pat at work with the 
 calf, which he quickly observed was a freak of nature, 
 and addressed him : " Well, Pat, that is rather a singu- 
 lar lusus naturae, the like of which I never before r ' 
 nessed." 
 
 "Begorrah," responded the puzzled Hibernian, " tha 
 a noble name for sich a brhute ; I was afther callin' ov i 
 a badly mixed calf." 
 
 In order to avoid conflict with the command, and at 
 the same time secure his image, the Russian icon maker 
 ffrst paints a picture of either Christ, the Madonna, or 
 whatever holy patriarch he desires to represent, and then 
 makes a has-relief investiture, so that the clothing is a 
 relief image, while those poilions which represent the face, 
 hands or feet are only painted on a flat back-ground. 
 TMs hybrid image the Russians call an icon, and they 
 believe with all their devout credulity that it is neither a 
 graven image noi- the representation of an image. It is 
 only necessary to add that Russian religion is founded 
 upon faith alone — without works. 
 
 Surrounded by so much holiness, I slept with sound- 
 ness until Peter's cock split its throat crowing, and the 
 sun had started the bees on their third trip to the clover 
 blossoms — metaphorically, of course, as there is no clover 
 in Siberia. Starting out into the city about ten o'clock, 
 the first thing that arrested my attention was what Rus- 
 sians call a gostinnoi dvor, a market-place where are sold 
 all the vegetable products of Siberia, and many others 
 raised in Russia. I was very much entertained passing 
 
EXILE LITE IK SIBERU. 
 
 291 
 
 through the numerous stalls making a hurried inspection 
 of the things on sale, and those who were bartering. 
 Around the market there is a large open space in the cen- 
 ter of which stands a handsome little chapel with white 
 
 and gilt sides and 
 a beautiful blue 
 dome representing 
 the starlit canopy 
 of heaven. 
 
 There are two 
 prisons in Tomsk, 
 both of which are 
 low, brick build- 
 ings, perpetually 
 damp and foul with 
 miasmatic exhala- 
 tions, owing to the 
 boggy character of 
 the soil over which 
 they are built. 
 One of these pris- 
 ons is used as a de- 
 tention building, 
 in which prisoners 
 on the way east 
 are temporarily 
 confined, from one 
 day to one week, 
 according as occa- 
 sion may require. 
 In the other pii!>on, cnminals bent into exile for short 
 terms are confined. These perform little labor, and they 
 are kept in such close quarters that inaction affects them 
 seriously. Through the kindness of a local charity, a 
 
ti9t RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 school has recently been established for the benefit of 
 the prisoners and their children, but comparatively few 
 avail themselves of the benefit which it affords. There 
 is a reason for this which I did not understand at first. 
 The prisoners confined at Tomsk are only those con- 
 victed of petty crimes, whose sentence does not exceed 
 four 3'ears, and even this does not extend beyond mere 
 confinement ; naturally, such convicts are from a class so 
 densely ignorant that intelligence is repugnant; they 
 never have spirit to do more than snatch a pocket-book, 
 assassinate some unsuspecting person, or assault a female. 
 
 There are no political convicts at Tomsk, and as it was 
 this class I was more particularly desirous of seeing, my 
 stay in that town was limited to a single day. 
 
 "We were now at the terminus of water communication 
 eastward, of which fact I was not disposed to grumble, 
 because steamboating in Siberia can only be compared for 
 discomfort, to travelling by tarantass or tumbril ; when 
 you are on one, you invariably wish you were on the 
 other ; so, having just left a steamer, I was glad to get a 
 tumbril. Schleuter had no difficulty in engaging a ve- 
 hicle of this character, and being himself familiar with 
 the highway, we concluded to dispense with the services 
 of a, yemsfchik (driver) and go through to Krasnoiarsk, 
 which is distant from Tomsk about three hundred miles, 
 without any auxiliaries. Having completed arrange- 
 ments, we started from Tomsk in the morning with a de- 
 termination to reach Krasnoiarsk within two days' travel- 
 ling. Schleuter was a good driver, and he knew just 
 how much speed to get out of three Siberian ponies 
 abreast. When we reined up at the first station, our 
 horses were in a foam but they still had many long 
 breaths in them ; nevertheless we changed them, and with 
 fresh animals our rapid travelling was resumed. 
 
itXlUC LITE IN SIBERIA 
 
294 * RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANI? 
 
 As a pointer to those ambitious of vioiling Siberia, l<?t 
 me add one explanatory word here. First, a tumbril is 
 much to be preferred before a tarantass ; second, horse- 
 back is f>refefable to either ; third, walking, in any other 
 country, is far less objectionable than travelling in any 
 way through Siberia. It is true, that in a tumbril lying 
 down is possible, but consider the luxury of rsuch a bed ; 
 between the two axles are three or more poles to which 
 the bed of the vehicle is fastened ; they are just ^ong and 
 inelastic enough to throw you high in the air wlion the 
 tumbril crosses an obstruction, and let you down ugaiu 
 with the force of a catapult. Under such circumstancef 
 sleep visits the traveller in horrid dreams ; this I knov 
 from experience, for the first night out, being exhausted 
 with the mascerating trituration to which I had been 
 subjected for eighteen hours, I fell into a doze which 
 lasted perhaps half an hour, during which time I dreamed 
 of being assaulted b}'^ six three-headed giants two miles* 
 tall, who pounded nie with spiked bludgeons and then 
 chewed me up between steel teeth six feet long. When 
 the giants concluded their feast, my dream changed and 
 I thought a large pack of wolves had surrounded a small 
 tree up which I had sought escape ; that they fell to with 
 their teeth and soon gnawed the sapling until it fell, 
 throwing me upon the ground Avith extreme violence, 
 when immediately my flesh Avas torn into shoe-strings bf 
 a thousand snarling, voracious pests of Siberia's plains. 
 The (;old chills even now creep in successive waves over 
 my body as I recall that dream, for it seems that I can 
 still feel the wolves planting their feet on my body while 
 stripping the flesh from my bones. This dream is only 
 a very slight exaggeration of the real miseries suffered 
 by travellers in Siberia. 
 
 When Schleuter became too tired for further service 1 
 
EXILE LIFE IX SIBERIA. 295 
 
 took hh plare as driver, and thus we lost no time until 
 the evening following our departure from Tomsk, when, 
 strange enough, we overtook the same convoy of prison- 
 ers I had seen leave Tobolsk, on foot, nearly a week be- 
 fore. This I considered a piece of good fortune, as it 
 enabled me to see how exiles in transport were treated, 
 and to disi^over with what feelings they accepted banish- 
 ment. 
 
 I o-ot oil s'ood terms with the chief officer of tlie con- 
 voy by giving liini sundry privileges with a little flask 
 which I carriedforemergencies, just like the one to which 
 it was now applied. Through my interpreter I talked 
 with him familiarly for some time and then made inqui- 
 ries re;q)ecting his charge ; he was not disposed to say 
 much about the prisoners at first, but as the flask lost its 
 contents, he became more loquacious until I had pumped 
 enough out of him to fill a book. Under the spirit- 
 ual influence Avhich now possessed him, he exhibited 
 that cureless indifference of his prisoners' comfort which 
 distinguishes the Russian anstocracy in their treatment of 
 the poor peasantry. 
 
 Tt was plain to be seen that the burdened convicts 
 Avere suffering from fatigue, although it is said they 
 travel only on alternate days, resting at post-stations and 
 attending church meantime, but of this I have my 
 doubts. It is.probabl}'^ the law, but what is a written law 
 in a country like Siberia? My impression is, if the officers 
 of a convoy desire to recreate themselves — get drunk on 
 tlie highway — they stop one ar more days at a time ; but, 
 on the other hand, if they are anxious to make a quick 
 trip in order to serve their own personal ends, then the 
 convicts are compelled to continue their march, regardless 
 of the fatigue they may be suffering. In fact, the officer 
 with whom I was conversing ^nrtually admitted to me as 
 much. 
 
-SHLILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 297 
 
 There were three ambulances — tumbrils — with the con- 
 voy to carry those who could travel no longer, but the officer 
 told me they Avere used only in extreme cases ; said he, 
 "when a man or woman lags behind we sometimes touch 
 them up with a cracker ; and if this does not put new 
 life in their legs the j)lete, well wielded, almost invariably 
 does." -This admission served to indicate the severe 
 measures sometimes used in compelling exiles to walk 
 when their condition was such that they could scarcely 
 support their exhausted bodies. I am not unconscious 
 of the fact that many would feign sickness in order to 
 secure a ride, but for the stringent measures used by the 
 guards ; human nature is not different in Siberia from 
 that we see in other countries, but the enforced travelling 
 of exiles is performed under circumstances peculiar, in 
 that the convicts are punished beyond what their sentence 
 contemplates. 
 
 As I rode beside the officer my attention was at- 
 tracted to one man who staggered along, with his face 
 towards the ground as if trying to lose consciousness in a 
 hypnotism of himself. He was heavily ironed, in fact 
 inhumanly, atrociously shackled, so that every step he 
 took his chains rattled in consonance with the extreme 
 suffering which I could plainly see he was enduring. His 
 wrists were bound together, to which was attached a 
 heavier double-chain that ran down and connected with 
 immense iron manacles on his ankles ; the weight of the 
 gyves he had to carry was not less than thirty pounds, 
 and though not at the time able to observe the effects, I 
 was quite certaiil that an examination would disclose a 
 sight sufficient to excite the sympathy of any human be- 
 ing. I was therefore determined in my efforts to see the 
 poor fellow and learn exactly the condition of his limbs. 
 To accomplish this I had recourse to a little stratagem, 
 
29b RUiSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 in which Schleuter gave me such assistance a.*" rn.wlG my 
 plan successful. T knew that the next station was the 
 last before reaching Krasnoiarsk, so directly after refilling 
 my flask I went among the several officers of the guard 
 and gave them each so much as they desired to drink, 
 besides a few pleasant words, such as I thought would 
 place them on good terms with me. I next returned 
 to the chief officer and give him a full flask, after which 
 I began a dissertation on prisoners generally, and on 
 exiles in particular ; declaring that as a rule their treat- 
 ment was altogether too considerate ; that they should 
 be dealt with in a manner becoming their crimes ; if a 
 man commits murder he should be shown no more mere}' 
 than that which he manifested for his victim ; I assured 
 him that the plete was a good stimulant and was quite 
 certain that the irons on his prisoners were in no wise too 
 heavy ; in fact they might be more wholesome if they 
 were a little heavier. A long commentary of this charac- 
 ter had the effect I had anticipated, for the officer not 
 only coincided with my views, but offered to prove that 
 he was a disciplinarian after the type I had pictured. 
 ■*' Some of these fellows," sitid he, "are wretches who 
 ought to be fed to a slow fiie ; well, I have the satisfac- 
 tion of knowing that they will remember me." 
 
 To this I made a complimentary reply, and then begged 
 that he would accord me the privilege of examining one 
 or more of -ihe convicts at the next station — those whom 
 he could recommend as having had something of their 
 deserts while under his charge. 
 
 I was very glad at receiving a favorable response, so 
 at a station between Balshe and Krasnoiarsk we stopi)ed 
 an hour, during which time I examined the poor fellow 
 to whom I have referred, and also one woman who was 
 travelling with a large iron collar about her neck, to 
 
■aXtLM LIFZ TX 8IBBRU.. 
 
 ^U9 
 
 which there weve chains passing down and binding her 
 wrists. The two were taken into a private room of the 
 station, separately so as not to arouse the suspicion of 
 the other convicts or guards. 
 
 A SHACKLED CONVICT ON THE TRANSPORT ROUTE. 
 
 The shackles being removed we took off the man'i 
 felt boots, when I saw a sight which may God forbid I 
 should ever a^ain witaei^s. There is nothing to which 
 
300 KUiSIAlf NIHILISM AND 
 
 I might compare his condition except to some of thos^ 
 tortured by the Spanish Inquisition, or to victims of 
 Bulgarian atrocity. The flesh had been bruised by the 
 cruel sliackles, and then swelling had caused the irons to 
 slowly lacerate, the sensitive parts until the ankles re- 
 sembled the last stages of leprosy, when the flesh grows 
 black and begins to drop away from the bones. Such a 
 sight T never before saw and hope never to see again, but 
 in addition to the suffering which this dreadful treatment 
 caused him, his wrists were in a condition almost equally 
 bad. His felt boots had, of course, somewhat aggra- 
 vated the injuries to his ankles, which were now worn 
 almost in two by the shackles ; but there was the 
 same rasping pressure on his wrists on which he bore 
 nearly all the weight of his chains in order to relieve his 
 ankles. Such compassion Vas aroused in me by his suf- 
 ferings that tears fell fast from my eyes, and in a mo- 
 ment when the officer was not looking I slipped a ten 
 rouble note into the poor fellow's pocket. I was well 
 aware that this sum of money would purchase for him 
 many little comforts and also secure him a place in the 
 ambulance. The look of "God bless you" which h^ 
 gave was so full of soulfulness and gratitude that in re- 
 membering the event since I have wished a thousand 
 times that I had made my gratuity tenfold greater. But 
 in addition to my gift I procured for him transportation 
 in the convoy trumbril by giving the chief officer five 
 roubles. 
 
 ) After examining the man and sending him out of the 
 TDoni the woman was called in, but though her condition 
 was dreadful and pitiable, it was not to be compared with 
 tliat of the man's. Her wrists, which had supported but 
 liCile weight, wei-e badly chafed and had bled until her 
 dress was stained ; but the greatest suffering she en- 
 
BXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 301 
 
 dured ■was from her neck, which was so badly bruised that 
 when the iron collar was removed she could not bear the 
 least jDressure on the injured parts without exhibiting 
 great pain. By giving the officer another five rouble note 
 he consented to jjermit the woman to travel into Krasnoi- 
 arsk without the shackles. 
 
 But I would not have the reader suppose that these 
 two were the only sufferers in tliat party of prisoners, 
 for there were, perhaps, three-score of men and women 
 no more fortunate ; the two I selected to examine were 
 not exceptional cases, but were a fair sample of the re- 
 sults produced by wearing galling irons while travelling 
 2000 miles on foot. 
 
 Beside these miserable convicts trudged nearly one 
 hundred foot-sore women and children who had elected, of 
 their own volition, to accompany their husbands or fathers 
 into exile. Among the women not a few carried little 
 infants strapped en their backs, Indian style, as their 
 arms could never have borne them so far, however 
 precious a child is to its mother. I distributed several 
 roubles among those whose appearance of misery ap- 
 pealed to my sympathy most ; but these little gifts served 
 to increase the pity I already felt, for as I would give to 
 one and not to another, the sorrowful looks I saw in the 
 eye« of those whose extended palms received nothing 
 pierced me with compassion- 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 "We arrived at Krasnoiarsk on the evening of the third 
 day, a little in advance of the convoy of prisoners, and 
 found lodging in a hotel which gave us fair accommoda- 
 tioiM. 
 
S02 
 
 RUSSIAN NTHILISBI AND 
 
 The town has a population of about 8,000, and is situ- 
 ated on one of Siberia's most famous rivers, the Yenisei, 
 which, starting in the Taugnou mountains of Chinese 
 Tartary, flows northward a distance of 2000 miles into 
 the Yenissei Gulf. Krasnoiarsk lies upon several small 
 hills, and is built in an irregular, straggling style. It 
 contains one prison which is used, I understood, for con- 
 finino- local offenders, and others who, while enroute 
 further east, fall ill by the way-side. What is meant by 
 the word "ill," in this connection, may be inferred 
 when the fact is known that out of a total of one hun- 
 dred and twenty-two 
 prisoners confined in the 
 prison when I visited it, 
 fifty-one were insane. 
 I am not surprised that 
 so many exiles grow 
 mad, for it is only the 
 coarsest and strongest 
 minds that can bear up 
 under the afilictions 
 which a majority of ex- 
 iles are made to endure. 
 
 In passing through 
 the prison at Krasnoi- 
 arsk, I went into one 
 ward that contained an 
 unfortunate fellow who 
 had been so brutally maltreated while on the transport 
 route that his life was despaired of. He was therefore 
 left at the prison, where his treatment being less rigor- 
 ous he had so far improved as to be able to sit up and move 
 about. But the most remarkable circumstance concern- 
 ing this prisoner was found in the fact, that when he en- 
 
 A CONVALESCKNT PRISONER IN IRONS. 
 
VSILX LIFE w asBimiA. '603 
 
 cered the prison he was in chains much heavier thap those 
 ( have previously described, and these had never been re- 
 moved. This statement is so startling as to appear incred- 
 ible, but receiving the admission from those in charge of 
 the prisoner, and with my own eyes beholding the 
 wretched man still clothed with chains, there could be 
 no stronger proof produced to establish any statement. 
 As I saw him he sat on a clumsy chair to which he was 
 made fast, as seen in the engraving. Around his waist 
 was an iron girdle two inches broad and nearly one-half 
 inch thick, to which heavy chains were attached connect- 
 ins: with an iron collar about his neck, and with an im- 
 mense ba^ of iron over his feet. This iron bar, which 
 must have weighed not less than twenty-five pounds, was 
 made fast to his ankles by staples in the bar, which 
 grasped the limbs in an unyielding embrace. It was 
 truly a lamentable sight, from which I turned away with- 
 out investigating the condition of his neck, waist or 
 ankles, for I was certain they would present an appear- 
 ance not unlike that I have already described as having 
 seen at a post-station. 
 
 There are not a few buildings in Krasnoiarsk of excel- 
 lent pretensions both as to size and architecture. It has 
 one church that cost nearly $500,000, which was built by 
 a rich gold miner who had seen much of the world even 
 on this side the Atlantic, and yet preferred Siberia as a 
 place of residence. His home, however, was such a 
 model of luxury and elegance that his preference was but 
 natural. 
 
 I was told that the city was but little more than half 
 as large as it was prior to the fire of 1880, which swept 
 away many of its most important buildings, the ruins of 
 which were still to be seen on the south side of the town, 
 for it must be remembered that they do not build up 
 
304 KUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 burned districts in Siberia, or even in any part of Europe, 
 like they do in America. A pleasing incident of this fact 
 was told to me at St. Petersburg. Some time in the win- 
 ter of 1881 the Livadia Garden buildings (a summer 
 retreat in the suburbs of St. Petersburg), took fire and 
 were entirely consumed. The buildings consisted of open 
 franie works under which there were seats and tables for 
 wine and tea drinking ; also an enclosed building used as 
 a saloon, and an open air theater ; the whole was made of 
 light pine timber, such as in America a rushing ma q gen- 
 erally gives himself one week to have built up frf>m the 
 ground and in full operation. But the Livadia (irarden 
 was re-opened three months after the fire, the buildings 
 having been I'eplaced, which was regarded as such extra- 
 ordinarily quick work that the place has since been known 
 as the American Garden. The St. Petersburgers declare 
 that no where in the world outside of A^ierica ^7as ever 
 such rapid construction of buildings known. 
 
 In the afternoon following my arrival in Kr^snoiarsk 
 the convoy which I accompained made ready for cross- 
 ing the Yenisei and continuing their journey to Irkoutsk, 
 where, upon arrival, convicts are distributed, according 
 to their sentences, to Sakhalein, Yakoutsk, Kara, and 
 other penal stations. 
 
 The Yenisei is nearly one mile wide at Krasnoiarsk, 
 across which prisoners are taken by what is called a 
 "flying bridge." This bridge, so called, consists fif a 
 series of boats anchored in the river, over which passes a 
 long line connecting with the main shores ; a barge for 
 carrying the convicts is made fast to this lino, which, 
 moving by pullies, draws the boat from one side of the 
 stream to the other. This rather singular arrangement 
 for ferriage is made necessary by reason of the extraor- 
 dinary current in the Yenisei, which often reaches a 
 rapidity of fifteen miles "^«*r hour. 
 
306 RUSSIAN NIHILIS3I AN© 
 
 There was nothing to detain me long at Krasnoiarsk, 
 and being desirous of visiting some mines where I might 
 witness the labor of convicts, after advising with Schleu- 
 ter, we decided to proceed two hundred miles north- 
 ward to Yeniseisk. As this would take us off the 
 transport route we had to purchase all provisions 
 needed on the trip, and also a complete travelling 
 outfit, including horses and tumbril. This, however, did 
 not involve so great an outlay as the reader might expect 
 Horses in Siberia are surprisingly cheap, as are cattle. A 
 fatted calf, one year old, will not bring more than $1.50, 
 and a good pony may be had for from $5 to $8. The 
 outfit of three horses, harness and tumbril, cost me only 
 $48, and in the end I found my purchase had been » 
 most profitable one. Milk is nearly everywhere abund- 
 ant in Siberia, and of this useful article we purchased 
 four gallons ; butter is not so plentiful, but yet obtain- 
 able at from six to eight cents per pound ; we also took 
 with us a sa?novar — tea urn — two pounds of tea, fifteen 
 loaves-pf white bread, which were baked to our order, 
 and twenty pounds of fresh meat. For our horses we 
 provided five bushels of corn, which is raised in Siberia 
 and sold at twenty-two cents per bushel ; grass is gen- 
 erally abundant, but oats are almost unknown. We laid 
 in no other provender for our animals, having ahead}' 
 such a load that we could scarcely make room for our 
 bedding. Thus accoutred, away we went towards the 
 great tundras, which, beginning a little north of Yen- 
 iseisk, stretch away to the arctic shores of Siberia. 
 
 Before reaching Krasnoiarsk the country become?, 
 more broken, with a considerable showing of stunted 
 trees, chiefly pine, but going northward from that 
 city the vegetation rapidly groAvs more jjrofuse, until 
 soon there appears an unbroken forest in which large 
 
EXILE LIFE IX SIBERIA, 
 
 :?>07 
 
 game abounds. Of this latter fact I had abundant evi- 
 dence during the first night we went into camp. There 
 is a public highway between Krasnoiarsk and Yeniseisk 
 alono; which are occasional inns, but the intervals are so 
 
 9 
 
 SIBERIAN ROADSIDE INN. 
 
 rare that we concluded to make camp at nine o'clock 
 rather than push on ten miles further, where we might 
 have secured lodgings not nearly so good as our tumbril 
 afforded. Directly after lighting our camp-fire, which 
 
308 ItUlSLLir NLHILIflM jLN1» 
 
 was made within a few yards of the road-side, beside a 
 large log, Schleuter turned to me suddenly, with the re- 
 mark ; ' ' What was that ? ' ' 
 
 I had heard no unusual noise, but must confess that 
 his enquiry immediately put me in a condition to see or 
 hear anything dreadful upon the least symi^tom of a cause. 
 I had with me no arms except a Smith and Wesson for- 
 ty-four calibi'e revolver, and this was quickly drawn in 
 anticipation of approaching deadly peril. The night was 
 cloudless, so that objects not obscured by the dense growth 
 could be readily defined at a distance of thirty or forty 
 yards. We therefore looked with eyes and ears, but could 
 discover nothing, though our horses manifested signs of 
 uneasiness. After several minutes of suspense, even 
 Schleuter came to the conclusion that he had g:iven a 
 false alarm, but 1 was far from bcino- satisfied, havinir 
 received a nervous shock from the suddenness of his ex- 
 citing enquiry which I could not rally from. 
 
 Under no circumstances is it an act of decorum or an 
 evidence of great courage for a gentleman to parade his 
 cool bravery before a comjjany when every element of 
 danger is absent ; particularly inappropriate would it ht^ 
 for me to strike a self-eulogisti(; attitude here where the 
 opposite side has no opportunity of replying. But at 
 the sacrifice of modesty I must say that on my native 
 heath I have hunted such game as the country afforded 
 without at any time — save once — having either my con- 
 science or fears excited ; this placid condition is due, 
 however, to the fact that T always killed what I was hunt- 
 ing, and because I never got on the wrong side of the 
 fence. But the conditions were now very materially al- 
 tered, for what I knew concerning Siberian game had 
 been acquired by reading adventures which described the 
 animal* as great hunters themselves and of the carnivorous 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 309 
 
 (Species, What I had forgotten of the ferocious wolves, 
 bears, boars, etc., of which I had read, came back to mo 
 now in vivid panorama, so that an admission of my rest- 
 lessness is drawing it exceedingly mild. 
 
 I sat up rather late, smoking my pipe, but the drowsy 
 god at length alighted on my eye-lids and I turned in 
 with Schleuter, who had for an hour before been executing 
 a nasal refrain in the tumbril. One, perhaps two hours 
 had passed ; the fire was almost extinguished, and doz- 
 ing, I had lost my fear in a pleasant dream of home. 
 The dream was concluded al)ruptly by my being awak- 
 ened with a returning sense of danger ; the horses were 
 snorting and tugging violently to loose themselves. I 
 jumped up, and looking over toward the smouldering 
 embers saw a bear, which, in my dreadfully excited state, 
 appeared as large as a mammoth. I forgot to awaken 
 Schleuter, who obstinately slept without one disturbing 
 reflection, but reaching for my pistol I fired across and 
 very near Schleuter' s head just as the bear reared up on 
 his hind legs to drain our samovar, which had been left on 
 the log. If T had known a little pistol shot could have 
 created so much of a row I avouM have considered sev- 
 eral minutes before firing. Schleuter bounded up as 
 though a dynamite mine had exploded under him, and he 
 lit out of the tumbril like one possessed of the devil. So 
 dreadfully confounded was I by his actions that for a 
 moment I forgot all about the bear, notwithstanding that 
 it was howlinjni: with ras-e and advancing on Schleutei*. 
 My aim had not been bad, for the bear's foreleg was 
 broken by the shot, but this served to rouse all the fight 
 in bruin's nature. Schleuter, half awake, could not see 
 the bear nor be made to understand his dangerous posi- 
 tion, until another shot from my pistol, placed almost 
 against the animal's ear, put a coup de grace on our ad- 
 venture. 
 
 20 
 
KXILB LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 511 
 
 There was no more sleep for either of us that night, go 
 rebuilding our fire we fell to and skinned the dead be&r, 
 keeping the hide as a trophy and taking the carcass along 
 with us to Yeniseisk. I learned from natives that what 
 [ considered a great adventure, in killing a bear, was an 
 event so commonplace that it could scarcely be esteemed 
 an adventure. In fact the country I was now in abounded 
 with such game, the hunting of which was followed not 
 only for the purpose of securing the game but for rid- 
 ding the country of pests which ravaged herds of young 
 cattle and horses. A favorite way of hunting the bear is 
 with a whip, fire-arms and ammunition not always being 
 obtainable in Siberia. To be successful in this kind of 
 hunting two men must hunt together on horses ; each 
 provides himself with a whip, made of phiited rawhide, 
 jibout twelve or fifteen feet long, to the end of which is 
 tied a leaden ball, which gives impetus to the lash, and 
 also serves the more useful purpose of tying the lash 
 M'hen whipped around the animal's neck. A bear being 
 found the two hunters, whose horses are generally trained 
 for the use, ride on each side of the animal, striking it 
 with the whip until it is almost exhausted ; they then, by 
 a movement which requires no little skill, throw their 
 whips around the bear's neck in such a manner that the 
 lash ties itself ; now being drawn from opposite directions 
 the animal is powerless and is often taken into the village 
 in this way, where it is disposed of. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 We reached Yeniseisk without further adventure, and 
 found it a city of much greater size and importance than 
 I liad supposed. It contains a population of nearly 20,- 
 000 souls, and \» beautifuUy situated on the south side of 
 
312 EUSSIAN NIHILISM ANi) 
 
 the Yenisei River. It is a great center for disposing of 
 furs obtained by the hunters of northern Siberia, who 
 are generally Samoyeds, Tunguses and Ostjaks, whose 
 numbers between the Obi and Yenisei rivers are estimated 
 to be about 25,000. They subsist almost entirely by 
 hunthig and fishing, in Avhich, with the use of the most 
 primitive hooks and bows, they are remarkably success- 
 ful ; but being nomadic and improvident, like our Amer- 
 ican Indians, they accumulate no more than will supply 
 their present necessities. 
 
 The principal animals found in the province of Yeni- 
 seisk are the bear, wolf, reindeer, white fox, ermine, elk 
 and sable. 
 
 In capturing the bear the Samoyeds adopt an original 
 plan, one which I do not remember being practiced by 
 any other tribe. Bears are more or less like the deer in 
 their habit of visiting a special locality by a particular 
 route ; the Samoyed therefore takes advantage of thi^ 
 habit by fixing his trap in bruin's way ; A wooden plat- 
 form is erected around a tree at such height from the 
 ground that to reach the center of it a bear must 
 stand upon his hind legs. The platform is filled with 
 very sharp iron spikes running up two inches above the 
 surface, while above them and made fast to the tree is 
 placed a piece of meat. In rearing up to secure this 
 meat the bear transfixes his fore-feet on the sharp spikes, 
 and is unable to release himself. 
 
 Snow was already falling about Yeniseisk during 
 my visit to the place in September, and I saw a largo 
 party of Tunguses making ready for a trip to the tundras^ 
 which begin about thirty miles north of Yeniseisk ; the 
 fishing season was now practically over, while the hunt- 
 ing was just beginning. I did not visit the tundras^ be- 
 cause my time was too limited, but frqm several persons, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. ''-'^ 
 
 residents of Yeniv«ieisk, who were thoroughly familiar 
 with Northern Siberia, I obtained a description which 
 was no doubt more accurate than I could have secured bj 
 paying a short visit to that intensely dreary section. 
 
 There is no place on earth that can compare with the 
 tundrasiov desolation and extreme cold, unless we choose 
 to bring the arctic regions into the contrast. Our great 
 western plains are only miniature tracts of level countr}', 
 and their product of thin grass is as a bounteous dispen- 
 sation of nature when compared with the almost meas- 
 ureless, frozen-hearted, worse than barren deserts of 
 northern Siberia. This great verdureless plain extends 
 from the center of northern Russia, six thousand miles 
 across Siberia, until it impinges on the fretful shores of 
 the Kamtchatkan sea and Behring's Strait. For ten 
 months in the year this immense stretch of hunger-laden 
 shore is covered with snow ; not so much as a dry twig, 
 frosted leaf, or drifting scallops about some fallen tree, 
 is there to relieve the one dead, shimmering, shivering 
 ocean waste of trackless snow ; nothing, like a bubble in 
 mid-ocean, unless may be seen on the expansive plain some 
 lonely hunters braving arctic perils in quest of the rein- 
 deer. 
 
 An American who spent three years in Siberia gives the 
 following graphic description of life on the tundras : 
 
 ' ' A winter journey over the great northern tundras is 
 inexpressibly lonely and monotonous. Day after day 
 the eye rests upon the same illimitable exj^anse of storm- 
 drifted snow, and night after night the traveller camps 
 in an utter solitude, over which seems to brood the 
 mournful silence of univ^ersal death. I do not know 
 how to describe in words the impression of sadness, 
 loneliness and isolation from all human interests, which 
 these great barren plains make upon the imagination. 
 
HUNUNG REINDEER ON THE TUNDRAS, 
 
fiXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA, SI 5 
 
 The world which you hsCve left, with all its cares, strife 
 and busy activity, fades away into the unreal imagery of 
 a dream ; and you seem removed to an infinite distance 
 from all the interests and occupations of your previous 
 life. You cannot realize that you are still in the same 
 busy, active, money-getting world in which you remem- 
 ber once to have lived. The cold, still atmosphere, the 
 red, gloomy twilight of the low-hanging sun, and the 
 great white ghastly ocean of snow around you, are all 
 full of cheerless, mournful suggestions, and have a strange 
 unearthliness which you cannot reconcile or connect with 
 any part of your previous life. 
 
 "The pleasantest feature of winter travel in Siberia is 
 camping-out at night. All day long you suffer from 
 cold, hunger and fatigue ; you lose your way in blinding 
 snow-storms, or become exhausted by the constant strug- 
 gle to keep warm in a temperature of 40° or 50° below 
 zero ; but the anticipation of the bright evening camp- 
 fire sustains your flagging spirits, and enables you to hold 
 out until night. We usually camped as soon as we could 
 find wood for a fire after it grew dark. Three sledges 
 were drawn up together so as to make a little enclosure 
 about ten feet square ; the snow was all shovelled out of 
 the interior and banked up around the sides like a snow 
 fort; and a fire was built at the open end. The little 
 snow cellar was then strewn to a depth of three or four 
 inches with twigs of trailing pine ; shaggy bearskins were 
 spread down to majie a warm, soft carpet ; and our fur 
 sleeping-bags and swans-down pillows arranged for the 
 night. In the middle of the enclosed space stood a low 
 table improvised out of a candle box, on which one of 
 our native drivers soon placed two cups of steaming tea, 
 a few pieces of frozen rye bread and some dried fish. 
 Then stretching ourselves out in luxurious style upon our 
 
316 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 bearskin carpet, with our feet to the fire and our backs 
 against pillows, we smoked, drank tea, and told stones 
 in perfect comfort. After supper the natives piled dry 
 branches of trailing pine upon the fire until it sent up a 
 column of flame ten feet in height, and then, squatted in 
 their favorite position around the blaze, they would sing 
 fot' hours the wild, melancholy songs of the Kamchadals, 
 or tell never-ending stories of hardship and adventure on 
 the coast of the ley Sea. At last, the great constella- 
 tion of Orion marked bed-time. Our stockings were 
 taken off and dried by the fire, the dogs were fed their 
 daily allowance of dried fish each, and putting on our 
 heaviest fur coats, we crawled feet first into our wolfskin 
 bags, pulled them up over our heads, and slept. 
 
 *' A camp, in the middle of a dark, cl-ear winter's night, 
 presents a strange, wild appearance. Imagine, if you 
 can, that you have waked up at some unknown hour 
 after midnight, and have thrust your head out of your 
 frosty fur bag, to see by the stars what time it is. The 
 fire has died away to a few glowing embers. There is 
 just light enough to distinguish the dark, crouching forms 
 of the natives, some sitting upon their heels, with their 
 backs against sledges, some squatting in a row bj'" the 
 fire, and all asleep. Away beyond the limits of the camp 
 stretches .the desolate steppe in a series of long snowy 
 waves, which blend gradually into a great white frozen 
 .ocean, and are lost in the distance and darkness of night. 
 High overhead, in a sky which is almost black, sparkle 
 the bright constellations of Orion and the Pleiades, the 
 celestial clocks which mark the long, weary hours be- 
 tween sunset and sunrise. The blue, mysterious stream- 
 ers of the aurora tremble in the north, now shooting up 
 in clear, bright lines to the zenith, and then waving back 
 find forth in great majestic curves over the silent camp, 
 
EXILE Lir^ IN SIBERIA. 317 
 
 as if warning back the adventurous traveller from the 
 unknown regions around the pole. Silence is as profound 
 as death. Nothing but the pulsating of the blood in your 
 ears and the heavy breathing of your sleeping men, 
 breaks the universal lull. 
 
 "Suddenly there rises upon the still night air a long, 
 faint, wailing cry, like that of a human being in the last 
 extremity of suffering. Gradually it swells and deepens, 
 until it seems to fill the whole atmosphere with its vol- 
 ume of mournful sound, dying away at last into a low, 
 despairing moan. It is the signal howl of a Siberian dog. 
 In a moment it is taken up by another upon a higher key ; 
 two or three more join in, then a dozen, then twenty, 
 fifty, eighty, until the whole pack of one hundred dogs 
 howl an infernal chorus together, making the air fairly 
 tremble with sound, as if from the heavy bass of a great 
 organ. 
 
 ' ' For fully a minute heaven and earth seem to be full of 
 yelling, howling fiends. Then, one by one they begin to 
 drop off, the unearthly tumult grows fainter and fainter, 
 until at last, it ends as it began, in one long and inex- 
 pressibly melancholy wail, and the camp becomes silent 
 again as death. One or two of your men move restlessly 
 in their sleep, as if the mournful howls blended unpleas- 
 antly with their dreams, but no one wakes, and a death- 
 like silence again pervades heaven and earth. 
 
 " Suddenly the aurora shines out with increased bril- 
 liancy, and its waving swords sweep back and forth 
 across the dark, starry sky, and light up the snowy steppe 
 with transitory flashes of colored radiance, as if the gates 
 of heaven were opening and closing upon the dazzling 
 brightness of the celestial city. Presently it fades away 
 again to a faint, diffused glow in the north, and one pale 
 green streamer, slender and bright as the spear of Ithu- 
 
ol'S RUSSIAX NIHILISM AN» 
 
 riel, pushes slowly up towurd the zenith until it touches 
 with its translucent point the jewelled belt of Orion. 
 Then it, too, fades and vanishes, and nothing but a bank 
 of pale white mist on the northern horizon shows the lo- 
 cation of the celestial armory whence the Arctic spirits 
 draw the gleaming swords and lances which they brand- 
 ish nightly over the lonely Siberian steppes. 
 
 " With the earliest streak of dawn the camp begins to 
 show signs of animation. The dogs get out of the deep 
 holes which their warm bodies have melted in the snow ; 
 the natives push their heads out of the neck-holes of their 
 fur coats, and whip off the mass of frost which has accu- 
 mulated around the aperture ; a fire is built, tea boiled, 
 and you crawl out of your fur bag to breakfast. Fifteen 
 or twenty minutes are spent in drinking tea and eating 
 dried fish. The sledges are then packed, the runners wet 
 down to cover them with a coating of ice, and before the 
 iiurora fades away in the increasing light of sunrise, you 
 are riding again at a brisk trot across the steppe. In this 
 monotonous routine of riding, camping and sleeping, day 
 after day, and week after week pass slowly and wearily 
 away." 
 
 During the summer season of two months, there de- 
 velops upon the tundras a coarse vegetation which very 
 much resembles moss, but so thick and strong is it that 
 nothing, not even a reindeer, can travel through it. But in 
 the winter season this moss-grass becorqps food for these 
 Animals, from which they remove the snow by digging 
 with their sharp feet. 
 
 The Tungueses whom T saw preparing for the hunt 
 had a large number of dogs which they took with them 
 to draw their sledges, as only dogs or reindeers can be 
 used for that purpose ; they also had a number of sledges 
 on which were thrown with other luggage several pairs of 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 319 
 
 snow rihoes. In answer to my questions, through an inler- 
 pretei', one of the hunters told me his party was going in 
 quest of sable, the skins of which sold in Yeniseisk as high 
 as $40. In hunting these little animals the Tunguese re- 
 lies chiefly on good luck, rather than any special skill. 
 Tracks of the sable being found they are followed until 
 the animal is either caught, when it is despatched wdth a 
 stick, or run into a hole. As digging it out would be next to 
 impossible, and as the animal frequently lies abed for 
 three or fcur days at a time, the Tunguese goes into 
 camp to wait its appearance. Before lying by, as it 
 were, howeirer, the hunter fixes a number of snares 
 around the hole, to which he generally attaches little 
 bells. He then takes up a position near the hole and 
 waits ; when the sable comes out and is caught the tink- 
 ling bells alf..rm the hunter, who rushes and secures his 
 prize before it can gnaw the threads in two which hold 
 its feet. 
 
 White f 01 es are caught in traps set on the highest 
 knolls that (.an be found, for it is well known that this 
 wary animal has a habit of repairing each night to some 
 hill to make his observations. Black foxes are also occa-' 
 sionally caught in Siberia, but they are exceedingly rare. 
 While attending the Moscow exposition I was shown a 
 dressed blaijk-fox sk]n for which the furrier asked 
 $1,000, and this he assured me was not an unusual price. 
 
 Elk hunting, or stalking, as it is called, is carried on 
 by men on snow-shoes, which any one, not acquainted 
 with the numbers of these animals that roam the tun- 
 dras, would suppose very hard and unremunerative labor ; 
 but so numerous are elks, and also reindeer, in that bar- 
 ren country, that they may be found in large herds 
 without expending much time or labqi*. There are an- 
 nually brought down to Yeniseisk for sale from 10,000 
 Ui 20,000 elk skins. 
 
320 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Elks are generally shot, but reindeer hunting involves 
 great skill and a thorough knowledge of the animal's 
 habits, for they are taken alive and domesticated for 
 draught purposes. The more common Avay of catching 
 them is by building enclosures into which they are driven 
 and then secured by lassoing. As it would be impos- 
 sible to find material on the tundras out of which an 
 enclosure could be made, hunters provide themselves 
 with stakes and ropes which are carried on sledges to the 
 places desired. A herd of reindeer being located the 
 enclosure is hastily set up, after which a party of hun- 
 ters surround and drive them to the mouth, which is 
 large but gradually contracts until a small passage-way 
 leads into a circular enclosure. Their horns are so large 
 and many-pronged, that lassoing them may be easily 
 done by even a novice. 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 The first mine I had the privilege of visiting, worked 
 by convict labor, was at Yeniseisk, and to this part of the 
 object of my visit I now addressed myself. Siberia is rich 
 in mineral, nor is the country limited in quantity or qual- 
 ity to the more common metals, for it also has large 
 (juantities of gold, silver, iron, malachite, copper, zinc, 
 etc. Americans are wont to look upon our own territories 
 as the richest in precious metals of any country in the 
 world, but this a mistaken idea. Siberia is unquestion- 
 al)ly richer in gold and silver than California, Colorado, 
 Nevada, or New Mexico ; she already produces more 
 gold than any other country, notwithstanding the obsta- 
 
iSXILE LIFE IN SIBE:aiA, 
 
 d2l 
 
 cles which hedge her about, and every year the product 
 largely increases. 
 
 SIBERIAN HUNTER. 
 
 The principal gold mines in Siberia are those of Yen- 
 iseisk, Irkoutsk, Kanst, Kara, Nijni Udinsk and several 
 
S22 RUiilAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 along the Lena River, which latter I am told are much 
 richer than any others yet opened in Siberia. There is 
 also a very large gold mine on the river Vitim, in the 
 tians-Baikal district, from which there is now taken 
 nearly $3,000,000 annually. 
 
 The Yeniseisk gold mine is several miles distant from 
 the town and to reach it we had therefore to have re- 
 course to our tumbril. The road led through a dread- 
 fully rough country and crossed several streams that were 
 so deep the bed of our vehicle was wet. Reaching the 
 mine I was somewhat surprised to find it a placer digging, 
 for my idea was that here I should find convicts at work 
 far under the earth upon whom I might observe the effects 
 of perpetual banishment from sunshine. While I did not^ 
 therefore, go under ground in quest of information of an 
 extremely unpleasant character, I did witness many sights 
 of interest connected with Siberian mining and the oper- 
 ation of convict labor. 
 
 A very large space of ground was dug over, but there 
 was emploj'^ed altogether not more than 400 laborers » 
 about one-fourth of whom were free-men, that is, con- 
 victs who had served their sentences but remained in the 
 country because they could never collect enough money 
 to take them to Russia again, or for some other reasons. 
 These mines, like a majority of others in Siberia, are 
 worked by private corporations or capitalists, who hire 
 convict laborers from the Government. This system has 
 been in operation for many years, owing to the fact that, 
 prior thereto, dishonest officials robbed the Government 
 of the mineral yield so that the mines were worked at a 
 continual loss. 
 
 The mining at Yeniseisk is performed in a primitive 
 way. A large cylinder with many perforations takes the 
 place of the washing pan used in the early days of Call- 
 
■XIL£ LIFE Ilf SIBERIA. 
 
 323 
 
324 EI?SSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 fornia. Into this cylinder, which is made to revolve, the 
 gold-bearing earth and stones are placed, over which a 
 stream of water runs. The yield was not large, but an 
 officer was there to inspect every cylinder and make re- 
 port of its contents, which report was transmitted to the 
 Government. The gold bullion, dust and quartz is taken 
 by team to Irkoutsk, where there are reducing works. 
 These teams are sent out from Yeniseisk about four times 
 each year and are always accompanied b v a cossack guard 
 to protect the treasure from falling into the hands of 
 highway plunderers. 
 
 I witnessed no special hardships upon the convict lab- 
 orers at these mines, nothing more than may be seen on a 
 visit to almost any penitentiary in the United States. I saw 
 a few men chained to wheelbarrows, and others having 
 chains on their wrists and ankles, but it did not appear 
 that they suffered greatly. But I was afterward in- 
 formed that the mines near Yeniseisk were controlled bj 
 a very humane and charitable capitalist whose treatment 
 of those in his employ was exceptionally considerate. 
 
 Upon our return from the mines we came upon a for 
 lorn, exceedingly wretched appearing man who, in re- 
 sponse to Schleuter's inquiries, stated that he was an ex- 
 ile, having a ha}>itation in the mountainous region 
 thereabouts. There was something about the man which 
 I could not resist, perhaps it was the melting and intelli- 
 gent expression of his eyes, or the sorrowful, pitiable 
 look that he gave us, or a thankful recognition for our 
 condescension in addressing him so kindly. I therefore 
 inquired the distance to his lodgings, and finding it com- 
 paratively ne:ir immediately decided to pay him a visit. 
 After a drive of perhaps half an hour we descended a 
 mountain beyond the base of which there was a long, level 
 Htretch of treeless plain covered with snow. In thia 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. o"2i) 
 
 cheerless solitude we soon found the exile's abode, which 
 I was astonished to see was an exact counterpart of the 
 mud " dug-outs " still to be found scattered all over our 
 western territories. 
 
 T was glad to find that the poor exile who had excited 
 in rae so much interest and compassion was not all 
 ftlone in this dreadfully dreary spot, and that he had a 
 companion whose lot was no more fortunate than his own ; 
 besides his fellow exile there was a faithful dog, companion 
 to them both, whose vigils never waned, guarding against 
 intrusions of wild animals and none the less suspicious 
 of strange jjeople like ourselves. 
 
 The abode of our unhappy exile consisted of a slight 
 excavation over which was a boarded double room cov- 
 ered on the top ^vith branches of trees ; the whole was 
 banked with earth, two feet thick, so that a fairly com- 
 fortable house was had, warm in winter and cool in sum- 
 mer. A door on the south side led, by one step down, 
 into the one spacious room, which was warmed by a fire 
 of fir-wood burning in an improvised stove of too hybrid 
 a character to admit of description. The floor of the 
 room was made of loose boards uneven in length and 
 thickness, but joined together with much care to exclude 
 dampness. A bed was made in one comer by driving 
 stakes into the ground which protruded about two feet and 
 to which lateral and cross-wise strips were nailed to receive 
 the bedding of wolf and bear skins. An icon of the Ma- 
 donna hung on the wall, before which a little tallow can- 
 dle, made of wolf's lard (so he told me), was kept burn- 
 ing ; three shelves, two stools and a box composed all 
 the funiture in the room. His cooking utensils were 
 meager, but there was a samovar steaming on the stove, 
 which to every Russian is next in importance to his icon. 
 
