RUSSIAN PRISONS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 727, 28 January 1910, Page 5

RUSSIAN PRISONS.

• -■ . * : - / A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THEIR ' HORRORS. • At a meeting of the Fabian Society at the: Memorial Hall, London, last month; Madame . Vera Figner addressed a large audience, with Mr. Aylmer Maude in the chair. Madame ■ Figner; delivered :-her speech in English, and she asked the audience to exouse her imperfect pronunciation,/ as, she had' onl-y; studied, ' the la'n- . guage unaided in a cell of tho Fortress' of. Schiusselburg.,She went; on to describe how, as quite a young girl, she- had been touched by. the exceeding misery of the', peasants .upon her father's estate, and how, having studied medicine'in; Switzerland with the desire: to alleviate their sufferings,, she rofurned'. to Russia and fettled among them as a doctor. At that time; her only ideal was to devote her life/to helping the people: by; peaceful methods. But the Russian Government, -jealous, of every-,effort.towards the en-", lightenment/of the.peasants, placed;every; obstacle in the way of her work amongst .them, and at length."forced her on the revolutionary path. less than : a year of medical activity she had to leave that part of tho; country; to avoid imprisonment./. . .. :; ■ , :. '-. ■Madame Figner. eventually Joined the revolutionary party called the of . the People/ which soon became the most powerful organisation:; in Russia;. ■ / But One .by. one .the .leaders'/were'...arrestedi until.. Vera Figner, at the 'age of twenty-five,-was sold to the .Government by^a traitor for the sum' of .£IOOO. She: was'kept for. .two year 9 in solitary 'confinement, in the fortress of St. • Peter, aiid -Paul,; waiting .her ' trial, at which sho/ was condemned .to death.. The .sen-, tence was'afterwards-commuted to lifelong, /imprisonment in /the fortress of Schlussolb'urg', from which she was finally released by the general amnesty of .1905— after 22 years ■•' of. solitary - confinement. After./that, for two;years she was ' exiled to the shores of the . Arctic Ocean. . "I have often been' asked," said Madame Figner, '-'what "life in Schlussel■burg was like. I can 'tell-' you it was such that '28 of the/ 40/ prisoners kept there- perished 'from madness, -'disease/ or siiioide, during the first five years." For .22 years , the , prisoners/never saw a : creature from' the outside world, for 12 years they'never spoke, to a living being, nor read/any • book but .the Bible.. Three prisoners were shot for protesting' against this :regime, and it was . only , after , the horrible suicide, of Grachessky, / who -burnt himself alive in his cell, the conditions were -slightly ameliorated. The horror of ' the situation was augmented by the fact that the mad and the dying were left absolutely unattended. / Madamo Figner concluded .her speech by/saying that the. present, condition of things/in Russia is -worse 'than it. had ever . been before.'' In answer to a question asked :by one of., tho audience, • Dr. Soskice : explained that the reason that-the death.sentence was. commuted to'life-long imprisonment ivas that; tho' Tsar Alexander . 11l was anxious to impress the' world at- largei with his .humane behaviour, so that at that -. time/it was a frequent , occurrence to pass death.; sentences; only; in.'/ order .that .they, should be: afterwards , commuted. . ;. x ',"';. ,:-//,:.