THE REIGN OF TERROR IN RUSSIA.

Kumara Times, Issue 869, 14 July 1879, Page 4

THE REIGN OF TERROR IN RUSSIA.

Simultaneously with the announcement of repressive measures a fresh budget of horrors is transmitted from St. Petersburg. At Archangel a young nobleman named Robochoff has been sentenced to death for shooting a policeman in the neighboring village. Robochoff, a student in St. Petersburg University, two years ago was banished to Archangel for taking part in disorderly proceedings then rampant among the young scholars of the capital. After a prolonged stay in the far north, he attempted to escape, was arrested, and before he could be placed in prison he shot one of his captors. He has been hanged. The other day a petard was exploded in a public square of St. Petersburg, which wounded a Cossack officer. A few days ago the Detective Baranowski was shot in the streets of Kieff by one Ovtchinkoff, a political offender. Ovtchinkoff has disappeared. Odessa was placed under military law even a few days before the promulgation of the Imperial ukase. The announcement was succeeded by the posting up of revolutionary placards, headed “Terror for terror,” threatening universal rebellion at an early date. General Gourko has met with a serious obstacle in the way of his celebrated repressive measures. It should be mentioned that not the least remarkable of these was the order to place a watchman before every door in the capital. The Nihilists have how posted a proclamation, under the very nose of the police, threatenng all who take service as special watchmen with death, the consequence of which is that no men can be found willing to accept the dangerous posts, and it is almost certain that if the decree is to be carried out a military sentinel will have to be placed at the door of every house. The air of St. Petersburg is full of wild rumors of fresh assassinations and revolutionary plots. Great consternation was caused the other day by the arrest of a peasant with a letter In bis pocket, containing a plan for an attack on the Winter Palace and the Port of St Peter and St Paul. The result of this has been the calling out of the entire garrison under the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, while the revolutionists are doubtless onjoying their grim hoax. It is stated that the heir-apparent has received several anonymous letters advising him to leave the country if he wishes to maintain a neutral position in the “coming revolution.” The trial of the three Russian students on a charge of disturbing public order has resulted in two of them being sentenced to nine and one to four months’ imprisonment. General Gourko’a measures have evidently done more harm than good, and such is the dissatisfaction a: the Uniuersities that the students are leaving their classes en masse, and it is probable that these institutions will have to shut up. A young man in the full uniform of a procurateur’s secretary called on the Governor-General of Charkow. Courteously saluting, said he, “M. the Procurateurbegs your Excellency to be so good as to come at once to his office.” Anything very important?” was the answer. “We are on the track of Prince Krapotin’s murderer, and your Excellency’s presence is most necessary.” “ Good! I will ring and order the carriage, ” “Pray do not trouble to do so. The procurateur has sent his own carriage for your Excellency that no time be lost; everything depends on expeditiousness.” The Governor and the young man got into the carriage, drove off, and have not since been seen ! The Governor had himself fallen into the hands of the Nihilists. The head of police has since got a letter from the captured governor, imploring him not tc prosecute the search for Krapotin’s assassin, as success in this direction would be followed by the loss of his the CGovernor’s) head, who m held as a hostage. In Berlin, three young Russians, all of Hebrew blood, have been sentenced to imprisonment for their connection with an illegal society. Their primary aim seems to have been to organise the Jewish youth for the aid of their brethern in Russia. “ They invented a cipher, they wrote pamphlets in Hebrew, they referred to one another by numbers, they transacted business at their weekly meetings, they aimed at founding propagandist journals, and they were promised subsidies by wealthy patrons.”