 We were welcomed to these primeval appearing quar- 
 21 
 
'i'2^ RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN* 
 
 eers -with a genuine hospitality. After tea had been 
 drunk I begged of the exile to tell me the circumstances 
 under which he was banished, and something of the life 
 he had led in Siberia. First being assured that I- was an 
 American in quest of information concerning convict 
 life in Sibena, he recited his story to me through my in- 
 tei^Dreter, which briefly repeated is substantially as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "My home was, until 1873, near the village of Mie- 
 chow, which is in the southern part of Poland , nearly two 
 hundred versts from Warsaw. I belonged to a commu- 
 nal estate, which was originally the property of our no- 
 bleman Kratznich, but after the order of liberation I 
 remained attached to the estate, and tried to dra^v from 
 the soil sustenance for my family, consisting of a wife 
 and two children. I was fairly prosperous, though there 
 is little certainty in the ci"ops of my district, one year 
 being abundant, and perhaps for one or two seasons fol- 
 lowing a complete failure. However, I had no reason 
 for complaint, since many of my neighbors pronounced 
 me the most fortunate peasant among them. 
 
 "My misfortune began in the spring of 1873, when 
 there came to my cottage home a brother to my wife, 
 who had fled from the authorities ; he was charged with 
 having given aid to the Nihilists and also with being 
 a member of the Terrorist party. Well, I gave him shel- 
 ter over night, and the next morning three gendarmes, 
 who had been pursuing him for several days, found and 
 arrested him in my house ; I felt certain of his innocence, 
 for he swore to myself and wife, before the Little 
 Mother, that the accusation was false. I tried to prevail 
 on the gendarmes to release him, but iny pleadings, 
 alas ! only served to endanger my own liberty ; I was ac* 
 cused by the ofl5oer« of aiding my brother to ©scape, and 
 
EXILl. LIFE m SIBSCEIA. 
 
 327 
 
 despite the lamentations and prayers of my wife and 
 children they tore me away from home, which I have 
 never since beheld." 
 
 At this point in his narrative, the poor fellow broke 
 into tears, and burying his face in his hands, cried as if 
 his heart were breaking. We tried hard to console 
 him, so after venting his grief for several minutes he 
 proceeded : 
 
 ARREST OF THE POLE AND HIS BROTHER. 
 
 *' I was carried to Warsaw and thrown into prison where 
 I remained nearly one week, at the expiration of which 
 time, in company with ten others, I was taken to Mos- 
 cow without having any trial whatsoever. From Moscow 
 I was banished to the mines at Nijni Udinsk, which are 
 on the transport route between Krasnoiarsk and Irkoutsk. 
 Would to God I could forget the sufferings which T en- 
 dured and witnessed among my fellow convicts while on 
 that dreadful journey. 
 
 *«When I left Moscow and had learned my sentence my 
 grief was so intense that it seemed I could not possibly 
 survive I day and night I could see my wife and childreu 
 
328 RUSSIAN NIHTT.TSM AND 
 
 standing beside our little log cottage casting their stream- 
 ing eyes after me as the gendarmes rushed me away with 
 them. This great grief , in a measure, made me uncon- 
 scious of the cruelties to which I was subjected. It was 
 in the summer time when we made the journey and the 
 weather was so hot as to blister every part (jf our persona 
 exposed to the sun. I was heavily ironed, like the most 
 despicable malefactor, though I was as innocent of doing 
 any wrong to the government, either in act or sympathy, 
 as a babe on its mother's breast. The irons I wore cut 
 my wrists and ankles so dreadfully that I became almost 
 exhausted from the loss of blood, early on the journey 
 
 " The officers gave me some felt to bind myAvounds, but 
 this only aggravated my sufferings, as they no doubt 
 knew it would. The dust and heat caused a rapid swell 
 ing of the aiflicted parts, which turned black, and had ? 
 not stopped at a way-station on the route they would cer- 
 tainly have mortified. 
 
 ' i cannot tell you of all the acts of inhumanity prac 
 ticed towards us while on our way to Udinsk ; my con- 
 dition was somewhat relieved through a judicious use of 
 the few roubles I chanced to have with me at the time of 
 my arrest, but the other prisoners who had no means what- 
 ever were literally goaded to death on the transport high- 
 way. 
 
 " I had heard much of the hardships endured by con- 
 victs in the mines, but so great were my sufferings on the 
 route that I was ready to hail the mines with joyful satis- 
 faction, so when at last we came in sight of Udinsk 
 those of my party who were consigned to labor in tho 
 gold mines there looked on it? spires with many manifes 
 tations of pleasure. 
 
 '* A very great majority of the prisoners were ready 
 for the hospital rather than the mines, but seyeral pooi 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 329 
 
 /ellows who had become the butt of official brutality 
 were hustled into the mines with feet and hands almost 
 putrifying from injuries produced by their heavy mana- 
 cles. I was more fortunate, however, thanks to my rou- 
 bles, and for two weeks I had a good bed in the hospital, 
 which was looked after by a local charity. When my re- 
 covery was complete I was ordered into the mines, fully 
 three hundred feetunder ground, and assigned to labor with 
 another convict ; we were required to trundle a large bar- 
 row, I at the handles and he to draw by means of vope 
 and breast-yoke attached to the axle of the barrow. 
 
 " Before my money was exhausted I did not have any 
 extreme hardships in the mine, but when my last coped 
 was gone then began sufferings which I dread to recall. 
 Heavy chains were put on me again, about my neck, 
 waist and ankles, while I was compelled to labor at least 
 eighteen hours every day ; nor was the labor of an ordi- 
 nary kind, but required such exertions that I have seen 
 many men faint and fall under it. In numerous instances 
 when exhausted nature could do no more, a manifesta- 
 tion of fatigue would cause the sufferer to be unmerci- 
 fully punished ; my shoulders have been bared to the 
 knout on many occasions for imaginary derelictions, and 
 twice I was tied up by the thumbs because I fell on my 
 barrow from exhaustion. The more common modes of 
 punishment practiced at Nijni Udinsk are by the knout, 
 plete, scorpion and suspension by the thumbs. I was 
 never subjected to the scorpion, but have seen it applied 
 not a few times. This instrument for flagellation is made 
 like the knout, except that in place of the knots on the 
 thongs there are small hooks which, with the force of 
 each blow, are driven into the flesh and on being jerked 
 out draw portions of flesh with them. It is a dreadful 
 sight to witness a flogging with this most terrible of 
 
330 
 
 KUSIAN NIHILISM. 
 
 scouro-es, about one-fourth of those thus punished dying 
 from its effects. 
 
 "Oar guards were generally of the most cruel charac- 
 
 RUSSIAN VETERAN GUARDS. 
 
 ter, beino: selected from the veteran corps, and no 
 longer fit for active duty in the field. Long service and 
 intemperance had demoralized them until there was but 
 
BXILH LIFE IN SIBSBIA. BSl 
 
 little of humanity left within their breasts. Money 
 would buy their favor, but when this was gone they were 
 more brutal than ever, venting their hatred upon the 
 helpless victim by every sort of imaginable cruelty 
 
 " On rare occasions the heads of convicts, who have 
 incurred the hatred of their brutal guards, are bound 
 with strips of rawhide which are drawn so tightly that 
 the eyes of the sufferer burst out, the face turns purple 
 and streams of perspiration pour from every part of the 
 body. This punishment is also generally fatal, but I am 
 glad to say it is not often inflicted. But there is a pun- 
 ishment which is more terrible than either of the others 
 mentioned, because it is protrjicted sometrmes through 
 years. That which I refer to is the confinement of 
 prisoners in damp portions of the mines from whence 
 they are never allowed to depart until death releases them. 
 I have seen men, and women too, who were serving life 
 sentences at hard labor in the mines, loaded with chains 
 and kept at work in pools of water which were both work- 
 shops and bed to them for years. It astonishing how 
 long some persons will survive such horrible treatment , 
 they grow thinner and thinner each day until their bod- 
 ies become almost transparent; thin cheeks and eyes can 
 be seen in dark recesses of the face, the hair falls out, 
 the voice becomes almost inaudible, the bones appear 
 sharply defined under a thin skin and at last they fall to 
 rise no more forever. Amid the flickering lights which 
 so imperfectly illumine the mines these poor wretches 
 appear like gnomes, or spectres ©f famine. 
 
 "I endured these dreadful sights and punishments 
 for eight years, which was the full term of ray 
 hard labor sentence. But my misfortunes did not term- 
 inate with this sentence, for I am yet doomed to nin« 
 more years of exile life in the district which I now 
 inhabit. I do not b«li«ve it is a common thing to divid« 
 
d62 
 
 RUSSIA!^ NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 333 
 
 a sentence into periods of hard labor and simple exile, but 
 this has been my lot, and I must endure it. An equally 
 hard portion of my misfortune is the impossibility of 
 comrauuicating with my family, not a single word from 
 whom has been received since the day I was so causelessly 
 taken away from them, nine years ago. Neither my wife 
 nor I can write, nor could any of our neighbors, so that 
 I have found no means of exchanging messages, and am 
 therefore in ignorance of their condition ; they may be 
 dead; or my wife, hopeless of my return again, may 
 now be wedded to another ; but, if there have been no 
 changes yet, w^hat shall I exjoect in the next nine years? 
 My heart is buried under afflictions which have passed, 
 and forebodings of evils which must come to me. 
 
 " I live here in this little house, dividing it with my 
 ecjually unfortunate neighbor, and we subsist on what we 
 can make by hunting and fishing. My present condition 
 i would not deplore, but for remembrances of my home 
 in Poland, which, alas ! is ray home no more." 
 
 I was so interested in the exile's story as to be quite 
 unconscious of the approach of darkness, or that I had 
 spent nearly three hours in the snow-covered cabin. But 
 I did not forget to place ten roubles in the poor fellow's 
 hand, and to promise him that I should visit Warsaw be- 
 fore returning to America, and make an effort to com- 
 municate whatever message he might wish to send his 
 wife. He thanked me with tears in his eyes, and said : 
 " Tell her that my greatest hope i^ to see her again, and 
 that the hardest part of my sentence having already been 
 served I shall not cease my prayers for the preserva- 
 tion of our lives that we may meet again and be happy 
 in the little cottage where we were parted so long ago." 
 
 That every statement made to me by the confiding exile 
 was true has never excited in me the least doubt, while I 
 
iiSi RUiSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 have repeated them (though in my own language) with- 
 out any exaggeration. My own observations, besides the 
 corroborating stories I heard from others who had vol- 
 untarily and involuntarily visited the mines, quite con- 
 vince me that it would bo next to impossible to exagger- 
 ate the brutal treatment practiced by guards in Siberia 
 towards their miserable prisoners. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 But for the snow on the ground it would have been 
 quite dark when we left the exile's abode to drive back 
 to Yeniseisk. The way was not marked by any sem- 
 blance of a road, but I anticipated no difficulty in mak- 
 ing the return trip safely and speedily. Our horses had 
 been chilled by so long standing in the raw atmosphere, 
 and when we started them they broke away in a run 
 which threatened destruction to our tumbril and injury to 
 ourselves. We got them checked finally, however, and 
 were bowling along in a hilarious spirit until, reaching 
 the apex of a hill, I looked out over the glinting land- 
 scape, and was upon the point of making some observa- 
 tion on the beautiful scene, when I descried three black 
 objects nearly two hundred yards distant, which I thought 
 were dogs. But Schleuter was too old a traveller in 
 Siberia to be deceived, and immediately upon seeing them 
 he exclaimed: "Wolves! Get your pistol ready, for 
 we may be in for it to-night." 
 
 I must confess that his remark excited some fear in 
 me, for with it the stories I had read of travellers being 
 chased and eaten by these voracious beasts, came back to 
 Boe with chromatic exaggeration. This partially »ul> 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 33S 
 
 uided when I saw the wolves makinoj off from us, and to 
 faciliate their retreat 1 fired two shots at them, but 
 without effect. However, we had not proceeded more 
 
 FIGHT WTTH WOLVES. 
 
 than two miles further when I saw standing in the waj 
 we were going two more wolves, which were so bold that 1 
 
336 KUSSUJif NIHILISM AKD 
 
 shot one of them not more than twenty f.eet from our 
 . vehicle, while the other trotted off slowly, notwithstand- 
 ing-the shots I fired at it. We had twelve miles to go 
 before arriving at Yenisiesk, and I saw on the route, al- 
 together, not less than fifty wolves, all of the large, 
 ferocious species which does not hesitate to attack trav- 
 ellers, when slightly pressed by hunger. 
 
 Arriving at the city about eleven o'clock^ we related 
 our experience with the wolves, when the landlord told us 
 that a courier had just come in who had been set upon, 
 by a pack, nearly twenty miles south of Yeniseisk, on 
 his route fro.m Irkoutsk, and that to save himself he 
 had ridden his horse almost to death. 
 
 Any mention of wolves before a crowd in a Siberian 
 inn is sure to call forth from one or more persons, who / 
 may be present, stories of personal experience with the 
 dreadful creatures, in which hair-breadth escapes figure 
 very prominently, but as wolves are more plentiful in 
 Siberia than squirrels are in our western States, such re- 
 lations are made more out of vauntino; ambition than with 
 an expectation of interesting those who listen to them. 
 But for me stories of wolf and bear hunting are always en- 
 tertaining, and I was therefore very much delighted to 
 hear second-hand — through my interpreter — the foV 
 lowing, told by anispravnik — Governor — from the Tomsk 
 Government. It chanced that this distinguished func- 
 tionary had arrived at Yeniseisk on the day I visited 
 the mines, and was a guest of the inn at which I was 
 stopping. He had four servants with him, all exiles, 
 and otherwise manifested the dignity of his magisterial 
 office, so that when he spoke all gave him a respectful 
 hearing. To preserve the identity of the relator I will 
 give the story in the first person : 
 
 '* It hat now been just two years lino* busiaa««, oon- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 33? 
 
 nected with the Government, called me to Irkoutsk, and 
 from thence to the Alexandreffsky Central prison, which 
 is nearly one hundred versts north of the city. The 
 
 vnnter, you remember, set in unusually early in 1880, 
 and when I started from Tomsk there was so much snow 
 
6ZS RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN» 
 
 on the ground that a troika could be used. I met "with 
 no adventure on the trip to Irkoutsk, where my business 
 was speedily transacted . The Governor at Irkoutsk placed 
 his own private team at my disposal for the trip to Alex- 
 andreffsky, and with a good driver I started out early in 
 the morning, calculating to reach my destination before 
 night set in, as I never fancied driving on a lonely high- 
 way even in the moonlight. 
 
 " It has been my rule, whenever travelling through 
 any of the Siberian Governments, to carry with me » 
 trusty rifle, which I purchased on my last visit to St, 
 Petersburg, because it has mor§ than once served me wel) 
 in the midst of imminent danger, but unfortunately, on 
 the occasion which I am now about to relate, I failed to 
 provide myself with the usual complement of cartridges, 
 taking less than twenty, when I generally carry not less 
 than fifty. 
 
 "We started out from Irkoutsk in high glee, taking 
 with us a good quantity of quass and vodka^ which serves 
 one so well, you know, on a journey of the character 1 
 Avas about to take. Nothing whatever occurred to im- 
 l)ede our progress until nearly three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, when my Yemtschik became so confused by the 
 vodka he had intemperately indulged that he left the road 
 and ran the troika over a log, upsetting it into a bank of 
 snow, but we escaped injury. This episode was too com- 
 mon to be mentioned but for the fact that our vehicle 
 was so badly broken that we stopped nearly two hours 
 making repairs, and after going only a short distance 
 further we again broke down, our trouble being a broken 
 shaft and tug, which was caused by the fractious capers 
 of one of the horses. 
 
 " It was nearly seven o'clock in the afternoon when I 
 heard the prolonged howl of a wolf, which was directly 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBEBIA. 389 
 
 answered b}^ several others in different directions. These 
 sounds, however, did not alarm me in the least, for I have 
 heard them too frequently ; but it was not long before 1 
 saw crossing the roadway ahead of us j^acks of five and 
 six wolves, while others trotted along behind us in a 
 sneaking: manner. 1 knew these were the skirmishino^ 
 forces and refrained from shofiting, knowing full well 
 that if I should kill one the others would devour him, and 
 once tasting blood and flesh they would seek to finish 
 their repast on us. 
 
 " My driver kept the horses in a brisk gallop, realizing 
 more than 1 did the danger which now threatened. Grow- 
 ing more bold each minute as their numbers increased, 
 the wolves appeared on every side, some coming up 
 within a few feet of our troika and then stopping sud- 
 denly to stare at us. Such howling I never before or 
 since heard, the forest being apparently full of the hate- 
 ful brutes, and every howl seeming to multiply the num- 
 ber. At length they grew so fearless that several would 
 run out quickly and snap at the horses and then dart back 
 again. I now saw that it was full time for action, as 
 each moment served to embolden them, and once they 
 should attack our horses little chance would remain for 
 escape. Bringing my gun up, therefore, I shot one 
 of the wolves, and scarcely did his blood stain the snow 
 before not less than one hundred piled on the wounded 
 animal and tore him limb from limb almost instantly. ' I 
 then fired two other shots into, the pack and must have 
 wounded several others, judging from the snarling and 
 growling which succeeded. Looking back to observe the 
 effects of my shots I could see a myriad of wolves run- 
 ning to where the others were feasting, until they were 
 like flies in summer time swarming over a putrefying car- 
 
840 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ** It was only a few minutes after I had shot, and before 
 we got out of sight of the pack, when every vestige of the 
 wounded wolves had disappeared in the voracious maws 
 of tlieir comrades, and the latter were again soon howling 
 after us. 
 
 " The rest which our horses had by reason of the acci- 
 dents g,lready described was very advantageous to us, for 
 they were now put to their full speed without showing 
 any suffering ; but this speed could not avail against the 
 wolves, which gained on us so rapidly that before We had 
 gone six versts from where I fired my first shot they were 
 upon us again. When they reached the troiha and were 
 ready to spring in, I shot two more, which were iramedi 
 ately pounced upon by the entire pack, so we ma.d'^ 
 another gain of two versts before they left this second 
 feast and were upon us again. 
 
 " I had every reason for husbanding my shots, for our 
 escape lay in keeping the wolves from us by killing one 
 of their number at a time, so as to distract the pack. 
 I therefore continued this desultory warfare until my last 
 cartridge had been fired, and we were yet nearly ten 
 versts from Alexandreffsky. I had caused the death of 
 perhaps twenty-five or more wolves, but there was no 
 apparent diminution in number, nor were there any mani> 
 festations of abandoning the attack on the part of those 
 that had survived. Our horses had now become badly 
 jaded, my driver almost lost his reason through fright^ 
 and the little hope I had left was ha.rdly bright enough to 
 show on a back-ground of despondency. I was not per 
 mitted to lapse into a reflective mood, however, for tha 
 hungry, carnivorous, blood-loving wolves came r.fter ua 
 on lightning feet, their red tongues lolling out between 
 vicions fangs which sometimes snapped together as though 
 they felt our flesh already between their teeth. My gun 
 
'EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 341 
 
 -n'as no-w oAel^ss, but I carried it in my muffled robes until 
 the wolves came so near that they tried to leap upon me ; 
 then I wielded it as a bludgeon with excellent effect, 
 killing three, or wounding them so that they were fallen 
 upon and quickly devoured. But this successful way of 
 
 repelling their at- 
 tacks did not avail us 
 long, for while I 
 combatted with more 
 than a score, nearly 
 ten times that num- 
 ber ran ahead and at- 
 tacked the horses. I 
 now felt that it was 
 time to abandon hope , 
 cross myself and fall 
 to praying, but our 
 poor horses battled 
 so nobly for life that 
 I was encouraged by 
 their acts. The two 
 outsiders ran on at 
 full speed for nearly 
 a verst, while wolves 
 were hanging at their 
 haunches and throats 
 or cutting great 
 gashes in their legs 
 I was 
 
 and sides . 
 
 astonished to see the 
 
 horses survive so long, but when one fell at length 
 the others could go no further, and here our last 
 efforts were made to protect our lives. My driver, hav- 
 ing nothing with which to defend himself, was, despite 
 22 
 
3iS R^tSIAIi iriHILItM A2n> 
 
 mj exertions, dragged from his seat by three strong 
 wolves, and as he fell upon the snow his cries for aid 
 almost set me wild. Oh, how the poor fellow jd rayed and 
 called to me while the ferocious beasts stripped the flesh 
 from his bones until death ended the torture he endured. 
 Our horses shared my driver's fate, while with almosi 
 superhuman strength I wielded my gun and scattered 
 about me nearly fifty of the wolves that had attacked 
 myself and driver. How I came out of that fiery fur- 
 nace alive it is almost impossible f<jr me to say, for ] 
 fought for many minutes, which seemed an age, before 
 assistance came in the person of two exile moujiks whc 
 bravely seized clubs and rushed to my aid. We wer^ 
 almost on the outskirts of Alexandreffsky, and the noise 
 created by our temble encounter soon brought others to 
 the scene of action. My escape was chiefly due to the 
 successful attack on the horses and driver, their bodies 
 serving to draw away from me nearly all the pack. But 
 when relieved at last, upon examination I found that my 
 clothes were literally in shreds, and on my hands and 
 legs were several severe scratches which, in my excited 
 condition, I had not before discovered. 
 
 *' The wolves were driven away by shooting and beating, 
 but not until the horses had been almost entirely devoured, 
 and of the guide there only remained a grinning skull 
 bare of flesh, the half of one hand, and a portion of his 
 back and pelvic bone ; his limbs had been torn asunder 
 and carried off by greedy members of the pack to some 
 place where they could munch the bones undisturbed. 
 Of my rifle there remained only the barrel, the stock hav- 
 ing been broken and lost, and nothing in my possession 
 do I esteem so valuable as this relic of the saddest ex 
 perience and adventure in all my life." 
 
 We all applauded heartily the Governor's story, which 
 
THE governor's race WITH TOB \VOLVfi& 
 
 J43 
 
344 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 was undoubtedly true, and this approbation stimnlated 
 others to relate their encounters with wild animals of the 
 northern tundras ; but I was too sleepy to take any 
 further interest in Siberian adventures, and stole off tc 
 bed. 
 
 Having gathered about all the information accessible at 
 Yeniseisk, on the following day I started for Irkoutsk, by 
 way of Krasnoiarsk, distant eight hundred miles. The 
 return trip to Krasnoiarsk was not without trouble on 
 account of snow, which had fallen to a depth of fully 
 six inches ; but I decided to hold to my tumbril rather 
 than buy a troika (sledge) because I felt quite sure, as did 
 Schleuter, that we should find no snow on the regular 
 transport route, which we would reach in less than two 
 days' travelling. 
 
 We had not proceeded more than half a dozen miles 
 from Yeniseisk before I saw two wolves dart across the road 
 about one hundred yards ahead of us. Quickly the 
 Ispravnik's story came back to me and I pictured myself 
 in the midst of a ferocious pack with not so much as a 
 club for defence. Every few minutes my forebodings^ 
 were intensified by seeing one or more wolves not far dis- 
 tant from us, a fact which did not appear to give Schleu- 
 ter the least alarm, while I was continually forming reso- 
 lutions what to do when ' ' worse should come to worse." 
 
 Let me assure the reader that we did not camp out ; so 
 far from beinff satisfied with a bio; fire and a warm bed in 
 the tumbril, I was quite willing to forego comforts for 
 the protection of an inn, one of which we found about 
 nine o'clock in the evening. 
 
 " Expect nothing and you will not be disappointed," 
 is an old saying which none should forget while travel- 
 ling in Siberia, but its moral was lost en me when, on 
 proceeding to bed at the iiin, I found ho where to lay 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 345 
 
 my head except on the floor, and no coverings except 
 those of my own providing. But there were no wolves, 
 bears or dreadful night-mares, so that the night was 
 spent with really less discomfort than I had anticipated. 
 Upon arriving at Krasnoiarsk I sold my three horses 
 for the same money I had paid for them and started on 
 to Irkoutsk by post conveyance, which is more than twice 
 AS rapid as I could have travelled with a single team. 
 W^e lost no time in preparation, but immediately after 
 disposing of my horses we got a fresh team and a yem- 
 tschih who was lineally descended from Jehu. It is as- 
 tonishing how rapidly one can travel in Siberia when he 
 is willing to pay for fast driving. It is told that the late 
 Czar on one occasion sent a courier to Irkoutsk with in- 
 structions to bring back to St. Petersburg, at the earliest 
 possible moment, a distinguished person who had been 
 exiled and was at the time in the Irkoutsk mines. So 
 regardful was the courier of his order that he brought 
 the offender from Irkoutsk to St. Petersburg — distance 
 3,500 miles — in just eleven days^ making the incredible 
 speed of three hundred and eighteen miles per day, or 
 fourteen miles per hour. Having no desire to exagger- 
 ate this story I will say that 1,000 miles of the journey 
 was performed by rail, and perhaps 500 by steamer. But it 
 is not an uncommon thing for the Czar's couriers to make 
 200 miles per day. In such cases the horses must suf- 
 fer, though each relay is driven not more than twelve or 
 fifteen miles. When extraordinary haste is necessary 
 everything must give way on the road to the courier, who 
 telegraphs ahead for horses, and has the swiftest reserved 
 for him. When an animal falls dead in harness, which 
 they frequently do, the courier cuts off one ear from the 
 horse, and drives on, with the remaining horses, to the 
 next station. The ears thus preserved are shown to the 
 
BARGAINING FOR FAST TIME. 
 
EXILE LIFE rS^ SIBERIA. Z4t 
 
 Czar as a proof of the speed with which the courier exe- 
 cuted his mission. 
 
 Four days of rapid travelling brought us to Irkoutsk, 
 which is 600 miles from Krasnoiarsk. On the road we 
 passed only one small convoy of prisoners, the officers of 
 which I did not consider it worth my time to interrogate, 
 as they were half-drunk and inclined to he quarrelsome. 
 
 At Nijni Udinsk we stopped only a short time, prefer- 
 ring not to visit the mines there until upon my return, as 
 [ was anxious to reach Irkoutsk in time to see the races, 
 which I was told had already begun and would continue 
 only two or three days longer. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Irkoutsk is a handsome city, situated very much lika 
 New York, being built on a tongue of land formed by a 
 sharp curve in the Angara River. The place contains a 
 population of nearly 35,000, and among its buildings are 
 ft score of churches of elegant architectural desig-n and 
 .expensive finish. 
 
 We had to cross the Angara by hand-ferry, but upon 
 reaching the city's side more than a dozen droshky driv- 
 ers beseiged us, like hackmen in American cities, one of 
 whom we engaged to take us and our luggage to De- 
 coque's hotel, where I was rejoiced to find that the mana- 
 ger could speak a little English. 
 
 Irkoutsk is next to Yeniseisk in age, having been found- 
 ed in 1680, the former in 1618. It has become the great- 
 est mart on the overland route between China and Rus- 
 sia, while many of the more devout, whose minds in- 
 cline constantly to sacred things, regard it as a holy city, 
 
34^ KUBAIAN KIHILISM A.KD 
 
 particularly as Siberia's patron saint lies buried ther»^ 
 The climate is said to be very fine, exceptinthe fall, wheu 
 heavy fogs prevail that are infinitely more disagreeable than 
 the rainy season in San Francisco, which is saying a great 
 deal. My experience may he exceptional, but it has always 
 happened that in visiting a strange country I invariably 
 arrive just in the very worst season, — or at least the na- 
 tives tell me so. But I have suspected, many times, that 
 these assurances of exceptional weather proceeded from 
 local jDrejudice, or the common love for home place. 
 Any how, I struck Irkoutskin a bad spell, for it was not 
 only snowing with great violence but there was a fearful 
 wind blowing which seemed to gather up big drifts of 
 snow for the sole purpose of dashing them into people's 
 eyes. This wretched blizzard put a temporary stop to 
 horse racing, but during the night there occurred a great 
 change for the better, the wind ceased entirely, and when 
 morning broke Aurora burst upon a beautiful scene. At 
 breiikfast every one present was talking about the races, 
 and when I went out upon the street nothing else seemed 
 to be thouo;ht of. In fact I soon learned that horse rac- 
 ing at Irkoutsk served the same purpose there that pool- 
 rooms and market quotations in exchanges and bucket- 
 shops do in this country — they are the popular resources 
 of speculators. 
 
 I drove out about noon with my guide to the race- 
 course, which was a mile track situated some distance out 
 of the city proper, and only partly enclosed by a very 
 low fence. On that side the track next to the town there 
 was a pavillion, in which the Governor, judges, and a few 
 other privileged persons stood — seats were nowhere pro- 
 vided — and conducted the racing. I was amused to wit- 
 ness the preparations, as they are so unlike the prelimi- 
 naries made by jockeys iu other countries. The training 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SrBEEXflL. 
 
 349 
 
 to which horses entered for racing are subjected appears 
 very harsh, if not inhumanly cruel, and generally lasts 
 
 tor three weeks. This training consists in riding the 
 horses for several hours each day at tl^eir greatest speeid aa^ 
 
350 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 until they are covered with foam ; theyare then tied out in 
 an open field over night, under a sliarp frost, so that the 
 perspiration may freeze in a white coat over their bodies ; 
 the Siberians declare that this treatment (which would 
 kill nearly any ordinary horse) hardens the muscles and 
 at the same time makes the horse more supple. In addi- 
 tion to this they will not allow their horses a drop of wa- 
 ter for f orty-eiglit hours preceding the race, ^^their theory 
 being that water distends the animal's stomach and proves 
 a serious impediment to its speed. Horses used in the 
 races are not ridden, but driven to a sledge, to which two 
 animals are attached, but in reality only one does all the 
 jDulling, the other being used only toencourage the draught 
 horse. All Siberian horses have enormous manes and 
 tails, the former reaching to their knees and the latter 
 often drao;orinor a foot or more on the ground ; but that 
 this profuse growth may not interfere with the running, 
 the tail and mane are tied up in leather straps which im- 
 part a rather grotesque api)earance to the horses. 
 
 After witnessing several races I returned to the city 
 and paid a visit to the prisons, which are located on a level 
 strip of ground on the opposite shore of the Irkut Eiver, 
 a small stream which bounds one side of Irkoutsk. I was 
 chagrined, however, on applying for ajjmission to the 
 prison to meet with a flat refusal, and though I produced 
 my letter from the St. Petersburg ministry requesting that 
 every facility be afforded me in my investigations, the 
 officer was none the less obstinate, but before leaving he 
 told me I would be admitted on the following day. I 
 was therefore compelled to return and await his disposi- 
 tion, which leisure interval I improved by returning to 
 Irkoutsk to gather such stray facts as might offer. 
 Through rare fortune I fell in with an exile who had 
 served several years in the mines at Kara, under a hard 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 351 
 
 labor Pentpnc<^, but througb the influence of friends at 
 St. Petersburjr had the remainder of his sentence commu- 
 ted to simple exile in the Irkoutsk Government. Through 
 
 Schleuter I obtained from this unfortunate man a thor- 
 ough and undeniably truthful statement of the treatment 
 .accorded to convicts at the Kara mines, and I present it 
 hare with the full assurance that it is not in the leust ex- 
 
352 RUgSUN NIHILISM AND 
 
 aggerated, for Schleuter himself had many ways of ver- 
 ifying and attesting all the facts. 
 
 His statements to me, made in the course of several 
 hours of conversation, embrace the following interesting 
 facts : 
 
 j The mines at Kara are noted throughout all Russia 
 for the atrocious treatment dealt out to convicts who 
 may be sent there. A large majority of the Siberian 
 gold mines are no longer worked by convict labor, hav- 
 ing passed into the hands of private capitalists, but that 
 at Kara is one of those still operated by Government 
 authority with convicts who are sentenced to hard labor. 
 Both gold and silver [are found at Kara, but mining 
 for the former is so much more profitable that the 
 little silver gathered is from double running in reducing 
 the gold-bearing quartz. 
 
 Generally, the number of miners at Kara are from 
 300 to 500, and their daily labor is from 13 to 15 hours 
 according to the favor which they may find in the officers* 
 eyes. In 1857 there was a law passed in Russia, 
 which may be found in Article 569, providing for the 
 punishment of convicts. According to this law all those 
 sentenced to hard labor must wear heavy irons on their 
 wrists and ankles for the period of two years, which is 
 called the probation sentence ; if, at the end of two 
 years, the convict is reported as having conducted himself 
 in a humble, contrite and thoroughly acceptable manner 
 to the officer in whose charge the exile may be, then this 
 first sentence is considered served, and he begins on the 
 second part of his sentence, which is apportioned as fol- 
 lows : Those condemned for life must wear the heaviest 
 shackles for a period of eight years (additional to the 
 probation sentence) ; those condemned for twenty years 
 wear the shackles six years ; for fifteen years, they wear 
 
EXIL8 LIFE IN SIBERIA. 3S3 
 
 thom four years ; for twelve years, they wear them three 
 years ; for eight years, they wear them two years ; for 
 six years, they wear them eighteen months ; and for 
 four years, twelve months. So that in any event a hard 
 labor exile must wear the most galling fetters upon his 
 hands and ankles for a period of not less than three 
 years. But this law, harsh, nay inhuman in all its phases, 
 does not disclose all the heinousness of its application by 
 officials in Siberia entrusted with its administration, 
 for since ignorant and more brutal guards are made 
 the censors of each exile's conduct, it is in their power 
 to indefinitely extend the probationary period and 
 keep a poor sufferer in chains so long as the guard's 
 own pleasure may dictate. That this is the construction 
 put upon the law by many Governors of penal colonies 
 cannot be disputed in the face of a thousand living wit- 
 nesses now slowly dying from torture and exposure in 
 the eastern mines where it is applied. 
 
 In justice to Russia it must be said, however, that the 
 crimes thus committed against humanity are only indi* 
 rectly chargable to the Government ; some discretionary 
 powers must be accorded Governors of penal districts 
 lying so remote from the chief administration ; that this 
 necessary power should sometimes be abused is so natu- 
 ral that the result is identical in all countries, being co-ex- 
 tensive with the good and bad qualities of human nature. 
 Not a few instances have occuiTed where Governors with 
 brutal tendencies have been recalled to St. Petersburo;' 
 and upon the establishment of charges preferred against 
 them for cruelty, they have suffered the penalty of a 
 stern and exacting law. 
 
 Another erroneous impression prevails very generally ^ 
 but which has not the slightest foundation in fact, viz. ; 
 that exiles are compelled to labor in quick-silver mines 
 
354 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 until their hair falls out and the flesh droj)s away from their 
 bones. This error is inexcusable, because there is no 
 such thing as a quick-silver mine in all Siberia ; and yet 
 the Government has been time and again charged (by 
 those who must know that they are falsifying facts) with 
 forcing thousands of men and women down into these 
 caverns of insidious death each year. The truth con- 
 cerning convict labor in the mines is dreadful enough, 
 without any exaggeration or misrepresentation. 
 
 For many years the mining at Kara was conducted 
 above ground, but as the placers became exhausted luu 
 nels were sunk which resulted in the finding of much 
 richer gold-bearing ore than the placers yielded. Thitj 
 discovery, though highly beneficial to the Government, 
 proved disastrous to those whose enforced labor had mv 
 covered the new auriferous deposits. Men who before 
 were compelled to work fifteen hours each day with task- 
 masters over them, had, at least, the blessed sun-light to 
 kiss their heads like sympathetic ministrations from 
 heaven ; they could hear, in summer time, the cheerful 
 songs of many birds, and in winter there were great fieWs 
 of snow laughing under the inconstant sun, or grown so 
 bleak that all nature appeared to share the convicts' hard- 
 ships. It is astonishing what inconsiderable circumstan- 
 ces serve to console one v/lien doomed to the never pity- 
 ing injustice of those appointed to watch over and pun- 
 ish hard-labor exiles. To many of the superstitious 
 unfortunates there is luck iu having a bird perch on;) 
 branch above them ; good news is expected to follr^w the 
 song of a bird after sunset, and should a bird light upon 
 the shovel or l)arrow of a convict it presages to the ono 
 who handles the implement, news from home promis- 
 ing his speedy release. So are the moonbeams considered 
 as harbingers of fate ; if a convict be wakened at nighl 
 
KXILE LirS IN SIBERIA. 355 
 
 bj the moon ehining in his face, he regards it as an omen 
 of fortune : that he will hear from home, be transferred 
 to more comfortable quartei-s, or in some other way be- 
 come the legatee of good luck. 
 
 All ambitions, hopes, and agreeable superstitions are 
 suppressed in the heart of every exile when he is forced 
 to labor underground ; it is to them a departure from the 
 earth into the abodes of evil spirits where mercy is un- 
 known. In consequence of this very prevalent belief 
 among exiles they suffer in mind more perhaps than phy- 
 sically, from the extreme punishment whrch is really 
 inflicted upon them. 
 
 In Kara, my informant assured me, as described on 
 page 229 of a work entitled " The Russians of To-Day,'* 
 "there are scores who never see the light of day, but 
 work and sleep all the year round in the depths of the earth, 
 extracting silver under the eyes of task-masters, who 
 have orders not to spare them. Iron gates guarded by 
 sentries close the lodes, or streets, at the bottom of the 
 shafts, and miners are railed off from one another in 
 gangs of twenty. They sleep within recesses hewn out 
 of the rock — very kennels — into which they must creep 
 on all fours." Nearly all these prisoners are constantly 
 loaded with chains, while each has a daily task to perform, 
 or come under the terrible discipline of the knout, plete, 
 or scorpion. 
 
 Nearly all the convit^ts at Kara are political offenders, 
 against w^hom there is such prejudice among Government 
 officials that they are tortured to the limit of cruel inge- 
 nuity ; it is not one in twxnty that can survive the 
 cruelties inflicted here without becoming hopelessly in- 
 sane. There is a prison-hospital established at Kara in 
 which none are cared for except those who receive cor- 
 poral punishment from the officers. So inhumanly se- 
 
S56 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 vere is this administration of injustice that after ics 
 application the poor victim is little more than a piece of 
 bleeding, unconscious flesh ; froi^i the room of punish- 
 ment he is carried to a ward, provided with small cots, at 
 the foot of which is written the word " Costegcetis," 
 meaning, " an offender well birched." But though it is 
 called a hospital, the treatment is little calculated to im- 
 prove the patients' condition, they being literally left to 
 help themselves, the policy being that a dead convict is 
 better than a live one. This ward exceeds in terror any 
 portions of an insane asylum ; the poor sufferers are eithei 
 dumb from unconsciousness, or raving with delirium ; 
 some are lying like sheeted ghosts, their eyes half-closed, 
 and one might suppose them dead but for their deep and 
 sonorous respiration, indicative of approaching dissolution •, 
 others are talking in a wild and incoherent manner of 
 their wrongs ; or perhaps picturing the loved face of 
 some friend or relative back in Kussia to whom they talk 
 in terms of rare affection ; others yet are storming with 
 a passion directed by a mind from which reason has fled \ 
 while lastly, on this or that dirty cot is a body purple^ 
 distorted, with blearing but vacant eyes, the very image 
 of powerful agony, the hands clenched and stiff , happily 
 — dead. The poor wretches, not a few of whom have 
 been delicately nurtured, and whose crimes are opposi- 
 tion to a Government which they regard as oppressive, 
 never receive one word of sympathy, nor are their most 
 imperative needs attended to. Those whose brntality 
 can punish so severely are not the persons whom we 
 might expect would give a morsel of compassion to theii 
 victims. 
 
 At Kara an instrument is used to punish convict* 
 which differs from any others in use, so far as the knowl- 
 edge of my informant extended. He described it a? 
 
KXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. ?67 
 
 three large pieces of raw hide, each three feet long, with 
 knots on the end like on knouts ; these three thongs are 
 plaited together at one end so as to make a handle, while 
 the other ends are loose. A castigation with this instru- 
 ment is next to an- application of the scorpion . The sev- 
 eral modes of punishment practiced at Kara are : whipping 
 with the knout, plete, and the instrument just described, 
 and sometimes, though rarely, with the scorpion ; the con- 
 victs are also disciplined by being shut up in dungeons, 
 by slow starvation, increasing their irons, placing them in 
 beds of freezing water, and such other tortures as the 
 ingenuity of vicious officers may suggest. 
 
 But in addition to these cruelties, all prisoners brought 
 to the Kara mines for hard labor are branded on the 
 forehead and cheeks with three letters, K A T, which is 
 an abreviation of Katarjnik^ meaning a hard labor con- 
 vict. The instrument used for this purpose is shaped 
 like a cup, the larger end being provided with needles set 
 so as to pierce the skin to a depth of about one-sixteenth 
 of an inch in the shape of the three letters. The convict 
 is bound to an upright post in an immovable position, and 
 then the instrument is applied to the forehead and each 
 cheek, after which a caustic liquid is rubbed briskly on 
 the fresh wounds. This produces the most intense pain, 
 which does not abate for several days, as the liquid aggra- 
 vates the wounds and generally causes them to suppurate. 
 When, after weeks, the brand is healed, conspicuous scars 
 are left which endure for life ; thus a man who receives 
 this stigma, however undeserved it may be, is doomed 
 to parade his disgrace to all the world. My informant 
 showed me the brands he had received, which resembled 
 large and angry ring-worms that had assumed lettered 
 ■hapes. 
 
 The female convicts at Kara receive much more cotj-» 
 23 
 
i^S BUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 siderate treatment than the men ; they are not compelled 
 to labor in the mines, but are closely confined in iron 
 cells at night and made to perform "menial chores, and 
 are in servitude to the officers during the day time. 
 ]!^early all those who are there confined are under sen- 
 tence for murdering their husbands, a crime of great 
 frequency in Russia where wives receive little other treat- 
 ment than blows. Indeed, under the earlier laws 
 of the Russian Church it was a portion of the pre- 
 scribed cereu:ony of marriage for the groom to carry 
 with him to the altar a small whip, which he lay lightly 
 upon the bride's back as a token that she should be sub- 
 ject ':o aU his wishes or caprices. During the prevalence 
 ef CMs strange nuptial rite there was a law in Russia 
 which punished wives who murdered their husbands by 
 '-.aryiug them alive up to their necks, and then turning 
 dogs loose to feed on the exposed heads. 
 
 My informant said that the danger incurred in at- 
 tempts to escape was so great that comparatively few 
 convicts, even if they had an opportunity, would take 
 the risk. They would not only subject themselves to 
 penalties provided by a law which was construed by inhu- 
 man officials, but would have to run the risk of starva- 
 tion, and also the chance of being shot by some of the 
 Siberian tribes who hunt convicts as they would wild 
 beasts, shooting them down in order to rob them of their 
 clothes. 
 
 I was greatly interested in the exile's relation of how 
 convicts are treated at Kara ; the fellow was well educated 
 for a Russian peasant, and he did not appear to have any 
 particular prejiidices against the Government. He had 
 served fifteen years at Kara for having, with several stu- 
 dents at Kasan, incited a political disturbance in which 
 threats of assassination had been freely expressed. Hit 
 
EXILE LIFE or SIBESIA. 359 
 
 sentence was twenty years at hard labor, but, through 
 
 the influence of friends at home, after serving three- 
 fourths of his time the remainder of his sentence was com- 
 muted to simple exile in the Irkoutsk district ; he was there- 
 fore free to go whither he willed inside the territory, and 
 might have engaged in business, but I believe he was 
 doing nothing except a little hunting and fishing. 
 
 On the following day I again applied for admission 
 to the Irkoutsk prisons, but my success was not much 
 better than before ; in fact, so unsatisfactory that n& 
 description of the prisons or treatment accorded th^; 
 convicts could be obtained^ except from persons in no 
 wise connected with the management, so I was compelled 
 to return to Irkoutsk and conduct my investigatiouK 
 through such sources as were afforded, but these I 
 soon found quite sufficient. The suspicion may havs 
 been ah'eady excited that such information as I have given 
 is hardly worthy full credence because of having been re- 
 ceived from exiles whose prejudices might lead them into 
 great exaggerations. Before proceeding further I hope 
 to relieve this impression by saying, that I had opportu- 
 nities for verifying, in a general way, all the stories I re- 
 ceived from exiles ; interviewing more than a dozen who 
 had served long periods in the mines, I would have been 
 liable to detect any misstatement, especially since I did 
 not talk with more than one exile at a time. In all their 
 several statements not the least inconsistency appeared, 
 while each declaration was further confirmed to me by 
 business men in the various towns I visited in Siberia. I 
 did not attempt to interview any prison official, because 
 Mr. Lansdell's example was before me ; that they would 
 protect themselves by hiding behind a mountain of misrep- 
 resentations and denials is perfectly natural, notwithstand- 
 ing their statements ars made in the very face of established 
 
3(50 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 facts. I saw with my own eyes quite enough of the hor- 
 rible treatment of Siberian exiles to make me reo;ard 
 neariy any story of torture inflicted on Russian convicts 
 appear as not improbable, but I have not the least dispo- 
 sition to spread the terrible tales of exile suffering which 
 have grown, by the accretions of repetition, to monstrous 
 proportions. My desire is to tell nothing but the truth, 
 and to this end I have not and will not repeat any state- 
 ment that I have not sifted and found to rest upon the 
 very strongest circumstantial evidence. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Irkoutsk is so situated that it is an excellent point 
 from whence to gather information respecting the natives 
 of Siberia, particularly as a majority of these tribes in- 
 habit the northern section and make that city their cen- 
 tral trading station. It is said there are thirty d liferent 
 tribes in all Siberia, among the more prominent being Tar- 
 tars, Ostjaks, Samoyeds, Kirghiz, Jacuts, Goldi, Buriats, 
 Zyrians, Koriaks, Tchapogirs, Jukagires, Vogules, Kam- 
 tchadals, Coreans, Yakoutes, Gilyaks, Chukchees and 
 Tunguse. 
 
