ARREST OF RUSSIAN CONSPIRATORS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1909, 7 April 1880, Page 2

ARREST OF RUSSIAN CONSPIRATORS.

A correspondent of the " Standard " has telegraphed from St. Petersburg the following account of a struggle with Nihilists in that city :—" A police officer in the Liteina district, holding the rank of pomoshtnik, having heard that three men and two women were living in a certain house under suspicious circumstances, determined to effect|a surprise. On Frid:-T morning, at two o'c-10-k, accompanied by an okololcchnik, or sub-officer, and several policemen, ho proceeded to the house in question. Having posted some of the men on the back staircase, he went up to the apartment alone, and knocked at the door. "Kto tam ?" (who is there) was tho answer. " A telegram," said the officer. The door was opened, and the police being recognised, several shots were fired. The officer closed the door instantly and held it with all his might, whilst a messenger was despatched to Gendarmerie Barracks for help. Meanwhile, those inside recognised their danger, and made a desperate attempt to escape. They fired several Bhots,'both through the door and from a small window overlooking the staircase. The officer was struck in the hand by a bullet which passed through the door ; but the cloud of smoke and tho darkness obscured the police, and probably saved their lives. Upon help arriving the pomoshtnik took the offensive,

and dashed into the corridor, revolver in hand, followed by the gendarmes. As the roomwas full of smoke he groped round tho walls, and succeeded in opening the window. The draught cleared the atmosphere, and in the centre of the room were seen two men and two girls, who, finding escape hopeless, and their ammunition baiug expended, surrender d t>t discretion. Immediately afterwan)a a single Bhut was heard in the adjoining room, and, upon entering it, a third man was found dead on tho floor, having blown out his brains. General Gourko, the Governor, and M. Guroff, the Prefect of the town, arrived uhortly, wheu a search was instituted, which led to the discovery of two presses, a quantity of " brochures," proclamations, falsified documents, and a complete issue of the revolutionary journal " Navodaja Volya" (the "Will of t:ie People':); also poisjns aud explosives. The officer of the police received at once the Order of Bt. Vladimir and a step in promotion. The Ordor of St. Vladimir is, after tho Cross of So. George, the most coveted decoration in Russia, carryir g with it, as it does, many privileges, amongst them the rank of noble in the higher grade of the hereditary nobility, and the education of the bearer's children at he expea3o of ihp Statu.