The Siberian Exiles OR A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 241, 16 October 1906, Page 6

The Siberian Exiles OR A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

By COL. THOMAS W. KNOX dittkor of " Overland Through Asia," " The Boy Travellers '* etc., etc.

CHAPTER XXV. THE HUNGER STRIKE. Until the hour when the flogging was performed the prisoners expected to be :ompelled to witness it. They had agreed that if they were ordered out they would go, but each man was to stand with eyes shut, and his fingers n his ears, provided ho was not handcuffed, while the flogging took place. S"o plan was formed for offering resistance, as it was plain that they would 30 shot down in case of failure to do is they were ordered. 'There's an old adage," said Pushkin, 'that one man ma> lake a horse to rrater, but ten can't make him drink." "Yes," replied one. who wag standing icar him, "they may compel us to go jut, but we will not see or hear what ;akes place." "If they handcuff us we will have to lear the sound of the plet as it falls," said Dubayelf. "We will stuff our ears with pellets 3f dough frein our bread, ,, said one, of ;he party, "and can do it when we are jrdprcd into the yard where the hand,'uffijig will take place." Rye bread, commonly called black Dread (chorley kleb) in Russia, is a vfry ilastic material, and the listeners readJy saw that its use in the manner suggested was feasible. Happily there was

no occasion to try it. Many of the prisoners whose tastes arp artistic devote their time to fashion-

ing little statuettes and other figures out of the black bread, which forms an important part of their rations. The

Pushkin suggested that a last, opportunity should be given to the commandant to cease his barbarity, and he volunteered to be the spokesman for the despairing men. So, when the guard came ion its next round of inspection, he told I the officer in command that he had a j petition to make on behalf of all the prisoners, and not on his own account. In a little while the officer returned, accompanied by two soldiers, and Pushkin was escorted to the commandant's room. The commandant looked up from I some papers he was examining and gruffly said: "Well, what do you want?" "We ask that your Excellency will remove the partitions that were recently put up in the kameras, and restore us to the conditions under which we lived before the attempt to escape was made. ,We feel that we have been sufficiently punished for violating the rules of the prison, and will give our word of honor that no further attempt to escape will be made while we are here." '■'That's what you want, is it?" said the commander with a sneer. "Go j back, and say that the prison conditions I will not be changed, and every man will Ibe flogged if another petition is sent i here. The one who brings it will be J the first for the flogging and get a I thousand blows of the plet." j Pushkin was taken back to the cell, I where he repeated the words of the comImandanr. . Then the word passed about.

, writer has seen many of these works ' of exile hands; one of the. best he re- ( members was shown to him at Chita, and , consisted of a sot of chessmen, wholly , J made of the material described. It was the work of a Polish exile, and had been purchased by one of the officers of ' i the garrison. One of the ways of adding to the unhappiness of prisoners is a,u order occasionally issued in Russian prisons, forbidding the inmates to indulge in any artistic work of this .sort. Tho object lof the. order has no other purpose than to enforce absolute idleness regardless of the result. But if the prisoners at Kara, were not i compelled to witness the punishment of , their recent companions, they were treated with, the greatest rigour. ,On the day following the incident just described, they were ordered into the yard early in the morning, and carpenters were set to work erecting partitions in the kameras, so as , to convert each of them into three or four cells. The prisoners were then divided into squads of six or eight, and a cell was assigned to each squad. There ttos no chance to walk about, as the sleeping benches occupied the greater part of the space; not move than three steps could be taken in any direction, and tlie prisoners had their choice to lie or sift on the benches, or stand in . the narrow space left between the foot oi a bench and the wall. They were allowed no bedding of any kind; they had their prison clothing and nothing nriore. Their food which had been scanty enough, and wretched in ■ quality, was reduced; Jbey were not a I lowed to exercise in the yard, in fact. they were not allowed to go outside their narrow colls on any account whatlever. Life under such condition!; \va% I unbearable, and the men set about plann- ! ing a revolt. "It is better to be shot down at once and make an end of things, than endure this treatment," said one of them. "Yes."' &nid another; "I'm ready for anything, uo matter how desperate!" . Various plans were proposed. One I suggested that each should watch his .opportunity to strike an oflSccr, and be (shot or hanged for this oliuioe; but it . was decided that thi.-s was impracticable, for tho reason that opportunities for doing so would be rare, and it would take a long time for the scheme, to be carried out. Another proposed that they should tear up •. the benches, and use the planks as weapons with which to attack the soldiers, the attack to-be made simultaneously in all parts of the prison, just as the doors were locked for the night. But the same, objections were raised to this as to the previous plan. ''I have it!" exclaimed another. "Yes! what?" "Set fire to the prison and bum ourselves and our guards together. The building is so watersoaked try the rains and by the ooze from the marshy I grounds it stands on, that if it burns at all it will burn slowly. The riuanjs can easily put the fire out, or, if they do not, they can stand by and see us roasted, while they stand ready to capture us in case we escape 'iron: the flames. :! The proposition did not meet with favour, partly 011 account of its impracticability and partly because of the horror possessed by the whole human rade at such a form of death. Of all the savage, methods of taking life that by burning at the stake is regarded as the most fiendish. There was a pause, and at length Dubayeff spoke. His face was pale, and it was easy to see that his words were momentous. "Brothers," said he, "v/o are in our last extremity. There 13 only one mode of remonstrance left." He paused again. Xo one spoke. It was two or three minutes before ho continued. "We have nothing left but tho hunger strike." Thfr rest assented, and the word was passed through the other cells, partly by means of their voices and partly through the aid of the knock alphabet. The proposal was agreed to, and the hunger strike was to begin on the following morning.