 The Ostjaks, of whom I have already written, have 
 some claim to be considered as the aboriginal inhabitants 
 of Siberia, occupying the north-western region. They 
 are principally found in rude settlements scattered along 
 the banks of the Ob or Obi, as far north as Tobolsk. 
 Their chief occupations are fishing and hunting. The 
 former yields them abundant means of subsistence, as 
 the rivers teem with fish ; and hunting supplies them 
 with valuable furs for barter. Some of the Ostjaki lea^ 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 30 1 
 
 a kind of pastoral life, and keep large herds of rein- 
 deer, which furnish them with both food and clothing. 
 In summer they live in wretched temporary huts, framed 
 of boughs and covered with birch bark. Their filthy 
 bodies are but scantily clad. Small in stature, lean and 
 lank, with a scared, hang-dog look, and a stupid expression 
 on their broad ugly faces, they seem a degraded race. It 
 is true that on the water they show to better advantage 
 :n their light skiffs or canoes, which they manage with 
 
 OSTJAKS IN WINTER DRESS. 
 
 wonderful dexterity. But the Ostjak is only seen at his 
 best in winter, and in that far north which is his home. 
 There he leads the primitive life for which he is best 
 suited ; and there, warmly clad in the skin of the rein- 
 deer, while swiftly gliding on his snow-shoes in pursuit of 
 game, or bounding along in the "narta," the sledge 
 drawn by dogs or deer, he may feel himself the true lord 
 of the snowy wilderness that stretches to the Arctic 
 Oc©an. The winter habitations of the Ostjaks are ruda 
 
862 
 
 KUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 dwellings, built of logs, with an opening at the top for 
 the smoke. The light is admitted by means of a rough 
 but ingenious contrivance. An aperture made in the hut 
 is fitted with a large block of ice, which serves as a 
 window, and is renewed at will when it thaws. The 
 dress worn by the Ostjaks is of reindeer skins. It con- 
 sists of, first, a fur coat, which is seamless, and is slip- 
 ped on over the head and reaches to the knee ; next, 
 drawers of the same material, fastening round the body ; 
 
 SAMOYED FROM THE LOWER YENISEI. 
 
 FEMALE SAMOYED. 
 
 lastly, fur boots, with the hair turned inside. Over this 
 dress is worn another, of which the various parts are the 
 same, only that the skins are those of the old reindeer, 
 the hair of which is thicker and longer. 
 
 Beyond the Arctic Circle, near the Kara Sea, and along 
 the estuaries of the Ob and the Yenisei, dwell the Sara- 
 oyeds, who in many points resemble the Ostjaks. They, 
 too, lead a kind of nomadic life, roaming about in quest 
 of pastures for their reindeer, of which they possess 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 363 
 
 iarge Herds. They are more inclined to the chase than 
 to fishing. Keen and bold hunters, they do not even 
 shrink from encountering, single-handed, the huge polar 
 bear, with no other weapon than the bow, or a knife fas- 
 t^iedto a pole. They bring to market, at Obdorsk,on 
 the Ob and Yeniseisk, the choicest furs ; among the rest, 
 a peculiar variety of wolfskin, much prized by the na- 
 tives. The Samoyeds are tall and slender, but the women 
 small. The dress of the latter is far more elegant than 
 that of their Ostjak neighbors. It is not made of deer- 
 skins, but of the different furs, carefully selected with 
 a view to effect. 
 
 The Kirghiz Tartars are more southernly in their habi- 
 tations, and besides being warlike in disj^osition are fre- 
 quently highwaymen, who have time and again been the 
 t(!rror of Siberian travel. They are chiefly engaged rais- 
 ing horses and cattle, but though they pursue this voca- 
 tion generally with profit they cannot resist the prompt- 
 ings of a nature inherited from generation to generation, 
 •md therefore forage, pillage, rob, with that same relish 
 exhibited by their Tartar ancestors many hundred years 
 ago. Even within the last few years they have been 
 guilty of many abductions, which is a revival of their 
 earlier practices. Like the Albanians who, during the 
 controversy with Montenegro in 1877, made descents 
 upon unprotected villages near the border and carried off 
 the most attractive female Montenegrins, so the Kirghiz 
 have recently despoiled their Thibetan neighbors and 
 made captive many women, carrying them off to their 
 ranches and subjecting them to servitude. 
 
 The Buriats inhabit a district in the Trans-Baikal — that 
 is, beyond Lake Baikal. They are not very numerous, 
 but not a few possess considerable wealth and dress in a 
 style which, if not exactly magnificently fashionable, is 
 
IliiJiUi. u iiiu ^ ^^' " 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 365 
 
 very expensive. Many of them live in Yakoutsk, CMta 
 and other far eastern cities, where the females wear dresses 
 und jewehy of great value ; but those leading a pastoral 
 life live in tents like most ot our western Indians. 
 
 The Goldi are a small tribe, numbering about 5,000, 
 located along the Amoor river, which is the dividing line 
 between Siberia and China, and in the Ussuri district. 
 They are nearly allied to the Tunguse in habits and lan- 
 guage, but being on the Chinese border and mixing with 
 the Manchu, they imitate them in many particulars. 
 Formerly the Goldi did not bury their dead, but carried 
 them to a dead house where the bodies were left until 
 destroyed by time. Notwithstanding the dreadful exha- 
 lations of this charnal house friends of the departed paid 
 frequent visits to the building to mourn and pray for 
 their dead. 
 
 The Gilyaks are a tribe whose numbers I found no 
 one could approximate. They inhabit a portion of 
 the Island Sakhalein, and also a district adjoining that 
 occupied by the Goldi, but there is so great a difference 
 between them that no one single feature, in either habit 
 or aJDpearance, is common to them both. The Gilyaks 
 have so great an aversion for water that they never learn 
 to swim or wash themselves. Their subsistence is de- 
 rived from fishing and hunting, fish being taken by nets, 
 and sometimes by spearing. They are polygamists, es- 
 teeming women of no more value than their dogs, but 
 polyandry is also practiced ; in case where a woman has 
 a patrimony of fair estimation, so many sledge-dogs, so 
 much brandy, or so many valuable skins, she can buy as 
 many husbands as her means will afford ; but polyandry 
 is seldom practiced among them, while polygamy is very 
 general. They are the most ignorant people to be found 
 in Siberia, and in many respects are like the Congo tribes 
 
see 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 in Central Africa. Sickness among them is treated by 
 wearing amulets, and such fatalists are they that on no ac- 
 count would one Gilyak attempt to save another's life. 
 
 These people, though ignorant almost beyond beliefs 
 are uncommonly brave, and while they have many super- 
 stitions, there is little connected with their faith that in- 
 spires terror. They prefer hunting to anv other employ- 
 m«nt, but still use only primitive weapons for taking 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 367 
 
 game ; yet there is a superstition which prevents them 
 from hunting the tiger or wolf. In Western Siberia 
 and Eastern Russia the peasants will not kill a wolf be- 
 cause, as it was explained to me, " the surviving compan- 
 ions or friends of a wolf will avenge the dead one." 
 
 — -« \ 
 
 GOLDI IN WINTER DRESS. 
 
 Many told me that if a peasant refused to kill a wolf his 
 flocks would never be molested, but if he did do so the 
 wolves would be sure to destroy his stock. 
 
 Bear hunting among the Gilyaks is most exciting sport, 
 
366 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 because it is conducted something after the fashion once 
 practiced by ancient Norwegians. Their weapon consists 
 of a long pole, to one end of which is attached, by means 
 of small strips of raw-hide, a steel spear four inches long 
 and two inches broad ; there is also another weapon used, 
 but not so commonly as the former, v/hich is made by 
 wrapping several sharp-pointed spikes together so that their 
 points will extend outward something like the bristles of a 
 hedge-hog when rolled up ; this chevaux-de-f rize is firmly 
 fastened to a long pole, which is then used like the spear. 
 This latter weapon is employed to worry the bear by first 
 
 GROUP OF GILYAKS. 
 
 irritating the animal until, enraged, it rushes upon its as- 
 sailant ; the Gilyak hunter then defends himself by pre- 
 senting his spiked weapon, which the bear seizes only to 
 wound itself ; more violently enraged with these self-in- 
 flicted injuries, the bear endeavors to destroy the spikes, 
 by biting and squeezing them, until it actually kills itself. 
 In using the spear there is really more danger incurred 
 than from the spiked weapon, for when a bear is wounded 
 with a spear it attacks the hunter, who sometimes be- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 3(^9 
 
 comes the victim. Nothing can equal, for ferocity and 
 vitality, the Grizzly bear of North America, but next to 
 this animal certainly comes the Russian bear, which it:, 
 equal in all respects to the Grizzly, except in vital pow- 
 ers. Yet terrible as it is when fully aroused, the Gil- 
 yaks not only attack and slay, with no other weapon thaia 
 a long spear, the most powerful Russian bears, but they 
 also capture them alive to provide amusement at annual 
 feasts. To capture these dangerous animals a party Oa 
 eight to a dozen men provide themselves with lassoes, 
 chains, collars and a muzzle, and in company seek their 
 game. Upon finding a bear, however large it may be> 
 they proceed to take it prisoner in the following manner ; 
 Scattering out in a circle they surround the bear and 
 gradually contract the circle by driving the animal to- 
 wards the center, always taking great care not to excite 
 it. Dogs are not used at such times, because they would 
 enrage the bear anci cause it to break precipitately, so 
 that a capture would be impossible. M^hen the circle 
 becomes sufficiently contracted everything is made read}' 
 for two men to cast ther lassoes, and while the attention 
 of the bear is directed towards one or more persons, an- 
 other of the party nimbly leaps upon the bear's back, as 
 the lassoes arc thrown, and catching bruin by the ears 
 hold his head, assisted by others with the lassoes ; a col- 
 lar and muzzle are next adjusted on poor bruin, and he 
 then becomes a helpless captive. Should any of tha 
 hunters be wounded ia these dangerous attempts, whicis 
 they very frequently are, they think themselves lucky.j 
 as such wounds are considered evidences of prowess, and 
 to be killed by a bear' is esteemed a happy death. 
 
 Bears thus caught are taken to the nearest village^ 
 where they are kept and fatted on fish, for the approach- 
 ing festival. The most important fete day among thcfwi 
 
370; 
 
 BUSWIAir NISiXUSM jlsjT 
 
 FESTIVAL OF KILLING THE BEAR. 
 l.Oll7«kt*rtb«Up|iM0UM,ftadDofl. i.»-^Tkf* •. WoUTraM 4. FUhaadTi 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA, 371 
 
 strange people occurs early in January, but on no partic- 
 ular date, as the Gilyaks reckon time by the moon. On 
 this occasion the captured bear is taken from its cage and 
 shackled so it can commit no harm, is dragged or driven 
 all around the village and halted before each house, 
 where some cabalistic words are repeated, supposed to 
 bring good luck. After this part of the ceremony is 
 completed, they lead the animal to some place for water, 
 and also serve it with a platter of food ; should the bear 
 take both water and food the sacrifice is postponed, but 
 owing to its anger it always refuses. The bear is now 
 dragged to the place of sacrifice, where it is made fast 
 between two posts by means of raw hide ropes connected 
 with its collar. Then succeed orgies not unlike those 
 practiced by several tribes of Indians about their sacri' 
 fices. The bear is beaten with sticks and stones in oiaer 
 to make it growl, for manifestations of pain and an- 
 ger from the animal are taken as answers to the entreaties 
 of those engaged in the sacrifice for good luck. When at 
 length the bear becomes exhausted, the honor of shoot- 
 ing it through the heart with an arroAV is accorded to 
 one who is chosen chief of the ceremonies for that day. 
 After its death the bear's head and paws are cut off, the 
 former being presented to the village patriarch, and to 
 which prayers are offered for a period of six weeks. The 
 paw^s are divided between four popular persons at the 
 feast, who keep them for good luck, sometimes wearino- 
 them for years tied to a string about the neck. In jDass- 
 ing through a Gilyak settlement it is very common to 
 find the ears, jaw-bones, skulls and paws of bears killed 
 in such sacrifices as I have described, hung up in trees, 
 where they are supposed to exercise a most serviceable 
 influence in keeping off evil spirits and bringing^ good 
 luck to tho village. 
 
172 
 
 RUSSIAN XIHTLISM AND 
 
 In the Island Sakhalein these ceremonials of bear kill- 
 ing are much more frequent than on the Siberian shore, 
 for the reason perhaps that the Gilyaks are more uu- 
 
 m«roui on Sakhalein and because their customi v.ie not 
 interfered with or uifluenced by neighboring tribes. 
 The Tuuguee are a very numerous people inhabitino^ 
 
EXILE LIFE rW SIBERIA. 375 
 
 many parts of Siberia. They are very much like the 
 Manchu of China, in appearance, wliile in habits they 
 assimilate with the Esquimaux, being found as far north 
 as the Arctic Ocean. In March these people go on snow- 
 shoes over snow, into which, ^t that season, cloven- 
 footed animals sink, and shoot elks, roe, and musk deer, 
 wild deer and goats ; the tent being fixed in valleys and 
 defiles, where the snow lies deepest. In April the ice on 
 the rivers begins to move, and the huntsman, now turned 
 fisher, hastens to the small rivulets to net his fish. 
 Those not required for immediate use are dried against 
 the next month, which is one of the least plentiful in the 
 year. In May they shoot deer and other game, which 
 they have decoyed to certain spots by burning down the 
 high grass in the valleys, so that the young sprouts may 
 attract the deer and goats. June supplies the hunter 
 with antlers of the roe. These they sell at a high price 
 to the Chinese for medicinal purposes. In July the na- 
 tives spend a large part of the month catching fish, taken 
 with nets or speared with harpoons. They are able also 
 to spear the elk, which likes a water-plant growing in the 
 lakes. He comes down at night, wades into the water, 
 and, whilst engaged in tearing at the plant with his teeth, 
 is killed by the huntsman. In August they catch birds, 
 speared at night in the retired creeks and bays of the 
 rivers and lakes. Their flesh, except that of the swan, is 
 eaten, and the down is exchanged for ear and finger 
 rings, bracelets, beads, and the like. Thus they spend 
 the summer months, afterward retiring again to the 
 mountains for game. * In the beginning of September they 
 prepare for winter pursuits. With these people there is 
 very little of civilization found ; they live in birch-bark 
 tents, and delight in hunting on the tundras ; horseaare not 
 24 
 
S74 RTJSSIAIT NIHILISM AXTD 
 
 favorably regarded by them, their domestic draught ani 
 ma?s being reindeer and dogs ; of the former they pos 
 sess immense herds, so that the fortune of a Tunguse ik 
 estimated entirely by the number of reindeer he owns. 
 
 The Kirghiz, wlio are distinct from theEjrghiz Tartars, 
 are the largest framed people in Siberia. Some of them 
 own large herds of cattle and horses, in South Siberia, 
 and have some pretensions of refinement, living in wooden 
 houses and adopting a few customs which evidence civili- 
 zation ; but as a rule they arc beggarly, indolent rapscal- 
 lions of the plains. 
 
 They are met with in nearly all the larger cities, ply- 
 ing their tricks of juggling, fortune telling and begging ; 
 they have not the least acquaintance with work or clean- 
 liness, and as a tribe they are generally despised. 
 
 The numerous other tribes of native Siberians aro 
 hardly worthy of mention, because their numbers aro 
 very small, and in many respects they are so nearly as- 
 similated to the jjrincipal tribes by intermarriage and 
 nationality that only an ethnologist can distinguish the 
 tribal Deculiaritie& of them all. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 My journey eastward was concluded at Irkoutsk, which 
 I regarded rightfully as the central point of Siberia, at 
 which could be daily met people of all ranks from every 
 part of the Empire. I was pleased to find that my 
 opinion was correct and that here was afforded full ana 
 ample means of collecting all the facts appertaining to 
 exile and commercial life in that portion of the Empire. 
 Situated within less than seventy miles of lake Baikal, 
 
^l)-^-i3t^ -.^^»^^-_^ 
 
 TUNGUSB HUNTERS. 
 
376 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 the largest fresh water body on the eastern iiemisphere;* 
 on which ply numerous steamers deriving their business 
 chiefly from the overland travel and freightage, and being 
 midway on the great transport route, the city could no* 
 be otherwise than 
 cosmopolitan and 
 important. Its 
 commercial fea- 
 tures exceed those 
 of Irbit, since in 
 1879 that large and 
 fiuestcityin Siberia 
 was almost totally 
 destroyed by fire. 
 At all seasons may 
 be found on the 
 streets of Irkoutsk 
 and in its hotels, 
 representatives 
 from all over Eu- 
 
 rope. A great deal 
 
 of gold and silver, 
 in fact nearly all 
 the native product 
 from east of Tom- 
 sk, is taken to Ir- 
 koutsk for refine- 
 ment and coinage. 
 Nearly every day 
 gold trains, guarded by large convoys, or bags of gold- 
 dust conveyed by tarantass, arrive in the city, while 
 long files of merchants with goods from China or Eussia 
 pass through its streets, so that an air of business is a/ 
 ways maintained. 
 
 mmM 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 377" 
 
 On the second day of my stay in IrkoutskI became ac- 
 quainted with an American gentleman who was engaged 
 in running a small steamer on the Anioor, but he made so 
 Qiany trips to Irkoutsk on ^)usiness that his acquaintance 
 with prominent people of the city was quite extensive. 
 His name was Eobert M. Gunsollis, and his native place 
 a small town in Robinson county, Kentucky. He was 
 very glad to see me, and upon disclosing to him the pur- 
 poses of my visit to Siberia, he took great interest in as- 
 eistino^ me. Through his kind services I secuied an 
 introduction to the Governor of Irkoutsk, and several 
 merchants, all of whom tendered me their kind offices. 
 Mr. Gunsollis was a traveller, and only six months before 
 I saw him he had been on the island of Sakhalein sjiend- 
 ing several weeks among the natives and convicts. Being 
 a close observer and an uncommonly intelligent man, he 
 had gathered a oreat deal of information of much value 
 to the world at large, and as we spent an evening together 
 he gave me the advantage of his newly acquired knowl- 
 edge resi^ecting Sakhalein . 
 
 This island, which is nearly 600 miles in length, and 
 about as large in area as the State of Illinois, was not 
 explored until the year 1848, previous to which time it 
 was supposed to be a portion of the Siberian, or Man - 
 churian mainland. Along the coast it is generally ver}' 
 rocky and precipitous, while in the interior there is a 
 chain of mountains which rise considerably above the 
 limit of vegetation. Nearly every part of the island is 
 wild and desolate, with a population of 15,000 persons, 
 divided between Gilyaks, Tunguse, Oroks, Kuriles, and 
 Ainos, the latter supposed to be the aboriginal popula- 
 tion, while all the natives subsist on fish and wild game. 
 
 Nevilskoy, Eear Admiral of the Russian navy, landed 
 on the island in 1848 and accomplished a partial exi)lora' 
 
a78 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM Am> 
 
 tion. He found it rich with coal, and this discovery led 
 his Government to negotiate with Japan (to which the 
 island belonged) for its purchase. Russia was in great 
 need of a coaling station in the Pacific, and this want 
 was supjjiied by 
 a purchase of 
 the island about 
 twelve years 
 ago. Directly 
 after the acquire- 
 ment of this des- 
 olate wilderness, 
 suggestions were 
 made to Alexan- 
 der II. which 
 subsequently led 
 that Emperor to 
 establish penal 
 colonies on the 
 island, by which 
 labor many coul 
 mines were open- 
 ed and are still 
 worked. 
 
 The port of 
 Dui, which is sit- 
 uated about the 
 center of the 
 weitern coast, is 
 a gfmall military 
 
 AINOS, ABORIGINES OF SAKHALEIN. 
 
 station, but is nevertheless the most important place on the 
 Island . It contains five prisons, all of which are small build- 
 ings, in which are crowded nearly 2,000 exiles. In winter 
 nie atmosphere is freezing cold, and but for the crowding 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 379 
 
 it woula oe impossible for the convicts to survive even a 
 moderate winter ; as it is, frost-bitten hands and feet are 
 very common among the inmates. From Dui, the exiles are 
 distributed to various parts of the island as prescribed in 
 their sentences. 
 
 The post is garrisoned by 500 men whose inactivity 
 and severance from social relations cause their existence tc 
 be scarcely less unhappy than the exiles whom they 
 guard. About one hundred miles south of Dui is another 
 post called Korsakovsk, where a small force of soldiers ig 
 etativjned, whose lonesome, unchangeable lives are even 
 unrelieved by the sight of the supply vessels which put 
 in at Dui two or three times a year. 
 
 Out in the interior ar;e two mines, one of which is called 
 Dui mine and the other Dui farm, where a large number 
 of C(mvicts are employed, but the coal lies so near the 
 surface that all convicts there engaged luckily escape the 
 horrors of deep mining ; but while they are not forced 
 down into black caverns, away forever from the blessed 
 sunlight, as are many convicts in Siberian mines, their 
 lots are but one degree less melancholy ; in fact it would 
 sometimes appear that officials on Sakhalein are more 
 devilishly barbarous than are those at Kara. The knout 
 and scorpion are used almost without the shadow of a 
 cause ; malignantly brutal keepers, never so content as 
 when witnessing the agonies of extreme suffering, ex- 
 pend all their surplus force by exercising with instru- 
 ments of torture upon the bared backs of convicts. The 
 labor performed in these mines is not so onerous as in 
 many mines in Siberia, for the reason that they are 
 worked for the Government, while a majority of Siberian 
 mines are worked by private corporations interested in 
 getting as much out of the exiles as possible. But there 
 M little doubt that the punishment of convicts on Sakha- 
 
m> 
 
 KUaSlAIf NIHILISM AND 
 
 '^^^^^. '""'--^ "' -^ P-' «-"«•<.. 
 
 COMBAT WITH A SIBERIAN BEAR. 
 
 though itT uT "■''' "'"^^ '^ '"'^°^' impossible, for 
 though it would be comparatively easy to get outside the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. S81 
 
 guards, there is nothing, except the wild animals of the 
 country, upon which a fugitive might subsist while jour- 
 neying the 200 miles he would have to go before reaching 
 a point where he could hope to effect an embarkation for 
 the mainland. None but the most desperate and daring 
 would attempt to escape under such circumstances. 
 
 A few instances of such escapes are recorded, and 
 one in particular was related to me, where two convicts 
 overcame their guard and, armed with only a gun 
 and an ax, made their way back to civilization. When 
 almost overcome by starvation and cold, they were 
 attacked by a huge Siberian bear which they succeeded 
 in killing, and thus supplied themselves with food and 
 nourishment. 
 
 Besides the dangers of starvation there is a reward of 
 three roubles placed upon the head of every escaping 
 convict, dead or alive. This barbaric outlawry is taken 
 advantage of by the native Gilyaks, who prowl through 
 every by-way in search of convicts, not with any inten- 
 tion of capturing them, but to shoot them down like wild 
 beasts. This system of man-hunting is carried on so 
 near the convict quarters that many unfortunate exiles, 
 with no thought of attempting to escape, fall victims 
 within a stone's throw of their barracks, having unknow- 
 ingly come within range of the perfidious Gilyaks, who, 
 upon applying for the reward, are sure to make out a big 
 story of how they detected their victims in a desperate 
 effort to escape. The proof required before payment is 
 the severed head of the convict ; thus, when the Gilyaks 
 kill an exile on Sakhalein they cut off his head and carry 
 it to the Governor ; and inasmuch as the convicts are all 
 branded it is easy to decide whether or not the applicant 
 has made any mistake. 
 
 The Oraks, who number about 5,000, are hunters and 
 
382 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 fishers ; they live in cone-shaped houses made of thatch, 
 which are set on poles about twelve feet above ground. 
 
 Bears are plentiful on the island, and these the Oraks 
 kill with spears, in a manner similar to that of the Gilyaka 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 383 
 
 of Siberia. Every Orak village has its sacred house, 
 tvhich serves as a repository for the bones of those ani- 
 mals killed by residents of the village. The interior of 
 these sacred houses is filled with the bones of the bears 
 except the skulls, which are placed on poles and set in the 
 ground around the building. The Oraks are very super- 
 stitious, worshijiping no particular deity, but practice 
 many singular rites under the belief that they will bring 
 them good. They regard no other charm, or amulet, so 
 potential as that made of some portion of a bear's skull, 
 while all the bones of that animal are supposed to pos- 
 sess magical powers, hence the pains taken by each vil- 
 lage to preserve them. 
 
 I was anxious to find some one who had visited Niko- 
 laefsk, and was familiar with that famous prison, so com- 
 municating this desire to Gunsollis, he assured me that it 
 would not be difficult to find in Irkoutsk persons from any 
 part of Siberia ; we therefore went out together the fol- 
 lowing day, and before an hour had elapsed he found 
 three different persons thoroughly familiar with Niko- 
 laefsk, one of whom had been an exile there some years 
 ago. Through the assistance of Gunsollis and Schleuter 
 I obtained from these a large fund of information re- 
 specting that dreaded prison, which, in some respects, is 
 said to be more feared than Kara. 
 
 Nikolacfsk is situated near the extreme eastern coast 
 of Siberia, on a neck of the Gulf of Tartary and opjDo- 
 site the north-west coast of Sakhalein, or, more properly, 
 at the mouth of the Amoor River, It contains a pop- 
 ulation of about 5,000, and has a few really excellent 
 buildings. My informants dispelled the popular impres- 
 sion concerning the treatment of prisoners there, and 
 assured me that the belief of cruelties practiced by Nik- 
 olaefsk officials arose out of the fact that it lies at the 
 
^- -s^ 
 
 ^H'jKiifgl-y-V^J^r 
 
 CONVICTS CAMPLNO IN TBtt JiNOW. 
 
 384 
 
EXILE LIFE IN 8IBBRIA. 385 
 
 •nd of overland travel. Convicts who are sent by the 
 transport route to Sakhalein here conclude their 4000 
 miles of foot journey, and the few who survive the ter- 
 rors of such a march are so broken down by their loads 
 of chains and unexampled miseries that they are quite 
 ready to regard this last place on the journey as a very 
 hades. This impression also extends to visitors, because 
 in no other place can such emaciated, sorrowful looking 
 people be seen, nearly one-half of whom are insane. It 
 is not an unusual sight to witness many patients in the 
 Nikolaefsk hospitals, the skin on whose wrists and ankles 
 is worn entirely away by heavy chains, leaving exposed 
 the raw and angry tendons. 
 
 The climate about Nikolaefsk is dreadfully severe in 
 winter, and on account of imperfect protection many 
 convicts die there in the prisons of cold. Yet there 7S a 
 humanity among the officers at these prisons found at 
 few other penal stations in Siberia ; the sutferings of 
 convicts are attended to by a commission who derive, in 
 addition to a salary from the Government, contributions 
 from those who are charitably disposed, which latter is 
 greater than the salaries. When the exiles are so far rev 
 covered as to be able to proceed to Sakhalein they ar^ 
 taken by a Russian man-of-war to port Dui and there 
 distributed. 
 
 It very frequently happens that rather than go to Sak- 
 halein the convicts will attempt to escape from Nikolaefsk, 
 sometimes in squads and at others singly or in small paiv 
 ties. Formerly there was a reward offered in all of east 
 Siberia, by governors of the several districts, for the 
 head of every escaping convict, like that which still pre- 
 vails in Sakhalein. During the continuance of this bar^ 
 barous regulation several native tribes left off fishing* 
 and hunting wild animals, and took up the new occupa- 
 
886 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tion of hunting exiles. Such of those as could secure 
 guns conducted a thriving business in summer time when 
 the number of fugitives was greatest. These head hunt- 
 ers went on horseback, and around their waists they 
 wore a broad belt to which they tied the heads of their 
 victims. When a convict was found by these murderous 
 heathen they showed him no mercy, but shot him down ; 
 if the wound did not prove fatal, but sufficient to bring 
 
 KILLING OF ESCAPING EXILES FOR THEIR CLOTHES. 
 
 the victim to the ground, the hunter rushed upon him 
 Avith a large knife and cut off his head ; strings were 
 then made fast to the hair by wliich the severed head Avas 
 tied to the hunter's belt. The body Avas also stripped of 
 its clothing, which, though generally old and composed 
 of nothing but reindeer skins, Avas valued so highly that 
 since the withdi'awal of money rewards by governors 
 
387 COMBAT BETWEEN HEAD-HUNTERS AND ESCAPING CONVICTS. 
 
888 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANli 
 
 these hunters continued shooting convicts mere!/ for 
 their clothes. 
 
 It is told that in September of 1856, a battalion of 
 soldiers started from Nikolaefsk up the Amoor land 
 route for ShilkinskZavod, but after proceeding less than 
 a hundred versts they were overtaken by a snow-storm 
 which so blinded them that progress was impossible, and 
 to keep from freezing they were compelled to bundle to- 
 gether. But a more horrible death than that by freezing 
 soon threatened, for having provided themselves with ra- 
 tions for only a few days their store of food failed them. 
 Grim necessity was fought against until at last they were 
 forced by hunger to draw lots to decide who should be 
 sacrificed that their bodies might furnish food for the 
 more fortunate. Nearly one-twentieth of the command 
 was killed in this way and eaten by their comrades. 
 
 So sympathetic are the people of Siberia, and particu- 
 larly do they so well know the suffering which every ex- 
 ile muist undergo while fleeing for liberty, that it is their 
 custom, just before retiring each night, to place some 
 bread and salt on the outside window-sill, v/here it may 
 be convenient to any one passing by ; many a poor fugi- 
 tive has thus been fed and his life preserved. 
 
 There is one other di;^tril)uting point, or etape prison, 
 on the Siberian coast, Vladivostock, which is a place of 
 considerable commercial importance. Situated so near 
 China, the town has attracted a large number of Mon- 
 golians, notwithstanding the fact that they are treat- 
 ed with great disrespect and on two occasions have 
 been ordered out of the district, while China has 
 vainly tried to prevent emigration of her subjects to Rus- 
 sian soil. In 1861 China ceded the sea-coast to Russia 
 and at the same time prohibited her subjects from colon- 
 izins on Siberian soil with their wives. The rich Chinese 
 
389—25 SIBERIAN PEASANTS CARING FOR AN AGED CONVICT. 
 
a*o 
 
 BX7SBIAK UnSXLJSU JlISTD 
 
 therefore returned home, leaving the poor who were 
 next to outlawed by the rigorous legal reqtiirements 
 which they were unable to obey ; they naturally drifted 
 into crime, and being soon after joined by Manchu brig- 
 ands, known as Maiizas, there succeeded a regular pirati- 
 cal organization which has not yet been entirely suppressed . 
 These Manzas robbers are upon both land and water, kill- 
 ing on the highways and scuttling «mall crafts on the 
 
 A COREAN HOUSE IN VLADIVOSTOCK. 
 
 coastwaters, so that travelling through the Primorsk dis- 
 trict IS always very dangerous. 
 
 The Coreans are also in considerable numbers about 
 Vladivostock, and because of their frugal, industrious 
 habits they are despised and beaten by the Russ popula- 
 tion. This treatment is due to the identical causes which 
 have operated in San Francisco against the Chinese, for 
 inasmuch as nearly one-half of the commodities used by 
 the better classes in the Primorsk are of American pro- 
 duction, the merchant and mechanic think that American 
 prices and wages should obtain in ^^l&diyostock. The 
 
WOLB LITB ISf eiSXBIA. Ml 
 
 Coreans, nowever, are willing to work for very small 
 wages and their bartering is conducted on small margins, 
 hence the race prejudice. The Government of Coreahas 
 attempted to arrest emigration by making it a capital of- 
 fence for any of its subjects to settle in a foreign country. 
 This law had a dreadful enforcement in 1868, when 1,400 
 Coreans were run out of the Primorsk and upon returning 
 to Corea they were summarily beheaded. 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 The most interesting district in Siberia is about Yak- 
 outsk, which is a city of 6,000 inhabitants, and the capi- 
 tal of the Yakoutsk Government. A large trade is car- 
 ried on between Irkoutsk and Yakoutsk, so that I had no 
 difficulty in finding scores of persons who had been long 
 residents of the latter place, and would give me whatever 
 information I desired concerning it. By Schleuter's as- 
 sistance T interviewed the military Governor of Yakoutsk, 
 who was on a visit to Irkoutsk, and to whom I was intro- 
 duced by the Governor of the latter place. It was my 
 good fortune also to find and talk with three men who 
 had served short sentences of exile near Yakoutsk. From 
 these several sources I gained a very satisfactory descrip- 
 tion of life in and about the city. 
 
 The government of Yakoutsk is the largest in Siberia, 
 covering an area greater than that of all Europe, if we 
 except Russia. The town itself, situated on the Lena 
 Eiver, in 65 "^ north latitude, presents an odd blending of 
 cosmopolite architecture, from the gi'aceful styles adopt- 
 ed by Russian nobility to the summer yourts of the native 
 Yakutes. Generally considered, however, there are few 
 
892 
 
 BUSSIAX NIHILISM AND 
 
 modem appearances about the place; instead of using 
 hors<3S or reindeer for drauglit purposes, oxen arecliosen, 
 and tliesQ slow, plodding creatures are also used for rid- 
 ing ; but a still more grotesque characteristic of the city 
 is 'found in the fact that, discarding horses and the con- 
 
 EXILES ON THE ISLAND OF SAKHALEIN. 
 
 ventional ways of other countries, the ladies of Yakoutsk 
 ride on the backs of oxen—a-straddle. I cannot well 
 imagine a more humorous sight than a Yakoutsk belle, 
 dressed in the bright toggery peculiar to fashion, going 
 out shopping in the city astride a mewling ox whose 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 393 
 
 shambling gait is marked by sinuous droolings, uiJ whose 
 whisking tail in summer time laps up little pools of 
 sewage in the streets to distribute in a delicate spray 
 over the fair rider. 
 
 Yakoutsk is said to be the coldest spot on earth ; from 
 December 1st to February 1st, the mean temperature be- 
 ing 58° Fah. below zero, while not infrequently it reach- 
 es 80° below. Extreme as this cold is, no particular dis- 
 comfort is experienced ; while the mercury is frozen 
 market women may be seen standing before their wares 
 with arms bared above the elbows, laughing and chatting 
 as if the weather were delightful. In sledge travelling 
 during such temperature, the driver sleeps in the clothing 
 he wears all day, and will curl up in his vehicle at night, 
 draw the fur hood of his great coat over his head and 
 sleep under the shivering stars, and no doubt dream of 
 violets and primroses bursting into life under a warm, ex- 
 hilarating, springtime sun. 
 
 The Russian population of the Yakoutsk Government is 
 confined chiefly to the Upper Lena, Yakoutsk and its 
 vicinity. The Tunguse are also found on the eastern 
 and western confines of the district, but are rarely met 
 with in the interior. There is another race called the 
 Yukaghirs, in the province, whose numbers are computed 
 at about 2,000, but so wild is their nature that their ethno- 
 logical peculiarities are but little known. They are only 
 met with near the Arctic shores, between the Yana and 
 Kolima rivers. They were once a very powerful tribe, so 
 tradition says, and which statement is partly proved bv 
 the tumuli and burial places still to be found along the 
 Lena river. These relics of former tribal power contain 
 human bones, bows, arrows, spears, and an instrument 
 similar to that occasionally found among the more ignor- 
 ant Laplanders, which they call a ♦' magic drum," but it 
 
YUKAGHI& AND BIS WIFE "AT HOME.' 
 
EXILE LIFE EST SIBEEtlA. 395 
 
 resembles a pot more than a drum, being of considerabl* 
 depth and closed at one end with reindeer skin. 
 
 The Yukaghirs live almost entirely on the re in deer the j 
 kill during spring and autumn. At these seasons a mos- 
 quito, not unlike the buffalo gnat of our Mississippi bot- 
 toms, and so numerous that at times they almost darken 
 the sky, so torment the reindeer that they seek 
 refuge in the rivers, where they remain until winter sets 
 in. This habit is taken advantage of by the Yukaghirs, 
 who post themselves under cover beside a frequented 
 stream and await the reindeer, which come down from 
 neighboring forests in immense herds and enter the water. 
 When the animals have taken to the stream they are set 
 upon by the hunters, who appear on both sides and with 
 long spears slaughter great numbers. 
 
 The Yukaghirs are inveterate smokers of a tobacco 
 grown in the Ukraine, which they mix with small, half- 
 decayed chips so as to make it go further ; in smoking 
 not a whiff is allowed to escape into the air, but all is in- 
 haled and swallowed, producing an effect somewhat sim- 
 ilar to a mild dose of opium. Tobacco is considered 
 their first and greatest luxury^ "Women and children all 
 smoke, the latter learning to do so as soon as they are able 
 to toddle. Any funds remaining after the supply of 
 tobacco has been laid in are devoted to the purchase of 
 brandy. A Yukaghir, it is said, never intoxicates him- 
 self alone, but calls upon his family to share the drink, 
 even chil(?ren in arms being supplied with a portion. 
 
 In the center of the Yakutsk province, occupying the 
 valley of the Lena, roam the Yakutes, some of whom are 
 met as far off as Nikolaef sk. They are of middle height, 
 and of a light copper color, with black hair, which the 
 men cut close. The sharp lines of their faces express 
 inck/j^ut and amiable gentleness rather than vigor and 
 
396 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 passion. They bear a clpse resemblance to the North 
 American Indians ; their appearance is that of a people 
 who have grown wild rather than of a thoroughly and 
 orighially rude race. Those who have been long settled 
 among the Russians have perhaps become somewhat 
 more polished than their wandering brethren. As a race 
 they are good-tempered, orderly, hospitable, and capable 
 of enduring great privation with patience ; but in inde- 
 pendence of character they contrast unfavorably with 
 their Tunguse neighbors. Lay a finger in anger on one 
 of the Tunguse, and nothing will induce him to forget 
 the insult ; whereas with the Yakutes, the more they are 
 thrashed the better they work.* 
 
 The winter dwellings of the people have doors of raw 
 hides, and log or wicker walls calked with cow-dung, 
 and flanked with banks of earth to the height of the 
 windows. The latter are made of sheets of ice, kept in 
 their place from the outside by a slanting pole, the lower 
 end of which is fixed in the ground, ^hey are rendered 
 air-tight by pouring on water, which quickly freezes 
 round the edges ; and the fact that it takes a long time 
 to melt these blocks of i# thus fixed is highly suggestive 
 of what the temperature must be, both without and 
 witthin. The flat roof is covered with earth, and over the 
 door, facing the east, the boards project, making a cov- 
 ered place in front, like the natives' houses in the Cau- 
 casus. Under the same roof are the winter shelters for 
 the cows and for the people, the former being the larger. 
 
 * Strahlenberg divides them into lo tribes, and Syboreen's Almanack for 1876 
 gives their number at 210,000. They belong to the great Turk family, and 
 hence their Siberian locality is remarkable, because the Turks have ever been 
 the people to displace othei's, v/hereas the Yakutes have been themselves dis- 
 placed, and driven into this inhospitable alimate, it is supposed, by ttw 
 stronger Buriats. 
 
F.XTT.F. LEFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 397 
 
 VIEWS OF THE ABODES OF THE EXILES NEAR YAKOUTSK. 
 1. &2 Summer Bouses of tke lUIes. 3. jE 5. laiarlor views ofsome. i. Types a{ tiie Sural PopuUttCM. 
 «. OcftTsTard. 
 
398 KUS8IAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 The fireplace consists of a wicker frame plastered over 
 with clay, room being left for a man to pass between the 
 fireplace and the wall. The hearth is made of beaten 
 earth, and on it there is at all times a blazing fire, 
 and logs of larch-wood throw up showers of sparks to 
 the roof. Young calves, like children, are brought into 
 the house to the fire, whilst their mothers cast a con- 
 tented look through the open door at the back of the 
 fireplace. Behind the fireplace, too, are the sleeping- 
 places of the people, which in the poorer dwellings con- 
 sists of only a continuation of the straw laid in the cow- 
 house. 
 
 In the wmter they have about five hours of daylight, 
 which penetrates as best it can through the icy windows ; 
 and in the evening all the party sit round the fire on low 
 stools, men and women smoking. The summer yowr^s of 
 these people are formed of poles about 20 feet long, 
 which are united at the top into a roomy cone, covered 
 with pieces of bright yellow and perfectly flexible birch 
 bark, which are not merely joined together, but are also 
 handsomely worked along the seams with horsehair thread. 
 
 The houses are not overstocked with furniture, and the 
 chief cooking utensil is a large iron pot. At the time of 
 the invasion of the Russians, this article was deemed such 
 a treasure that the price asked for a pot was as many 
 sable-skins as would fill it. They use also in winter a 
 bowl-shaped frame of wicker work, plastered with fro- 
 zen cow-dung, in which they pound their porridge. With 
 regard to their food, the Yakutes, if they have their 
 choice, love to eat horse-flesh ; and their adage says that 
 to eat much meat, and grow fat upon it, is the highest 
 destiny of man. They are the greatest gluttons. So far 
 back as the days of Strahlenberg, it was said that four 
 Yakutes would eat a horse. They rarely kill their oxen 
 
EXILE LirE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 for food ; and at a wedding, the favorite dish served up 
 by the bride to her future lord is a boiled horse's head, 
 with horse-flesh sausages. When, however, horse-flesh 
 or beef is wanting, they are not at all nice as to what 
 they consume, for they eat the animals they take for fur, 
 and woe to the unfortunate horse that becomes seriously 
 injured in travel ! It is killed and eaten then and there, 
 the men taking off their girdles to give fair play to their 
 stomachs, which swell after the fashion of a boa-constric- 
 tor. Thus earnestly do they aspire to their notion of the 
 highest destiny of man ! Milk is in general request 
 among them, whether from cows or mares ; and when 
 they are in the neighborhood of theKussians, and can get 
 flour, they do so ; but far away in the forests they make 
 a sort of porridge or bread, not exactly of sawdust, but 
 of the under bark of the spruce, fir, and larch, which 
 they cut in small pieces, or pound in a mortar, mixing it 
 with milk, or with dried fish, or boiling it with glutinous 
 tops of the young sprouts. In spring, when the sap is 
 rising, they gather the bark harvest. They make also fer- 
 mented beverages of milk ; and in the height of summer, 
 when the mares foal, an orgie is held, at which the men 
 drain enormous bowls of this intoxicating liquor ; whilst 
 the women, denied the privilege of intoxication, solace 
 themselves by getting as near to it as they can by smok- 
 ing tobacco. The distillation of sour milk is also prac- 
 ticed, producing a coarse spirit known as arigui. They 
 devour likewise enormous quantities of melted butter. 
 This also can be prepared in such a way as to cause in- 
 toxication when taken in sufficient quantities. 
 
 The dress of the Yakutes resembles in its main fea- 
 tures that of the other natives of Siberia, save, perhaps, 
 that they are fonder of ornament. Both sexes riding a 
 good deal on oxen and h»rses, a perpendicular slit ia mad* 
 
400 
 
 EUSSIAJf NIHILISM AND 
 
 M&liM i 
 
 
 PENAL QUARTERS AT YAKOUTSK. 
 
EXTLE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 401 
 
 Up the back from the bottom of the synayahh^ or upper 
 garment, in order to render the wearer comfortable in 
 the saddle, and some of the women wear behind them a 
 cushion or pad, to save them from the rough motion of the 
 animals. During the milder part of the year a robe, 
 made of very pliable leather, stained yellow, is worn, 
 which indoors is frequently laid aside, and males and fe- 
 males sit by the fire, leaving the upper part of the body 
 naked. 
 
 The boots made of this leather worn by the women fit 
 tight to the leg, and have at the top a flap of black velvet 
 with red cloth trimming, which can be turned down and 
 exposed for show in fair weather, or turned up, bringing 
 the boots to the thighs. On each foot are two broad 
 leather thongs, five or six feet long, to wind around the 
 leg. Water-proof boots are also made by the Yakutes, 
 which they call Torhosis; these are cut from horse hide, 
 steeped in sour milk, then smoked, and lastly rubbed 
 well with grease and soot. They will wear indefinitely, 
 and are so impervious to dampness that the wearer 
 may tramp through water, mud and snow without incon- 
 venience. 
 
 There is a large travel between Yakoutsk and Okhotsk, 
 Kamtschatka, distance 800 miles, which is performed by 
 the use of dogs, horses and reindeer. The latter, I was 
 suri^rised to learn, are used for riding as much as for 
 draught purposes. It is much more difficult to maintain 
 one's seat on a reindeer than it is on a camel. To get on 
 the animal's back, as one would mount a donkey, would 
 probably cripple the deer for life. The saddle is there- 
 fore placed on its shoulder, close to the neck, and to 
 mount, the rider, holding the bridle, stands at the right 
 side of the animal, with his face turned forward. He 
 then raises his left foot to the saddle, which b« never 
 
40fl BVSSIA^ NIHILISM A37D 
 
 touches with his hands, and springing with the right leg, 
 and aided also by a pole, which he holds in his right hand, 
 he gains his seat. The native girls and women are as ex- 
 pert in this jumping as the men, and rarely want assist- 
 ance in mounting. 
 
 The practiced reindeer riders acquire the habit of strik- 
 ing gently with the heel, alternately right and left, at 
 every step, just behind the animal's shoulders. This is 
 done, not for the jDurpose of stimulating the deer, but be- 
 cause the motion described is the surest means of main- 
 taining equilibrium. The staff, too, with which the rider 
 mounts is carried in his hand, and is used for maintaining 
 an equipoise in riding ; but any attempt of the rider, in 
 the first critical moment, to support himself by resting 
 the staff on the ground, is sure to end in his being 
 unseated. 
 
 There is a very large settlement of convicts in the 
 Yakoutsk Government, a greater portion of which is on 
 the Lena river. These penal colonies are generally com- 
 posed of men and women sent into exile without hard 
 labor, in pursuance of an Imperial ukase that contempla- 
 ted a settlement of the province. The district about 
 Yakoutsk is wonderfully fertile, notwithstanding the fact 
 that the ground is frozen to a depth of fifty feet, while 
 during the summer it does not thaw out more than three 
 feet below the surface. But even with these drawbacks 
 to production, the soil is said to yield forty-fold of such 
 vegetables as cabbage, potatoes, radishes, turnips and 
 gherkins. Emperor Nicholas was very anxious to settle 
 this section with an industrious population, and to accom- 
 plish this he promulgated an edict designed for the pun- 
 ishment of petty offenders, by which they were to be sent 
 across Siberia and colonized at the most advantageous 
 points in the Yakoutsk Government. It was aUo this 
 
EXXLS LITB n^ 8IBJBBZA. 
 
 idea which prompted Alexander I. to encourage the estab- 
 lishment of zemstas, communal parliaments, to which he 
 granted powers (heretofore described) to send into exile 
 any one of the commune adjudged guilty of vagrancy, 
 improvidence, drunkenness, or of any bad example. These 
 measures have caused a more general settlement of the 
 Yakoutsk Government than any other province in Siberia, 
 the population being about 250,000. 
 
 exiles' homes on the LENA — HOUSES OF DRIED DUNG. 
 
 There are penal quarters in the city of Yakoutsk that 
 are fairly comfortable. They are made of hewn logs 
 joined together by dovetailing and are lined with dry 
 clay. These quarters, however, are only for a temporary 
 lodgment of prisoners, and are therefore called eiape 
 prisons ; they rarely contain more than one hundred con- 
 victs at one time, as those received are quickly distribute 
 
404 RireSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ed to various points in the Government where ttiey are 
 made to shift for thetnselves ; though if a convict be 
 accompanied by his family he is assisted for the first three 
 years by the Government, which gives him a daily allow- 
 ance of about ten cents. Along the Lena these convicts 
 are chiefly engaged cutting wood, fishing and hunting. 
 Their houses are made of baked cow-dung, because of the 
 warmth this material secures, excluding cold much better 
 than any other known substance. 
 
 But the most peculiar settlement in Siberia, indeed in 
 all the world, is that of the Scopsi, a religious sect 
 already mentioned, which is established in a forest 
 near Yakoutsk. These people entertain such a singular 
 belief that every other phase of fanaticism, whether 
 Shamanism, Fakirism or any other absurd ism, appears 
 transcendently consistent and wholesome in comparison. 
 I have searched through encyclopedises and questioned 
 the most learned Russians in vain to find anything con- 
 cernino- the orioin of their strans^e faith. Nevertheless 
 the Scopsi have existed for hundreds of years, but the 
 first decree of banishment against them was issued by 
 Peter the Great, though in what year I could not learn. 
 They found their faith upon the xix chapter, 12th verse, 
 of St. Matthew, which reads as follows : 
 
 *' For there are some eunuchs, which were so born 
 from their mother's womb : and there are some eunuchs, 
 which were made eunuchs of men : and there be eunuchs, 
 which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of 
 heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him re- 
 ceive it." 
 
 The interpretation placed upon this text by the Scopsi 
 i» so literal that if it obtained generally the earth would 
 be without any human inhabitants in one generation. 
 They also base their doctrine upon some of St. Paul's 
 
EXILE LITE IN gIBEElA. 
 
 405 
 
 letters, -wliercm he advises against marriage and inferen- 
 tially predicts that the promised millennium can come 
 only through a complete abnegation of sexual desires. 
 I do not say that Paul intended to discourage the law of 
 replenishment, but that the Scopsi so interpret his writ- 
 ings. 
 
 This peculiarly fanatical sect has not only existed in 
 Russia, but, despite the most repressive measures under- 
 
 SCOPSI COLONY HOUSES NEAR YAKODTSK. 
 
 taken by the Government for their suppression, they 
 have increased until well informed persons in the Empire 
 place their numbers at not less than 10,000. There is a 
 law on the Russian statute books making it a crime, pun- 
 ishable by deportation, for any one to attend service* 
 held by the Scopsi, and all who are discovered to be mem- 
 bers of, or in sympathy with the sect, are sent into exik. 
 
406 EUSSIAN NIHILISM ANJ> 
 
 in the Yakoutsk district. Being denied all civil privi- 
 leges the Scopsi nevertheless contmue to propagate their 
 doctrines by holding services in the thick forests, where 
 they hope to escape detection from government spies. 
 
 While in St. Petersburg I met a young man who had 
 been forced into an adoption of this singular faith, but 
 who was a servant in an aristocratic family of the city. 
 While I was interviewing Count Tolstoi this man came in 
 to communicate some message from his master to the 
 Prime Minister; his voice and appearance were so strange 
 that my curiosity prompted me to enquire about him, 
 when the Count informed me of the facts, this being the 
 first time I had ever heard of such a sect. I therefore at 
 once began to question the fellow, whom I took to be 
 about twenty-seven years of age, and was rewarded by 
 receiving from him a description of the Scopsi' s prac- 
 tices. 
 
 Not only in retired country places, but also in cities do 
 the Scopsi hold their services, but they are necessarily a 
 secret denomination, who regard themselves as the espe- 
 cially anointed children of God ; they have priests who 
 travel about the country, providing their own sustenance 
 and holding services only among such persons as they 
 first obtain a satisfactory opinion from. These jiriests 
 profess great familiarity with the Bible, and their argu- 
 ments are addressed entirely to the emotional senses, and 
 so effectively that a majority of those who attend are 
 moved by such excitement that they gladly accept 
 mutilation of themselves. They believe that mankind 
 were conceived in sin, to purge which they must be born 
 again into a state of purity ; that the millennium cannot 
 appear until the world is regenerated through purification, 
 and that none can be pure in heart until the carnal im- 
 purities are removed: hence the Scopsi baptize into 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 407 
 
 what they call the new life of purity by castration. Men 
 and women who unite with this sect must alike submit to 
 mutilation, the operation on the latter consisting of an 
 extraction of the oviaries through an incision made in 
 the side. This worse than heathenish ceremonial, how- 
 ever, does not stop with a mutilation of those *who will- 
 ingly submit themselves ; but, influenced by the belief 
 that parents must provide means of salvation for their 
 children, the little ones of both sexes are forcibly put un- 
 der the priestly scalpel. 
 
 Practices which distinguish the Scopsi, revolting and 
 foully unnatural as they are, have also obtained in other 
 nations, and even to this day are npt unusual in Turkey 
 and Italy. It is a well known fact that the tenor singers 
 in the Royal Italian Opera at Rome are castrates, made 
 so by Government orders. In Turkey the custom is very 
 common, parents frequently unsexing their own children 
 to sell them afterward as servants in harems or places of 
 monetary tnist. In Russia it is also practiced upon chil- 
 dren who are afterward raised with great care, for when 
 grown they command lai'ge salaries in fiduciary posi- 
 tions. It is said that, however great the temptation of- 
 fered may be, a castrate will never betray a trust ; that 
 in all history one was never known to steal, or absent 
 himself from any duty. Mule children who were sub- 
 jected to this barbarous custom in earlier days were not 
 mutilated by like means as now, but were much more in- 
 famously treated ; all the privates were cut away, after 
 which the child was buried to the waist in sand ; this was 
 to stop hemorrhage and prevent the exudation of serous 
 fluid. It is said that nearly two-thirds of those thus 
 treated died. 
 
 There is also a colony of political exiles in the Yak- 
 oat»k Government, located at a small town on the Lugi- 
 
408 
 
 RtrssiAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 na river, called ViUiski. Its population is a fugative one, 
 for the reason that those sent there are at most only sus- 
 pects, many of whom are called to Russia on pardons, or 
 
 SCENES IN VILLISKI. 
 -!l ^'TV'.VJ „.?; * ?'/'^.?'' ^"'^^"""^ *• 0«ne'^l view of the Town. 6. laterlo, of a PrlTat. 
 
 Hont*. •■ City Hall and Residence of th» Magistrate. 7. Prison. 
 
 sent to other districts ; so that one month the town 
 
 may 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 409 
 
 have a population of nearly two thousand, while the next 
 month it may have less than five hundred. The climate 
 at Villiski is dreadfully severe, even colder, some say, 
 than at Yakoutsk, but fortunately the exiles there have 
 little to do but fish in summer and keep themselves warm 
 in winter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXni. 
 
 The recent disastrous results attending the Jeannette, 
 or DeLong, exploring expedition, which are now (as I 
 write) being investigated before a commission at "Wash- 
 ington, has brought the Lena River into such prominence 
 before Americans that a partial history of the stream and 
 the country which it drains has been considered applica- 
 ble in this connection. The wi'ecking of DeLong and his 
 party at the Lena delta, the loss of Lieutenant Chipp and 
 his men, the dreadful march of Ninderman, Melville and 
 Danenhower, and lastly, how the returning search party 
 under Lieut. Gilder found the bodies of eight of that 
 unfortunate expedition frozen under Siberian snows near 
 the upper Lena, have been too recently told and gener- 
 ally read to need repetition here. 
 
 "While at Irkoutsk I was very near, perhaps within a 
 dozen miles of, the chief source of the Lena, and though 
 never along the stream, I saw enough of Siberia to ap- 
 proximate an idea of the desolate country through which 
 it passes. The history of this portion of Siberia, so far 
 as records give us any data or description, starts with the 
 conquests of the Buriats by Cossacks early in the 17th 
 century. After 30 years of fierce warfare between these 
 two races, the Cossacks made themselves masters of the 
 district about Lake Baikal, and then pushed northward 
 
410 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 along the Lena River until, in 1632, they reached the 
 principal town of the Yakutes, where they built a fort 
 and founded the city of Yakoutsk. After this they crossed 
 the Aldan Mountains and, seven years later, reached the 
 Sea of Okhotsk. For two centuries this was the route 
 followed by those who would cross Siberia from the Urals 
 to the Pacific, or vice versa. In the present day there are 
 two other roads. All must go by the route from 
 Tomsk to Irkoutsk, but from thence the Pacific can 
 be reached either by crossing the Mongolian desert to 
 Peking, or by traversing the Buriat steppe, and so de- 
 scending the Amoor. The second of these routes is now 
 the best, but not briefly to mention the old route would 
 be to omit much interesting information concerning the 
 Lena, with its native population and fossilized remains, 
 as well as to miss the opportunity of hearing a little of 
 some of the most daring and adventurous journeys of pre- 
 vious travellers. 
 
 I allude to the accounts of Strahlenberg, De Lesseps, 
 Billings, Ledyard, Dobell, Gordon, Cochrane, Erman, 
 Cotterill, and Hill. 
 
 Strahlenberg was a Swedish ojEcer, who, at the begin* 
 ning of the 18th century, was banished for 13 years to 
 Siberia. He collected a vast amount of information con- 
 cerning the country generally, and compiled polyglot 
 tables of aboriginal languages, and amongst them that of 
 the Yakutes inhabiting the valley of the Lena, of whose 
 Pagan condition he gives many illustrations. 
 
 M. De Lesseps was French Consul and interpreter to 
 Count de la Perouse, the well-known circumnavigator. 
 De Lesseps entered the country at Kamchatka in 1788, 
 and wrote an account of his travels across Siberia and 
 Europe to Paris. 
 
 Captain Billings was an Englishman, who, after sailing 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 411 
 
 with the celebrated Captain Cook, was employed by the 
 Empress Catharine II. to make discoveries on the north- 
 east coast of Siberia, and among the islands in the East- 
 ern^ Ocean stretching to the American coast. For this 
 purpose he proceeded to north-east Siberia in 1785, sailed 
 down the river Kolima, explored a portion of the country 
 eastward, and then returned by way of Yakoutsk. 
 
 Another of Captain Cook's officers, John Ledyard, had 
 
 YAKUTE AND REINDEER. 
 
 the most romantic enthusiasm for adventure, perhaps, of 
 any man of his time. He conceived the project of trav- 
 elling across Europe, Asia, and America as far as possible 
 on foot, and to this end he set out from London with 
 about £50 only in his pockets. He reached Yakoutsk, 
 where he met with Captain Billings, and with him was 
 hoping to proceed to America, when, by order of the 
 Russian Court, Ledyard was arrested on suspicion of be- 
 ing a French spy, and was taken off to Moscow. 
 
 Another journey across Northern Asia was made after 
 the time of Billings by Peter Dobell, a couDsellor of the 
 
412 BUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Court of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia. 
 Dobell landed in Kamchatka in 1812, and from thence 
 proceeded overland to Europe. 
 
 The most remarkable of these adventurers was an Eng- 
 lishman named John Dundas Cochrane, a captain in the 
 Royal Navy, who, in 1820, proposed to the Lords Commis- 
 sioners of the Admiralty that they should give their sanc- 
 tion and countenance to his undertaking alone a journey 
 into the interior of Africa, with a view to ascertaining the 
 course and determination of the river Niger. This they 
 declined, whereupon he procured two years' leave of ab- 
 sence, and resolved to attempt " a walking tour " round 
 the globe, as nearly as could be done by land, crossing 
 from Northern Asia to America at Behring's Straits, his 
 leading object being to trace the shores of the Polar Sea 
 along America by land, as Captain Parry was at the time 
 attempting it by sea. Accordingly he left London with 
 his knapsack, crossed the Channel to Dieppe, and then 
 set out. This gentleman was endowed with an unbounded 
 reliance upon his own individual exertions, and his knowl- 
 edge of man when unfettered by the frailties and mis- 
 conduct of others. One man, he said, might go any- 
 where he chose, fearlessly and alone, and as safely trust 
 himself in the hands of savaojes as amonsj his own 
 friends. His favorite dictum was that an individual 
 might travel throughout the Russian empire, except in 
 the civilized parts between the capitals, so long as his 
 conduct was becoming, without necessaries failing him. 
 He put his principle rather severely to the test, and it 
 must be allowed that he did so with very general success, 
 for he states that in travelling from Moscow to Irkoutsk 
 (3,000 miles by his route) he spent less than a guinea. 
 From Irkoutsk he descended the Lena to Yakoutsk, from 
 whence, accompanied by a single Cossack, he penetrated 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 413 
 
 in a north-easterly direction almost to the shores of the 
 Ice Sea at Nijni Kolimsk, where, having altered his 
 plans, he turned back by a most difficult route to Okh- 
 otsk. From this place he sailed to Kamchatka, and mar- 
 ried a native, whom he brought by sea back to Okhotsk, 
 and then in winter crossed the Aldan mountains to Yak- 
 outsk, whence the happ}^ pair proceeded to Irkoutsk, and at 
 length reached England. For enterprise and bravery 
 this captain, I take it, easily bears off the palm from all 
 Siberian travellers. 
 
 The writer who has added most, perhaps, to our scien- 
 tific knowledge of the valley of the Lena is M. Adolph 
 Erman, who crossed Siberia in 1828, in conjunction, 
 though not in company, with Professor Hansteen, the 
 first professor at the Magnetic Observatory at Christi- 
 ania, in Norway, and famous for his researches in terres- 
 trial magnetism. They both travelled for the purpose of 
 making magnetic and other observations ; but, on arriv- 
 ing at Irkoutsk, Professor Hansteen returned to Europe, 
 whilst Erman continued down the Lena to Yakoutsk, 
 crossed to the Sea of Okhotsk, and so continued round 
 the world. 
 
 Later on, one more Englishman has reached the Pacific 
 by the way of the Lena, namely, Mr. S. S. Hill, who 
 did so in 1848, and it is not unlikely that he may, for 
 some time, be the last of the intrepid travellers who 
 have accomplished this feat, since the Amoor is now open 
 to the Russians, and presents a far easier way of crossing 
 the continent. 
 
 To follow the older route, the first portion had to be 
 traversed by post vehicles from Irkoutsk, a distance of 
 160 miles in a north-easterly direction. The road 
 crosses the water-parting of the Lena basin at or near 
 the station KLogotskaya, which is about 90 geographical 
 
4U 
 
 ilUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 miles from Irkoutsk. The travellei journeys through a 
 hilly country, where there is abundant pasture, and 
 where the lt.i.id is to some extent cultivated, to the vil- 
 situated on the banks of the Lena, 
 
 lage of Kachugskoe 
 
 Here various sorts of merchandise are embarked in large 
 flat-bottomed boats, which are floated down the river. 
 These goods are exchanged with the natives for furs, the 
 boats at the end of the journey being broken up in dis- 
 pels where timber is scare^ and the furs brought back 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 415 
 
 in smaller craft. It was in one of these flat-bottomed boats 
 that Mr. Hill descended the stream, in company with a 
 Russian merchant, accomplishing the journey to Ya- 
 koutsk in twenty-one days, with no worse mishaps by 
 water than occasionally being driven on sand or mud 
 banks, or into a forest of trees, all but submerged by the 
 height of the spring floods. 
 
 Captain Cochrane chose a more independent course. 
 Being furnished with a Cossack, he drove from Irkoutsk 
 to the Lena, and, having procured an open canoe and 
 two men, paddled down the stream. Proceeding day 
 and night, they usually made from 100 to 120 miles a 
 day, finding hospitable villages at intervals of froin fif- 
 teen to eighteen miles, as far as Kirensk, and so arrived 
 on the eighth day at Vitimsk. It was now late in the 
 autumn, and the ice began to come down the river, which 
 sometimes compelled the natives to strip, and, up to their 
 waists in water, to track the boat, and this with the ther- 
 mometer below freezing-point. At length the captain, 
 in consequence of the difficulties of boating, was requested 
 at one of the villages to proceed on horseback, which he 
 did, and, being unable at the next station to get either 
 horses or boat, he had to shoulder his knapsack and 
 walk ; and so, by means of walking, riding, and paddling, 
 he reached Olekminsk. From thence to Yakoutsk is 
 about 400 miles, which, excepting the two last stages, the 
 captain completed in a canoe, arriving on the 6th of Octo- 
 ber. The weather was cold, snow was falling, and on 
 approaching Yakoutsk the canoe was caught in the ice, 
 so that he was compelled to make the remainder of his 
 journey on foot. 
 
 The descent of the Upper Lena to Yakoutsk by water 
 was undertaken by Mr. Hill in spring, and by Captain 
 
416 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Cochrane in autumn, but Mr. Erman accomplished it on 
 the ice in winter, by a twenty days' sledge journey of 
 nearly 1,900 miles. As he passed along he observed, 
 first in the village of Petrovsk, several of the women 
 largely affected with goitre, and learned with surprise 
 that this malady, which in Europe characterises the 
 valleys of the Alps, is frequent on the Lena. As he pro- 
 ceeded he found goitre in men also, and asking an exile 
 at Turutsk, who appeared the only healthy person in the 
 place, how he had protected himself from goitre, was 
 told that adults arriving from Europe were never attacked 
 by the disease, but that the goitre was born with children 
 of the district, and grew up with them. Medical men in 
 Switzerland say that goitre proceeds from dej)osits in 
 chemical combination, washed down by mountain streams 
 that supply the inhabitants of the neighborhood with 
 drinking water, and that it attacks children on account 
 of their mucous membranes being very tender and easily 
 distended. Mr. Erman inquired carefully, as he went on, 
 respecting the prevalency of goitre, and having made 
 barometrical and other observations along the way, he 
 came at length to the conclusion that the disease was 
 traceable, in part, to the formation and altitude of vari- 
 ous places along the valley of the river, where the air, 
 being confined, is, in summer, heated to an extraordinar}'^ 
 degree, and loaded with moisture. 
 
 With regard to the stream of the Upper Lena, its head- 
 waters have their sources spread out for 200 geographi- 
 cal miles along the counter slopes of the hills that form 
 the western bank of Lake Baikal, and the main stream 
 rises within seven miles of the lake. 
 
 At Kachugskoe, about 60 geographical miles from the 
 Baikal, and not less than 75 geographical miles in a 
 
EXILE LIFE IN" SIBERIA. 417 
 
 BtTaigbt line from its source, the Lena measures about 
 the width of East Eiver, opposite New York. The 
 water, deep and clear, has in spring a very rapid cur- 
 rent, though Captain Cochrane speaks of the rate lower 
 down, in autumn, as only 1^ or 2 knots per hour. The 
 next station after Ktichugskoe is Vercholensk, a town of 
 1,000 inhabitants, the first of that size on the north-east 
 of Irkoutsk, and is the chief town of iheuyezd (district). 
 After flowing 500 miles further through a hilly country, 
 with high banks always on one and sometimes on both 
 sides, on which are 35 post-stations and more villages, 
 the river passes Kirensk, which again is the chief toAv^u 
 of an ayezd, and has a population of 800. Here cul- 
 tivatioir practically ceases, except for vegetables. At 
 this poiiit, too, the riyer receives on its right the Kirenga, 
 which ha.s run nearly as long a course as the Lena. The 
 stream thus enlarged now flows on for 300 miles more to 
 Vitimsk.j where it is joined by its second great tributary, 
 the Vitini, from the mountains east of Lake Baikal. An- 
 other stretch of 4(30 miles, through a country still hilly, 
 but with villages less frequent, brings the traveller to 
 Olekminsk, the capital of another uyezd, a town of 500 
 inhabitants ; there the Lena receives from the south the 
 Olekma, which rises near the Amoor river. It th^n con- 
 tinues for 400 miles through a sparsely-populated dis- 
 trict, till it reaches Yakoutsk, where it is 4 miles wide 
 in summer, and 2| in winter, the river being usually 
 frozen about the 1st of October, and not free from ice 
 till about May 25th. 
 
 Hitherto the course of the river has been to the north- 
 east, but at Yakoutsk the stream makes a bend and runs 
 due north, receiving on its right, 100 miles below Yak- 
 outsk, one of its largest tributaries, the Aldan, which 
 rises in the Stanovoi range bordering on the Sea of Okh- 
 
418 fiDSSIAN XIBTLISM Am> 
 
 ot«k. Yakoutsk is only 270 feet above the sea, and the 
 current of the river henceforth is sluggish. About 50 
 miles further the Lena receives its largest tributary from 
 the left, the Vilui, and then proceeds majestically through 
 a flat country with an enormous body of water to the 
 Arctic Ocean, into which it enters among a delta of 
 islands formed of the debris brought down by the river. 
 
 In the region of the Lower Lena, and to the west- 
 ward, have been found the remains of a huge rhinocc 
 ros, and an elephant larger than any now existing — the 
 elephas primigenius, popularly called the mammoth. It 
 is so named from the Russian mamont, or Tartar mamma 
 (the earth), because the Yakutes believed that this ani- 
 imal worked its way in the earth like a mole ; and a 
 Chinese story represents the mamentova as a rat of the 
 size of an elephant which always burrowed underground, 
 and died on coming in contact with the outer air. The 
 tusks of the mammoth are remarkable for exhibiting a 
 double curve, first inwards, then outwards, and then in- 
 wards again ; several able naturalists are of the opinior* 
 that the so-called mammoth is of the same species as the* 
 Indian elephant, only much altered by the change of cli- 
 matic conditions. The Samoyeds say that the mam- 
 moth still exists wandering upon the shores of the 
 Frozen Ocean, and subsisting on dead bodies thrown up 
 by the surf. As for the rhinoceros, they say it was a 
 gigantic bird, and the horns which the ivory-merchants 
 purchase were its talons. Their legends tell of fearful 
 combats between their ancestors and this enormous 
 winged animal. 
 
 A trade in mammoth ivory has been carried on for 
 hundreds of years between the tribes of Northern Asia 
 and the Chinese ; but it was a long time before European 
 naturalists took a marked interest in the evidence of an 
 
EXILE LITE TS; SIBERIA. 419 
 
 extinct order of animals which these remains undeniablj 
 recorded. The Siberian mammoth agrees exactly with 
 the specimens unearthed in various parts of England, es- 
 pecially at Ilford in the valley of the Thames, near Lon- 
 don, on the coast of Norfolk ; but whereas on European 
 soil there remain but fragments of the skeleton, there 
 have been fomid in Siberia bones of -the rhinoceros and 
 mammoth covered with pieces of flesh and skin. These 
 discoveries date back more than a century. 
 
 In December, 1771, a party of Yakutes hunting on the 
 Vilui, near its junction with the Lower Lena, discovered 
 an unknown animal half -buried in the sand, but still re- 
 taining its flesh, covered with a thick skin. The carcass 
 was too much decomposed to allow of more than the 
 head and two feet being forwarded to Irkoutsk ; but they 
 were seen by the great traveller and naturalist, Peter 
 Simon Pallas, who pronounced the animal a rhinoceros, 
 not particularly large of its kind, which might perchance 
 have been born in Central Asia. 
 
 In the year 1799 a bank of frozen earth near the mouth 
 of the Lena broke awaj'^, and revealed to a Tunguse, 
 named Schumachoff, the body of a mammoth. Hair, 
 skin, flesh and all had been preserved by the frost ; and 
 seven years later Mr. Adams, of the Petersburg Academy, 
 hearing of the discovery at Yakoutsk, visited the spot. 
 He found, however, that the greater part of the flesh had 
 been eaten by wild animals and the dogs of the natives, 
 though the eyes and brains remained. The entire car- 
 cass measured 9 feet 4 inches high, and 16 feet 4 inches 
 from the point of the nose to the end of the tail, without 
 including the tusks, which were 9 feet 6 inches in length 
 if measured along the curves. The two tusks weighed 
 360 lbs., and the head and tusks together 414 lbs. The 
 skin was of such extraordinary weight that ten persons 
 
420 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 found great difficulty in carrying it. About 40 lbs. of 
 hair, too, were collected, though much more of this was 
 trodden into the sand by the feet of bears which had 
 eaten the flesh. This skeleton is now in the Museum of 
 the Academy at Petersburg, where I examined it during 
 my visit to the city in October, 1882, 
 
 Again, in 1843, M. Middendorf found a mammoth on 
 the Taz, between the Obi and the Yenesei, with some of 
 the flesh in so perfect a condition that it was found possi- 
 ble to remove the ball of the eye, which is preserved in 
 the Museum at Moscow. 
 
 In 1865 the captain of a Yenesei steamer by chance 
 learned that some natives had discovered the preserved 
 remains of a mammoth in latitude 67^*, about 100 versts 
 west of the river. Intelligence was sent to Petersburg, 
 and Dr. Schmidt was commissioned to go and examine 
 into the matter. Accordingly he proceeded down the 
 Yenesei to Turukhansk, and thence to the landing-place 
 nearest the mammoth deposit, hoping to obtain the ani- 
 mal's stomach, and, from the character of the leaves 
 within, infer the creature's habitat^ since it is known that 
 the beast lived upon vegetable food, but of what exact 
 character no one has yet determined. Unfortunately the 
 stomach was wanting. 
 
 In examining, under the microscope, fragments of vege- 
 table food picked out of the grooves of the molar teeth 
 of the Siberian rhinoceros at Irkoutsk, naturalists have 
 recognized fibres of the pitch-pine, larch, birch, and wil- 
 low, resembling those of trees of the same kind which 
 still grow in Southern Siberia. This seems to confirm 
 the opinion, expressed long ago, that the rhinoceros and 
 other large pachyderms found in the alluvial soil of the 
 north used to inhabit Middle Siberia, south of the ex- 
 treme northern regions where their skeletons are now 
 
EXILE LirE Iir SIBERIA. 421 
 
 found ; but Mr. Knox, who travelled for some distance 
 with Schmidt on his return journey, says that flie doctor 
 estimated that the animal had been frozen many thou- 
 sands of years, and that his natural dwelling-place was in 
 the north, at a period when perhaps the Arctic regions 
 were warmer than they now are. Covered with long 
 hair, it could certainly resist an Arctic climate ; but how 
 on the tundras of the north could the animal have found 
 the foliage of tress necessary for its subsistence? Must 
 we conclude that formerly the country was wooded, or 
 that the mammoth did not live where its skeletons are 
 now found, but further south, whence its carcase has 
 been carried northward by rivers, and frozen into the 
 soil? These are questions debated among geologists, 
 and still awaiting solution. 
 
 The fact, however, remains, that mammoth ivory is 
 still an important branch of native commerce, and all 
 travellers bear witness to the quantities of fossil bones 
 found throughout the frozen regions of Siberia. It has 
 been suggested that the abundant supplies of ivory which 
 were at the command of the ancient Greek sculptors came 
 by way of the Black Sea from the Siberian deposits. So 
 far back as the time of Captain Billings, Martin Sauer, 
 his secretary, tells us of one of the Arctic islands n«ar 
 the Siberian mainland, that ** it is a mixture of sand and 
 ice, so that when the thaw sets in and its banks begin to 
 fall, many mammoth bones are found, and that all the 
 isle is formed of the bones of this extraordinary animal." 
 This account is to some extent corroborated by Figuier, 
 who tells us that New Siberia and the Isle Liakov are for 
 the most part only an agglomeration of sand, ice, and 
 elephants' teeth ; and at every tempest the sea casts ashore 
 new quantities of mammoths' tusks. Reclus speaks of 
 an annual find of fifteen tons of mammoth ivory, repre- 
 27 
 
422 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 •enting about 200 mammoths ; and, about 1840, Midden- 
 dorf estimated the number of mammoths discovered up 
 to that time at 20,000. 
 
 Each year, in early summer, fishermen's barques direct 
 their course to the New Siberian group, to the ^' isles of 
 bones;" and, during winter, caravans drawn by dogs 
 take the same route, and return charged with tusks of 
 the mammoth, each weighing from 150 pounds to 200 
 pounds. The fossil ivory thus obtained is imported into 
 China and Europe, and is used for the same purposes as 
 the ordinary ivory of the elephant and hippopotamus. 
 
 We cannot leave the Lower Lena and the neighboring 
 shores of the Arctic Ocean without alluding to the won- 
 derful sight those shores witnessed in 1878, for the first 
 time in the history of the world. It was no less a sight 
 than that of two steam vessels that had ploughed their 
 way from Europe round Cape Cheliuskin. One of them 
 was the Vega^ in which was Professor Nordenskjold, 
 whose intention had been to anchor off the mouth of the 
 Lena, but a favorable wind and an open sea offered so 
 splendid an opportunity of continuing his voyage that he 
 did not neglect it. He sailed away, therefore, on the 
 28th of August, direct for Fadievskoi, one of the New 
 Siberian islands, where he intended to remain some days, 
 and to examine scientifically the remains of mammoths, 
 rhinoceri, horses, aurochs, bisons, sheep, etc., with 
 which these islands are said to be covered. The Vega 
 made excellent progress, but though on the 30th, Liakov 
 Island was reached, the professor was unable to land, 
 owing to the rotten ice which surrounded it, and the dan- 
 gcr to which the vessel would have been exposed in case 
 of a storm in such shallow water. 
 
 After the Vega with Nordenskjold on board, had left 
 its sister ship the Lena, the latter vessel, under the com- 
 
EXILE LIFE m SIBERIA. 423 
 
 mand of Captain Johannesen, started to ascend the river 
 of its own name. A pilot had been engaged to descend 
 the river and await the arrival of the Lena, but as 
 neither he nor his signals were visible, the captain, after 
 considerable difficulty, from the shallowness of the 
 water, made his way through the delta, and on the 7th of 
 September reached the main stream, where the naviga- 
 tion was less difficult. Yakoutsk v/as reached on the 
 21st of September, dispatches were sent on to Irkoutsk, 
 and from thence it was telegraphed to Europe that the 
 rounding of Cape Cheliuskin and the navigation of the 
 Lena by a steamer from the Atlantic had been accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Since this ascent of the Lena, no other vessel has 
 attempted to follow by way of the Arctic mouth, but 
 there are now several steam crafts navigating the stream 
 between Yakoutsk and towns located further south on the 
 river. About the delta, where the Jeannctte survivors 
 landed, there is still comparatively little known, though 
 two native tribes, the Saraoyeds and Ostjaks, hunt every 
 year all along the coast and sledge their game on the 
 frozen Lena from near its mouth to Yakoutsk. * 
 
 CHAPTER XXTV. 
 
 There are a number of mines worked by convict labor 
 which I have not yet mentioned, among the more import- 
 ant being those at Kadaj^a, Malopatomski, Klitchka, 
 Algatche, Akatuya, Vidinsky, Nertchinsky Zavod, 
 Chita, Nertchinsk, and Petrovsky Z^vod. Of these the 
 
 * For much of the information here given concerning th« Lena, I am in- 
 debted to Mr. Lansdell's "Through Siberia." 
 
A SIBERIAN HOME. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 425 
 
 NertcMnsk mines deserve special mention, because of 
 their magnitude and the reputation which they bear. Of 
 this place of labor and torment the author of " The Rus- 
 sians of To-day" writes (p. 216): "The miners are 
 supposed to be the worst offenders, and their punishment 
 is tantamount to death by slow tortune ; for it is certain 
 to kill them in ten years, and ruins their health long be- 
 fore that time. If the convict have money or influential 
 friends, he had better use the time between his sentence 
 and transportation in buying a warrant which consigns 
 him to the lighter kinds of labor above ground, otherwise 
 he will inevitably be sent under earth, and never again 
 see the sky until he is hauled up to die in an infirmary." 
 
 Again, a distinguished German writer, Robert Lemke, 
 visited several mines in Siberia with an official legitima- 
 tion from the Russian Government, among the mines so 
 visited being those at Nertchinsk. Of the treatment ac- 
 corded to convicts, in an article contributed to the Con- 
 temporary Review, September, 1879, Mr. Lemke says : 
 ' 'Entering a room ( in the mine ) of considerable extent, but 
 which was scarcely a man's height, and which was dimly 
 lit by an oil lamp, I asked, 'where are we?' 'In the 
 sleeping room of the condemned ! Formerly it was a gal- 
 lery of the mine, now it serves as a shelter 1' I shud- 
 dered. This subterranean sepulchre, lit by neither sun 
 nor moon, was called a sleeping room. Alcove-like cells 
 were hewn in the rock ; here, on a couch of damp, half- 
 rotten straw, covered with a sack-cloth, the unfortunate 
 sufferers were to repose from the day's hard work. Over 
 each cell a cramp iron was fixed, wherewith to lock up 
 the prisoners like ferocious dogs. No door, no window 
 anywhere. 
 
 " Conducted through another passage, where a few 
 lamps Avere placed, and whose end was also barred by an 
 
426 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 iron gate, I came to a large vault, partly lit. This was 
 the mine. A deafening noise of pickaxes and hammers 
 grated on my ears. Here I saw hundreds of wretched 
 figures, with shaggy beards, sickly faces, reddened eyes, 
 clad in tatters — some of them barefoot, others in sandals, 
 and all fettered with heavy foot chains. No songs, no 
 whistling ; now and then they shyly glanced at me and 
 my guide.'* 
 
 Mr. Lemke also writes that in response to an inquiry 
 which he made about the time allowed convicts to rest, 
 the officer excitedly said : " Rest ! Convicts must always 
 labor. There is no rest for them ; they are condemned to 
 perpetual forced labor, and he who once enters the mine 
 rarely leaves it." 
 
 I had read these statements before leaving America, and 
 now, while in a position to test their accuracy, I deter- 
 mined to profit by the advantage. Mr. GunsoUis was 
 still with me, and upon communicating my desire to him, 
 he at once set about to assist me in finding some one who 
 was familiar with the treatment of convicts at Ncrtchinsk. 
 We had not long to search, for in a short time my friend 
 was directed to a merchant whose dvornik — house por- 
 ter — had been an exile at the noted mines for several 
 years. This fellow, however, appeared very stupid, so 
 that I did not like to trust his statement, from which 
 dilemma I was fortunately relieved by his referring me to 
 at least seven others in the city who had served terms of 
 hard labor at Nertchinsk. By his directions I found six 
 of these, three of whom were intelligent enough to com- 
 prehend my motives, while the other three were so suspi- 
 cious of me that they could not be induced to talk. 
 
 From the three with whom I conversed freely much 
 valuable information was obtained, which so thoroughly 
 accords with all other descriiDtions of the place that I 
 
4«/ 
 
 «OMViC^S MUSX ALWAYS WOBK» 
 
428 EUS8IAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 present it here, fully assured that it contains no misrep- 
 resentations. Of the three, one had served eight years 
 at Nertchinsk for participation in the Polish riots of 1863 ; 
 another had spent ten years at hard labor for an alleged 
 connection with Nihilist rioters at Karkoff, which, how- 
 ever, he denied, and the other had served twelve years for 
 burning Government property at Yarasloff. Each, of 
 course, had a long story of justification, but as this 
 might be expected from every convict, I did not rely on 
 their defensive statements, lest they should be colored by 
 excuses which had no existence in fact. But as to the 
 treatment of themselves, and others under their obser- 
 vation at Nertchinsk, they were qualified to speak truth- 
 fully. 
 
 The mines at Nertchinsk are entered through an exca- 
 vation made near the base of a mountain ; they are nearly 
 three hundred feet in depth, and, owing to the sup- 
 posed existence of volcanic fires near the tunnels, 
 are very warm. Into these tunnels, which ramify 
 a large district, generally five hundred convicts are 
 engaged mining silver ; about one-fourth of this num- 
 ber are never permitted to appear above ground ; that 
 is, while all are doomed to hard labor, the portion 
 referred to, having incurred the prejudice of those hav- 
 ing them in charge, are subjected to a treatment not con- 
 templated in their sentences. These unfortunates are 
 not only weighted with heavy manacles, their arms, necks 
 and ankles mutilated by the galling, rasping irons that 
 are never removed, but their tasks are allotted greatly 
 out of proportion to their ability, and yet they must per- 
 form them or be placed under [such severe discipline as 
 few can long endure. 
 
 It is no excuse if these men become ill or exhausted, 
 they work nevertheless, and that too, with the same en- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 420 
 
 ergy as though they were well and able-bodied. Those 
 who trundle wheel-barrows are chained to their imple- 
 ment ; those who wield the pick are generally chained to 
 a rock beside their work, and so no one can leave for 
 an instant the place where he is set to labor. In this 
 mine there is a gallery which is used only for punish- 
 ment ; it is provided with rings made fast in the rock, 
 and also with a large beam set at an angle of thirty-five 
 or forty degrees, similar to that used in some of our pen- 
 itentiaries, on which to punish convicts, and called the 
 "Widow." When an offender becomes a subject for 
 punishment he is taken into this gallery and either tied 
 up by his wrists to the rings, or made to lie face down- 
 ward on the beam, to which he is made fast by binding 
 his wrists and ankles underneath. The scorpion is very 
 frequently used upon those who are bound to the beam ; 
 from twenty-five to fifty lashes are given with this dread- 
 ful instrument, which latter number will, nine times out 
 of ten, make a raving maniac of the victim. Those tied 
 to the rings receive from one hundred to two hundred 
 strokes of the knout, which lacerate the back in a manner 
 no one can possibly describe ; the use .of both these in- 
 struments of punishment is very of ten attended with fatal 
 results. 
 
 The shocking brutality of those who apply such, os- 
 tensibly, corrective means is further illustrated by their 
 refusal to care for their victims after the unmerciful pun- 
 ishment is awarded. There is no compassionate treat- 
 ment given the victims ; taken from the gallery, with 
 gashed and bleeding backs, their bodies quivering with 
 agony, and legs so enfeebled that they frequently refuse 
 support, the poor wretches are driven, or dragged, back to 
 resume their tasks. Many of these sufferers return with 
 disordered minds, crazed from pain, yet their idiotic ut- 
 
 \ 
 
430 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 terances often cause them to be led again to the gallery 
 for a double portion of punishment, or to be struck dead 
 by the ferocious guard. For beds on whicli to lay their 
 wounded bodies these poor convicts have only the ragged 
 surface of the mine in which they work ; nothing but rocks 
 for couch, pillow or coverlet ; nothing with which to bind 
 their sores or alleviate their pains ; enforced neglect causes 
 a suppuration of the wounds, which, aggravated and poi^ 
 soned by perspiration , grow more severe until fever suc- 
 ceeds, delirium is induced, and the}'^ fall victims indeed, 
 but to secure at last relief and rest. 
 
 Constant labor in the mines, without for one moment 
 beuig permitted to see the blessed light of day, shut 
 down in the damp cavern to breathe heated metalic fumes, 
 produces an effect upon the convict which must be seen to 
 be understood. The first changes noticeable, strange 
 enough, are found in the hair, which becomes coarse, 
 harsh and straggling ; next the features assume a pale cast, 
 which afterwards change to a dull, ashen color ; the 
 eyes then lose all lustre, and begin to sink ; the skin 
 shrinks on the cheeks, and the flesh dries up until-, 
 after some years of labor, the whole frame seems to 
 grow rickety, the muscles become atrophied and the voice 
 is like a wheezy whisper ; the lips are thin as paper, and 
 the fingers are grown to double length by reason of the 
 flesh drying up between them. Such specter-like figures 
 seen through the flickering light of smoking torches, 
 which throw dancing shadows on the trickling tunnels' 
 sides, are wierdly grotesque, arousing in the observer a 
 conception of those nether regions peopled by tormented 
 souls and imps of iniquity ; it is indeed a place of tor- 
 ment, established and maintainedinthat spirit which gave 
 expression to the poetic, though none the less existent 
 fact : "Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thou- 
 sands mourn." 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA, 431 
 
 Before concluding this most painful subject (for to me 
 it has been melancholy in the extreme,) I must record the 
 alleviating fact that all Siberian prisons are not conducted 
 upon the inhuman principles which distinguish Kara, 
 Nertchinsk and Dui ; while nearly all the prisoners sent 
 into exile by the Russian Government receive a more rig- 
 orous treatment, perhaps, than that practiced by other 
 nations, yet there may be found, at occasional intervals, 
 in the most desolate portions of Siberia, considerate, hu- 
 mane Governors whose ambition it is to lighten the bur- 
 dens of exile life. It is gratifj'^ing to all the world to 
 know that there is growing on Siberia's soil, from little 
 seeds of kindness scattered therein by the few gracious 
 dispensers of a temperate judgment sent to look over 
 exiles, the tree of mercy that is sj)reading and exhaling 
 such wholesome influence as will ultimately drive out the 
 Draconian beasts of severity and relieve Russia from the 
 stigma of cruelty which now shames her before the 
 world. 
 
 Indeed, so much has been done already that we may 
 anticipate an early adoption of a thoroughly merciful 
 administration over the unfortunates sent into exile. 
 Formerly, and not many years ago either, there were ec- 
 clesiastical courts in Siberia ; self -constituted though 
 they were, their decrees contained all the poisonous germs 
 of that church policy which taught, during the middle 
 ages, that it was proper to torture heretics to the end that 
 their souls might be saved. These courts sat in judgment 
 upon those accused of sacrilege, heresy, and witchcraft, 
 which latter offence, strange enough, was more common 
 than either of the others. As has always been the rule 
 with every country that recognized witchcraft in its laws, 
 women in Siberia were made to feel the special force of 
 the punishment provided against those convicted of prac- 
 
432 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ticing the black art. It was quite suffimttb for one con- 
 vict to accuse a female of his class of collusion with the 
 devil, or of weaving nets with which to catch spirits of 
 
 darkness to make them slaves to her will, to cause the one 
 so accused to be brought before the ecclesiastical tribunal ,• 
 these arraugemeata were in every respect like those which 
 
EXILE LIFS IN SISEBIA. 48S 
 
 were made about Salem, Massachusetts, in the last century, 
 and conviction almost invariably resulted. The punish- 
 ment provided for such cases consisted in branding, with 
 a red hot iron, upon the forehead and abdomen, a figure 
 of the cross. This was supposed to spiritualize the vic- 
 tim, and also to have a holy influence upon any offspring 
 which she might thereafter bear. The application of the 
 brand was accompanied with the most excruciating suffer- 
 ing, it being deemed essential to the potency of the coun- 
 ter-charm, to burn deeply into the flesh that the cross 
 might ever appear most conspicuous. 
 
 But this barbaric custom is no longer practiced in any 
 part of Siberia, while the treatment of female convicts 
 generally is now fairly considerate, though not entirely 
 humane. So do we have to record the fact, already men- 
 tioned, that a reward is no longer placed upon the heads 
 of escaping convicts, though there is no penalty i3rovided 
 for the wilful murder of exiles, either in or out of prison. 
 The spirit of the age is very slowly, but none the less 
 certainly, extending towards Siberia, and let us hope it 
 may completely possess that country ere long. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Having pretty fully informed myself on the several sub- 
 jects appertaining to Siberian life, on the 20th of Septem- 
 ber I took leave of my new acquaintances at Irkoutsk and 
 prepared for the return journey, with Schlueter still acting 
 as my guide. There was considerable snow falling and 
 already on the ground, so adopting the most expeditious 
 mode of travelling we engaged a ipost-troiTca and yem- 
 stchik, with which we started forKrasnoiarsk. Up to this 
 
434 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 time I had carefully preserved the skin of the bear I 
 killed while en-route for Yeniseisk, but it became so trou- 
 
 blesome that, after many wavering resolutions, I finally 
 gave it to a mujik at whose house we stopped to purchase 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 435 
 
 milk. My tribulations jover that skin were manifold. 
 When I first perceived the bear it appeared to me of the 
 most stupendous size and ferocity ; when fortune favored 
 me by directing the ball I fired to a fatal spot and the ani- 
 mal rolled over dead, it must be admitted that I entertained 
 an opinion of myself which is simply and utterly beyond 
 description ; for several minutes I felt great anxiety to 
 get back to America for the sole purpose of having my biog- 
 raphy published . But when I began to skin the animal and 
 thoroughly familiarize myself with its size and weapons for 
 defence, somehow it commenced to dwindle like a candle 
 lighted at both ends, or more properly like an object 
 looked at through the large end of a spy-glass. Actually, 
 that bear got so small before we finished the skinning 
 that I felt sorry my rashness had destroyed an animal 
 which I might as well have caught and made a pet of. 
 But besides being very small, the skin refused to dry, 
 while at every exposure it would freeze in the most un- 
 comfortable shapes, and take up more room than all our 
 other lua-oaoje. These several reasons I considered, at 
 length, quite sufficient to make me part with the skin, 
 but I was very sorry to see the mujik throw it aside with 
 a look which plainly said: "Well, perhaps it will do 
 for the cats to gnaw." 
 
 Upon reaching Nijni Udinsk we made a short stop and 
 went out to the mines, which are nearly one mile from 
 the town proper. But my visit was without results, as 
 the chief officer was absent and none of his underlings 
 would permit me to descend into the mines. 
 
 Starting again on the following day, we proceeded with- 
 out interruption to Krasnoiarsk, and thence on to Tomsk 
 without delay anywhere on the route. Everywhere 
 there seemed to be plenty of snow except at Tomsk, 
 where we found the ground so bare that I had to discard 
 
436 
 
 HUSSL/LN NIHILISM JUm 
 
 the troika for a tumbril. I here decided to change my 
 route and instead of returning to Russia by the same way 
 
 I bad come, to cut straiglit across to Omsk and take tho 
 lower route which crosses the Urals at Orenburg. This 
 
BXTLE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 437 
 
 load I found, though not nearly so generally travelled as 
 that by the way of Perm and Tobolsk, was through a 
 more fertile country, and the roads were far better. 
 
 Omsk is a town of 3,000 people, with nothing to com- 
 mend it above the smallest way-station, unless it be in 
 the matter of churches, which are somewhat finer than 
 those in Tieumen. I did not stop more than two hours 
 in Omsk, being now anxious to conclude my investiga- 
 tions in Russia and reach home before winter should be- 
 gin. As there were no post-stations upon which I could 
 rely for conveyance between Omsk and Orenburg, I was 
 reduced to the necessity of buying a tumbril and three 
 horses, for which I paid something more than for those 
 I purchased at Tomsk. It was also necessary for us to 
 lay in a goodly store of provisions, as the distance we had 
 now to travel was about one thousand miles before reach- 
 ing the boundary of Russian civilization. This portion 
 of my trip through Siberia impressed me more, perhaps, 
 than anything I saw or heard on the convict route, for so 
 great was the exposure induced from inclement weather 
 that the effects I still keenly feel, while I was reduced in 
 weight nearly thirty pounds. 
 
 Schleuter, besides being a good guide, was a splendid 
 cook, and his services over the camp-fire had much to do 
 in sustaining my, at times, flagging courage, for I can 
 assure the reader that it is a rugged courage indeed that 
 can resist the complaints of nature when incited by 
 freezing cold, chilling rains, sickness, and the number- 
 less annoyances which one might expect to meet on so 
 long a journey, across a wilderness of unchangeable des- 
 olation, seven thousand miles from home. 
 