and it was ogrced that the hunger strike should begin on the following morning.

■> The golodotka, or "hunger strike," is • an attempt of the prisoners to bring j their authorities to terms by refusing ' food and dying of hunger unless their . demands are met. It is the last reI I sort in Russian prisons; when everything else has failed, the golodofka succeed?. "Our masters are a strange race of men." said Dubayoff to Pushkin, as they were discussing the subject one day. Though they have abandoned the death penalty in the Civil Code, and are constantly boasting of their humanity i-i this regard, they permit men and women to be hanged or shot by order of courtsi martial. They boast of having abolished ' the. knout, but they flog and kill with the plet; they put men in solitary confinement, and let them difi a lingering death in the fortresses of St. Petersburg, and in other prisons; they kill us with scanty food and wretched lodgings that they would consider unfit for i a dog or pig; they see us perish of consumption, fever and other diseases, which any man knows are caused by the conditions into which we arc forced; they drive us into the winter's cold with insufficient clothing; see us devoured by vermin; deprive us of employment: will not allow us to read, write or study, and so force us into insanity; and torture us in other ways that shorten our lives. But when prisoners have to starve themselves as a protest ngahist extreme cruelty, they have invariably earned their point.' , * j On the morning following the. making of the agreement the food that was brought to the prisoners in the cells, or kameras. was handed back untouched to the warders. The men sat. or lay, on the sleeping benches, and talked * with ore another in low tones. Somo had already fhown signs of insanity, and as j hunger made itself manifest, the signs I increased. Their language was incoherent ; • -.oine babbled incessantly, while others became moody aud spoke but rarely. The warders reported to the commandant that the prisoners refused their food. .'•They'll be tired of that soon enough," I was his comrnnnt. "Take it to them regularly, at the exact time they've been accustomed to get it." His orders were obeyed, but the men remained firm. All that day. and the, next, aud the next, and still they refused. Then ':the commandant became alarmed. He sent an officer to Bay to the prisoners that if they would end the hunger strike at once, he would see what could bo done towards meeting their demands. This was a vague promise, to-which the men listened in silence. The officer did as he was ordered and retired to make his report. At the next service of food the prisoners saw that the articles were of better quality than usual, and more liberal in quanti-

ty. but they refused as before. On the fifth day the commandant came in person and offered to telegraph to the Minister of the Interior in their behalf, provided they would declare the -strike at an end., and receive, the food which was waiting for them in the prison kitchen. He addresser himself directly to Pushkin, evidently recognising him as the leader, and assured him that there had never been any intention of flogging the entire party, or himself, tho threat having been made merely for the purpose of frightening them into obedience to orders. "I have no authority to act for my comrades in this matter. - ' Pushkin replied. "I did not suggest the hunger strike, and therefore cannot advise that it be stopped." "Who did suggest it?" asked the commandant, in a tone of anger. ''I must decline to answer Your Excellency's question," replied the prisoner. Tlip.n the commandant, turned on his heel and left the kauiern-. Ho immediately telegraphed to the minister that the political prisoners had made a hunger strike. He asked for instructions, and stated in the customary brevity of the telegraph, the demands that had been made. He waited anxiously for the minister's response, which did not c-ome until just as the sun -was setting behiud the hills that enclosed the. valley of the Kara, river. (To be continued daily.)