 At one point, nearPrisnovsk, we discovered a herd of 
 animals quite unlike any of the brute creation I had ever 
 before seen ; they were called Siberian Antelope and, as 
 28 
 
488 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 I was informed, are quite numerous in tlie western part 
 of Siberia. As it was drawing toward evening, I ordered 
 Schleuter to stop and assist me in trying to kill one of 
 the animals, as we were in need of fresh meat and, besides, 
 I wanted the adventure. According to my instructions, 
 the horses were unharnessed, save their bridles, and 
 Schleuter mounting one while 1 rode another, bareback, 
 we set out to surround the antelopes, which were not 
 nearly so wild as the large game on our western plains. 
 I rode away to the north some distance, where there was 
 a small ravine in which myself and horse could remain 
 quite out of sight of the game, while Schleuter watched 
 my movements and at the proper time made a wide circuit 
 and came up leeward of the antelope which did mot take 
 fright until he had approached within a few rods of them. 
 Fortunately, but as we both anticipated, they broke di- 
 rectly for the ravine where I was stationed ; they came 
 by me in a gallop, not more than twenty steps away, and 
 with a shaking, buck-ague aim I fired, once, twice, three 
 times, the last shot alone taking effect, breaking the hind- 
 leg of a large buck. Though disabled, the animal did not 
 surrender, but on three legs it went cutting through the 
 tall grass, while I hastily mounted and, waving my hat 
 for Schleuter to come on, started in hot pursuit. A Sibe- 
 rian pony is great in endurance, though his speed is hardly 
 above that of a mule's, but I was now thoroughly ex- 
 cited, and with beating, kicking and otherwise urging my 
 horse I got enough speed out of him to keep not far behind 
 the wounded buck. Thus we raced for nearly five miles 
 before I could approach near enough to make a finishing 
 shot. When the antelope was finally killed, we were 
 much puzzled how to get it to our tumbril, as its weight 
 was not less than four hundred pounds, I should judge. 
 But our difficulties were overcome by dressing the game 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA, 
 
 439 
 
440 BUSSIAZi NIHILISM Aifra 
 
 and then equally dividing it, which, by the way, was a 
 job of infinite tediousness and hard labor, since we had 
 nothing but pocket-knives to work with ; all our trouble 
 was, however, wholly forgotten while feasting off the 
 delicious steaks that night, such meat as I am sure can 
 be found nowhere else in the world, unless Siberian 
 Antelope are to be found in other countries. 
 
 We had no other exciting adventure between Omsk 
 and Orenburg, which latter place we reached in fifteen 
 days after leaving the former. The Ural mountains at 
 Orenburg Pass are not even so high as the range about 
 Perm. So far as my observations extended I was sur- 
 prised to find that Orenburg had not been selected for the 
 railroad passage instead of Perm, since nature certainly 
 favors the southern route. I found in Orenburg a sleepy 
 old town of pronounced Caucasian characteristics. Its 
 population embraces many Tartars and Circassians, but 
 all are a lazy, happy-go-lucky, to-morrow or next day 
 kind of people, whom it is far better to read about in 
 history than to mess with at table — in short, they stink. 
 
 My stay in Orenburg was very short, only long enough 
 to sell my team and take a bath. I proceeded on for 
 Nijni Novgorod by the regular post-route, which leads 
 through Samara, where the Volga is crossed. Samara is 
 noted for having the longest railroad bridge in the world, 
 a structure erected by the company that began the con- 
 struction of the southern railioad from Moscow through 
 Siberia, as already mentioned. 
 
 From Samara I went on to Nijni, by steamer, and 
 thence to Moscow, Schleuter still remaining with me, as 
 I had need for an interpreter, having decided to spend 
 two or more days in a serf village to acquaint myself 
 with the customs peculiar to Russian peasantry. After 
 stopping a few hours at Moscow I took the west-bound 
 
15XILJ5 LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 441 
 
 
4:42 EUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 train, which runs across Russia 500 miles to Warsaw, for 
 a large serf village located near the road, about forty 
 miles from Moscow. I decided to visit this place be- 
 cause an American gentleman from Philadelphia, whom 
 I met at the Hotel Billo in Moscow, had travelled through 
 the village a few davs before and assured me of its rep- 
 resentative character. The station at which I stopped 
 contained only one or two buildings, and being unable to 
 engage any kind of conveyance Schleuter and I walked 
 out to the Serf village, which was about two miles from 
 the station. 
 
 There is nothing to which I can compare a serf settle- 
 ment so well as to the negro log cabins still found on our 
 Southern plantations. The buildings are nearly all alike, 
 small, one or two room log huts having roofs of thatch, 
 and are built alons; streets which seem to have beenreo^u- 
 larlylaid out. There are generally two small, square 
 windows in each house, and the floors are made of hewn 
 pine logs, same as those used for the walls. Invariably, 
 at a short distance from the village, is the nobleman's 
 residence and a chapel for religious worship, not always 
 near together, but never more than a half-mile apart. 
 The nobleman's house always stands on an ek^ atcd posi- 
 tion commanding a view of the village nnd estate. 
 Things are very much changed since the serfs were eman- . 
 cipated, but there are yet visible traces of the relationship 
 which once existed between the serfs and tlioir master — 
 nobleman. The glory, pomp and wealth of the nobility 
 have departed ; no longer are the serfs called to their daily 
 labor by the sounding horn, nor do they pay homage tooi* 
 work for lordly masters who spend their years in riotous 
 living. The mansion still stands a mute reminder of 
 slavery days, but its once proud owner is now draining 
 the dregs of poverty and spending his influence in fo- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 443 
 
 menting rebellion against the Government that by a man- 
 date deprived him of both wealth and position. But 
 there appears to be little independence or prosperity 
 among the serfs whose liberty came to them in a manner 
 which they have never been quite able to understand. 
 The communal estates still remain as in earlier days, the 
 villages are intact, and but for the loitering indiffer- 
 ence of the people we could hardly realize the change. 
 On Southern plantations the gregarious log cabins which 
 once sheltered negro bondsmen are now empty and fallen 
 into decay, but though the abolition of serfdom was ac- 
 complished before the manumission of slaves in America, 
 there is very little outwardly to show that the serf of 
 former days is not still a serf. 
 
 I went among the peasantry, who now hold the term 
 *'serf " in disdain, and was kindly treated by them. 
 After once assuring themselves that the object of my 
 visit was to learn something of their customs, they 
 showed me every kindness and entertained me with a 
 generous hospitality. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Superstition is nowhere so absurdly general and gro- 
 tesque as among the Russian peasantry ; but this is not 
 surprising when we consider the fact that they receive no 
 education whatever ; a school house to them is only as a 
 dream ; they are nurtured in a church which recognizes 
 modem day miracles, and are taught by priests who are 
 the only monitors the poor classes know ; that God and 
 his saints spend their whole time looking for a fitting oe- 
 GiUiioii to do something that may be interpreted as a mir- 
 
444 BUS8IAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 acle. The cock that crows in the morning is reckoned 
 as a mouth-piece of some old saint, and there are certain 
 patriarchs in each village who take it upon themselves to 
 render certain matutinal calls of the cock into decrees 
 from heaven. Pigeons are looked upon as holy birds, 
 for the lives of which the Russians are so regardful that 
 a severe punishment is provided for any who would wan- 
 tonly kill them ; in consequence of this the whole country 
 is fairly filled with pigeons, until they are an abominable 
 nuisance. Every peasant must have an " icon " and keep a 
 candle constantly burning before it ; should the candle 
 become exhausted in the night or be extinguished by ac- 
 cident, the entire household is at once seized with alarm ; 
 they immediately declare that a prowling spirit of dark- 
 ness is in the house, to rid themselves of which they burn 
 certain kinds of herbs and perform long series of strange 
 ceremonials. The Russians do not, so far as I could 
 learn, entertain any belief in faries or pixies, but they all 
 have implicit confidence in good and evil spirits, which 
 they believe are the angels of men and women who have 
 died leaving something undone of such serious nature 
 that they visit the earth to attend to the neglected matter. 
 Before neither chapel nor holy image will a peasant pass 
 without devoutly crossing himself . While in Moscow I 
 saw an amusing illustration of this devotional characteris- 
 tic : a priest came riding by in a carriage, carrying in his 
 arms a picture of St. Nicholas (in his life he was called 
 the iron-heeled despot, but after death his name was 
 changed to St. Nicholas) ; the street was filled with peo- 
 ple, and as they saw the (un)holy image they all dropped 
 upon their knees and bent their heads to the sidewalk ; as 
 far as my eyes could follow the receding carriage I saw 
 the people dropping down in long files like double col- 
 umns of an army answering to a command. These people, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 445 
 
 poor, ignorant and superstitious, are hardly less serfs 
 no-,v than before, because of the slavery they are still 
 under to the church. In Kussia there are more priests 
 than dogs, and per consequence more degradation than 
 any other prevailing characteristic. The priests are 
 divided into two classes, viz., the white and black clergy ; 
 the former are privileged to do about as they please, but 
 the latter, besides being prohibited from marrying, do 
 not even receive the respectful regard of common people ; 
 they are nearly all drunkards, and so notoriously corrupt 
 that in their preaching they exhort the people to "Do as 
 we advise you, but not as we do." These travesties on 
 the gospel, nevertheless, succeed in filching from the 
 peasantry the means they can illy afford to spare. But 
 under a suspicion that the highest reward hereafter 
 attainable is given to those most liberal in their donations 
 to the church, a belief which has been created by priestly 
 mercenaries, the peasants divide their last copecks and 
 go hungry that they maybe called faithful. Churches, 
 monasteries and chapels abound in rare profusion 
 throughout Russia ; nowhere in the world is there such a 
 lavish display in ecclesiastical edifices and decorations ; 
 altars of solid silver, candelabras of pure gold, steeples 
 and domes glittering with precious metals ; priestly robes 
 bedizened with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and in short 
 the whole church government covered inside and outside 
 with a paraphernalia of extravagant, inestimable wealth. 
 Now, who pays for all this pomp and more than Roman 
 splendor? Why, none but the peasantry, those whose 
 earnings are counted by cOpecks — half-cents — who go 
 without schooling, without bread, without any comforts, 
 and who bring up their children no better than them- 
 selves ; these are they who contribute the means that 
 make such a mockery of Godliness, justice, common- 
 
44 G RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 sense, possible. Beside the icon in every peasant's home 
 is placed a small box into which something is dropped 
 every day, if but a copeck, for the benetit of the clergy, 
 and whenever a miracle is wrought in a peasant's family, 
 which, in their estimation, is very often, this church allow- 
 ance not infrequently extends to the last piece of coin 
 the family possesses. 
 
 In this barbaric superstition — the Russian Church — is 
 found the primary cause of Nihilism. The oppressive 
 burdens complained of do not arise wholly from despotic 
 rulership ; the Czar does not prevent the earth from bring- 
 ing forth, nor does he withhold the hand of any husband- 
 man from the plow ; but the church has set aside one hun- 
 dred holidays annually, on which no man who is faithful 
 must labor ; by this edict she destroys one-third the pro- 
 ductiveness of the Empire and appropriates nearly all of 
 the other two-thirds to herself, to keep up appearances. 
 Poverty never considers the real cause that produces it, 
 but angry at fate, she is controlled by prejudice against 
 the more fortunate, and in these facts is patent reason 
 why the political dissensions in Russiaare so serious. The 
 life of every nation is dependent upon the agricultural 
 resources it yields, so that every nation must be poor 
 whose pastoral people are poor ; it is better to stop the 
 spinning wheel than to arrest the plow, and more wisely 
 economical is it to burden the commerce of manufacture 
 than to encourage any scheme that looks toward a tax 
 upon the farmer. Russia has not yet learned this im- : 
 portant truth . 
 
 Agriculture in all Russia is still con ducted upon pi'imitive 
 principles ; I found that the peasants were indisposed to 
 adopt any modern implement, but for what reason could 
 not be explained. Their plows are not wholly unlike 
 those used in China, consisting of a straight and narro'w^ 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 447 -* 
 
448 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 plow-share, without any mould-board, which runs into 
 the earth not more than three inches and makes more of. 
 a trench than furrow ; their plow horses work in shafts, 
 and even here the douga is not discarded, but retained 
 as a relic of ancient usage. But in the harvest field there 
 is still less of modern farmhig seen, for the grain is cut 
 with hand-sickles, behind which follow gleaners, as in the 
 days of Ruth and Boaz. It is really a pretty sight to 
 witness the harvest gathering ; as the peasants live in 
 communes, they work together upon a communistic prin- 
 ciple ; when the wheat has ripened — Russia raises com- 
 paratively little else — the village population, both men and 
 women, turn out with sickles at their labor, which begins 
 at break of day and continues until darkness. I have seen 
 more than one hundred reapers strung out in a line gath- 
 ering the grain of a single field, the men wearing trousers, 
 of some coarse material, outside of which the shirt is 
 worn ; but the women, if notmore expensively dressed, are 
 certainly more gaudily decorated. They are very fond 
 of bright colors, their hair being bound up with gay hand- 
 kerchiefs, while their dresses are either of a bright red, 
 blue or gfreen : viewed at a distance, asjainst a back- 
 ground of ripened grain and, as a whole, moving in ec- 
 centric undulations, the sight is exceedingly pleasing. 
 When the wheat is gathered and ready for threshing, it is 
 taken into sheds, which can hardly be called barns, and 
 there the grain is beaten out with flails, as in olden times. 
 Notwithstanding the crude manner in which the peasaii^try 
 of Russia till their lands, yet Russia is the only competi- 
 tor America has in an ambition to feed the world. 
 Fortunately for us, what progress has been made in Rus- 
 sia has been in manufacture, to the almost utter neglect 
 of airriculture, the result of which is the unwonted ^%- 
 pression of all her energies, and the critical conditioi of 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 449 
 
 her finances. This may be accounted for by a considera- 
 tion of the following facts, wliich should have special 
 interest for Americans, because a removal of the causes 
 may seriously embarrass our prosperity : 
 
 With immense tracts of sparsely populated but fertile 
 lauds, a great lack of native skilled labor, and undevel- 
 oped mineral resources, Russia is necessarily an agricul- 
 tural country, and must seek material progress in driving 
 the plough, and not in forging the ploughshare. Every- 
 thing, however, seems to militate against the success of ag- 
 riculture. The land, which is in the hands of the peasants 
 in the purely Russian provinces, is being rapidly exhausted 
 under unskilful and improvident husbandry, and where, 
 under proper management, the complaint would be that 
 there were not hands sufficient to work the soil, the actual 
 cry is, on the contrary, that there is not land enough to 
 feed the inhabitants. To the foreigner who knows the 
 vast extent of the Russian Empire and the comparative 
 paucity of its inhabitants, the idea of an earth-hunger in 
 the dominions of the Czar appears simply absurd. Never- 
 theless the fact exists that the present deplorable condi- 
 tion of the peasantry in many of the provinces is gravely 
 attributed to the smallness of the shares of land which 
 fall to the lot of the various village families. 
 
 The subject has become so important to Russia that the 
 Government has taken it into serious consideration, a 
 commission being appointed to enquire into the question ; 
 and steps having been taken to facilitate the removal of 
 large numbers of the peasants from the central provinces 
 to the vacant and fertile lands in the east of the Empire. 
 It is part of the theory of the largest and most influ- 
 ential class of Russian politicians that the welfare of the 
 country depends upon the possession by each peasant of 
 a plot of land sufficient under tillage to secure his main- 
 
450 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tenance, and great alarm is therefore felt at what is 
 considered the failure in this respect of the system intro- 
 duced on the abolition of serfdom. It is perfectly clear 
 that if, under the ukase of liberation, each peasant fam- 
 ily received only sufficient land for its support, the small- 
 est increase in the population must produce the greatest 
 distress, unless the system of agriculture be so improved 
 as to render the portions of land continually more pro- 
 ductive. The Russian press, however, and the poli- 
 ticians who have specially occupied themselves with the 
 land question, have for the most part paid but little atten- 
 tion to the consideration of the necessity for a general 
 improvement in agriculture. Tables have been drawn up, 
 and statistics have been prepared, proving beyond dispute 
 that the portion of land possessed by each male peasant 
 is smaller than was contemplated under the great Act of 
 Emancipation, and that under present conditions the pro- 
 duce of this portion is insufficient to satisfy the require- 
 ments of its possessor. All this, however, seems to fail 
 to suggest th3 desirability, and, indeed, necessity of 
 seeking to increase the value of the produce of each acre 
 of land. Great obstacles stand in the Avay of any rapid 
 or serious improvement, but still much might be done. A 
 first requirement is the introduction of capital for the im- 
 provement of stock, for works of irrigation, for the pur- 
 chase of machinery, and for providing the means for tid- 
 ing over bad seasons ; but this urgently required capital 
 is hard to get. One great obstacle in the unnatural di- 
 version of capital to manufacturing industries, has been 
 pointed out, but in addition to this, other circumstances 
 combine to prevent those classes that would be most likely 
 to come forward, from appearing as investors. The Jew 
 capitalists who are to be found in every provincial town 
 of the west, and many of whom as dealers in agricul- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 451 
 
 tural produce, have intimate relations with the needy land- 
 owners and peasants, are prohibited by law from becom- 
 ing owners, mortgagees, or managers of landed property, 
 and this fact alone locks up from the land large sums 
 which would otherwise almost certainly be employed in 
 its development. After the Jews, the large landowners 
 are the class from whom most might be expected. Their 
 wealth and superior intelligence, if devoted to agriculture, 
 would be almost invaluable ; but since the emancipation 
 of the serfs few of them reside on their estates or take 
 any great interest in them. A barrier has arisen between 
 them and those who were formerly their slaves, and if 
 the mujik thinks that he can in any way struggle on inde- 
 jjendently, even high wages will seldom tempt him to 
 work for his former master. The proprietor finds life 
 in the provinces exceedingly dull and monotonous ; his re- 
 lations with the peasantry around him are generally 
 strained, and the superior comfort of residence in one of 
 the capitals or abroad is so great that he seldom resists 
 the temptation to quit the provinces and hand over the 
 management of his estates to an agent. If the agent 
 were likely to be a man of intelligence and probity the 
 damage would not be so great, but such men are hard to 
 find, and as a rule under the administration of a deputy 
 the -property is neglected, and instead of an example of 
 superior agriculture being given to the peasants, the in- 
 dolence and too often the dishonesty of the agent lead to 
 results on the estate of the large proprietors as bad as are 
 produced on the village lands by the incapacity of the 
 peasants. Thus do we observe the drawbacks to Russia's 
 jDrosperity, and may feel assured that so long as they 
 continue to exist the country will grow poorer until no 
 one may foresee the end. I am frank to admit that the 
 Russian Empire has infinitely more natural advantages 
 
452 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 than the United States ; she has the finest agricultural 
 lands on earth, and more of it ; she has more mineral 
 wealth than any other nation ; every climate may be found 
 in the Empire, and wliere is there a country that has so 
 many and such great rivers as Russia? The soil in what 
 is known as the " black earth district," south-east Russia, 
 is i^ositively so rich that it will produce nothing but 
 potatoes, or such other vegetables as will only grow in 
 manure, and this district contains millions of acres. 
 Siberia itself has enough arable lands, that if properly 
 cultivated might be made to produce sustenance for the 
 whole world ; and yet, with all these advantiiges, Russia 
 is behind every nation, and her population is only seven 
 inhabitants per square mile. What a country for emi^ 
 grants, if the laws were liberal I 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 After visiting nearly two days among the serfs, I dis- 
 missed Schleuter, who returned home to Tobolsk, while 
 I went directly to St. Petersburg, and there renewed my 
 relations with Count Tolstoi through a second letter of 
 cordial introduction and recommendation, from Minister 
 Hunt, as already published. My desire now was to 
 inform myself of the social and religious life of the 
 aristocratic and middle classes, as found at the Russian 
 Capital. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Moscow and St. Peters- 
 burg are both Muscovite Capitals, abounding with all the 
 paraphernalia of Imperialism, regarded socially they are 
 as distinct as Paris and Constantinople, having no single 
 characteristic in common save in the possible matter of 
 
EXILE LIFE IN sfeERIAl' 453 
 
 church decoration. Moscow is a gem in the Asiatic sig- 
 net still ; though in strongly pronounced antagonism to 
 Budhism and the Moslem creed, she nevertheless clings to 
 such observances as distinguish those faiths, and did the 
 spires of her churches wear crescents instead of crosses 
 we could readily believe that Moscow was the Mussul- 
 man's holy city. But St. Petersburg has a highly pol- 
 ished veneering of European civilization, which is con- 
 spicuous everywhere outside her monasteries ; On the 
 streets may be seen, though at infrequent intervals, 
 monks with round, band-box looking headpieces, from 
 which a piece of black muslin is suspended behind ; or, 
 members of the white and black clergy dressed in black 
 stoles, wearing hats tucked up at four quarters by 
 strings, the former having short and the latter long, 
 straggling hair ; but these are about all the ecclesiastical 
 sights to be seea on the streets in St. Petersburg, and 
 even they are not common. Sunday, too, is not a day 
 wholly devoted to religious observances, for I saw 
 large squads of men busy at work repairing streets, 
 which must have been done by municipal order, and 
 there is also more or less business done at the small 
 shops on Sunday ; but in Moscow such sacrilegious 
 employment would not be tolerated. 
 
 I attended services one Sunday at St. Isaac's Cathe- 
 dral, in company with my interpreter, Kuntze, and was 
 entertained in a much more agreeable manner than I had 
 anticipated. This famous cathedral, though hardly so 
 fine as the Grand Votive church in Moscow, is a marvel 
 of architectural beauty and magnificence ; its cupola is 
 a mass of burnished gold, lifting up against the sky its 
 wonderful hemisphere like a bright sun half set behind 
 a mountain peak. It has four fronts, with the same 
 number of main entrances, before each of which are 
 29 
 
454 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 eight granite pillars sixty feet in height and seven feet 
 through. The interior, however, is much more impos- 
 ing, being composed of many beautiful rooms supported 
 by pillars of malachite ; the steps are made of porphyry ; 
 the walls are of lapis lazuli, the floors are of variegated 
 marble, the inner dome is of malachite, and the gorgeoua 
 
 ST. Isaac's cathedral. 
 interior is lighted by foliated windows of rare colors 
 A feature of the decorations inside is the prestol form- 
 ing the shrine, which is made of malachite and was» 
 a present from Prince Demidoff ; the cost of this shrine 
 was one million dollars, equal to the cost of the buUd^ 
 ing's foundation. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 455 
 
 One peculiarity of all Greek churches is the absence 
 of seats, and instrumental music ; every one, whether 
 prince or peasant, must stand up during the entire service, 
 which generally lasts two hours. As I walked into the 
 church it was between two files of beggars who haunted 
 the entrance, and with suppliant mien addressed a peti- 
 tion to each person who passed them ; they also held a 
 little board in their hands on which they allowed to 
 remain the copecks that were given them, as an incentive 
 to others to contribute. When I reached the interior 
 I found the congregation disposed in various naves, and 
 generally in squad^, the principal portion of the audience, 
 however, ])eing in the center nave, before which was flie 
 chancel and priest. My attention was attracted to bevies 
 of suppliants whose devotions were being made before icons 
 of Christ, Mary, Russian saints, and biblical i3atriarchs ; 
 each suppliant was provided with a pocket-full of can- 
 dles, as every icon was surrounded with candelabras, some 
 having more than fifty, which were supplied with new can- 
 dles as soon as those burning were exhausted ; the use of 
 c^'^dles is so great that there are in Russia hundreds of very 
 large factories wiiich produce nothing but these sacrificial 
 candles, and it is a most remunerative industry. Devo- 
 tions made to these icons consist in the suppliant first 
 addressing a short prayer before the image, while in a 
 standing position ; the suppliant then bows down and 
 touches the floor three times with his forehead, still 
 reciting prayers ; this worship is repeated many times, 
 and when concluded another prayer is offered, after 
 which the sign of the cross is made three times, when 
 the suppliant passes on to the center nave and participates 
 in the regular services, which are chiefly choral. I saw 
 many old men and women undergoing the prelimmary 
 service in a way which excited my compassion ; in pros- 
 
456 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 trating themselves I could hear their stiffened joints, 
 inflexible fnmi age, crack with each motion, and I could 
 plainly see that the exertion consequent upon so repeat- 
 edly rising and kneeling was of a most taxing, if not 
 exhausting, nature. 
 
 Russian choirs are famous the world over ; no other 
 people have such musical throats, and when animated by 
 the religious feeling which so thoroughly pervades them 
 they produce a harmony which I can best describe bycal- 
 ing it heavenly. I needed no interpreter to tell me of its 
 beauty, or to inspire me with the soul-attuning\ melody 
 which welled up until I became lost in its swells of rich 
 grace-imparting, spiritualizing concord of delicious music. 
 While entranced by this ecstacy of sweet sounds I was 
 suddenly alarmed by a shriek which rose above the 
 harmony, piercing and painful ; looking in the direction 
 from, whence the excitement proceeded, I caught sight of 
 a woman who was being borne upon the shoulders of t^\■o 
 men throuoh the audience toward a laro;e imao-e of the 
 crucified Christ ; instantly there occurred to me the idea 
 of sacrificial rites, that this woman, screaming as if she 
 were possessed of a thousand devils, was to do some 
 propitiatory act for absolvment from a penalty which she 
 conceived was about to be administered ; these reflectioijs 
 were produced by the strange influences which surrounded 
 me, but upon inquiry addressed to my guide for the 
 cause, he informed me that the woman was a paralytic 
 who, having received absolution, and the power of faith 
 through a reception of the holy spirit, had begged to be 
 carried to the feet of Christ, which, if she might touch, she 
 expected to be cured of her affliction. I found that this 
 was a very usual occurrence, there being few services 
 held in the Cathedral that some incurable among the 
 audience did not seek to touch tho sacred image, 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 4. J 7 
 
 believing it would make them whole. I did not hear 
 that any one had ever been thus miraculously cured, but 
 then there is no limit to faith, and I did not expect to find 
 reason prevailing to any extent among a people so 
 exclusively religious as these. 
 
 . I attended one other sacred service in St. Peters- 
 burg, which was even more interesting than that at St. 
 Isaacs Cathedral, and which, I may add, impressed 
 me more seriously. It was a te deum sung at the St. 
 Alexander Nevskoi Monastery by fourteen monks and 
 twelve neophytes. This ecclesiastical institution is 
 renowned throughout the Empire, being to Russia what 
 Westminster Abbey is to England. Under its marble 
 floors repose hundreds of the most famous characters in 
 Russian history, whose deeds are briefly recorded on the 
 tablature above them. In a large yard about the Mon- 
 astery lie buried many people once rich enough to pur- 
 chase a resting place in the sacred enclosure, for it is a fact 
 that none can find burial here except upon the payment 
 of a certain sum, which generally amounts to $25,000 ; 
 this is considered small enough price for a bed in so holy 
 a place, which many think is but a step removed from 
 heaven. 
 
 Some years ago there was a Lady Superior in charge 
 of the Monastery who was also financial agent of the 
 institution ; she was a woman of extraordinary force of 
 character and so popular among the aristocracy that she 
 secured from time to time most princely bequests from 
 rich people of the Empire ; she was on very intimate 
 terms with the royal family, particulary with the Em- 
 press of Alexander II., and possessed the confidence of 
 everybody. Her charities became the wonder of all, for 
 she built almost a score of institutions for the benefit of 
 the poor, and established hospitals in many parts of 
 
458 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 Russia. It is estimated that in her ambition to amelio- 
 rate the condition of the Russian poor she spent not less 
 than $20,000,000. After a time it was hinted that all 
 this wealth had not been derived from the sources she 
 represented, but that she had appropriated the church 
 revenues. An investigation followed, which Avas 
 jirompted by priests jealous of their own personal inter- 
 ests, which established the facts as charged. She was 
 then placed on trial for sacrilege, in misappropriating 
 church funds, and after one of the most exciting legal 
 contests that ever took place in St. Petersburg, her 
 guilt was established. The trial was attended not only 
 by scores of the most famous people of the Empire, but 
 also by the Emperor and Empress. It was clearly 
 proved that, though the Lady Superior had used funds 
 of which she was the trust agent, yet every dollar of it 
 had been charitably employed ; that even her own wants 
 and needs were neglected to the end that she might use 
 every copeck available for the betterment of those need- 
 ing aid. Her sentence was confinement in prison for 
 twenty years, but instead of this harsh judgment affix- 
 ing any stigma to her name, hundreds of aristocratic 
 women begged that they might be permitted to share 
 her imprisonment. When assigned to a cell in the Bol- 
 shaya Sadovaya prison she found it a solid bower of 
 perfume-laden flowers ; she was daily visited by mem- 
 .bers of the Imperial family, and every possible attention 
 was paid her by people of the highest rank. After two 
 years of imprisonment, which was one continual ovation, 
 Alexander II. gave her a pardon, and within two months 
 after her liberation she was reinstated in the position of 
 Lady Superior in the Monastery, where she is still serv- 
 ing, with enlarged jurisdiction, and honored as no other 
 woman was ever honored in Russia. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 459 
 
 I entered the monastery with my guide, who con- 
 ducted me through long corridors, which seemed to be 
 endless, past dark chambers which looked like charnel 
 pits, and at times along narrow passages, until nearly 
 ft half-mile had been traversed, when we emerged into the 
 main chapel. The te deum service begins at four o'clock 
 f. M., and continues uninterruptedly for two hours; it 
 was quarter past four when we arrived and the choir was 
 already chanting their musical invocations ; the first 
 rich notes that fell upon my ear charmed every sense 
 And thrilled me with melodious rapture. I walked for- 
 ward in the great hall, which was deserted save by three 
 women who were praying at the base of a gray jDillar, 
 until near the chancel, upon a raised dais on which stood 
 the monks and neophytes, their backs toward the hall 
 iind with faces turned upon a large painting of Christ. 
 There was about the whole scene something to inspire 
 the soul ; some overshadowing but impersonal presence ; 
 a strangeness that suggested infinity and spirituality ; 
 the shaking of hands and declaration of familiarity 
 between the living and dead. The monks were habited 
 in long, black surplices ; on their heads they wore the 
 black caps indicative of self-denial and retirement from 
 the world , and their hair hung far down the back in con- 
 sonance with the idea of a neglected body, but care for 
 the soul. 
 
 I have heard with delight the famous jDrofessional 
 singers of both continents, and measured their harmony 
 by the fullest sense of the ear, but to none of them, 
 Lind, Patti, Mlsson, could I compare the harvest of 
 symphony as produced by the monks ; indeed, one is as 
 an elevation of man's feelings from the sordid cares of 
 life to the bountiful love of domestic happiness and con- 
 tentment ; while the other is like lifting one from out a 
 
460 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 life of disappointments for a transplanting into felicitous 
 fields of paradise, where the very essence of existence 
 is musical. I never before conceived the limits of 
 vocal culture, I did not appreciate the mesmerism of a 
 human voice, nor understand the magic of a song. 
 There I stood, before that wonderful choir, so em- 
 balmed with melody, and intensified by a rapture so won- 
 derful that I felt as one who might ascend upon wings 
 of love to the portals of Hesperides and there bathe in 
 a flood of joy which blessed souls find on the beautiful 
 shores. I am not unconscious of the suspicion which 
 many readers are liable to attach to so florid a descrip- 
 tion ; who may, indeed, pronounce it sophomoric exag- 
 geration, but my excuse for using such adjective expres- 
 sions is the genuine, soul-entranced feeling I had while 
 listening to the Monk choir, and which I have only 
 indifferently described. I might rest under the imputa- 
 tion of supersensitiveness were it not for the fact that 
 all who hear this famous choir are impressed with feel- 
 ings identical with my own. Princely offers have been 
 made the choir for their choral services in public, but 
 these have all been refused with the pious remark, *' We 
 sing only for God and the dead." Some years ago a 
 great tenor of the choir was ordered by Alexander II. to 
 sing on a public occasion at the Royal Italian Opera in 
 St. Petersburg. His appearance created such an intense 
 excitement that the Emperor was glad to have him 
 return to the monastery ; so great was the rush of peo- 
 ple to hear the tenor that many persons were trampled, 
 while those who gained admission to the theatre mani- 
 f(»sted such delirious joy that they would hardly permit 
 him to leave the stage ; in addition to this rather annoy- 
 iin» adulation, the church violently protested against his 
 public appearance, pronouncing it a sacrilegioa* iiacrificA, 
 
S2ULK LIFE IX SIBERIA. 401 
 
 and hurled dreadful anathemas at the Emperor for his 
 order. This was the first and last time that any mem- 
 ber of the Monastery choir has sung outside the chapel 
 of their own sacred institution. 
 
 When the services were concluded, at six o'clock p. m., 
 the monks withdrew into their cells and I was left to 
 inspect the building. The chief object of interest inside 
 the chapel is a silver casket containing the body of St. 
 Alexander Nevskoi, who is the patron saint of Peters- 
 burg. This saint is a canonization of the Grand Duke 
 Alexander, who was a member of the Rurik dynasty, but 
 lived only a short time before the accession of the 
 Romanoffs. He is reputed to have been a great warrior, 
 and it is said of him that in a battle with the Swedes, 
 fought on the very spot where the monastery now stands, 
 he defeated his enemies with great loss and killed the 
 Swedish commander with his own sword. The bones of 
 this hero were originally buried near Kazan, but were 
 brought to St. Petersburg and canonized by order of 
 Peter the Great. Not long after this event some priests 
 of Little Russia slipped into St. Petersburg and succeeded 
 in stealing the canonized bones, which they removed to a 
 spot not far from where they were first buried. Much 
 distress was felt by Peter at this desecration, audit is said 
 he fell to praying for direction how to proceed to recover 
 the bones. His petition was answered by an angel who 
 appeared to Peter in a cloud of fire and told him how the 
 bones were taken away and where they were buried ; it 
 is told that the Emperor, accompanied by two of his royal 
 suite, visited the spot described by the angel and, with 
 his own hands, dug up the saint, boxed the bones and 
 carried them back to St. Petersburg, determined that 
 they should not be again disturbed Peter caused to be 
 mad« an immense silver sarcophaorus, into whioh he 
 
462 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 placed the sacred remains, then closed down the lid, 
 locked it and threw the key into the Neva River. This 
 solid silver casket, or rather sarcophagus, is in a side 
 chapel, to the right of the sacristy. It is square shaped, 
 and at each corner is the figure of an angel (large as a 
 grown person) in an attitude of mourning. The value of 
 this piece of art and precious metals is $250,000. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 While I did not attend divine services in but two 
 churches in St. Petersburg, yet I did not neglect to visit 
 the Cathedral of St. Petersburg, generally called Cathe- 
 dnil Kazan, as it is dedicated to an imaginative deity, or 
 rather to a canonized woman, who doubtless never existed, 
 but who is supposed to have been named Kazan. This 
 church is the finest perhaps in all Russia, always excepting, 
 of course, the Grand Votive Church in Moscow. It is situ- 
 ated on the Nevskoi Prospekt, and is the most conspicu- 
 ous building on that great thoroughfare. In shape it is 
 that of a cross, its greatest length being 238 feet and its 
 width 182 feet, the whole being modeled after St. Peter's 
 at Rome, thoui2;h in heii>:ht the building does not meas- 
 are above 250 feet, and the cost did not exced $4,000,000. 
 The most curious and interesting object connected with 
 this cathedral is an image of "Lady Kazan," which 
 stands near the altar. This image is supposed to have 
 been made in the city of Kazan, in 1579. I say " sup- 
 posed" because the Russian priesthood do not want to 
 positively know anything, being mindful of the fact that 
 fascination is much more likely to be excited by legend 
 than by established history. The figure is known to have 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 463 
 
 ^een placed in the cathedral in 1821, where it has ever since 
 remained, a very strong attraction, and as an investment 
 tt has no doubt paid the church enormously, for a devout 
 peasant can hardly look upon it without being moved to 
 make a contribution. 
 
 I have called this ideal representation of Lady Kazan 
 a figure, or image, but it is neither painting nor image, 
 being a medley of both. The Greek religion, as before 
 mentioned, prohibits the use of images, but the prohi- 
 bition is rather technical tha:n literal. In reality the fig- 
 are proper is a painting, but it is habilitated in regal attire 
 and almost covered with precious jewels. There is one 
 iiamond in the crown valued at $100,000, and a sap- 
 phire which forms the center of the tiara is said to be 
 worth $500,000 ; it was contributed by the Grand- 
 Duchess Catharina Paulovna, who is now " supposed " 
 to be getting value received in the court of last resort — 
 beaven. 
 
 There is invested in churches, decorations and sacred 
 jinages in St. Petersburg more than $200,000,000, a sum 
 equal to nearly one-half the value of all other property in 
 the municipality ; yet I was surprised to learn that most 
 of the money used in sustaining the churches is derived 
 from the poorer classes ; this statement appears almost 
 incredible but it is none the less true ; its apparent 
 exaggeration is somewhat modified, however, by the fact 
 that in Eussia the priests receive very little more than is 
 barely suflicient for their needs, which are few. 
 Although Kussia is, as a nation, intensely religious, her 
 aristocracy incline to sacred matters with such indiffer- 
 ence that they cannot be called religious, while there is 
 not one among a hundred of her scientists or learned 
 men who is not an agnostic. I was told that scarcely 
 any of the upper classes attend divine service, and in the 
 
464 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 homes of the nobility an icon is beginning tobto a rarity. 
 So we can readily understand why the burdens of church 
 expenses have fallen upon the poorer people, whose loy- 
 
 alty to the faith of their ancestors is unwavering, same 
 as we find it in all countri<^«. But as the poor in Russia 
 are bo maok inor« numgrias than the heh, aud beoautd 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 465 
 
 they compose the sinews of the government and are its sole 
 dependence, their influence is recognized by the govern- 
 ment in continuing its religious observances, and in pro- 
 viding such pomp as delights tlie simple votaries of the 
 Greek Church. 
 
 It would require too much space to describe the many 
 holidays set apart by Russian laws, but some of them are 
 observed so generally, and with such display of ceremo- 
 nial, that I must mention a few. The most distinguished 
 day and festival occasion occurs on August first, which 
 is called " First Spass," or Savior day. It is commem- 
 orative of the crossing of the Sea of Galilee by Christ 
 and his disciples. The service of celebration begins with 
 a te deum at church, Avhich lasts about two hours ; at its 
 conclusion a procession is formed, composed of nearly 
 all the common ]3eople in St. Petersburg, few persons of 
 wealth or rank participating. At the head of this pro- 
 cession are six peasants, each bearing a sacred banner; 
 immediately behind them are two more peasants, who 
 carry between tlifiJiL a large painting of the Savior. Be- 
 hind these are peasant girls bearing icons of the Madon- 
 na and disciples. After the girls comes the chief priest, 
 who wears upon his head a golden cross and is clothed in 
 rich vestments of the church. Behind him marches the 
 long line of peasants, or all who desire to participate in 
 the services. The procession thus formed marches to a 
 bridge across the Neva River, which has been decorated 
 for the occasion with trees, flowers and interlaced branches 
 of evergreens. Upon reaching this bridge a short prayer 
 is offered by the priest, who then signals a blessing of 
 the waters, which is followed by those bearing banners, 
 crosses and icons, dipping them into the river three times, 
 which is supposed to impart a miraculous influences Im- 
 mediately upon this being done hundreds jump into the 
 
4i<6Q KUSSIAX NIHILISM AND 
 
 stream, while other hundreds fill bottles, jugs and barrels 
 with the precious- water that is now believed to possess a 
 magic power to heal any and every ailment of humanity , 
 many invalids are carried down to the water and sub- 
 merged, fully possessed of the belief that their afflictions 
 will be cured, while those who are in sound bodily health 
 bathe their heads to keep off disease. These waters, 
 which must be taken on the day they are blessed if their 
 potency be desix*ed, are supposed to possess miraculous 
 virtues for one year, and no amount of evidence could 
 shake the faith of a peasant in this belief, although 1 
 could not find any peasant who knew of a cure having 
 been effected by using the water. 
 
 The next most important holiday in Russia is St. 
 George's Day, which occurs on the 23d of April, and is 
 a celebration in honor of Russia's patron saint. So 
 severe are tho winters in northern Russia that it is custom- 
 ary to keep cows and sheep stabled from November 
 first until St. George's Day, when they are turned out of 
 doors, their release being made a chief part of the holiday 
 ceremonials. On the morning of this day the peasants 
 arrange tables, spread with white cloths, about the stables 
 containing their domestic animals, upon which they place 
 bread, water and eggs. Around these tables stand the 
 peasants, male and female, each provided with an icon of 
 some saint, and at the stable door stands a priest who 
 bears a large banner having four portraits painted upon 
 it and also a jDicture representing St. George killing the 
 dragon. Beside him is a basin of Avater which he con- 
 secrates by dipping into it a sinall cross three times. 
 Afterpreachinga short sermon the priest o^iens the stable 
 doors, the cows and sheep come out before him, and ho 
 sprinkles them with holy water, from the basin, with » 
 littlo Wush. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 467 
 
 ] io not remember of having ever heard of a custom 
 among an} people so singular, if not paganish, as that 
 which prevails among the poorer classes in Russia, and 
 known as Recollection Monday. Feasting^ among the 
 
 tombs, I am aware, was once a custom among the Jews, 
 who did it as a mark of respect for their departed friends, 
 as also do the lower classes of Irish hold *' wakes," but 
 
% 
 
i:XIL£ LIF£ IN SIBEBIA. 469 
 
 just for what purpose they cannot themselves tell. But 
 the custom, as now observed in Eussia, is much more 
 radical in character than either the Irish or ancient Jewish 
 ceremonies. Tlie celebration of Recollection Monday is 
 begun by services of mass held in the various chapels, at 
 the conclusion of whicli a large amount of food, consist- 
 ing of Easter eggs, salt, cake and fruit, which is brought 
 into the chapels in baskets, is taken forward to the priest 
 for his blessing. Wine and vodka are not a necessary 
 part of the provisions used at the ceremonies, but con- 
 siderable quantities are nevertheless provided. After the 
 chapel services are finished processions are formed, headed 
 by priests, which march to the cemeteries and there be- 
 gin lamentations for the dead. But this manifestation 
 of grief very soon changes into a wild, bacchanalian 
 revelry ; men, women and children drink vodka until 
 their condition is shocking to civilization ; ribaldry, lewd- 
 ness, and demoralizing actions of almost every kind 
 characterize those who visit the cemeteries on these occa- 
 sions. The priests, drunk and boisterous like their 
 parishioners, stagger around with tapers and crosses, 
 soliciting fees for reciting prayers over the graves ; these 
 priests, provided they are sober enough, will pray fifteen 
 minutes over any grave for the sum of fifty copecks 
 (twenty-five cents), this being the basis of the regular 
 tariff fixed by them ; the dead who have no friends will- 
 ing to pay this amount, have to sleep without prayers 
 and take their chances of beiuo' burned. 
 
 I have mentioned a middle class in Russia, but in re- 
 ality there are only two classes, the aristocratic and the 
 peasant. Russian subjects, as a rule, are either very 
 poor or exceedingly rich, so that in my references to a mid- 
 dle class I intended to designate what in America we 
 call the office-holding people. But in Russia this means 
 30 
 
470 
 
 RUSSIAN ^^K1LISM A2m 
 
 more than it does in America, for officers are much more 
 numerous in that country, and being in the government 
 service, even though thej may be ever so poor, yet they 
 
 are accorded a position in society above the peasantry, 
 but not equal to the aristocracy ; thus we can only dcsig- 
 nate them as the middle class ex officio. 
 It is a fact no lessjipgiilqf than unreasonable, that th« 
 
IKILrB LITE IN STBHMA. 471 
 
 poor pay nearly all the taxes in Russia ; the rich mer- 
 chant in St. Petersburg or the owner of municipal real 
 estate pays no taxes to the government ; the citj^ revenue 
 is of course derived from city property, but the government 
 receives not a dollar, except as a voluntary gift, from 
 any source but that of agriculture. When Alexander II. 
 granted freedom to the serfs and made the Empire as- 
 sume a debt of $50,000,000, to pay the noblemen for 
 their manumitted slaves, he did not change the revenue 
 laws, so that the liberated peasants are made to purchase 
 their own freedom. Every acre of land in Russia and every 
 product of the soil is assessed annually and taxed upon a 
 basis fixed to meet the annual budget. In all other occupa- 
 tions there is exemption from tax. A man who desires 
 to engage in business goes to the proper bureau and de- 
 clares his intentions ; he is there furnished with a license, 
 but he cannot pursue any business except that for which 
 his license is issued, under a severe penalty ; thus, if one 
 secures a license to follow tailoring the person so privi- 
 leged cannot engage in any other vocation without sur- 
 rendering his license as a tailor and taking out a new 
 privilege ; his place of business cannot be changed either 
 without first notifying the police ; neither can a man 
 move his place of residence without complying with the 
 same conditions. Merchants who are worth $50,000, 
 and who do a business of the same amount annually may 
 become members of the first *' guild" upon an annual 
 payment to the government of $300. Those who are 
 worth $25,000 and do an annual busines equal to that 
 amount may become members of the second" " guild" 
 by paying annually the sum of $150. These "guilds" 
 are established for the recognition of the aristocracy 
 similar to those which once obtained in England. Mem- 
 bers of the first guild wear a uniform to distinguish their 
 
4T2 
 
 ttUMIAir KiaiLISM A2n> 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 473 
 
 rank j this uniform is more showy than that worn by a 
 Russian general ; the clotli is a navy blue, the j^ants 
 having a gold stripe down the leg, Avhile the coat and 
 vest are embroidered witli gold cord, and on the shoul- 
 ders are immense epaulettes of cord and tinsel. These 
 merchants are invited to the court balls, but may not 
 personally address the Emperor ; they must content 
 themselves with viewing royalty and with being enter- 
 tained in the palace. 
 
 Society in St. Petersburg has about it more punctilio 
 than anywhere in the world ; it is surrounded by a very 
 high wall, and may be reached only by those having 
 magic keys j an introduction will not suffice, as it does 
 in America, for every one who seeks admission must have 
 the requisites of discreetness, wealth and bizarre manners. 
 Catharine II. was the first to organize society in St. Peters- 
 burg, and since her character is pretty generally known, 
 we may readily surmise the kind of stamp she impressed 
 it with. There is in the Hermitage a tablet, which is 
 generally concealed from view by a curtain, upon which 
 is engraved the "ten commandments" of Catharine, 
 which she enforced upon those who attended her parties. 
 
 Literally translated they read as follows : 
 
 1. Leave outside your rank, your hat, and especially 
 your sword. 
 
 2. Leave outside your right of precedence, your 
 pride, and eveiything akin to them. 
 
 3. Be gay, but do not damage anything. 
 
 4. Sit, stand or walk, regardless of any person. 
 
 5. Talk calmly, and not too loud, so as not to make 
 the head and ears of others ache. 
 
 6. Discuss without anger or excitement. 
 
 7. Neither sigh nor yawn, nor make others gloomy 
 or dull-spirited, 
 
 8. Let all join in any innocent game proposed. 
 
474 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 9. Eat whatever is sweet and good, but drink mod- 
 erately in order that every body's head may be level upon 
 leaving. 
 
 10. Tell no tales out of school ; that which goes in 
 at one ear must go out at the other before leaving the 
 room. 
 
 Punishments provided for a transgression of any of 
 these rules were as follows : 
 
 1. Any person transgressing agamst any one of these 
 rules shall, if two witnesses appear against him, drink 
 one glass of cold water, not excepting the ladies, and read 
 aloud one page of the "Telemachiade," (written by a 
 Eussian poet named Tretiakofsky, after whom Tupper 
 was probably fashioned.) 
 
 2. Whoever, during the same evening, acts contrary 
 to any three of these rules, shall commit to memory six 
 lines of the same work. 
 
 3. Whoever breaks the tenth rule shall not again be 
 admitted. 
 
 There was no austerity iu any of these prohibitions 
 except the last, which was made to protect the character 
 of those who attended ; but though well intended it did 
 not fully serve the purpose. If it were not for the fact 
 that the stories are too shocking for publica( ion I could 
 fill a book with well attested tales of fiagnint conduct 
 peculiar to these recherche entertainments of Catharine 
 II. ; I heard scores of them ir. St. Petersburg, but they 
 are more conducive to morals when forgotten. 
 
 Dancing is a favorite recreation in Russia, indulged in 
 by all classes, and carried, in some instances, to great 
 excess. TVIiile in Moscow I was taken to a public house 
 where there was a big ball, and on this occasion I had 
 the pleasure of witnessing a genuine Russian dance. 
 Among the wealthitr people very little dancing is seen 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 475 
 
4:76 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 that is not common to Americans, as French masters hold 
 schools in St. Petersbm'g and Moscow, and the people 
 naturally adopt the French style. But at this public ball 
 there were several gentlemen with whom my guide was 
 intimately acquainted, and my request, through him, to 
 have the gentlemen execute the Russian dance, was com- 
 plied with by four couples. They advanced to the cen- 
 ter of the room, and, courtesying, one couple led off 
 with a varsouvienne step, which was soon changed to 
 lancers time. The other couples followed, and then they 
 took positions, so that the respective partners faced each 
 other ; now succeeded a movement which language is 
 wholly inadequate to describe ; the men crouched down in 
 what appeared to be a very painful attitude, as if sitting 
 on their heels ; in this position they would kick first with 
 one leg and then with the other, without changing their 
 attitude, and continued this violent exercise until exhaus- 
 tion was plainly manifested. During this time the ladies 
 waltzed around their partners and tossed their heads 
 from side to side in a coquettish manner. After the 
 crouchinof movements were concluded the men arose and 
 balanced before their partners, then placing their arms 
 akimbo, they began an awkward shuffling, or rather 
 stamping, something like the Sioux war dance, and while 
 doincthis they tossed their heads, stuck out their tongues, 
 pouted and looked cross-eyed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 During the summer season St. Petersburg is almost 
 deserted, all the better classes taking up their residence in, 
 «uburban places, the most popular and fashionable roaort 
 
UXILE LIFE IN 8IBETIIA 
 
 477 
 
478 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 being Parvelosk, which is situated eighteen miles out of 
 the metropolis. The ground on which Parvelosk is built 
 was donated by the Grand Duke Constantine, who erected 
 a music-stand, and laid out about two thousand acres of 
 the surrounding ground in a park, which has since been 
 improved at an exjDense of $1,000,000. Near this park 
 are hundreds of beautiful cottages, in the midst of green 
 lawns studded with flowers and statuary ; parties are 
 given nearly every night in these summer mansions, a 
 few of which I had the pleasure of attending. No people 
 are so polite and fashionable as the wealthy class of 
 Russia, and, I may add, that not even in Paris is there 
 such abandon, and perfect freedom, exhibited as at a 
 Russian ball. 
 
 About the first of October those who have summered 
 in rural towns begin to return to St. Petersburg, and 
 directly after this date the fashionable season opens in 
 the city. There are two streets in St. Petersburg which 
 can hardly be surpassed for beauty, one of these, Nevskoi 
 Prospekt, runs north and south, from the Admiralty 
 building to the Alexander Nevskoi Monastery, a distance 
 of three miles, and is as level as a floor ; the street is one 
 hundred and fifty feet broad, fifty feet of it being paved 
 with six-sided blocks, set in like the Nicholson pavement 
 except that there are no interstitial strips and fillings of 
 gravel, the blocks being laid in direct contact ; this makes 
 a driveway of rare excellence, and, indeed, such as cannot 
 be found anywhere else. The other noted street is the Bol- 
 shaya Moscowa, or great Moscow, which runs east and 
 west about two miles. It is constructed like the Nevs- 
 skoi Prospekt, and both streets are lined with fine build- 
 ings. These are the favorite resorts of fashionable people 
 with fine carriages, troikas, and magnificent sleighs. 
 TheBO conveyances are sumptuously made, and are gen- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERI/ 
 
 479 
 
4^0 RUSSIAlfl- NIHILISM AND 
 
 erally drawn by black horses in beautiful caparisons 
 decorated with gold and silver, while in the semi-circle of 
 the douga are a dozen silver bells that merrily jingle and 
 fill the air with cheery music. There are also many drives 
 through Alexander Park, around the suburbs of St. Peters- 
 burg, and over the long, broad wooden bridges which 
 span the Neva. 
 
 When winter fairly sets in, early ni November, the 
 court balls are given, and after the Neva freezes over an 
 ice palace is built every year on the frozen stream. This 
 palace is a thing of such great beauty that it is worth 
 many miles of travel to see. It is built of translucent 
 Mocks of ice two feet thick, which, upon being laid to- 
 gether, are solidified by pouring water over the outside 
 iind inside walls. The roof and ceiling are also made of 
 ice, and the architecture of the whole is very beautiful. 
 The interior is elegantly furnished with furniture taken 
 from the Winter Palace, magnificent chandeliers are sus- 
 pended from the ceiling, golden sconses are set in the 
 walls, and luxurious carpets cover the floors. It is in 
 this beautiful, fairy-like palace that some of the finest 
 loyal balls given in St. Petersburg by the Imperial family 
 are held.' 
 
 Courtship, marriage and domestic life in Russia are 
 radically different from what they are in America. As 
 in China, the Russians conduct their love affairs largely 
 by proxy ; not because of anj peculiar timidity, but in 
 conformity with customs which have prevailed among 
 them from time immemorial. Among the upper classes 
 there are many very beautiful women, with forms as 
 graceful as may be seen among the haul ton promenaders 
 on the Avenue del' Opera in Paris ; but among the peasantry 
 beauty is almost as rare as philosopher stones ; not only 
 are their faces coaree, flabby and devoid of delicate color, 
 
KXILB LIFE IN 8IJBEBIA. 
 
 481 
 
 but their forms are vulgarly repulsive, every develop- 
 ment tending towards shapeless obesity ; with them mod- 
 
 1 '■' ■^'■' "" '"' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -f<if>r^- 
 
 '-j^y>;% 
 
 «l 
 
 r 
 
 f -J 
 
 i ? i>ilP 
 
 ^^,M& 
 
 
 A RUSSIAN COURTSHIP. 
 
 esty, too, is an unknown quality, while untidiness is a 
 peculiarity of them all. Yet, no more attractive swains 
 
^2 BUSSIAN lOHILISM AN]> 
 
 fall in love with these mottled maidens, woo <hom in a 
 cholicy sort of way, and many them without manifesting 
 any special pleasure over the event. InEussiaas in Ger- 
 many, there is a great love for accordions and concer- 
 tinas ; as the Spanish lover beguiles his inamorata with 
 dulcet notes trummed on a guitar, so does the Russian 
 peasant persuade his favorite to some secluded bower, 
 and there puffs into her ears with the bellows of his ac 
 cordiou some tune which he calculates will swell her 
 heart. But however greatly he may surcharge her with 
 love's melody, or however eager he may be to procure 
 an admission of her tender feelings, he will smother the 
 desire and abide the customs of his country. He there 
 fore goes home to his father, to whom he declares his 
 love and desire to marry ; the father then invites the 
 parents of his son's flame to take tea ; this invitation 
 being accepted, the father cunningly broaches the subject 
 of marriage and at length speaks plainly of his son's 
 desire ; the matter is arranged entirely between the old 
 folks, but if either of them objects, then there can be no 
 marriage, for young jDcople in Russia never disobey their 
 parents. 
 
 There is another custom in Russia no less peculiar than 
 the courtship just described ; it is in using a "match- 
 maker" to arrange marriages. This personage is a very 
 important one, being a professional body, whose chief 
 occupation is dividing titles ; that is, securing for poor but 
 titled lords well dowered but untitled ladies, for it should 
 not be forsrotten that all the world is in a scramble fo? 
 titles, however empty and unprofitable they arc in fact 
 
 The accompanying engraving, made from Fedotoff'i 
 celebrated painting entitled the Svahha — Matchmaker- 
 conveys a comprehensive idea of her employment ; briefly 
 described, and using terms employed by the Russians, thi/ 
 
EXILE Lira IN" SIBERIA. 
 
 483 
 
 picture reads thus : The man in the caftan (the long coat 
 worn by the middle and poorer classes in Russia) is evi- 
 dently a moujik parvenu, who has been fishing with a 
 
 golden bait for a husband of rank superior to his own for 
 his tseeplonoh — chicken ; a "poulet engraisse," if money 
 can make her so. The fortunate svaJchay not less con- 
 
484 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tented than the hapj^y parents, is come to announce the 
 jjolkovnik (colonel), who has consented to be a suitor for 
 the fair one ; and the officer who, nothing diffident, has 
 come to take the offered jjrize, is giving the last stroke to 
 a well-cherished moustache. Both the mother of the 
 maiden and the svaJc/ia hold, displayed in their palms, a 
 nasavoi-platoh (nose-handkerchief), according to the idea 
 of such persons that the exhibition of that article is a 
 sine qua non of good breeding. On a side-table refresh- 
 ments are awaiting the guests,the houlibayaka (fish-cake), 
 favorite dish of the middle classes, being the principal 
 attraction. The servants, who are whispering in the cor- 
 ner, and who address their moujik-master as an equal, 
 with " Thou," in spite of his wealth, are as much inter- 
 ested in the event as their Z;a^em (master) or the mistress 
 with YiQV pavoynik (head-dress), which gives her such an 
 important appearance. The young lady's apparent dis 
 tress is more than probably feigned. To complete the 
 ensemble, Fedotoff has painted a cat stroking or washing 
 with its paw the side of the head neare8t~the door by 
 which a visiter is expected, as intelligent cats are sup- 
 posed to do by anticipation . 
 
 I did not have the jDleasure of seeing a marriage per- 
 formed while in Kussia, but from an English gentleman 
 who has lived in St. Petersburg for the past fifteen years, 
 I obtained a description of the ceremony which he at- 
 tended at the marriage of his chambermaid, and which 
 he described to me as follows : 
 
 "I never had but one married servant in my house- 
 hold, and she was a chambermaid named Macha — a nice, 
 pretty, and obliging peasant girl, who had been with us 
 for ai)out two years. For some time I had observed that 
 she seemed discontented, and on one occasion, asking her 
 why she was not as gay as usual, she replied that she wa» 
 
TIXTTiK LIFE IN SIBERIA. 485 
 
 neariy eighteen years old and not yet married. Had I 
 been a single man I might have had serious ideas of propos- 
 ing myself to such a pretty girl ; but I simply persuaded her 
 to bear up under her misfortune, and to bide God's time 
 for a husband. 
 
 I had quite forgotten the circumstance, when one night 
 late, hearing a great disturbance down in the servants' 
 offices, I went to see what was the matter. As I entered 
 the servants' room all was in confusion, boxes were 
 being opened, bundles ransacked, dresses measured, boots 
 thrown about, under-linen inspected, beads counted (the 
 Russian costume is never worn without as many as six to 
 eight rows of beads round their throat) , stockings exam- 
 ined, bed-linen animadverted upon, jewelry valued, go- 
 loshes felt, and fur mantles tried on. After a glance at 
 these things, I turned my gaze upon the occupants of the 
 room. There were three or four women servants be- 
 longing to the house, a couple of respectable peasant 
 women, dressed in the usual red chintz short petticoats 
 and leather fur-lined mantles, with brilliantly trimmed 
 hoods on their heads, and three peasant men ; these last 
 were all fine muscular-looking fellows, with their high 
 knee boots, velvet breeches, and red-and-blue shirts, 
 worn loosely outside the nether garment, something like 
 our old English mock-frocks, except their being shorter, 
 and worn with a many coloured ceinture. All the persons 
 there present seemed to be thoroughly interested in the 
 exhibition of clothes going on ; but the youngest of the 
 three men showed a slight restlessness as box after box 
 was hurriedly opened, and the contents of each, meeting 
 with apparent approval from the elder among the peas- 
 ants, elicited from him grunts of satisfaction and digs in 
 the ribs for the young man. 
 
 At last, when all had been well examined, Macha, the 
 31 
 
486 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 chambermaid, who all this time had been doing much 
 the harder part of the work in opening and expatiating 
 on the merits of each article, received a hearty slap on 
 the shoulder from the fine old peasant there present, who 
 in his own native language wished her "much happi- 
 ness." On this the young man arose from the bench 
 where he had been sitting and, naming a day in that same 
 week wherein we then were, slouched out of the cell or 
 cave (as one might well call the apartments of the ser- 
 vants) to have, we may suppose, some of his favorite 
 "vodka" (the usual Russian spirit drunk by the peas- 
 ants). This scene that I had been witnessing was neither 
 more nor less than a preliminary before marriage. The 
 sturdy old peasant there was the father of the young fel' 
 low who had just gone out, and he had come up from 
 the country to find a wife for his sou. He had heard of 
 this young woman from a traveling peddler who went 
 every three months to Moscow to replenish his pack, and 
 who knew half the girls by name who were in want of 
 husbands. On the strength of this information from 
 the peddler the old peasant (the father of the bridegroom-' 
 elect), his wife and son had come to judge for themselves 
 as to the eligibility of Mancha's goods and chattels ; but, 
 if they had found any article or articles wanting in the 
 bride's trousseau, there would have been no marriage. 
 Everything depended upon the bride's clothes ; but al) 
 was there, even to the 154 rubles of the hard-earned sav- 
 ings of the peasant-girl. So she was to be married ! and 
 she considered herself fortunate in having a husband 
 given her ; not that she liked him, for she had only seen 
 him for the first time that day. He and his father, the 
 old peasant, lived far away in the country ; but as the 
 spring was coming on, and the old father would want 
 somebody beside his own wife to help to prepare th4» 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 487 
 
 earth for the seed to be sown, the best thing was to get a 
 wife for his son, and thus secure the help of another pair 
 of hands during seed time without the expense of extra 
 wages. So Mancha, our chambermaid, was to be mar- 
 ried. She was happy as a bird. For a long time she 
 had stood much cliaff as to being an old maid ; but now 
 she was going to be married, and the " Benediction," (a 
 Russian rite preceding marriage) and wedding day had 
 already been fixed by the future husband himself. Now 
 she could make fun of others, for in Russia it is a seri- 
 ous thing for a girl if she is not married as soon as the 
 law permits — that is, at sixteen. 
 
 Friday came , the day of ' ' Benediction . ' ' Macha went 
 about her work as usual ; she neither seemed anxious nor 
 nervous. As she had been a good servant, we were all 
 going to honor her by apj^earing at the ceremony. At 
 about 7 p. M. a small table, covered with a white cloth, 
 Avas arranged in one corner of our large family dining- 
 room, two or three images of saints, ornamented with 
 flowers and precious stones, were placed on the table, 
 together Avitli a large round sort of bread or cake, which 
 was to play no mean part in the ceremony. A few 
 minutes later the steps of the priest were heard on the 
 marble staircase, together with the heavier step of the 
 peasants' feet, and in another moment the room was full 
 of the bride's friends, arrayed in the most gorgeous 
 chintz dresses, and of the bridegroom's mates, dressed in 
 the usual outdoor black leather "pelisse," lined with 
 sheepskins. All those friends and relations belonging to 
 the lady in whose house the ceremony was taking place 
 stood immediately behind the priest. After everything 
 was arranged in place, a slight stir and bustle was heard, 
 and, the crowd making way, the future bride came sail- 
 ing in, beautifully attired in a salmon-colored silk and 
 
488 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 tulle dress, which her mistress had worn at the very ball 
 given in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh and his Imperial 
 wife by the town of Moscow. How splendid all her 
 friends thought her I She had innumerable rows of 
 pearls around her neck and arms ; her veil was of net ; 
 but though the dress was magnificent, and must have been 
 very effective when worn by a lady, yet on this peasant 
 woman, with her arms and hands and sun-burnt com- 
 plexion, it looked ghastly and made the wearer appear 
 reiiulsive. She passed awkwardly up the salle and took 
 her place before the effigies of saints, or " images," as 
 they are called, and immediately after, her future hus- 
 band (who seemed half-frightened) slipped from the 
 crowd, followed by his father, and took up his position 
 on the right side of the bride. Then the ceremony of 
 ''Benediction" commenced; it lasted about forty min- 
 utes, the priest reading and chanting together with his 
 clerk many psalms and prayers, while the future man and 
 wife continually bowed themselves to the ground, touch- 
 ing the floor with their foreheads. Then the round cake 
 of bread was put into their hands by the priest, and 
 was kissed by the recipients, afterwards by the bride- 
 groom's father, and then again by the bride's mother, 
 father and friends. This part of the ceremony is to show 
 that "bread is life, and that they pray they may ever 
 have bread both in this life and in the one to come." 
 
 As soon as the priest had finished, champagne was 
 brought in by tli3 generosity of the lady of the house ; 
 the first glass was handed to the priest, and the next to 
 the engaged couple, who now remained as if struck dumb. 
 As soon as they put their lips to it, congratulations pour- 
 ed in from all the assembled crowd, who, on receiving 
 an acknowledgment for their kind wishes, could oblige 
 them to kiss each other as often as they were told. Of 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 489 
 
 course everybody did so, while the poor unhappy pair 
 had to go through the loving, caressing ceremony as if 
 enjoying it. When all the glasses were emptied the 
 priest dismissed the happy couple, the "Benediction" 
 was over, and now nothing but " Marriage " remained to 
 be solemnized. This last ceremony was to be performed 
 on the following Sunday, so that acquaintance, examina- 
 tion of wardrobe. Benediction, and Marriage would be all 
 got through with in less than a week. The Sunday came, 
 and with it a great thaw ; the distance to the church was not 
 far, but the bride could not go in her thin boots even ten 
 steps, so an " Isvostchik" was called, who gently placed 
 the future bride in his vehicle, and drove her to the church. 
 There the ceremony was somewhat long, in fact, so much 
 so that the bride's cousin was unable to continue holding 
 the wreath over her head throughout the whole ceremony ; 
 he was relieved by another peasant, who took kindly to 
 the task, and who was heard to mutter, *' The bride is a 
 bonny lass, I'd give six years to have her !" After the 
 ceremony all the party adjourned to a public-house or 
 "Traktir," where they made as jolly as they possibly 
 could with five or six quarts of '* vodka " for the men, 
 snd as many quarts of quass, or what the French call 
 Limonade des Cochons^ for the women. 
 
 This then is the usual style of Russian marriages 
 amongst the peasantry, the difference being only that in 
 ordinary cases, where the lady takes no interest in the 
 persons marrying, the ceremony is performed in the 
 lower regions of the house, and the bride may not be so 
 elegantly attired as was our Macha. That Macha was 
 well mariied according to Russian ideas I have no doubt, 
 but would it not have been better had she married the 
 man who would have served six years to have her?'* 
 
 Easter customs in Russia are very pretty, this day 
 
490- 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 491 
 
 oeing observed like Christmas or New Year is with us. 
 Easter eggs, which, however, are not colored, are used 
 Ui a variety of ways to encourage courtship. " Catching 
 butterflies " is a peculiar sport of Easter, which consists 
 in young men of tlie villages going about on snow-shoes, 
 with nets, crying out, "who'll be my buttei'fly ;" the 
 (dea is that the girl who is first seen in a doorway by one 
 who carries the net and who smiles upon him, will be- 
 come his wife. 
 
 But I am sorry to say that domestic life in Russia is 
 generally a very unpleasant existence . Among the peasan- 
 try thei-e is little virtue but a great deal of vice. Men 
 and women are both prone to drink, and they never know 
 anything of refinement. A peasant thinks very much 
 less of his wife than of his horse, because he can easily 
 obtain the former, but the latter he must pay cash for ; 
 this is the way he looks at married life. During my 
 short stay in St. Petersburg. I saw scores of men beating 
 their wives in tlie street and no one cared to interfere. 
 One particular instance I witnessed of extreme brutality, 
 a man began abusing his wife who made no complaint 
 but doggedly hung her head (I suspected that she was 
 ftalf drunk), whereupon he knocked her down with his 
 fists and then kicked her unmercifully ; she was very 
 badly hurt but he jerked her upon her feet again and 
 then squeezed her right hand until the bones were almost 
 crushed ; she screamed with pain and implored him to 
 desist, but he dragged her oif with him still squeezing her 
 hand and occasionally striking her in the face. Although 
 a policeman and dozens of citizens stood by watching the 
 husband's cruelty, none offered to interfere. But I was 
 assured that all Russians whip their wives, which I am 
 quite prepared to believe of the poorer classes ; how 
 could we expect them to be kind and affectionate to the 
 
492 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 wives when the church, which is all-powerful and influen- 
 tial in Russia, teaches that women have no souls and that 
 their proper relation to man is that oi an inferior being 
 who may approach him only in subjection, and may not 
 dispute any of his acts however unjust or flagitious ; thus 
 wives in Russia are hardly as well cared for, as domestic 
 animals, and their labor I am sure is much greater. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 A History of the Jewish Outrages in Russia. 
 
 As a race the Jews have endured more persecutions 
 than any other people, and yet they have always been 
 the most prosperous and homogenious. There are several 
 remarkable race peculiarities about them which may be 
 found in no other religious sect, chief among these strange 
 characteristics being their tenacity, whether regarded in 
 a religious or business sense. Everyday we meet intelli- 
 gent men, who may have been raised under the most 
 pious tutelage and had their youth fully saturated with 
 Christian precepts, going about denying Christ, but how 
 many Jews, in all history, have departed from their faith 
 and accepted Christ as the promised Messiah ? I never heard 
 of one. Yet, branded with contempt, driven from homes 
 which their own industry *builded ; despoiled of their 
 pi'operty by edicts of Christian governments, every sem- 
 blance of personal liberty taken from them, and bur- 
 dened with special taxes that was but another name for 
 confiscation, still, the Jews have prospered in every land, 
 under all circumstances, as no other people. We never 
 Bee a Jewish beggar, never hear ol them bemg cared for 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 493 
 
 in municipal hospitals or poor houses, and in no other 
 way do they become burdens to the State. So that pros- 
 perity, despite all adversities, and loyalty to their ancient 
 religion, are distinguishing traits in the Jewish character. 
 
 If we ask why the Jews have been so remorselessly 
 pursecuted by all countries in which they have sought a 
 home — excepting in America — we are brought to the con- 
 sideration of a problem impossible of satisfactory solu- 
 tion. In this age of commerce and international reci- 
 procity, when the plowshare has superceded the sword, 
 when the broad principles of liberalism have taught us 
 to respect the opinions of others, even though they should 
 be in conflict with our own, it is a matter for surprise that 
 there should develope such race prejudices among people 
 acknowledging the same sovereign, as would lead to per- 
 sonal assaults and from these to outrages which shame 
 Russian civilization. 
 
 There are several causes operatmg in Russia to antago- 
 nize the relations between Russians and Jews. When 1 
 asked Count Tolstoi for an explanation of the outrages 
 he shrugged his shoulders, blandly extended his hands 
 and made only an untranslatable facial expression. I 
 got no satisfaction from the minister and therefore 
 extended my inquiries into other quarters, with better 
 results. In the early part of 1882 Alexander III. sent 
 for and requested an interview with one of the Roths- 
 child bankers, who was just completing a magnificent 
 residence in St. Petersburg. The Czar was in sore need of 
 money to meet the budget that had been submitted, so, 
 rather than entrust the negotiation of a loan to his Chancel- 
 lor or Minister of Finance he concluded that, by seeking 
 a personal interview with Rothschild, he could secure, at 
 a moderate rate of interest, the sum required. In re- 
 sponse to the Czar's request Rothschild appeared at the 
 
494 RUSSIAN NIHILIS>f AND 
 
 Peterhoff Imperial residence, where he was very soon 
 made acquainted with the Emperor's wishes, but instead 
 of treating the request for a loan in a business way Roths- 
 child took advantage of the occasion to express a strong 
 disapproval of the Jewish outrages that had already taken 
 place in southern Russia, and then had the temerity to 
 remind the Czar that it was a Jew to whom the govern- 
 ment had come for financial aid. Without defending his 
 policy the Czar arose, and pointing his finger toward the 
 door said, '* There is the exit, be gone at once, and I 
 order yon to quit Russia entirely ; this country shall not 
 be your place of residence, for the sight of you would 
 pollute an honest man." Rothschild was not slow to 
 obey the peremptory order, and his unfinished j)alace in 
 St. Petersburg is now for sale at a great bargain. This 
 incident may serve as a straw to indicate from whence 
 the Avind of Jewish oppression blows. But there is an- 
 other almost equally important fact having a direct bear- 
 ing upon this vexed question : 
 
 Count Ignatieff came to the office of Minister of 
 the Interior in 1880, I believe : he was trusted with 
 carte blanche powers because he ranked next to Gortcha- 
 koff as a diplomatist ; but it was within a few months 
 after his acceptance of the ministerial port folio that 
 fresh outrages were reported perpetrated upon the Jews 
 in Poland and southern Russia. The Count was expected 
 to punish those engaged in the attack and for a time 
 every person thought he would bring down a retributive 
 justice upon the heads of all who molested the Jews. 
 This idea obtained by reason of the Count's issuing 
 several dreadful orders addressed to commanders of 
 troops throughout Russia, ordering them to punish with- 
 out mercy all Jew baiters ; he went still further, and 
 declared that he intended to put down every Jewish out- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 495 
 
 break by the strong force and law at his command. His 
 dolent policy thoroughly alarmed the riotous factions for 
 a time, but as none of these laws or declarations were 
 put into effect the outrages were begun again and week 
 after week grew more horrifying. The Jews were not 
 only robbed of their money and merchandise, but mobs 
 entered their residences, killed their little children, bru- 
 tally and lustfully assaulted the females, brained the men 
 and then burned the desecrated homes. Ignatieff con- 
 tinued to threaten, but he never punished, until finally it 
 «\'as currently reported that he secretly connived at and 
 encouraged the assaults ; not only was it so reported but, 
 impressed with the fact, many of the richest Jews in 
 Russia raised a purse of more than two hundred thousand 
 roubles, which they used to accomplish his removal. How 
 this money was applied I did not learn, but my informa- 
 tion that it was so used is of such a character as does not 
 admit of any doubt. Ignatieff, we know, was dismissed 
 v^ery suddenly and at a time when he had planned many 
 changes which it was reported had been approved by the 
 Czar. 
 
 Being unable to obtain any satisfactory information in 
 St. Petersburg concerning the Jews, and as there were no 
 records from which official data could be had descriptive 
 of the outrages, I decided to visit Warsaw, in Poland, 
 because several outbreaks had occurred in that vicinity, 
 and because I knew Warsaw to be very largely populated 
 by Jews. Accordingly I went to Moscow and there took 
 the train for Warsaw, which is five hundred miles distant. 
 This road is not only the most aggravating line on which 
 I ever travelled, but it is next to the road which runs 
 from Moscow to Odessa, and I am told that travel on this 
 latter line is worse than riding a country pig to market. 
 By advice of a gentleman whose acquaintance I had form- 
 
496 KUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 ed in the Holy Mother City, upon taking passage I be- 
 sought the guard of a first-class van and gave him five 
 roubles not to put any other passenger in with me, so that 
 I might be the sole occupant and thus be enabled to 
 stretch out on the seat and sleep. A little explanation 
 at this point will no doubt be of benefit to the reader : in 
 Russia, as in all Europe, passenger cars are made in com- 
 partments, generally four in each car, entrance to which 
 is made at as many side doors ; the guards are what we 
 call conductors, but instead of there being one in charge 
 of an entire train, as in this country, in Russia there is a 
 guard for each car. The guard to your compartment is 
 your keeper, because, as you enter he locks the door 
 which he does not open until a large station is reached. 
 There are no sleeping cars run on the line between Mos- 
 cow and Warsaw for fear, perhaps, that the passengers 
 might sleep themselves to death. Such monotonous 
 scenery, a level, gray, sandy, weird waste, not a mole 
 hill even to relieve the surface, and when a fine forest is 
 passed you instinctively remark on its striking resem- 
 blance to the others, every tree being apparently of the 
 same height, diameter, and general appearance. The 
 time between Moscow and Warsaw is fifty hours, but it 
 appears like an age in the earth's life and development. 
 At every little station the train stops to allow train-hands 
 and passengers to take tea ; when it is ready to proceed 
 again the chief guard blows a police whistle twice, which 
 is answered by two from the engine ; at this a fellow who 
 stands beside a switch generally one hundred yards ahead 
 of the engine, blows a little brass horn and holds up a fold- 
 ed green flag ; another fellow rings a gong, ten or a 
 dozen guards cry out "all aboard," or its equivalent, 
 the doors are then shut, and if no accident occurs the 
 train starts off like an old man suffering from hypochon- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 497 
 
 dria and inflammatory rheumatism. At every road 
 crossing there is a woman standing holding out her green 
 flag, I presume to let the engineer know that the coast is 
 clear, but then this seems to be unnecessary, for the 
 train would never do any damage to anything that could 
 crawl. But the funniest thing about railroading in 
 Russia, or at least what amused me most, was to see 
 how the axle boxes were examined ; at every stopping 
 place, however small, and utterly regardless of the 
 speed at which we had been creeping, two well-greased 
 men passed along the train with hammers, tamping and 
 oil, sounded each wheel and critically examined for hot 
 boxes. They must have gotten the idea of hot boxes 
 from the road between St. Petersburg and Moscow, or 
 else read about them in foreign journals, for I am 
 quite sure there was never a hot box on the Moscow 
 and Warsaw road. 
 
 We stopped one hour and a half at three different 
 places, Smolensk, Minsk and Brest ; before, we had stop- 
 ped to drink tea, but at these cities the delay was made to 
 give every passenger and train-man time to get drunk, 
 and I never saw such an industrious use of opportunity 
 made as on these occasions ; every fellow made a rush 
 for vodka, which was kept in decanters on tables, and 
 distributed, by women, in small glasses ; in about fifteen 
 minutes I was the only sober man on the train ; such 
 yelling, singing and carousal, but no one seemed to get 
 mad until another train met us at Minsk, loaded with 
 soldiers. The troops were in box-cars and their first sal- 
 utations convinced me that they, too, were drunk ; despite 
 every effort made by their officers the soldiers got out of 
 their cars, made a raid on the station, and then directed 
 their attention to about one dozen of our passengers who 
 had expressed some objections to the high-handed privil- 
 
498 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 eges that were being iiwiulged by the troops ; both sides 
 drew up their forces in fine style and then began a tongue 
 
 fight which for virulence, noise and froth I never saw 
 equaled, but with all their vehement gesturing, neither 
 party advanced beyond their original stations, so that a 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 499 
 
 collision was avoided, and the row, once so threatening, 
 became only a farce of cowardice. 
 
 In making the trip from Moscow to Warsaw I was 
 without an interpreter, and of course had to take the 
 blunt end of every obstacle. I had learned two or three 
 words of Russian, but only one that I could make use of 
 while railroading, this single word was chi^ meaning tea ; 
 thus, whenever I reached an eating station I would run 
 up to a luncheon counter, cry out chi and then pick up 
 whatever I saw that appeared palatable. But a diet of 
 tea, brown bread and Russian cakes becomes discouraodng^ 
 after a time and I resolved to extend the bill of fare. I 
 wanted some meat, beef, mutton, veal, chicken, etc., but 
 to all intents and purposes I was a deaf mute. An idea 
 came to me, however, when we reached Brest that I was 
 not slow to put into execution. Seated at long tables in 
 the dining room were fifty or sixty Russians, many of 
 whom were officers, and all were drinking tea and 
 vodka, or munching dry cakes. Calling a waiter to me 
 I gave him to understand, by gesture, that I wanted 
 something, which something I indicated by rising to full 
 height, clapping my sides three times and then crowing 
 loud enough to rattle the dishes. Instantly every eye in 
 the room was centered on me, but as I took up my plate 
 and passed it to the waiter he comprehended my wishes 
 and soon brought me a piece of chicken. All those at 
 the tables now understood why I had crowed, and such 
 a capital joke did they esteem it that more than a dozen 
 came over, shook my hand, laughed immoderately and 
 then proffered me bottles of Avine ; thereafter my com- 
 panions took such an interest in providing for me that 
 they anticipated all my wants. 
 
500 BUSSIAN NIHILISM ANO 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 I reached Warsaw on a Sunday afternoon and engaging 
 a carriage drove two miles or more, to the Hotel Vic- 
 toria, Warsaw contains a population of 350,000, 
 (twenty-three per cent of which are Jews) and is located 
 on the Vistula River, a pretty stream, large enough for 
 a considerable commerce. Nearly one-half the town is 
 built on bottom lands, which portion is so foul with 
 dirty people, crazy-looking houses and stinking streets, 
 that mufflers for the head could be used to great advan- 
 tage by respectable persons while passing through it. 
 That portion of the city built on the hill presents a mediae- 
 val appearance, particularly those buildings that overlook 
 the river. 
 
 I was now in Poland, a country that has passed through 
 more desperate ordeals than any other nation on the 
 globe ; Warsaw, her ancient capital, that has been the 
 home of so many distinguished heroes, whose streets 
 have been channels through which the blood of thousands 
 has rushed, and the scenes of massacres that are too 
 dreadful for contemplation ; here have flourished a peo- 
 ple so proud that rather than lose their identity by amal- 
 gamation with other powers, chose to sacrifice themselves, 
 and die in the blazonry of bravery, freedom and the his- 
 tory they had made. On every square there stands some 
 monument commemorating the deeds of her great men, 
 while tablets are here and there discovered by visitors, 
 telling in simple annals of bloody deeds on the spots they 
 mark. Though rent by three powerful nations, Ger- 
 many, Austria and Russia, who fastened their fangs in 
 poor Poland like hungry dogs fighting for a piece of 
 meat, she is still proud, though no longer glorious — a 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 501 
 
 sick lion that has jet a brave heart but cannot defend 
 itself. 
 
 Poland is now a province of Russia, but, true to her 
 chivalric character, she refuses to assimilate with that 
 nation. There are only two Greek churches in Warsaw, 
 but of Lutherans and Catholics there are many. So great 
 is the hatred for Russia that Poland refuses to adopt 
 Muscovite exchange ; copecks and roubles are compara- 
 tively rare in Warsaw, in place of which the Poles use a 
 little coin called "grozy," equivalent to one-half cent, 
 which was the last coinage of Poland, in 1840. 
 
 I was very much rejoiced to find that the manager of 
 the Hotel Victoria spoke excellent English, and as he was 
 a man of some prominence in Warsaw, his services were 
 to me of great importance. Through him I obtained an 
 introduction to the Mayor and also to some other impor- 
 tant gentlemen of the city, who afterwards gave me such 
 assistance as I needed to secure the information for which 
 I had visited the place. Before proceeding with my in- 
 vestigations I accepted an invitation from the Mayor, who 
 spoke excellent German and a little English, to view the 
 city and its most interesting features. Of this drive I 
 have a very pleasant remembrance, for never shall I for- 
 get my visit to Lazienski Park and Wilanow Palace, 
 which are a few miles out of Warsaw, and reached by 
 driving over a very rough road, but they are the most 
 pleasing sights I witnessed in all Europe. In Lazienski 
 Park is the renowned palace of Poniatowski, consisting 
 of two buildings, which face each other, four hundred 
 yards apart, and both are built on the margin of a lake 
 that is grandly beautiful. Though very old the palaces 
 are kept in perfect repair, and are furnished in a manner 
 befitting the richest and most powerful potentate. But 
 though the rooms in these palaces are magnificent as 
 33 
 
502 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 wealth can make them, I was attracted particularly to the 
 ruins of a theatre which, two hundred years ago, stood 
 in all its grandeur on the banks of the beautiful lake 
 referred to. The arrangement of this gallery of amuse-' 
 ment was ingeniously romantic. On the banks of the 
 lake was built a large amphitheatre, of stone, provided 
 with private boxes, which, however, were in the center of 
 the semi-circle. Entrance was throuo;h doors beside 
 which were sculptured dragons, and up a stairway that 
 lead to the amphitheatre. The seats were of stone, but 
 elegantly cushioned and arranged suitable to the different 
 ranks of those who attended the entertainments. Ip 
 front of this amphitheatre, but on an island in the lake, 
 was a stage, also made of stone, most elaborately fitte(? 
 up with all needful accessories for mimic deeds, the fury 
 of battle or the plaints of love. These stage representa 
 tions were witnessed by those occupying seats in thi 
 amphitheatre, the view being greatly enhanced byroman 
 tic surroundings of forest trees, and limpid water spark 
 ling under scintillating rays of a silver moon. But bottr 
 amphitheatre and stage are now in ruins, crumbled with 
 the glory of Poland, leaving moss-covered stones as a 
 memorial of those times when Polish Kings were in theii 
 pride, and when ambition crowned their subjects. 
 
 From Lazienski Park we drove four miles to the 
 palace of Wilanow, Avhich was built by Poland's great- 
 est King, Sobiesky (John III). This fine property is 
 the only estate that has escaped Russian confiscation, 
 and is still owned and occupied by Sobiesky's descend- 
 ants, who are wealthy enough to preserve its former 
 grandeur. The palace is very large and contains many 
 galleries filled with curiosities, fine paintings and statu- 
 ary ; its floor, like the palace at Lazienski Park, are of 
 polished woods ingeniously inlaid so as to produce ft 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 503 
 
 most harmonious effect. The grounds cover ]iearly two 
 hundred acres, every foot of which is cared for by the 
 most artistic landscape gardeners ; there is also a large 
 lake connected with the palace which is kept stocked 
 with game fish, and the banks are embowered with trees 
 that are luxurious in growth and trimmed in a manner 
 which produces an effect almost magical. My curiosity 
 was very much excited by three sun-clocks which, by 
 chance, I observed on the palace, one being on the east 
 end, another on the south, and a third on the westgal)le 
 of the building. These clocks consist of a large dial 
 above which is a stone image representing "time;" 
 in the right hand of this image, or statue, is a sword 
 so exactly placed that the sun's rays falling upon it a 
 shadow is thrown upon the dial that indicates the time of 
 day, even to a minute. There were three clocks so that 
 the sun's position might be facing one of the clocks 
 morning, noon, and afternoon. This wonderful time- 
 piece — for the three must be taken as one — has marked 
 the hours for nearly one hundred years, having fortunate- 
 ly escaped the destructive influences that have desolated 
 Poland, and sent so many thousands of her people into 
 exile. 
 
 Returning to the city we drove through the Jewish 
 quarters, which are as distinct and clearly defined as is 
 the Chinese settlement in San Francisco. Here I ob- 
 served a race of people so wedded to their ancient cus- 
 toms and religions, as to resist every practice and senti- 
 ment of those by whom they are surrounded. Polish 
 Jews are as different in character from the Jews of 
 America as any two races having a common ancestry can 
 be ; they are marvellously exclusive and homogeneous ; 
 over their places of business they have signs printed with 
 Hebrew letters ; their costume never varies, every man 
 
504 BUBSIAN NIHILISM AKO 
 
 among them wearing a long-tailed coat, reaching to their 
 knees, and buttoned up tight in front; around the neck 
 they wear a coarse, woolen comfort, and a little cap 
 crowns their head. I have no language at my command 
 that could describe their filth ; they literally reek with 
 stenches. I was told that though bacon is abhorrent 
 to them, on account of religious prejudices, yet the 
 Jews use it on a certain occasion, viz : when a Jew pur- 
 chases a new shirt, his next act is to procure a piece of 
 bacon, with which he thoroughly greases the gar- 
 ment all over ; he then puts on the shirt and does not 
 take it off for one or two years, or until it is entirely 
 worn out. The bacon is used to prevent vermin from 
 getting on their filthy bodies. I am quite prepared to 
 believe this statement, since only such a disgustingly 
 nasty practice can account for the odor which they carry 
 about them. 
 
 Foul, homely and narrow-minded as the Polish Jews 
 are, they succeed in accumulating so much money that 
 gentlemen of caste pay them tribute, and they therefore 
 force their importance among even the most aristocratic 
 class. The character of Shylock will certainly fit some of 
 them, judging by the experience of a prof essor of lan- 
 guages in the leading university of Russia, who borrowed 
 seven hundred roubles from one under the following cir- 
 cumstances, as he told me : A young man, with whose fami- 
 ly the professor had long been intimate, lost his mother 
 by a sudden illness, and being sorely pressed for funds 
 with which to provide burial and to meet other expenses, 
 he applied to the professor for a loan, which he promised 
 to return within one month. The professor did not have 
 the necessary amount, seven hundred roubles, but so in- 
 fluenced was he by the entreaties of his young friend, 
 that he went to a Jew and borrowed the money, upon 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 595 
 
 his situation, as will hereafter be explained. He gave 
 his note for the amount, and then, as required, gave an 
 agreement binding himself to pay ten per cent, per month 
 for the loan ; this he was influenced to do by a belief that 
 the young man would fulfil his obligation at the time ap- 
 pointed for payment. But when the month expired the 
 promise was violated, so that the professor was left with 
 a security debt on his hands which he had no means of 
 liquidating. At the end of every month he had to pay 
 the Jew seventy roubles, and if he chanced to be one 
 day behiiid time the Jew would berate him soundly, and 
 threaten to throw him out of doors by taking all his 
 household property. The laws in Russia are such that if 
 a debtor becomes delinquent his creditor can peremptori- 
 ly attach every article of furniture or clothing belonging 
 to the debtor or his wife ; in addition to this, if the debt- 
 or holds any position of trust, upon complaint and proof 
 of debt made by the creditor, he may be removed, and is 
 thereafter disqualified from assuming any place of trust 
 again. This law is the creation of an aristocracy, and 
 forms one of the principal complaints of Nihilists. The 
 Jew was enabled, by threatening an enforcement of this 
 most oppressive law, to compel the professor to pay 
 the monthly interest, which at times caused him much 
 distress. Salaries paid to educators in Russia are so 
 small that the professor was never able to discharge any 
 portion of the original debt, and when he related the 
 circumstances to me he had paid in interest thirty-five 
 hundred roubles, while the original debt of seven hund- 
 red roubles was still held against him . Fortunately, he had 
 just discovered a technicality by which he could avoid the 
 further payment of interest ; this loop-hole, as he defined 
 it, consisted in the fact, of which a lawyer friend had 
 advised him, that the Jew was licensed as a merchant, 
 
506 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 and that he had no broker privilege, so that the lending 
 of money by him was an offen.se, which the professor 
 declared he should make the Jew answer for. It was 
 another case of Shylock brought to justice. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 At Warsaw I found there was such a general ac-'^ 
 quaintance with the riots that had taken place against the 
 Jews throughout Eussia, thatlhad no difficulty in collect- 
 ing all essential facts, ajid so many, too, that I could not 
 undertake to give them the extensive description which 
 they merit. I shall therefore have to present a history 
 of the riots in a concise form, and within the space 
 remaining that was alloted for this work on Russia and 
 exile life. 
 
 The most outrageous atrocities perpetrated against the 
 Jews took place in the latter part of 1880 and in 1881. 
 Germany started the anti-Semitic agitation, which speedi- 
 ly spread to Russia, because of the revolution already ex- 
 cited by factions which had jDronounced agaisist law and 
 inflamed the masses to disorder. Another reason is found 
 in the fanaticism of the Russian people who believe it is 
 a righteous act to slay a Jew ; and yet another, and per- 
 haps stronger reason still is the natural love of poor, de- 
 graded, ignorant and brutal people to engage in plunder. 
 The Jews were rich, and the peasantry poor, so a pretense 
 was had to despoil them, according to biblical precedent. 
 
 Within a period of eight months, four of 1880 and 
 four of 1881, a tract of country equal in area to the 
 British Isles and France combined, stretching froo; the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 507 
 
 Baltic to the Black Sea, was the scene of horrors that 
 have hitherto only been perpetrated in mediaeval days 
 during times of war. Men ruthlessly murdered, tender 
 infants dashed to death, or roasted alive in their own 
 homes, married women the prey to a brutal lust that 
 often caused their death, and young girls violated in the 
 sight of their relatives by soldiers who should have been 
 the guardians of their honor. In the face of these hor- 
 rors loss of property isx)f little moment, yet they were 
 Accompanied by the razing of whole streets inhabited by 
 Jews, by the systematic firing of the Jewish quarters of 
 towns in Western Russia, and by the pillage of all the 
 property on which thousands of Jewish families were de- 
 pendent for existence. 
 
 In addition to all this many Russian towns heartlessly 
 seized the occasion to expel from their limits crowds of 
 Jews, who were left by this inhuman and deliberate meas- 
 ure homeless amid masses infuriated against them. And 
 during these scenes of carnage and pillage the local au- 
 thorities stood by with folded arms, doing little or noth- 
 ing to prevent their occurrence and recurrence, and 
 allowed the ignorant peasantry to remain up to this day 
 under the irapresssion that a ukase existed ordering the 
 property of the Jews to be handed over to their fellow- 
 Russians. So far from publicly expfessing reprobation 
 of these outrages, the Minister issued a rescript clearly 
 betraying that the Russian authorities fully shared the 
 prejudice of the mob, and contemplated adding to the 
 burdens and inequalities which have been the direct cause 
 of the embittered feeling that has led to these disorders. 
 
 When the assassination of the Czar roused all Russia 
 to the highest pitch of excitement, it was confidently pre- 
 dicted that the approaching Easter would see an outbreak 
 against the Jews. It was said afterwards that the pre- 
 
508 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 diction was aided in its fulfilment by Panslavist emissaries 
 from Moscow, who planned all the subsequent troubles. 
 It is at least certain that rumors of a rising had reached 
 Elizabetagrad, and caused the heads of the Jewish com- 
 munity, who form a thh-d of its 30,000 inhabitants, to 
 apply for special i)rotection from the Governor. No 
 notice was taken of the appeal, and on Wednesday, April 
 27th, the dreaded outbreak took place. A religious dis- 
 pute in a cahalet led to a scuffle which grew into a general 
 melee, till the mob obtained possession of the dram-shop 
 and rifled it of its contents. Inflamed by the drink thus 
 obtained, the rioters proceeded to the Jewish quarter artd 
 commenced a systematic destruction of the Jewish shops 
 and warehouses. At first some attempt was made by the 
 Jews to protect their property, but this only served to 
 increase the violence of the mob, which proceeded to 
 attack the dwellings of the Jews and to wreck the syna- 
 gogue. Amid the horrors that ensued a Jew named 
 Zololwenski lost his life, and no fewer than thirty Jew- 
 esses were outraged. At one place, two young girls, in 
 dread of violation, threw themselves from the windows. 
 Meanwhile the military had been called out, but only to 
 act at first as spectators and afterwards as active partici- 
 pants. One section of the mob, formed of rioters and 
 soldiers, broke into the dwelling of an old man named 
 Pelikoff, and on attempting to save his daughter from a 
 fate worse than death, they threw him from the roof, 
 while twenty soldiers proceeded to work their will on his 
 unfortunate daughter. When seen by the gentleman 
 ■who related to me this fact, JPelikoff was in a state of 
 hopeless madness, and his daughter completely ruined in 
 mind and body. The whole Jewish quarter was at the 
 mercy of the mob till April 29th. During the two days 
 of the riots 500 houses and 100 shops were destroyed, and 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 509 
 
 whole streets were razed to the ground. It may be 
 added that the ])roperty destroyed and stolen was reck- 
 oned at 2,000,000 roubles ($1,000,000). 
 
 The evidence of pent-up anti-Jewish passion displayed 
 by these scenes encouraged the foes of the Jews to wider 
 and more systematic attacks. In the excesses which fol- 
 lowed, the masses soon got to recognize professional 
 ringleaders from Great Russia. These distributed pla- 
 cards, found afterwards to have been issued from a 
 secret printing-press at Kiew, in which it was declared 
 that the Czar had given his orthodox subjects the prop- 
 erty held by the Jews. In most cases the very day on 
 which a riot might be expected was announced before- 
 hand — Sundays and saints' days being chosen, as the 
 days when the lower orders were at liberty. After a 
 week's pause, awhole series of riots broke out, commenc- 
 ing on May 7, at Sraielo, near Czergassy, where thirteen 
 men were killed and twenty wounded, and 1,600 were 
 left without homes. On the following day," Sunday, May 
 8, a most serious riot broke out at Kiew, once the capital 
 of Russia, and still an important town, containing 20,000 
 Jews in a population of 140,000. Here the riot had 
 been definitely announced for the Sunday, and the Jews 
 sent a deputation to the Governor, requesting him to 
 call out his soldiers to prevent disturbance. He blunt- 
 ly refused, saying that he would not trouble his soldiers 
 for the sake of a pack of Jews. During the riot, which 
 broke out on the day fixed, the police and the soldiers 
 again acted the same part that they had at Elizabethgrad. 
 The first procedure of the mob had been to storm the 
 dram-shops, and, staving in the brandy casks, to wallow 
 in the spirit. During the period of license that followed 
 four Jews were killed, twenty-five women and girls were 
 Tiolated, of whom five died in consequence, as was proved 
 
510 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 at the subsequent trials. At the house of Mordecai 
 Wienarski, the mob, disa^jpointed in the search for plun- 
 der, caught up his little child, three years old, and brutally 
 threw it out of the window. The child fell dead at the feet 
 of a company of Cossacks who were drawn up outside, 
 yet no attempt was made to arrest the murderers. At 
 last, when several houses were set on fire, the military 
 received orders to make arrests, which they proceeded 
 to execute with ilTuch vigor, making 1,500 prisoners, 
 among whom 150 were Jews arrested for protecting 
 their lives and properties. No less than 2,000 Jews 
 were left without shelter by the dismantling or the 
 burning of their houses, and for the relief of immediate 
 necessities a Kiew committee soon afterwards had to 
 disburse the sum of $150,000. 
 
 Next day similar scenes of violence occurred at Brow- 
 ary, in the neighborhood of Kief, in the province of 
 Czernigow. On the same day still more disgraceful 
 deeds were enacted at Berezowka, in the province of 
 Cherson. Here lust seemed more a principal motive 
 than plunder. While the Jews of the village were at 
 synagogue a mob attacked the Jewesses and violated 
 many of them, causing the death of three ; others who 
 escaped the worse evil were driven into the river, and 
 nine ultimately died from the effects of the exposure. 
 When the Jews came to the rescue, two of them were 
 killed and a young lad was stoned to death. 
 
 The neighborhood of Kief was again visited on thel 
 next day, May 10, at Konoptop and at Wassilkov. At 
 both places the attacks had been planned : at the former 
 wooden crosses were placed before the doors of Chris- 
 tians that their houses might be spared, while at the 
 latter the day of riot had been announced, and the report 
 diligently spread about that the Czar had given the proiJ- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA, 511 
 
 erty of the Jews away. At Wassilkov and in the neigh- 
 borhood eight lives were lost, seven at one fell swoop at 
 the inn kept by a Jew named Eykelmann. He was forced 
 to admit the mob to his wine-cellars, and, during his ab- 
 sence in search of assistance, the drunken rioters cut the 
 throats of his wife and six children. 
 
 By this time the chief towns and villages of Southern 
 Russia were ablaze with violence and riot. Throughout 
 the whole of the provinces of Cherson, Taurida, Ekat- 
 erinoslav, Poltava, Kief, Czernigov, and Podolia the 
 notion spread fast as wildfire that the Jews and their 
 property had been handed over to the tender mercies of 
 the populace, a notion that seems almost justified in the 
 face of the inertness of the Governor-General in check- 
 hig the riots at Elizabethgrad and Kief. At Wasilgin 
 the Mayor even read a copy of the supposed ukase to the 
 citizens, and a riot would have ensued had not the village 
 priest done his duty and declared his belief that no such 
 ukase existed. At Alexandrovsk, on the banks of the 
 Dnieper, the operatives carried out what they thought to 
 he the will of the Czar, on May 13, rendering 300 out of 
 the 400 Jewish families of the place homeless, and de- 
 iStroying property to the amount of 400,000 roubles. As 
 usual, the riots were previously announced, and the appeal 
 to the Governor to send for additional troops proved 
 fruitless. Even after the riots had commenced, a tele- 
 gram dispatched to the capital town of the province, 
 Ekaterinoslav, was delayed for four hours by the Gover- 
 nor before it was sent off. At Ekaterinoslav itself a 
 projected riot was happily prevented by the issue of a 
 proclamation by the local authorities declaring the Jews 
 to be true subjects of the Czar and entitled to protection 
 of their property. At Polonnoze, near Kief, a disaster 
 was averted by the forethought of the Mayor, who 
 
512 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 changed the market day to Saturday, and on the peas- 
 ants coraplainmg he read them a lecture on the utility of 
 the Jews as middle-men, and induced them to promise 
 not to molest their Jewish fellow-citizens. 
 
 From Alexaiidrovsky the instigators paid a visit to the 
 Jewish agricultural colonies in the province of Ekateri- 
 noslav, which have now been established for more than 
 forty years. Th« chief centres, Gulaypol, Orjechow and 
 
EXILS LIFE IN SIBERIA. 513 
 
 Marianpol, were visited in turn, and though no violence 
 seems to have been done to the persons of the Jews, their 
 farms were ahnost entirely destroyed. At Orjechow the 
 instigators who led the mob were dressed as police 
 officers, and produced a document falsely professing to 
 be the proclamation of the Czar. The farming imple- 
 ments were all destroyed, and 500 cattle and 10,000 
 sheep driven off. At Kamichewka the Jews adroitly 
 turned the supposed ukase of the Czar into a safeguard. 
 Hearing that the rioters were advancing to attack, they 
 brought the keys of their houses to their Christian neigh- 
 bors, saying that if the ukase were true it would be bet- 
 ter that their neighbors should have their property than 
 the rioters, and if the ukase proved to be untrue, of 
 course their good neighbors would return the keys. The 
 Christians of the village accordingly repulsed the rioters, 
 and in a few days the Jews of Kamichewka were again 
 in possession of their property. 
 
 Up to this time the riots had chiefly arisen among 
 the urban populations, but they now spread into the rural 
 districts and reached every little village where even a 
 single Jew resided. A Jew was murdered at Rasdory, 
 a few miles southeast of Orjechow, and at Znamenka, 
 near Nikopol, on the Dnieper, a Jewish innkeeper named 
 Besser was murdered and his wife dishonored, after 
 which both were cast into the river. At Balka, also on 
 the bank of the Dnieper, there was only one Jew, Allo- 
 wicz by name. A band of ruffians went to his house on 
 May 17, and, finding him absent, they violated his wife, 
 and, to conceal the crime, set fire to the house while the 
 poor woman lay helpless in it. All this was witnessed 
 by her little daughter, crouched in a ditch hard by. 
 On the preceding day another tragedy had occurred at 
 Kitzkis, where the bouse of one Preskoff was set on fire. 
 
514 . RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 and he, with his two little children, left to roast in it, 
 while the wife and mother looked on, vainly appealing 
 for mercy to the ruffianly perpetrators of the crime. At 
 Gregorievk a Jewish innkeeper named Ruffmann was 
 cooped in one of his own barrels and cast into the Dnic' 
 per. Again, at Kanzeropol a man named Enman was 
 murdered brutally and his wife violated and afterward 
 killed. Such were the deeds that were done on the banks 
 of the Dnieper during the month of May. 
 
 Meantime the seaport of Odessa had likewise been the 
 scene of an anti-Jewish riot. Originally announced for 
 May 13, it was postponed till Sunday, May 15, with- 
 out, however, any precautions being taken by the Govern- 
 or, who had, as usual, been duly warned of the impend- 
 ing outbreak. Though only lasting for six hours, the 
 riot resulted in the death of a Jew named Handelmann> 
 and eleven cases of violation are reported, one resulting 
 in death. Here the Jews seemed to have been most 
 energetic in their resistance. Of the 800 arrests made, 
 150 were Jews, twenty-six of whom were afterward 
 charged with carrying revolvers without a permit. The 
 police estimated the damage done at 1,137,831 roubles, 
 while those more immediately concerned raised the sum 
 to 3,000,000. Similar scenes took place on the same 
 day at Wolvezysk, on the borders, where a riot had been 
 announced for the Sunday. A week afterward the lowei 
 orders at Berdyczew rose against the Jews, and on May 
 24 a riotous disturbance occurred at Zmerinka, in Po 
 dolia. 
 
 Thus, within a month of the first outbreak, almost 
 every town in Southern Russia had seen such horrors as 
 here described. Apart from t)>e influence of ringleaders, 
 the rioters had no cause to incite them to rapine, except 
 the force of contagion and the impression that the Czar 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 515 
 
 had really transferred all Jewish property to his ortho- 
 dox subjects. If once this im^jression had been officially 
 removed, the epidemic would have been checked. In 
 many cases it was distinctly shown that the peasants 
 liked the Jews, and only pillaged because they thought 
 it had been ordered. At Bougaifka, for example, a few 
 days after the peasants had destroyed the property of 
 the Jews, they became contrite, and gave their Jewish 
 neighbors 800 roubles as some compensation for the 
 damage they themselves had caused. In the face of such 
 a fact, it is tolerably certain that if the supposed procla- 
 mation had been energetically and officially denied the 
 riots might never have reached the extent that they even- 
 tually did. The contagion spread as far as Saratov in 
 early June, and thence to Astrakhan ; it even reached a 
 town near Tomsk, in Siberia, and caused an anti-Jewish 
 riot there. The only bright spot in all this gloom was 
 the condition of Poland, where Jews and Poles had 
 before lived in amity. This continued till General Igna- 
 tieff directed the Governor of Poland to appoint commis- 
 sions of experts to consider how the Jews should be dealt 
 with, to which fact persons on the spot attribute the rise 
 of anti-Jewish feeling that culminated in the Warsaw 
 riots. But outside Poland these outbursts of popular 
 prejudice placed a population of nearly two millions in 
 perpetual dread of their lives and property. At times 
 they dared not remove tlieir clothes night or day, fearing 
 that they might have to flee at any moment. 
 
 After the Saratov affair, on June 8, in which 30 Jews 
 were wounded, there was a comparative lull in the more 
 violent forms of outrage. But early in July the neigh- 
 borhood of Kief and the banks of the Dnieper were 
 once more visited by scenes which recall the horrors of 
 the Middle Ages. On Sunday, the 12th, open rioting 
 
516 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 took place at Penjaslaw, which was characterized by the 
 fact that the mob Avere led to the attack by the sons of 
 the merchants of the district. Commercial rivalry add- 
 ing its sting to religious and social differences, the strug- 
 gle was here of a more violent nature than usual, and, 
 while 30 of the mob were wounded, no less than 200 of 
 the Jews received serious injuries at the hands of their 
 neighbors, and three died in consequence; 176 houses 
 were destroyed, some by fire. At Borispol, on July 21, 
 scenes occurred during the riots worthy of the worst days 
 of the Commune. Women, for almost the first time, made 
 their appearance on the scene as assailants, and added to 
 its horrors. During the rioting they encouraged their 
 friends on to the fight and were seen to assist them to 
 violate the Jewesses of the village by holding down the 
 unfortunate creatures. A curious petition afterward 
 sent from Penjaslaw, demanding, among other things, 
 that Jewesses should not be allowed to wear silks and 
 satins, may throw some light on the motives of these 
 viragoes. 
 
 The reader will be by this time satiated with the horri- 
 ble crimes which have been laid before him. The im- 
 agination may now be able to take in the full meaning 
 of the bare statement, so frequently telegraphed to the 
 world, that anti-Jewish riots had taken place in such and 
 such a district of Southern Russia. Suffice it then to add 
 that the month of August saw such riots at Njezin on the 
 2d, at Lubny on the 8th, at Borzny on the 18th, and at 
 Itchny on the 28th. If September was comparatively 
 free from disorders, the cessation must be attributed 
 rather to the needs of the harvest than to the quieting of 
 the popular mind, for, early in October, the mob attacked 
 the Jews of Balwierzyski , in the government of Suwalki. 
 October 3 was the Day of Atonement, the most sacred 
 
EXILE LIFE IX SIBERIA. 517 
 
 day of the Hebrew calendar, and the mob took the occa- 
 sion to destroy the synagogue and wreck the Jewish 
 quarter, where one Jew was killed and 20 wounded.- 
 Even as late as November, the myth of the spoliation 
 ukase imposed upon the peasantry. On the 15th of that 
 month, a band of 100 peasants at Czarwona, near Zito- 
 mir, pillaged the property of the Jews under that pre- 
 text. Lastly, to show the excitable state of the popular 
 mind, the Sarah Bernhardt riots at Kief on November 
 18 and at Odessa on November 27 proved that a mere 
 suspicion that the actress was a Jewess was sufficient to 
 arouse once more the fury of the mob, and cause them 
 again to attack the Jewish quarter of those towns. 
 
 Finally, this catalogue of horrors must be concluded 
 by a reference to the riots at Warsaw on Christmas and 
 the following days. The detailed events of those days, 
 when 300 houses and 600 shojDS were pillaged and devas- 
 tated and thousands of victims rendered homeless and re- 
 duced to beggary, are doubtless fresh in every one*s mem- 
 ory, but certain facts must be again referred to, owing to 
 their typical character. In the first place, the riot was 
 clearly planned, the alarm of fire being simultaneously 
 raised in at least two churches, and the mob being direct- 
 ed by men who spoke Polish with a Eussian accent. The 
 culpable neglect of the military authorities of Warsaw 
 in refusing to make use of the 20,000 men forming its 
 garrison, finds its counterpart in the similar behavior of 
 the Governors of Kief, Elizabethgrad, and Odessa earlier 
 in the year. The behavior of the police, who are des- 
 cribed as only interfering to prevent the Jews from pro- 
 tecting themselves, exactly tallies with their behavior 
 elsewhere. And, finally, the attempts that were made by 
 telegraph officials and others to prevent the true state of 
 the case from reaching the rest of Europe may serve to 
 33 
 
518 RUSSIAN NIHILISM JLND 
 
 account for the extraordinary fact that the enormities of 
 the nine months only found the faintest echo in the press 
 of Europe or America. Thus, while outrages on women 
 were openly committed, the knowledge .of this fact was 
 guarded so that it might not go outside the Russian 
 boundary. 
 
 The outrages recounted in the preceding jjages, though, 
 no doubt, the most imoprtant, are far from including all 
 the similar events that occurred during the year 1881. 
 They have been selected from a list of over 160 towns 
 and villages in which cases of riot, rapine, murder, and 
 spoliation have been known to occur during the last nine 
 months of 1881. Out of these information was collect- 
 ed from about 45 towns and villages in Southern Russia. 
 In these alone are reported 23 murders of men, women 
 and children, 17 deaths caused by violation, and no few- 
 er than 225 cases of outrages of Jewesses. 
 
 Such have been the horrors that throughout the past 
 year have assailed the 3,000,000 Israelites who inhabit 
 Russia. Nor is there any indication that the atrocities 
 will cease in succeeding years, unless the Russian Gov- 
 ernment will intervene in the sacred cause of civilization 
 and humanity. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXin. 
 
 Besides appealing to the blind passions of the mob, 
 the Jew-haters of Russia have resorted to more system- 
 atic efforts to harass the hapless Israelites. The Russian 
 Moujik has a method almost peculiar to himself of ex- 
 pressing his rage and hatred. Whenever the fever point 
 of excitement is reached arson is usually the direction in 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERLA.. 
 
 519 
 
 ■whicTi it overflows. So well is this recognized fn Eussia 
 that the peasants have a technical name for the deliberate 
 firing of towns — the " red cock" is said to crow. Dur- 
 ing the year 1881 this method of revenge was resorted to 
 
 JEWS BEING DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES IN MINSK. 
 
 on a large scale against the Jews of Russia, especially in 
 the West. By the end of June the <'red cock" had 
 crowed over 15 towns in Western Russia, including Mo- 
 hilew, containing 25,000Jnhabita.nt8, Witebsk, with 23,* 
 
520 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 000, and Slonira, with 20,000, as well as smaller towns 
 like Wolcowysk, Scherwondt, Augustowo, Nowo-Gucdek, 
 Ponovicz, and Lipsk. Many thousands of Jews were 
 rendered homeless by this means, and on July 3d 6,000 
 Jews lost their homes by fire at Minsk, 4,800 being de- 
 prived of every means of subsistence at the same time. 
 The town of Pinsk, in the same province, suffered a like 
 fate. And shortly afterward a conflagration took place 
 at Koretz, in Wolhynia, in which 30 lives were lost and 
 5,000 souls left without a home. Every week added to 
 the number of fires in towns inhabited by Jews till, by 
 the end of September, the list extended to 41 towns. 
 This probably involved the loss of homes to 20,000 
 JeAvs. 
 
 To the mass of homeless and penniless creatures in 
 Southern Russia must be added the many victims of pil- 
 lage. The violence of the mobs often wrecked whole 
 streets of houses as completely as any fire, and it is 
 known that 2,000 were thus rendered homeless at Kief, 
 1,()00 at Smielo, 1,000 at Konotop, 600 at Ouehow, and 
 300 at Aluchoff. The value of property destroyed in 
 the south has been reckoned to reach $80,000,000. 
 
 It is possible that an aggregate of 100,000 Jewish 
 families has thus been reduced to poverty. The ranks 
 of the ruined were increased by those who dared not ap- 
 ply for their just debts, while in many cases the peasan- 
 try deliberately *' boycotted" the Jews. It must be 
 further remembered that in several places the Jews an- 
 ticipated riots by evacuating their homes ; thus, neat 
 Perejaslay, after the riot at that place, no fewer than 1 7 
 villages in the neighborhood were deserted by the Jews, 
 and the same, doubtless, took place in other localities. 
 Men fled from the villages in which they had resided all 
 their lives. Even after the events of Keiw the Jews of the 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 521 
 
 neighborhood, feanng the spread of disorder, crowded, 
 at the rate of 100 families a day, into the town which 
 had so lately shown itself hostile. Others fled toward 
 the borders, and during the summer months a camp of 
 refugees in the open air at Podwoloczyska contained no 
 less than 1,500 souls, including children of the tenderest 
 age. A few who still possessed some means attempted 
 to flee across the frontier, but many were stopped. Of 
 5,000 who managed to reach Brody, on the Austrian 
 border, in a perfectly helpless state, 2,000 remained 
 tliere huddled in cellars for nearly one month. 
 
 Meanwhile, the municipalities, with the connivance of 
 the local governments, took every means in their power 
 to add to the misery of the situation. With rough logic 
 they argued that, as these riots were directed against the 
 Jews, if there had been no Jews, there would have been 
 no riots. They accordingly petitioned the governors of 
 their provinces to issue orders for the expulsion of the 
 Jews from towns in which they had no legal right of 
 domicile. The Jews of Russia are only allowed to reside 
 in 28 of its provinces, often only in certain towns, and 
 the number of permits to reside is, at least theoretically, 
 limited. For the last 20 years, however, these barbarous 
 laws have been somewhat allowed to fall into desuetude, 
 and many Jews have ventured beyond the narrow limits 
 assigned to them. Leaving aside the general question, it 
 was clearly a most heartless act to add to the miseries of 
 the Jewish population at the moment when the mob were 
 eagerly scanning the disposition of the authorities to dis- 
 cover to what lengths they might proceed with impunity. 
 Whatever be the legality of the measure, the occasion for 
 introducing its rigorous enforcement was inhumanly in- 
 opportune, and lays the corporations who enforced it 
 open to a charge of complicity with the more lawlftst p«r- 
 
522 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 secutors of the Jews. At Kief, for example, even before 
 the excitement had entirely subsided, the governor or- 
 dered a stringent scrutiny of the right of domicile among 
 the Jews of that town. By July 29 the strict enforce- 
 ment of these harsh res^ulations had resulted in the ex- 
 pulsion of 4,000 Jews, and quite recently new rules have 
 been issued in Kief, as well as Odessa, still further limit- 
 ing the number of Jews capable of residing in either city. 
 At Liebenthal, near Odessa, the municipality, of course 
 with the permission of the Governor of Odessa, expelled 
 from fifteen to twenty Jewisji families, and imposed a 
 fine of fifty roubles upon any one harboring a Jew for a 
 single night. From Podolsk 100 families were expelled, 
 while whole regions of Podolia have been relentlessly 
 cleared of the Jews ; the towns of Kromonitz, Dubno, 
 Constantinow, Vladimir, and Wolinsk, being theiDrincipal 
 offenders. More to the east the town of Charkooff ex- 
 pelled Jews at the beginning of August. 
 
 At Orel, in the Government of that name, the expul- 
 sion has recently taken place on a large scale, and under 
 peculiarly cruel circumstances. In that town 900 
 families of Jews, numbering 5,000 souls, have hitherto 
 dwelt in peace and good will with their neighbors. Soon 
 after the outbreak of the disturbances, the Governor of 
 Orel gave orders that all Jews must quit its bounds by 
 September 1. AYhen that day arrived a further grace 
 ,was allowed them till October 25, and on the latter day 
 the Jewish congregation met for the last time in the syn- 
 agogue, and, after tearful prayers, removed the sacred 
 scrolls and left in mournful procession the town that had 
 been their home. Nearly 400 of them, however, did not 
 even possess the means of departure, and ventured to re- 
 main, only to be thrust out by the jjolice into the snow 
 on th© following night. In other places, where no legal 
 
•axTT.y, LiFK m sibbbia. 
 
 52^ 
 
 JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AT OREL. 
 
534 SUSBIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 objection could be taken to the domicile of the Jews, pe- 
 titions were sent by the authorities requesting the 
 imposition of all sorts of restrictions. They desired to 
 restrict Jewish commerce in grain, and to limit the send- 
 ing of Jewish children to the higher gymnasia and 
 universities, thus stultifying their own complaints as to 
 the want of culture among the Jews. Many local com- 
 missions would prevent the Jews from holding 
 " harandas," erroneously described as "dram-shops," 
 but really general stores, at which wine and spirits are 
 sold. I have already referred to the Perejaslav petition, 
 that Jewesses be not allowed to wear silks and satins. 
 These expulsions and petitions have formed the sole an- 
 swer which the town councils of Russia have given to the 
 Jewish question. 
 
 Meanwhile, what has been done in this emergencjr? It 
 is by no means difficult to suggest what could and should 
 have been done from the first appearance of anti-Jewish 
 feeling in the South. If orders had been given and pub- 
 lished that every Governor-General should supply Jewish 
 communities with a guard on application from the Eabbi 
 and the elders of the community ; if an edict had been 
 passed rendering all damage to Jewish property by riots 
 chai-geable to the communal rates of the town or village ; 
 if, above all, a proclamation had been issued declaring 
 that all Jewish subjects were as much entitled to protec- 
 tion of life and property as their orthodox fellow-citizens, 
 and denying the existence of any ukase purporting to 
 "convey" their property, it is safe to assert that the 
 disorders would not have spread far, and certainly would 
 not have lasted long. Instead of this, at Kief instruc- 
 tions were issued that the military should not be called 
 out till the last extremity. 
 
 As early as May 23 the Czar, having been appealed to 
 
 
SXIL£ Lir£ IN SIBERIA. 535 
 
 by a deputation of the Jews of St. Petersburg, headed 
 by Baron Gunzburg, expressed his intention of dealing 
 Avith the evil. Accordingly, Count Kutaissow was de- 
 spatched to the South to make inquiries. He returned, it 
 would seem, with the answer that inquiries were still 
 further necessary. General Ignatieff now took the op- 
 portunity to introduce a system by which thesZemstras, 
 or Provincial Assemblies, might be superseded by local 
 committees of experts on this special subject, and on 
 September 3 the following rescript was issued : 
 
 " For some time the Government has given its atten- 
 tion to the Jews, and to their relations to the rest of the 
 inhabitants of the Empire, with the view of ascertaining 
 the sad condition of the Christian inhabitants, brought 
 about by the conduct of the Jews in business matters. 
 
 "For the last twenty years the Government has en- 
 deavored, in* various ways, to bring the Jews near to its 
 other inhabitants, and has given them almost equal rights 
 with the indigenous population. The movements, how- 
 ever, against the Jews, which began last spring in the 
 south of Russia, and extended to Central Russia, prove 
 incontestably that all its endeavors have been of no avail, 
 and that ill-feeling prevails now as much as ever between 
 the Jewish and the Christian inhabitants of those parts. 
 Now, the proceedings at the trial of those charged with 
 rioting and other evidence bear witness to the fact that 
 the main cause of those movements and riots — to which 
 the Russians, as a nation, are strangers — was but a com- 
 mercial one, and is as follows : — 
 
 " ' During the last twenty years the Jews have gradu- 
 ally possessed themselves of not only every trade and 
 business in all its branches, but also of a great part of 
 the land by buying or farming it. With few exceptions 
 they have, as a. body, devoted their attention not to 
 
526 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 enriching or benefiting the country, but to defrauding, 
 by their wiles, its inhabitants, and particularly its poor 
 inhabitants. This conduct of theirs has called forth pro- 
 tests on the part of the people, as manifested in acts of 
 violence and robbery. The Government, while on the 
 one hand doing its best to put down the disturbances 
 and to deliver the Jews from oppression and slaughter, 
 have also, on the other hand, thought it a matter of 
 urgency and justice to adopt stringent measures in order 
 to put an end to the oppression practiced by the Jews on 
 the inhabitants and to free the country from their mal- 
 practices, which were, as it is known, the cause of the 
 agitation.' 
 
 *' With this view it has appointed commissions (in all 
 the towns inhabited by Jews), whose duty it is to inquire 
 into the following matters : — 
 
 *' 1. What are the trades of the Jews which are in< 
 jurious to the inhabitants of the place? 
 
 "2. What makes it impracticable to put into force 
 the former laws limiting the rights of the Jews in the 
 matter of buying and farming land, the trade in intoxi- 
 cants, and usury? 
 
 " 3. How can those laws be altered so that they shall 
 no longer be enabled to evade them, or what new laws 
 are required to stop their pernicious conduct in business? 
 
 *' 4. Give (besides the answers to the foregoing sugges- 
 tions) the following additional information : (a) On the 
 usury practiced by the Jews in their dealings with Chris- 
 tians, in cities, towns and villages; (b) the number of 
 public houses kept by Jews in their own name, or in that 
 of a Christian ; (c) the number of persons in service with 
 Jews or under their control ; {d) the extent (acreage) 
 of the land in their possession, by buying or farming; 
 (•) the number of Jewish agriculturists. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 527 
 
 " In addition to the above-named information to be 
 supplied, every commission is empowered to report on 
 such conduct and action of the Jews as may have a local 
 interest and importance, and to submit the same to the 
 Ministry." 
 
 That, after the events of May, June and July, any per- 
 son in authority in Russia should in August have, been 
 thinking of aught else but the protection of Jewish lives 
 and the honor of Jewish women, is the first surprise that 
 meets us in this remarkable document. But that no word 
 of reprimand should be addressed to those who had in- 
 dulged, in such misdeeds is a severer surprise still, the 
 only allusion to the whole catalogue of horrors being 
 couched in the half-apologetic allusion to "protests" 
 that have taken so deplorable a form. It is certain that 
 the direct cause of the objection of the Russians to their 
 Jewish fellow-citizens is the natural result of the Russian 
 laws, which restrict their rights and mark them off from 
 the rest of the nation. It is the lesson taught by all 
 experience that the only solution of the Jewish question 
 is the granting of full equality. It is absolutely certain 
 that the whole body of the Jews, forming one-eighth of 
 the population amid which they dwell, cannot be accused 
 of "exploitation," or "usury," as imputed by the re- 
 script, the fact being that the chief industries of Russia 
 are in the hands of the thrifty and hard-working Jews. 
 Again, objection to innkeeping by Jews is clearly a gross 
 injustice, seeing that statistics show drunkenness to be 
 more prevalent in provinces where Jews do not reside. 
 But, waiving all this, surely the poor women who had 
 been violated, the little children who had been murdered, 
 the farmers who had been robbed of their cattle and 
 implements, could not be accused of these charges, 
 and it was accordingly the refinement of cruelty to 
 
5S8 BUBSIAIf NIHILISM AKD 
 
 issue this document, teeming with animus against the 
 Jews, at a time when the passions of the mob had been 
 raised against all Jews, without distinction of person, oc- 
 cupation, age or sex. The Jewisli question at tlie present 
 moment is not how the Jews should be prevented from 
 competing with the Russians in-certain trades, but whether 
 the lives of three millions and a half of Jews shall be left 
 at the mercy of the passions of the mob. A document 
 like this, far from helping to solve the question, rather 
 adds to its complexity by showing clearly to the populace 
 that the authorities share their prejudices. The appoint- 
 ments to commissions showed the same bias ; at the head 
 of the Kief Commission was placed General Drudkoff, 
 the Governor of Kief, who initated the proceedings of 
 the first meeting by declaring, "Either I or the Jews 
 must go." On another Commission was placed M. Che- 
 garym, whose only claim to be considered an expert on 
 the Jewish question was that he had written a pamphlet, 
 entitled " The Annihilation of the Jews." 
 
 At Odessa the first Commission was dismissed because 
 it had recommended the only true solution of the questions 
 put by the Minister of the Interior, the granting to the 
 Jews fully equality of rights and equal liberty of settle- 
 ment with their fellow-citizens of other creeds . A second 
 Commission was thereupon appointee^, with views more 
 in consonance with the spirit of the rescript. When the 
 Governor of Warsaw, Count Albedinski, was ordered to 
 publish the circular he at first refused, saying that Jews 
 and Poles had always lived on such friendly terms that 
 no Commission was necessary. He was, however, forced 
 to publish the rescript, and competent observers attribute 
 the rise of anti-Semitic feeling in Warsaw mainly to this 
 publication. 
 
 These aots and the tone of the circular itself mad» ^lear 
 
JBXIUE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 529 
 
 to the Commissions what was expected of them. They 
 have accordingly made recommendations which will, if 
 adopted, bring back all the horrors of the Middles Ages 
 on the unfortunate Jews of Russia. Thus, among other 
 proposals, they have advised that Jews should not be 
 allowed to build synagogues or establish schools and or- 
 phan asylums ; that they should not be permitted to re- 
 side in villages, nor own houses or landed property ; that 
 Jews should not lease factories or sell spirituous liquors 
 or be apothecaries. Besides this, it is rumored that it is 
 intended to restrict still further the right of domicile, and 
 to allow no Jew to reside within eighty miles of the bord- 
 ers. In short, it seems to be the intention to make Russia 
 an impossible home for the Jews, or perhaps even to doom 
 them to complete extinction. The Russo-Jewish question 
 may, therefore, be summed up in these words : Are three 
 and a half millions of human beings to perish because 
 they are Jews ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 The Jews of Russia are chiefly confined to the Southern 
 portion of the country and to Poland, which latter pro- 
 vince contains nearly one-half the entire Semitic popula- 
 tion. It is not in all sections that bitter prejudices pre- 
 vail against them ; in fact they generally live harmoni- 
 ously with the Poles. In the Caucasus, though not re- 
 garded with any special affiliation, they are certainly not 
 hated or envied with that intense feeling which has de- 
 veloped against them in other provinces of the Empire. 
 The influence of Mussulmans for so many years in the 
 Caucasian district, and the efficient measures taken by 
 
580 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AIJD 
 
 them to enforce the " Truce of God " among the votaries 
 of different religions, have had the effect of establishing 
 and maintaining at least a partially considerate forbear- 
 ance toward the Jews whose thrift here, as elsewhere, has 
 given them control of the business of the district. Wherev- 
 er Jews come in contact with Turks, as in the Cauca- 
 sus, they usually pi-()sper without exciting any prejudice j 
 this may be accounted for, however, by the implacable 
 hostility which exists between Christians and Mussul- 
 mans, in which Jew and Turk may be regarded as com^ 
 mon enemies of the cross. 
 
 But the most singular features connected with Jewish 
 persecutions are found in and about Odessa, where the 
 riots have been appalling in deep villainy and heartless 
 cruelties. These singular features are found in the fact 
 that Odessa, with a population of 200,000, i-s so cosmo- 
 politan as to be Anti-Russian ; the French are so numer- 
 ous that they have stamped their impress upon the city •, 
 in fact have Frenchified it ; the Eussian tongue is rarely 
 spoken in Odessa, hardly so much as the Turk, while 
 among the upper class French and Italian are alone used. 
 We also observe the lack of Russian influence in the 
 absence of Greek churches, and, in short, there is abund- 
 ant evidence that the Russ people are despised in Odessa. 
 Yet, the Jews are persecuted here with a severity equal 
 to that which distinguished the rioters at Kief or Minsk. 
 The cause is found, not in religious intolerance nor in 
 race prejudices, but in that vicious desire which devel- 
 ops under conditions identical with those which are so 
 frequently found in Russia — the love for plunder when 
 incited thereto by a mob. It is like shouting '* mad-dog '' 
 at some poor canine, the cry being immediately taken up 
 by every person until the dog is killed. The Jews are 
 rich, but their defensive strength is poor, they therefore, 
 
KXILE LIFE IN SIBERLA. 531 
 
 become objects for spoliation, and whether the spoils- 
 man be Russian, Frenchman, Spaniard or Englishman, 
 if the occasion be flattering, the cry of " Jew," " Christ- 
 killer," etc., will be just as loud against them. 
 
 The trade of Odessa is in the hands of Polish Jews, 
 "who are most thoroughly despised by the illiterate Russ. 
 Many of these Israelites are in possession of large tracts 
 of land in the Odessa district, which they cause to be cul- 
 tivated for their own account, and thus they enjoy to a 
 large extent a monopoly of the produce exports, while 
 they are both land owners and merchants. Their wealth 
 stirs up against them the hatred of all Russia, which 
 hatred extends to every oflBcer of the Government and 
 also to the subjects of other nationalities doing business 
 in Russia. 
 
 The Jews are charged with the most heinous offenses, 
 but the charges are vague, and reducible to no positive 
 evidence. "They make their money by the most infa- 
 mous practices," it is said ; "they lend money at outra- 
 geously high rates of interest, and do not keep their own 
 counting houses or shops, but prowl about the country like 
 wolves, seeking the peasants they may devour, selling 
 them liquor to encourage their drunken propensities, tak- 
 ing advantage of their distress to wrest from them deeds 
 of mortgage, and urging them on the road of ruin, so as 
 ultimately to drive them out of their homes and lands." 
 
 All this is tantamount to saying that the Jews are 
 usurers ; then the question arises, What are the provisions 
 of the Russian law with respect to usury, whether prac- 
 ticed by Jew or Gentile? Money is no more than an 
 article of trade on which Russians and Hebrews place a 
 like estimate ; there is no Russian shopkeeper who will 
 not ask two or more times the value of an article if he 
 thinks his customer can be induced to pay it, so there is 
 
3^8 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 no legal reason why the Jews should not follow the ex^ 
 ample thus set before them. 
 
 My experience convinces me that nowhere under the 
 ethereal canopy is there another nation tliat can equal 
 Russia for swindlers. I must here relate an incident told 
 me while on my voyage up the Baltic Sea to St. Peters- 
 burg. Among our passengers was an Irish gentleman 
 who had, for nearly twenty years, been running a large 
 cotton mill in Yaraslof , Russia. He had been on a visit 
 to Ireland and was now returning to Yaraslof, where he 
 made his home. Said he: "The person who goes to 
 Russia without understanding the ways of the country 
 will undoubtedly be boldly swindled. Directly after first 
 going to Yaraslof I purchased a pair of felt boots for the 
 sum of twelve roubles, which I thought very cheap. 
 Soon after making the purchase I showed the boots to a 
 gentleman who was an old resident of Russia, but who 
 was an Englishman with whom I was going into business ; 
 I held up the boots in an admiring manner and comment • 
 ed upon the extraordinary bargain which I had made. 
 But instead of uniting in my opinion, the Englishman 
 laughed at me for being 'taken in,' as he expressed it, 
 and then declared he could buy a pair exactly like mine, 
 and at the same place where my purchase was made, for 
 five roubles. Excitedly I offered to wager him a basket 
 of the finest wine to be obtained in Yaraslof, that he 
 could not. He acce]:)ted my wager, for which I was very 
 glad, for I felt certain to win. At his request we went 
 down to the store where I had bought the boots, and go- 
 ing in he enquired the price of a pair like those I had ; 
 the shopkeeper asked him fifteen roubles. Instantly I 
 clapped my hands in high glee and called on him to pay 
 the bet. But, said he, * give me a little time and I'll buy 
 the boots for five roubles.' He began to abifse the shop- 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 533 
 
 keeper in the most awful manner, calling him swindler, 
 thief, extortioner, etc. All these epithets did not dis- 
 turb the good humor of the shopkeeper, who finally con- 
 sented to let the boots go for twelve roubles. My friend 
 turned abruptly upon his heel and with many impreca- 
 tions went out of the shop, while I laughed and urged 
 him to pay the bet. We walked down the street a little 
 way and then returning came back by the shop again , 
 Seeing us go by, the shopkeeper ran out to my friend and 
 telling him a long story about how much the boots cost, 
 he offered them for ten roubles. My friend only gave 
 him another cursing and then went on ; returning in a 
 few minutes, we again walked by the shop, and again 
 the merchant ran out beseeching my friend to buy, but 
 still there was no trade, so that for the third time we 
 parted from the shopkeeper, who had, however, offered 
 the boots for seven roubles. I now beg-an to be fright- 
 ened, yet I could hardly think that the man would 
 make a further reduction of two roubles. After staying 
 away nearly one hour, for the fourth time we passed. 
 The merchant, who, as before, ran out, caught hold of 
 my friend and began to argue with him. The English- 
 man manifested great umbrage and threatened to strike 
 the shopkeeper for interfering with him so many times, 
 when at the beginning he declared he would not give 
 more than five roubles for the boots. After considerable 
 quarreling the shopkeeper at length accepted the original 
 offer, and of course I had to pay for the wine." 
 
 This Jewish manner of doing business is common 
 among all Russian merchants, so that generally speaking 
 any article may be purchased from them for about one- 
 third the price which they first ask. 
 
 Now, if we even mistrusted the repeated assertion* ' 
 made throughout Russia that Government agents were 
 
 U 
 
5W RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 sent among the populace to stir up their evil passions, to 
 justify and almost provoke their violence by a reference 
 to the Emperor's acts and wishes ; even if we disbe- 
 lieve the statements that men high in authority, civil or 
 military governors, refused to interpose between the mur- 
 derers and their victims, " not wishing to disturb their 
 soldiers for a pack of Jews ; " even if we deemed it im- 
 possible that men and officers belonging to the army or 
 the police, either remained passive spectators of the worst 
 outrages, or became participators in them ; even if we 
 make abstraction from all this, yet it would be impossible 
 to find words sufficiently severe to stigmatize the iniqui- 
 tious proclamation, or " Rescript," of September 3d, in 
 which, instead of denouncing the atrocities of the perse- 
 cutors of the Jews, the Government takes the opportunity 
 of enumerating the offences of the Jews themselves ; thus 
 palliating, if not actually sanctioning, any excesses that 
 may be committed against them, and almost inciting the 
 populace to run amuck them : *' not to nail the Jew's ear 
 to the pump." 
 
 And yet, after all, what are the alleged offences of the 
 Jews? 
 
 *♦ They have possessed themselves not only of every 
 trade and business in all its branches, but also of great 
 part of the land, by buying and farming it." 
 
 *' They have defrauded, by their wiles, the inhabitants, 
 and particularly the poor people." 
 
 But the question is, or should be: *« Have the Jews 
 broken the laws? " *' Do the laws allow either Jew or 
 Christian to carry on illicit trades or criminal business?" 
 
 If the Jews have acted within the law they should 
 have lawful protection. If their offences were of a na- 
 ture not foreseen by the existing law, then it should 
 be amended. But in any case the first duty of the GoV'^ 
 
BJXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 535 
 
 eniment Bhould have been to uphold the hiw against the 
 persecuting populace, about whose unlawful proceedings 
 there could be no doubt whatever ; the gravest error or 
 crime that can, in a civilized country, belaid to the charge 
 
 A TYPICAL RUSSIAN JEW. 
 
 of a Government being that of allowing its subjects to 
 take the law into their own hands. 
 
 With respect to the main offencesimputed tothe Jews, 
 that of being usurious money lenders, and keeping dram- 
 shops, I must repeat that the fault is not so much of the 
 Jews' greed and knavery as of the Christians' improvi- 
 
5J6 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 dence and intemperance. The peasants of Northern Eut- 
 sia, though there be no Jews among them, are no less ad- 
 dicted to drunkenness, and no less eaten up by debts and 
 mortgages, than peasants of the Southern and Western dis- 
 tricts ; for there are — ^both North and South — aplenty of 
 Christians ready to lend money on usury and to keep 
 dram-shops. 
 
 There is nothing more certain than that the Jew, the 
 peddling Jew, has no chance of thriving, except among 
 people whom ignorance and unthrif t deliver into his hands 
 as easy victims. 
 
 It is not by banishing or exterminating the Jews that 
 Russia can hope to save her poor peasants, but by tiying 
 what education may do toward curing a people (to whom 
 no one can deny many fine qualities) of those drunken, 
 thriftless, and vagrant habits which have always been 
 their besetting sins. There was a time when Jews had a mo- 
 nopoly of the money business in Europe, when kings and 
 princes drew the teeth from the Hebrew' s jaws to get at the 
 ducats in his purse. What was the result? The Italians, 
 Lombards and Tuscans set up in competition. They en- 
 nobled money lending by creating banking houses. They 
 thus beat the Jew with his own weapon, and their names 
 still live in Z/ombard street and boulevard des Italiens; 
 and men still write L. s. d. instead of P. s. p. This is 
 a good lesson for the Russian and German Governments 
 to study. 
 
VXILS LIFS IN SlBMSlk. i9J 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 I have given, in as succinct form as possible, a descrip- 
 tion of Russian life in all its phases, as I found it. My 
 trip through that country, made rather as an investigator 
 than tourist, was delightfully pleasant and profitable ; 
 not that I did not encounter serious difficulties or meet 
 with annoying obstacles, for it was my lot to suffer 
 many times from both, but all the unpleasant episodes 
 and positions which jeopardized my safety only served to 
 make the result, as a whole, more enjoyable. I have 
 written of Russia and Siberia at times both facetiously 
 and solemnly, but always with frankness, and, so far as 
 my judgment permitted, truthfully. It is most difficult 
 to write of a country (covering the scope which I have 
 undertaken in this work) while ignorant of the language 
 used by its people, because information received through 
 interpreters must always have about it the suspicion 
 which usually attaches to second-hand stories. But I 
 have exercised much care and discrimination, so that I 
 have no hesitation in reaffirming and declaring the truth of 
 every statement herein made. 
 
 Russia is the most remarkable as well as the largest 
 nation on the earth ; her history is wonderful, because it 
 recounts so many wars with barbaric hordes ; claiming to 
 be a great civilized power, yet her civilization is of a 
 doubtful character ; nor can we review the influences by 
 which she is surrounded and expect Russia to be more 
 progressive with the spirit of education and that uplift- 
 ing force of science which dazzles all creation with intel- 
 ligence ; to the south she has Turkey, with which nation 
 Russia has become partially amalgamated in spirit by 
 roason of the bitter wars that have waged betwaen them ; 
 
538 RUSSIAN ISriHILISM AND 
 
 on the southeast is Persia and the Caucasus, and upon 
 the east are the wild tribes of Siberia and contiguous 
 countries. With these ferocious races Russia has been at 
 war since she became a nation, and the contests have 
 ever been conducted upon barbaric principles. Visitors 
 to the museum at St. Petersburg will not fail to see pre- 
 served in jars of alcohol, and mounted in glass cases, 
 several heads that have been struck off by imperial 
 orders, from the bodies of traitors or enemies to Russia. 
 These ghastly trophies are actually paraded in the capital 
 as an exhibition of Muscovite valor, but what better ex- 
 ample of barbarism can be found than they afford ; or 
 what better proof do we require to establish the asser- 
 tion that Russia is a barbaric nation in the swaddling 
 clothes of civilization? 
 
 The Government of Russia is fashioned after unen- 
 lightened Suzerainties, to be found nowhere except in 
 Pagan countries. The word Czar comes from Csesar, 
 but even the great power of Caesar could not compare 
 with that now exercised by Russia's ruler. Not only is 
 the Czar exalted above all temporal attributes, but his 
 name must perforce be mentioned with that awesome re- 
 gard which the faithful Moujik pays to God. No coun- 
 try has so much law as Russia, j^et the first sentence in 
 her code is this : *' The Czar is above all law." It does 
 not even say *' Czar, by the grace of God," as they do 
 in England, becau^, like the Pope of Rome, Russia's 
 sovereign is both a temporal and spiritual ruler, if not 
 equal to God, at least one of His chief counselors. This 
 is all barbarism, which is inversely developed into more 
 inordinate Paganism by a prohibition of secular freedom 
 and the exaltation of a particular creed whose very 
 essence is ignorance and superstition. 
 
 Shackled by faith in ancient ceremonials, bound fast 
 
EXILB LIFE IN SIBERIA. 539 
 
 by gyves of church discipline, divested of the robes of 
 intelligence, confined in the damp, foul, pestilential at- 
 mosphere of slavery to rulership, blinded by fanatical 
 prejudices and worse than fanatical religion, hedged 
 about with intolerance, poverty-stricken with a debt 
 created by church indulgences, utterly lacking in homo- 
 geneity, injustice and corruption permeating every de- 
 partment of the Government, how shall Russia raise her- 
 self from under such grievous burdens and set her eyes 
 toward a civilization such as other Christian nations en- 
 
 m? 
 
 I am sorry to say it, but the fact is so apparent that 
 none may misconstrue the events now taking place — the 
 future of Russia is in Nihilism ; if this bloody power does 
 not purge the nation and give it a new growth, then we 
 cannot predict any further than the dismemberment of 
 the Empire and its gradual absorption into other powers. 
 Civilization is spreading rapidly eastward, it cannot stop 
 or go around Russia, and whether with bayonet, or psalm- 
 book the march will be made through every part of the 
 Czar's dominions ; resistance will be like a shadow fight- 
 ing the storms, only that to resist as a nation will be to 
 destroy every vestige of Muscovite Imperialism and leave 
 her as another Babylon ; or, to use a more moderate illus- 
 tration, like Poland, that has been so voraciously swal- 
 lowed and digested by her. 
 
 The Nihilists, aside from their inchoate condition and 
 lack of objective cohesion that concentrates revolutionary 
 parties under acknowledged leadership, are prompted by 
 policies and apprehensions at strange variance with the 
 object they ostensibly have in view. In this observation 
 I have reference to that prime Nihilistic faction which, 
 aims at liberalism and a radical reformation of the Gov- 
 ernment, which shall have some elements of democracy in 
 
540 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 it. They confidently believe that these reforms can be 
 obtained through a process of terrorization, particularly 
 by assassination. That this is a fallacy is proved by the 
 repeated failures which have followed its adoption in 
 nearly every country of both hemispheres since histovy 
 began to record the deeds of men. 
 
 The first logical step toward securing enlarged liber- 
 ties to the people of Russia, is education of the masses \ 
 not alone education in science, but in politics as well, a 
 mind development that will subvert the Greek Church, 
 which is a ban of barbarism almost as rank and more de- 
 basing than Shamanism. To-day the peasantry of 
 Russia are not jDrepared for liberty, which is to theiu no 
 more than a jewel before swine ; so long as the poten- 
 tentiality of the Church continues absorbing a revenue 
 doubly in excess of governmental expenditures, and im- 
 posing a yoke of servitude upon its subjects more 
 galling than ever a Romish Pope devised, so long must 
 Russians suffer. Abuses of the aristocracy and impe- 
 rialism are made possible by the Church, whose dic- 
 tatorial mandates are written to publish the Czar's 
 pleasure and to set up a fear of the devil for the coercion 
 of those who might otherwise think for themselves. 
 
 Liberalize the Church and a liberalization of the Gov- 
 ernment would be certain to follow. The Greek Church 
 forbids its subjects thinking, while the Government de- 
 nies its subjects the exercise of a voice in public affairs ; 
 that power which oppresses the mind is ten-fold more 
 injurious than that which prescribes the acts of men ; 
 hence, 1 repeat, the first imj)ortant step toward re- 
 forming Russia must be directed to the curtailment of the 
 Church power and influence, so that her peasantry may be 
 free from superstitions and be made to understand that 
 they have a mind which God intended they should use 
 for thttmsttlves. 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA, 641 
 
 But the obstacles which now so seriously hinder 
 Russia's advancement are no greater perhaps than those 
 that have obstructed civilization in all other countries ; 
 hence, we cannot resist the belief that she, too, will ad- 
 vance by gradual steps and finally become established as 
 a free and fully enlightened government. If we may 
 look forward to the time when Russia shall develop into 
 a republic, or even a limited monarchy, we may behold 
 in her not only a greater power than now, but we may 
 also observe her growth into a government absolutely 
 poerless, and more nearly in competition with the United 
 States than any other nation ever can be. Already, with 
 all of Russia's drawbacks, she contests with America in 
 agricultural production and in feeding foreign nations, 
 and were her possible resources fully developed by im- 
 proved machinery and well-applied industry, she would 
 produce enough wheat, corn, potatoes, rye, barley, etc., 
 to shut our cereals entirely out of the European market. 
 The revolution in Russia means not only the downfall of 
 autocracy and the breaking up of those customs which 
 aggrandize a few by the impoverishment of many, but it 
 also means, though indefinite and doubtful under Nihi- 
 listic policy, an enforced recognition of agriculture as the 
 prime factor in national existence ; it means encourage- 
 ment to industry of every character and the subversion 
 of every element in the Government that is hurtful to 
 the masses. 
 
 Thousands of Russians have long despaired of reforms 
 being granted that would enlarge their liberties, and for 
 the first time in the history of that country there is a 
 considerable emigration from Russia, not an inconsid- 
 erable part of the hegira being directed toward 
 America. I have always considered it an ill-advised 
 policy to throw out flattering invitations to all dissatisfied 
 
542 . RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 foreigners to make their homes with us, but since the 
 policy is in active operation I must say that no class of 
 immigrants would be more valuable to America than 
 Russians ; they are patient, honest, and, when put upon 
 their resources, very industrious ; no people are less ad- 
 dicted to disturbance, their amiable qualities, indeed, 
 being almost phenomenal. Raised in subjection to an 
 aristocracy, the peasantry seem to expect the treatment 
 of slaves ; they will submit to any indignity from those 
 whom they regard their superiors, and their confidence is 
 easily gained ; they are faithful to any trust, and consid- 
 ered in all their peculiarities they are the most humble, 
 frugal and deserving people on the earth. Placed upon 
 any of our Western prairies the Russians would thrive 
 greatly, though in their own country, where land is al- 
 most superabundant, they make little progress and mani- 
 fest a shiftlessness that is most reprehensible. But this 
 is due to causes 1 have already explained in describing the 
 facts and results of serf manumission. Wherever a 
 Russian possesses absolute proprietary interests he invB/- 
 riably prospers, nor does he exhibit any disposition to 
 idleness. 
 
 Though Russia may, and doubtless soon will become 
 the most dangerous competitor we can ever have, yet 
 America cannot help feeling a friendly interest in her 
 prosperity ; we cannot afford to forgot the kind offices 
 extended us by Russia in the most distressing era of our i 
 national life. The two Alexanders have always been our i 
 friends, and to-day the subjects of no othe?* nation are so 
 warmly welcomed in the Empire and so considerately 
 treated by all Russians as are those of America. To say 
 *' I am an American," in St. Petersburg, is almost like 
 the open sesame of Ali Baba ; it is enough, ajid to ail 
 such Russia extends a most hospitable welcome. 
 
EXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 543 
 
 It has been in no contentious or prejudiced spirit that 
 I have written of Russia as semi-barbaric ; so far from 
 using the term as one of reproach I ha\'e employed it 
 rather to excuse the manifest faults of the Empire, the 
 faults of the son as seen in the father, the faults of train- 
 ing, which are as natural and similar as the blood of 
 consanguinity. 
 
 The growth of Russia toward liberalism is slow, but 
 it is, nevertheless, apparent. Her greatest scientists, 
 poets, philosophers, are of the present century ; her 
 greatest newspapers and manufactories are of to-day ; 
 her finest churches were built many, many years ago, and 
 her priesthood has lost the respect of the masses. Are 
 not these gratifying evidences of improvement? 
 
 These were my reflections while in Russia, which have 
 been strengthened by a further consideration of the sub- 
 ject since, but while thinking of Russia's future I cannot 
 help feeling sympathy for poor Poland, whose subjuga- 
 tion is Russia's greatest disgrace. Suffering Poland 1 
 distress has been the price of her patriotism, and though 
 she struggled with a bravery almost unparalled yet her 
 struggles were like those of Spartacus and the heroic 
 Thracians, for now she lies as one dead at the feet of 
 Jiberty. 
 
 Before leaving Warsaw I remembered my promise 
 made to the exile in his lonely hut near Yeniseisk, and 
 determined to fulfil it. I therefore persuaded the man- 
 agers of the Hotel Victoria to address a letter, in Rus- 
 sian, to the- exile's wife at Micahow, and to fill it with 
 many endearing words, which I thought would convey 
 the feelings of the exile toward one whom I was sure he 
 etill loved devotedly. Nothing could have afforded me 
 more pleasure than to have witnessed the effect produced 
 by this letter, if it waa received by the wife ; but as my 
 
544 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 curiosity in this direction must ever remain unsatisfied^ I 
 will still take delight in thinking of the happiness I 
 caused the poor exile and the possible pleasure my act 
 may have given his wife. 
 
 Having spent nearly one week in Warsaw, and gathered 
 all the information available for my purposes, I prepared 
 to leave for London by way of Vienna and Paris. Before 
 (departing, in company with a guide, I went to an ex- 
 change office in Warsaw to convert my Russian money 
 into Austrian florins. As all the exchange dealers in the 
 place are Jews, I of course went into the Israelitish quar- 
 ters and was conducted to what my guide declared was 
 the largest and most reliable broker in Warsaw. If the 
 guide had omitted to tell me this, I would certainly have 
 inclined to the belief that this same broker was a lean 
 and hungry apothecary ; his place was shabby in the ex- 
 treme ; there was a rickety counter behind which, on the 
 grimy walls, were shelves stored with phials and old 
 greasy packages ; an old Jew, of marked features, cov- 
 ered up in a long overcoat and with an immense muffler 
 around his neck, sat on a stool waiting for customers. 
 He appeared very glad when we entered, evidently in an- 
 ticipation of a few copecks, and bowed so graciously that 
 he quite impressed me, but 1 could only return his salu- 
 tation by a nod of the head and by smiling familiarly. 
 My guide did all the talking, and effected an ex- 
 change of one hundred roubles, the rest of my money 
 being in English pound notes. When we got back to the 
 hotel I made a calculation of what I should have received 
 in the exchange and found that the sagacious and con- 
 descending old fellow had discounted me so that I was 
 one florin short. I was so well satisfied that the broker 
 had knowingly swindled me that, Math the guide, I imme- 
 diately returned and had my interpreter explain the 
 
KXILE LITE IN SIBERIA. 545 
 
 shortage ; whereupon, without any discussion of the 
 matter, the Jew gave me another florin, with a look 
 which phiinly told that he knew it all the tune, and had 
 only experimented to see if I would find it out. 
 
 The train service between Warsaw and Vienna is excel- 
 lent, much better than I found it in any other part of the 
 continent. The sleeping cai'S are made into compart- 
 ments large enough to accommodate only two persons, 
 and since travel between the two cities is not usually 
 great, a compartment to one's self is easily obtained with- 
 out extra cost. These accommodations are even more 
 exclusive than the staterooms in Pullman sleepers, while 
 the upholstery is much more luxurious. My trip down 
 to Vienna was a very pleasant one, with two exceptions ; 
 about one o'clock at night I was rudely awakened by a 
 man who pounded viciously at the door of my compart- 
 ment, and when I let him in his actions and speech were 
 such that I thought ho was a train-robber. He spoke 
 Russian, and of course I had to rely on his gestures. 
 After thum])ing around for some time, he grabbed my 
 valise and began to wrench at it until I was on the point 
 of giving him the bounce or being bounced myself, when 
 the sleeping-car conductor made his appearance, and, as he 
 spoke German, I was soon made acquainted with the fact 
 that we had arrived at Granitza, on the Russian frontier, 
 where the passport examiner inspected the papers of all 
 persons leaving Russia. I got out my passport, to 
 which was attached, by large red seals, my Siberian 
 podorojua, and also a special order from the Russian 
 Government requesting all officers to facilitate my pur- 
 poses and to give me any aid I might require. Seeing 
 these special privilege papers, the examining officer took 
 off his hat to me as though he had just discovered that I 
 was a prince or king in undress, and gave me a five- 
 
546 BUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 minute speech of apology. I now tumbled into bed and 
 was not long in reaching a sound sleep again, but at three, 
 A. M., I was frightened out of my slumber by another 
 kicking at my stateroom door and a yelling all along the 
 line. Great guns I I thought, are we attacked by 
 brigands, thrown off abridge, or in a dreadful smash-up? 
 
 '■^Zollbeamte! " (Custom-officer,) cried a voice at the 
 door. 
 
 " Well, you need not make such an outrageous racket 
 about it, if you are," I answered. " I have nothing duti- 
 able, so pass on to the next customer." 
 
 This made the Austrian custom officer red-hot, so to 
 speak, for I now understood that we had passed out of 
 Russia and were at Shtchakova, the first station in Austria, 
 and levity before an Austrian is worse than a red flag in 
 France. He pounded mth increased gusto until I opened 
 the door and showed liim a small satchel filled with 
 manuscripts and second-hand books. At sight of these 
 he gave me a fierce look and then pasted a double eagle 
 on my bag and shot out of the room as though he had 
 lost a great deal of precious time with me. Thus I left 
 Russia and entered new dominions. 
 
 The matter is foreign to my subject, but as it is a part 
 of my experience, I wish to say that the trip from Vienna 
 to Paris is about as uncomfortable as stupidity can make 
 it. I engaged a sleeping-car berth of the International 
 Wagon Lits, and was assigned to a small compartment in 
 which there were already three others. The room was 
 so small that only two persons could sit in it at the same 
 time, so we had to take turns in standing in the passage- 
 way. At Stuttgart, which is about intermediate between 
 Vienna and Paris, a common link coupling, which con^ 
 nected our sleeper with the train, broke, and most aston. 
 ishing to relate, the sleeping-car was abandoned, becacuM 
 
EXILB XIFE IN SrBERIA. 54 / 
 
 a new link was not obtainable. Thence we rode into 
 Paris in a third-class car, because there was no room in 
 the others. This ti'ip was almost as harassing as my 
 journey from Ekaterineburg to Irkoutsk, but it taught 
 me why people go to Europe to spend their summers ; 
 first, because it is thought to be fashionable ; and second, 
 because the accommodations of every character through- 
 out the continent are so execrable, if not horrible, that 
 after spending a few weeks in Europe it is like stepping' 
 out of the back door of hades into the front parlor of 
 heaven to get back to America again ; it teaches us how 
 to appreciate our own country. 
 
CORONATION OF ALEXANDER III. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The coronation of Alexander III. as the successor of 
 Alexander II. was an event looked forward to with grave 
 anticipation for more than two years. Russia had so 
 long struggled in the throes of a mighty and crafty 
 rebellion ; her revenues were so meagre compared with 
 her expenses ; the tax upon her energies and vital re- 
 sources — agriculture — were so burdensome ; her rela- 
 tions with neighboring powers were so precarious, and 
 withal her rulers were so bitterly hated, that since the 
 tragic death of Alexander II. all the world has daily 
 expected a new revolutionary outbreak culminating in the 
 assassination of the succeedinar sovereis:n. But the fears 
 of Russia's populace were small in comparison with the 
 dread in which the Czar has himself lived ; isolated almost 
 from the world, by walls of granite and cordons of fierce 
 Cossacks, he yet saw in every shadow the grim visage of 
 an avenger ; his very heart was haunted and spectres of 
 assassination floated in upon him borne by the incense of 
 flowers, or the birds of wing that fluttered and chir- 
 ruped in the bowers by his window. His intercourse 
 was confined to the one trusted counsellor, Tolstoi, who 
 brought the miserable Czar news concerning his empire. 
 What a night of terror was the first two years of th« 
 new Czar's life, and even now the dawn has not yet 
 appeared. 
 
 54S M 
 
b&O 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN© 
 
 When Alexander III. took up the crown that fell from 
 his father's pallid brow, and amid the applause of the 
 feAv who were permitted to witness the ceremony, placed 
 
SXILB LITE IN SIBERIA. 551 
 
 it upon his own head, he felt its pressure like a band of 
 fire, and to obtain relief he divested himself of it by 
 going into secret retirement. He would no doubt have 
 fain remained in his almost impregnable hermitage at 
 Peterhoff, but the law was inexorable, the traditions of 
 his inheritance too sacred to admit of its non-observ- 
 ance. Both demanded that he be crowned and thereby 
 married to the holy church as a defender of the faith, 
 as well as ruler of his subjects. His sovereignty there- 
 fore depended upon a public ceremony, his coronation in 
 the sacred temple of the Holy City. Once this event 
 was advertised to take place on the 24th of August, 
 1882, but there were too many dangers threatening for 
 the Czar to trust his precious person outside the walls of 
 his well defended castle. His fears were advertised in 
 all his acts and the spirit of Nihilism seemed to grow 
 stronger and more audacious by reason of this fact. 
 
 At length the demands for his coronation were made 
 so importunately, by the requirements of his duty as 
 emperor, that another date was fixed, upon which it was 
 declared the ceremony of coronation should take place. 
 Preparations for this grand event were immediately be- 
 gun and conducted upon the most lavish, needlessly 
 expensive, plan that history has ever recorded. There 
 was wisdom in this embellishment, however, for it was 
 wisely intended to placate his easily deluded enemies. 
 A vast majority of those who are in secret rebellion 
 against the government, as is well known, are the most 
 ignorant people on earth ; they have a realizing sense of 
 their oppression, and believe themselves to be the victims 
 of a tyrannical master, because they have been told so ; 
 otherwise they might attribute their hardships to an 
 offended deity. They really have no conceptions of lib- 
 erty, more than a poetic dream of Utopia, and as a con- 
 
$62 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 W9MM>i!<'''' MM^i''^.*smmssii,ma^ 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 553 
 
 sequence their aspirations reach no further than those of 
 a child that craves a new toy. The Czar and his advi- / 
 sers, therefore, very wisely for themselves, planned the 
 coronal ceremony so as to win the good favor of these 
 hapless and ignorant people, who would be delighted if 
 a person should take money out of one of their pockets 
 and put half the sum back into another ; they would 
 regard the act of taking as a tax, and that of giving as 
 a gift. It was upon this principle that the coronation 
 Avas conducted. 
 
 The date fixed for proclaiming Alexander III. Czar, 
 was Sunday, May 27th, 1883, and the place at which the 
 imposing ceremonies would take place was announced — 
 w'th much solemnity — the Cathedral of the Holy As- 
 sumption, within the Kremlin walls. 
 
 On the morning of May 24th, a proclamation an- 
 nouncing the coronation was made by heralds-at-arms, 
 attended by several dignitaries, from a circular platform 
 before the Kremlin, which was used in ancient times for 
 the promulgation of ukases and also for executions. 
 Foreign embassadors, who had been formally apprised 
 of the time the proclamation would be issued, were pres- 
 ent, attended by a large escort. After bugle blasts from 
 the heralds the Secretary of the Senate read the procla- 
 mation, as follows : 
 
 "Our most august, high and puissant sovereign, the 
 Emperor Alexander, having ascended the hereditary 
 throne of the Empire of all the Russias, Kingdom of 
 Poland and Grand Duchy of Finland, which are insepa- 
 rable from it, has deigned, following the example of his 
 predecessors and their glorious ancestors, to command 
 that the holy solemnity of coronation and anointment, 
 in which the Empress will participate, shall, with the 
 h«lp of Almighty God, b» performed on the 27th of 
 
554 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 May. This solemn act is announced to all his Majesty's 
 faithful subjects in order that on the joyful day their 
 most fervent prayers may be offered to the King of 
 kings, and that they may beseech the Almighty to send 
 grace and blessing upon his Majesty's reign, for the 
 maintenance of peace and tranquillity, to the greater 
 glory of His holy name and the constant prosperity of 
 the empire." 
 
 Copies of the proclamation, printed on satin paper, 
 were hurled among the crowd, which struggled desper- 
 ately to obtain them. Many of them believed the pos- 
 session of a copy vi^ould entitle them to land and fortune. 
 Some policemen narrowly escaped being crushed. Un- 
 torn copies of the proclamation realized high prices. 
 
 Early in the morning of May 21st the Czar and 
 Czarina left St. Petersburg for Moscow, accomj3anied by 
 a train load of dignitaries. Withift.;fifteen minutes after 
 his morning bath, and before he had left the Winter Pal- 
 ace, an explosion occurred in the Czar's dressing-room, 
 doing much destruction to the furniture but injuring no 
 one. An infernal machine, run by clock-work, had been 
 placed in the room and set to explode about the time 
 it was thought the Czar would be at his bath, but his 
 ablutions were performed earlier than usual that morn- 
 ing', and to this fact is due his escape, but the circum- 
 stance so greatly agitated the Emperor and Empress that 
 they did not recover their composure for several days. 
 The imperial train reached Moscow at 3 o'clock in the 
 afternoon, where their majesties were received by the 
 royal guard. The Czar and Czarina stepped into a closed 
 carriage, and, surrounded by an immense guard, they 
 drove directly to the palace within the Kremlin walls ; 
 their faces were pale to ghastliness and neither spoke a 
 single word during the four mile drive, being apparently 
 absorbed with painful anticipationi. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 555 
 
 The arrangements made in Moscow for the reception 
 were upon a scale of unexampled splendor. The morn- 
 ing was someAvhat cloudy and at noon a light rain began 
 to fall, so that the streets soon became most disagreeably 
 slushy. The decorations along the route were very lav- 
 ish and ornamental. On the side of the road facing the 
 Minin and Posalsky monument was a colossal estrade, 
 the seats rising amphitheatrically. In the tiers of 
 benches were ranged 300 musicians and behind them 
 a vast concourse of provincial delegates, and at the side 
 a jo3''ous array of school children in bright summer cos- 
 tumes. The girls were interspersed among the dark 
 masses in male costume, producing a surprisingly beauti- 
 ful effect. To the right of the Minin and Posalsky 
 monument was a curious survival of the ancient Musco- 
 vite manners in the shape of a circular platform sur- 
 rounded by a bulwark, with an entrance in the center. 
 The circumference was approached by a flight of three 
 or four steps. In the midst of the platform itself there 
 were three more steps of wood, isolated, not leading 
 anywhere. From this platform in by-gone times the 
 solemn will of the Ccar was formally promulgated. It 
 was from this place the imperial herald made declaration 
 of the date of the coronation of their majesties. This 
 circular platform was f< rmerly the public scaffold. The 
 •central steps v/ere the block on which criminals knelt 
 to be beheaded. Close to this dark side of the past, 
 nearer the Kremlin, was an entire battery of artillery, 
 gunners, drivers and everything complete. Still nearer 
 the Kremlin was an ambulance bearing the cognizance of 
 the Geneva cross and a great bodj- of the clergy of the 
 Kremlin waiting to receive the Emperor. At 2 : 15 a 
 cannon was fired from the Kremlin and the clergy issued 
 from the neighboring churches in new vestments, dal- 
 
156 
 
 AUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 matics, capes and chasubles, with sacred images and 
 incense. The bells clanged out in cheerful harmony 
 with the>um of the visitors talking^ in every lano-uao-e 
 
 TH£ GREAT BEU. AT MOSCOW. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 557 
 
 Slav, Mongol, German, French and English — aided by 
 the cheers of the enthusiastic crowd and the booming of 
 cannon. All this could not drown the chiming of the 
 bells. As the cortege approached the bells grew louder, 
 the censers swung in air, drums rolled and the bands 
 struck up. Then came the Cossack guard of the Empe- 
 ror in Circassian frocks with shapkas of black astrakan 
 and faced with orange cloth, with rifles carried on their 
 hips. After these came two squadrons of Don Cossacks 
 in scarlet ancTtwo squadrons of the Dragoon guards of 
 Moscow. When these had passed a novel sight appeared. 
 Delegates from all the Asiatic tributar}^ tribes approached 
 two and two ; Kirghiz w:arriors in cloth of gold and pur- 
 ple ; Mongols with jellow faces and dark blue gowns ; 
 Georgians, Kalmucks and Tartars of every grade, in 
 silks, satins, turbans and caps of every shape and color 
 in fur, lambskin and brocade. These had scarcely passed 
 when the sight was dazzled by a long serpentine line of 
 gold which resolved itself into a number of imperial lac- 
 queys of the household. Behind these were four running 
 footmen in the old grenadier hat and feathers, carrying 
 large canes. Then came four giant negroes in full Ori- 
 ental suits and chasseurs without end in scarlet, green 
 and gold. These preceded the first rank of state car- 
 riages. Six white horses drew the first one, the animals 
 caparisoned with bullion in relief. Postillions in three- 
 cornered hats, and grooms were by each horse, and run- 
 ning footmen by each wheel. Six cream-white horses 
 drew the next, six black horses the next, and still came 
 four more state coaches, each of more elaborate orna- 
 ment and wealth. But the greater attraction of the 
 gorgeous Chevalier Guard drove the other wonders out 
 of notice. They were attired in white tunics with 
 gold cuirasses and polished casques, on which dazzling 
 
558 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 silver eagles opened their brilliant wings. The front 
 rank of each section bore lances on which red and white 
 pennons fluttered. The rear rank carried swords. These 
 splendid cavalrymen, 300 in number, preceded the Em- 
 peror, who now approached and was received with deaf- 
 ening shouts by the worshipping crowds. The Emperor's 
 dress was the dark green uniform of a Cossack General 
 with a black wool cap on his head. He saluted the 
 shouting people or crossed himself as he passed the holy 
 pictures, and with his young princes near him and the 
 Duke of Edinburgh a little to the left, paced on, fol- 
 lowed by his staff of two hundred men of every regi- 
 ment, nation and uniform it is possible to imagine. 
 Eight white horses, veiled in cascades of gold fringe 
 and ridden by postillions, drew the splendid vehicle in 
 which the handsome young Empress was seated in her 
 imperial robes. She wore the Russian tiara. Her car- 
 riage was worthy of note not only for the detail and 
 lavish decoration in crimson velvet of the roof and 
 painted panels, but because it was built for the Great 
 Catherine and used at her coronation. The stage coach 
 which bore the Duchess of Edinburgh was nearly as fine. 
 It was adorned with pictures of nymphs and cupids of 
 gold. The pageant was a magnificent success. It filed 
 slowly through the double portal of the Voskressensky 
 gate, past the northeastern face of the Kremlin which 
 was adorned with shields of cities, provinces and nation- 
 alities. Along the route were many American flags. 
 The procession passed along the face of the grand stand, 
 containing upward of 10,000 persons, and in front of 
 the renowned Church of St. Basil, with its extraordinary 
 cluster of towers and domes, and near that spot entered 
 the Kremlin. 
 
 Their majesties remained for three days in the Krem- 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 559 
 
 lin Palace, in fasting and prayer, according to ancient 
 custom. 
 
 Moscow was crowded as it never was before, there be- 
 inff more than a. half million of visitors to witness the 
 imposing pageant through the streets and the demonstra- 
 tions that were prepared to be made after the ceremonies 
 closed. The Kremlin presented a gorgeous appearance, 
 every building within its enclosure being newly painted 
 with three coats of white, the fortifications were green 
 and the several entrances were rose-tinted, while the great 
 domes were regilded with gold. Windows along the 
 route rented for as much as $500, but all who occupied 
 them were required to submit to an examination of their 
 persons, that no concealed bombs might be secreted 
 about them. Even oranges were prohibited from being 
 carried about lest they might be an innocent covering to 
 a dynamite bomb. 
 
 On Sunday morning, May 27th, the procession formed 
 at the cavalry barracks, four miles from the Kremlin. 
 Preceding the procession were sixty heralds on cream col- 
 ored horses commanded by a general, who, when he 
 reached the gates of the barracks, blew a salute. The col- 
 onel at the barracks asked the commander for his order. 
 To this, response was given : " The Czar commands thee 
 to follow me." 
 
 In compliance with this the gates were thrown wide 
 open and the regiment followed the heralds to the Lan- 
 cers' barracks, thence to the university, to the cathedral 
 of St. Nicholas for the clergy ; thence to the courts for the 
 Judges ; thence to the headquarters of the marshals of 
 the nobility, the staff officers, professions, governors, pre- 
 fects, trade guilds, deputations, etc., at each of which 
 the same ceremony took place. The procession being 
 now made up, it marched to the Kremlin, its length being 
 
560 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AHD 
 
 fully four miles. When the commandant of the hemlds 
 arrived at St. Demitrius gate another blast of the trum- 
 pet was given. This brought out the commander of the 
 citidel who asked what they demanded. To this there 
 was a great shout, "THE CZAR." 
 
 ** And for what do you want him?" 
 
 " To crown him the most powerful of the powerful," 
 was the reply, whereupon the gates were opened to ad- 
 mit the procession. 
 
 The Metropolitans (chief priests) of Mc/Gcow, Kieff, 
 Kazan and Novgorod (ancient capitals) here took up po- 
 sitions at the head of the procession, and with deputa- 
 tions from all parts of the empire advanced to the palace 
 and formed in front of it. The deputations consisted of 
 Russians, Roumanians, Kirghees, Chinese, Mingielians, 
 Bashkirs, Poles, Georgians, Circassians, Calmucks, Ar- 
 menians, Turkomans, Tartars, Esquimaux, Afghans, Bul- 
 garians, Laplanders, Mongolians, Finns, Persians and 
 Bokharians, all in their respective national costumes. 
 The Metropolitans called upon the Czar to come forward, 
 upon which he appeared on the portico, dressed in the 
 uniform of a colonel of the Imperial Guards, with the 
 Empress, dressed as a Russian peasant, on his aVm. The 
 instant the deputations were aware of the Imperial pres- 
 ence they knelt, and, being asked by the Czar what they 
 desired of him, the Metropolitan of Moscow answered 
 that they had been sent from afar and wide to see their 
 Czar anointed, so that they could return to their homes 
 and assure those who sent them that the Czar is verily 
 the Lord's anointed and that they may obey none but 
 him. Thence all proceeded to the Cathedral of the Holy 
 Assumption, the Czar and Czarina walking between the 
 bishops and deputations, for the ceremony of the corona- 
 tion. 
 
BXILB LIFJI IS glBEBIA. 561 
 
 When the imperial procession started it was made 
 known to those inside the Cathedral by a renewed ringing 
 of bells, by sonorous music from scores of bands and 
 by shouts from those outside. As the royal pair ap- 
 peared at the doors of the palace the immense multitude 
 immediately uncovered their heads and burst into loud 
 acclamations. Even women were bonnet-bare, and the 
 enthusiasm was unaffected as it was spontaneous and 
 hearty. At the head of the royal procession, which now 
 entered the Kremlin, was the master of ceremonies, 
 flanked by heralds richly clad and mounted on pure white 
 horses. It was of immense length, and composed of 
 deputies from the Asiatic States of the empire, students 
 of the university, clergy, judges, nobility and prefects 
 from every section of the empire. When its front rank 
 reached the doors of the palace it was met by the Emper- 
 or, wearing the white uniform of a colonel of the Impe- 
 rial Guards, and by the Empress, dressed in the Eussian 
 national costume of black velvet, richly embroidered with 
 diamonds, and girdled with a magnificent belt of precious 
 stones. The Empress leaned on the arm of her royal 
 consort. The pair placed themselves beneath the canopy 
 richly wrought in silk and gold, and borne by thirty-two 
 Generals of high military rank. They then took their 
 places near the head of the procession, being directly 
 after the regalia. At this moment the entire body of 
 clergy emerged from the cathedral in order to meet the 
 regalia, which they publicly sprinkled with holy water 
 and perfumed with incense. 
 
 Upon entering the portals of the cathedral the Emperor 
 and Empress were received by the Metropolitan of Mob- 
 cow, and Metropolitans of Novogorod and Keiff, who pre- 
 sented the cross to be kissed and sprinkled with holy 
 waUr, first by the Emperor and then the EmpresA. Be- 
 
562 
 
 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 fore sacred images, which flanked the doors of tue cathe-. 
 dral, they knelt and bowed their heads, after which they 
 
 THE ROYAL, KEGALIA. 
 
 were conducted to the ancient thrones of ivory and sil- 
 ver. Alexander occupied the ancient throne of the Czar 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 5G3 
 
 Vladimir of Monomague, while the Empress was seated 
 in the armchair, gilded and encrusted with jewels. The 
 thrones were placed upon a dais, erected between two 
 middle columns of the cathedral. Over the dais was a 
 canopy of scarlet velvet, suspended from a rich roof em- 
 broidered with gold and lined with silver brocade, which 
 was worked with the arms of Russia and all her depend- 
 encies in the most ingenious maimer. In front of the 
 throne were two tables covered vvith gold cloth, upon 
 which were placed the crowns, orb and scepter. None 
 but foreign princes were accommodated with seats. Rus- 
 sian princes and dignitaries stood during the entire cere- 
 mony, according to the custom of the Greeks. The dig- 
 nitaries of the realm, who were carrying the standard 
 and seals of the empire, took their stand upon the steps 
 of the dais. 
 
 After their Majesties had been seated the Metropolitan 
 of Novgorod asked the Emperor in a loud and distinct 
 voice, " Are you a true believer? " 
 
 The Emperor, falling on his knees, read in reply, in a 
 clear voice, the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed 
 of the Greek Church, the Meti'opolitan responding, 
 "May the grace of the Holy Ghost remain with thee." 
 Descended from the dais, the following customary sum- 
 mons was then three times repeated by the Bishop : 
 
 "If there be any of you here present knowing any 
 impediment for which Alexander, son of Alexander, 
 should not be crowiled by the Grace of God Emperor 
 and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, of Kieff, of 
 Veadetmir, of Novgorod, Czar of Kazan, of Astrak- 
 han, of Poland, of Siberia, of Kherson, Taurida of 
 Grousi, Geosoudar 5f Pskoff, Grand Duke of Smolensk, 
 of Lithuania, of Volheznia, of Podolonia and of Finland, 
 Prince of Esthonia, of Livonia, of Courtlaud, of Semi- 
 
HI 
 
 XUWIAX KIHILISM AS1> 
 
 galia, of the Samoyedes, of Bielostok, of Corena, of 
 Foer, of Ingor, of Perm, of Viatka, of Bulgaria, and 
 
 of other countries ; Master and Grand Duke of the lower 
 oountrie* in Novgorod, of Tchernigoff, of Riazau, oi 
 
EXILE LIFE im SIBERIA. 565 
 
 Polotka, of Eostoff, of Jarostoff, of Bielosersk, of Ou- 
 dorke, of Kontizk, of Vitelsk, of Mstilaff, and of all 
 the countries of the North ; Master Absolute of Iversk, 
 of Kastainisk, of Kabardinsk, and of the territory of 
 Armenia; Sovereign of Mountain Princes, of Tiaherk- 
 ask, Master of Turkestan, heir presumptive of Norway 
 and Duke of Sleswick-Holstein, of Stormaine, of Dith- 
 marse, and of Oldenburg, let him come forward in the 
 name of the Holy Trinity and show what the impediment 
 is, or let him remain dumb forever." 
 
 After reading selections from the gospe , the Metropol- 
 itans of Novgorod and Kieff again ascended the dais 
 and invested the Emperor with the Imperial Mantle of 
 ermine, the Metropolitan of Moscow saying at the sam« 
 time : *' Cover and protect thy people as this robe pro- 
 tects and covers thee." 
 
 The Emperor responded : "I will, I will, I will, God 
 helping." 
 
 The Metropolitan of Novgorod, crossing his hands 
 upon the head of the Emperor, then invoked the bene- 
 diction of Almighty God upon him and his reign, and 
 delivered to Alexander III. the crown of Kussia, who 
 placed it upon his own head, and, assuming the scepter 
 and orb, took his seat upon the throne. He then re- 
 signed the insignia of his title to dignitaries appointed to 
 receive them, and called the Empress, who knelt before 
 him. He touched her head lightly with the crown of the 
 Emperor, and then formally crowned her with her own 
 crown. The expression and attitude of the Empress as 
 she knelt was one of sympathy with her royal husband 
 and touched deeply the audience. The Czar preserved 
 throughout a grave and decorous dignity and nobleness 
 of demeanor, which provoked the admiration of all. Af- 
 ter the Empress had been duly invested with the imperial 
 36 
 
563 
 
 ISUSSIAN^ NIHILISM A1TI> 
 
 mantle, and their Majesties were yetiteu on their thrones, 
 the Archdeacon intoned the imperial titles, and sang, 
 «*Doinine Salvum fac Imperatorem," which was taken 
 
 THE EMPEROR CROWNING THE EMPRESS. 
 
EXILE LIFE m SIBERIA. 567 
 
 up and thrice repeated by the choir. Directly this part 
 of the ceremony was finished, the bells of all the churches 
 in Moscow rang out in chorus, a salute of 101 guns was 
 fired, and inside the cathedral members of the imperial 
 family tendered their congratulations to their Majesties, 
 The Emperor then knelt and recited a prayer, at the 
 end of which the clergy and all knelt before the Empe- 
 ror. The Bishop of Moscow said aloud, in behalf of the 
 nation, a fervent prayer for the happiness of their Maj- 
 esties. Shouts of '' Long live the Emperor" then rent 
 the cathedral, and were taken up by thousands outside 
 and carried from mouth to mouth, until that part of the 
 multitude who were unable to get inside even the ample 
 acreage of the Kremlin caught the sound and waved in a 
 huge volume of human gi^atulation to the remotest parts 
 of the city, when it was speedily made known to all the 
 world that another Czar of the Kussiashad been crowned. 
 The cathedral choir then sang Te Deum, after which 
 the Emperor ungirded his sword, and, accompanied by 
 the Empress and numerous dignitaries, proceeded to the 
 gate of the sanctuary. There the Metropolitan of Nov- 
 gorod anointed the Emperor's forehead, eyelids, nos- 
 trils, lips, ears, breast and hands, at the same time ex- 
 claiming, " Behold the seal of the Holy Ghost, may it 
 keep thee ever holy." The Empress was anointed on the 
 forehead. Both partook of the sacrament and then left 
 the cathedral, wearing their crowns and mantles, the Em- 
 peror also bearing the scepter and orb. After praying in 
 the Cathedral of Michael the Archangel their Majesties 
 returned to the palace, escorted by a procession, which 
 presented even a more splendid sight than that which es- 
 corted them to the cathedral, being now augmented by the 
 gorgeous state carriages of the imperial family. Ban- 
 ners waved from all points in the Kremlin and the whole 
 
99% RTT88IAN lOHILISM ATTD 
 
 route of the procession fairly glowed with bright draper- 
 ies and hangings. The Emperor re-entered the palace 
 by the celebrated red stair-case, whence laws were an- 
 ciently promulgated. There he turned and saluted the 
 people, who immediately uncovered their heads, cheering 
 enthusiastically and blessing the Czar. 
 
 The Imperial banquet began at 3 :30 p. m., in the hall 
 called the Granovitaia Palata. This hall was specially 
 restored for the occasion, and was splendidly decorated 
 with cloth of gold. The Emperor and Empress, wearing 
 their crowns, sat at separate tables on thrones of unequal 
 height. Their Majesties were served by distinguished 
 nobles, acting as cup-bearers, carvers, etc. The first 
 toast was *' His Majesty, the Emperor," followed by a 
 salute of sixty-one guns. The next was •' Her Majesty, 
 the Empress," followed by fifty-one guns. The third 
 was, "The Imperial Household," followed by thirty-one 
 guns, and the fourth was, " The clergy and faithful sub- 
 jects," followed by twenty-one guns. Foreign princes 
 and diplomates stood during the first course and after- 
 ward, in accordance with ancient custom, withdrew to a 
 separate repast. The weather was fine throughout the 
 day, and everything passed off successfully. Silver to- 
 kens in memory of the day were distributed in twenty 
 Moscow churches at night. 
 
 The Czar's manifesto was issued in the evening, and was 
 a document of very considerable length. The manifesto 
 announced a continuance of the present state of affairs in 
 Russia, conditional pardon of Poles, remission of penal- 
 ties for non-political offenses and other matters. Crowds 
 besieged the printing office to obtain copies, the perusal 
 of which caused great rejoicing. 
 
 The Czar addressed the following rescript to De Qirs, 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs : 
 
EXILB LIFB IN SIBERIA, 569 
 
 ** The great power and glory acquired by Russia 
 thanks to Divine Providence, the extent of her empire 
 
 ILLUMINATION AT MOSCOW IN HONOR OF THE CORONATION. 
 
 and her numerous population, leave no room forany idaft 
 o< further conquests. My solicitude i« exduaivelj^ da* 
 
570 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AN1> 
 
 voted to the peaceable development of thft, c6utiti-j and 
 its prosperity, to the preservation of friendly relations 
 with foreign powers on the basis of existing treaties, and 
 to the maintenance of the dignity of the empire. Having 
 found in you a constant, zealous and useful colaborator 
 for the promotion of these views in the direction of our 
 international relations, I confer upon you my order of 
 St. Alexander Nevski, in diamcnds, as a testimony of 
 my gratitude." 
 
 Before their Majesties left the palace the route to the 
 cathedral was sprinkled with holy water. A heavy rain 
 fell before they started, but just as they took 
 their places under the canopy the sun shone brilliantly. 
 In the cathedral it was noticed that when the Czar knelt 
 alone to utter a prayer of intercession his eyes filled with 
 tears and he sobbed audibly as he read. lii making a 
 profession of faith the Czar's voice was grandly resonant. 
 The Metropolitan of Novgorod almost broke down in 
 delivering his allocution. 
 
 Mounted Cossacks patrolled every street, and troops 
 lining the route of the procession remained bareheaded 
 the whole morning. Those unable to obtain admission 
 to the Kremlin remained outside on their knee-;, close to 
 the walls, during the best part of the day, praj: ng for the 
 Czar. A correspondent a-' ho witnessed the greatest pa- 
 geants during the last thirty-five years says t!ie spectacle 
 culminatnig in the advent of their Majesties, crowned 
 and robed, was the most imposing and splendid he ever 
 beheld. 
 
 The cost of the coronation is estimated at $10,000,000, 
 which was covered by the issue of treasury bills. 
 Only thirteen newspaper correspondents were allowed 
 inside the cathedral during the ceremony — six Eussian, 
 and seven foreign > the latter including one English and 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 571 
 
 one American correspondent. An academy professor 
 ttnd twelve Russian artists were appointed to make a 
 complete album of the events of the coronation. 
 
 IMPERIAL CROWN OF RUSSIA. 
 
 The Czar's crown dates from the period of Emperor 
 Paul I., and is valued at $1,500,000. 
 
 A festival and illumination, such as were proba- 
 bly never seen before, followed the coronation. The 
 
572 EUSSIAN NIHILISM ANB 
 
 people seemed to have lost their wits and were in a delir- 
 ium of joy ; not particularly because the Czar had been 
 crowned, but because their ebullient feeling-s were first ex- 
 cited and then allowed to work off without restraint. 
 
 The Moujiks. (poor peasant people) while they were 
 not permitted to witness the coronation of their sover- 
 eign, were provided for in a way which stimulated them 
 to make a demonstration even greater than might have 
 been expected on such an occasion. 
 
 The vast Chodynski plains were covered with booths, 
 tents and barracks, for the accommodation of the people 
 generally. Drink and food were distributed free from 
 one hundi! 1 and twenty baggage cars. Every Moujik 
 received an earthenware jug stamped with the Imperial 
 Eagle and date of the coronation. These jugs were filled 
 with beer as often as called for. In addition to this, each 
 person received two lucat pics and an . 'uinclance of can- 
 dies, dried i'ruits and cakes. There ^vcrc also four large 
 theatres erected in which performances ^^cro given free to 
 the populace, the pieces played being taken from the an- 
 cient St. Vladimir series, which included syml;olic allu- 
 sions to the coronation. There were also twelve combined 
 military bands with twtlve singing companies, giving 
 open air concerts. Salamonsky, the Barnum of Russia, 
 gave a grand hippodrome performance to the people at 
 the Crown's expense. At Sonolinsky'^ park, three miles 
 from the city, a rotunda was built capable of seating 
 three thousand people, besides a separate saloon for ,the 
 court; tables were also arranged to seat ten thousand 
 persons. This place continued open for three nights, en- 
 tertaining the peasants with music, songs, beer and an 
 abundance of edibles. The place was beautifully illumi- 
 nated with many-colored lanterns suspended from the 
 branches of the trees and made the park look like a place 
 of •nchantment. 
 
EXILE LIFE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 573 
 
 jjiMiiiilM 
 
574 RUSSIAN NIHILISM AND 
 
 It was by this liberal provision for the poorer class 
 that the Czar sought to conciliate them, and how well he 
 succeeded is illustrated by his safe return tg St, Peters- 
 burg and his occasional appearance on the streets of that 
 city — in an impenetrable disguise. 
 
 The costly display made at the coronation is already 
 reacting upon the Czar and his counsellor^ the effect be- 
 ing rather to intensify the hatred previously shown for 
 the autocrat. It served to illustrate to his poverty- 
 stricken subjects the magnificent splendor in which their 
 sovereign lives, and contrasted so severely with their own 
 miserable condition that ihey have already forgotton the 
 meat-pies, jugs of beer and fetes given them at Moscow. 
 The agriculturist, who pays all of Kussia's taxes, turns 
 back at times from his rude plow to wonder why he is so. 
 oppressed ; he sees nothing but approaching starvation, 
 and even the carrion birds seem to follow in his furrow 
 in daily expectation of the feast which his body must 
 furnish them. This is a true picture of Russia's poor , 
 Let us thank God the more fervently for our blessed He 
 public. 
 
\ 
 
 \