A NIHILIST’S ESCAPE.

Kumara Times, Issue 1034, 24 January 1880, Page 4

A NIHILIST’S ESCAPE.

LONDON EXAMINER, OCTOBER 10. Fomin, the Nihilist, who escaped from the citadel of Wilna a few days ago, was no ordinary conspirator. When only seventeen he joined the Revolutionary Association, although little is known of his operations until bis arrival at Odessa in 3877- He then went by the name of Matvaeff, and acted as deputy-chief to Captain Tchubaroff, the Nihilist leader who was hanged at Odessa a few weeks ago. One of his early escapades was an attempt upon the life of Goronovich, the spy, whichfresulted in the discovery of the wretched victim—who was beaten and then drenched with vitriol—and a confession that led to the arrest of 300 revolutionists, Fomin escaped, being included in the number, and shortly afterwards was sent by his “captain” to Kharkoff to release the conspirator Yolnoralsky. Assisted by several members of the Revolutionary League, Fomin established an ambush outside the town, and when the Cossack convoy passed by with the prisoner the Nihilists poured several volleys into them. Some of the gendarmes fell dead, others set spurs to their horess and darted back to Kharkoff for assistance, and Yolnoralsky, disguised in the clothing of one of the victims, rode off with the Kharkoff Nihilists and effected his escape. Fomin alone returned to Kharkoff, and was arrested whilst in the act of taking a return ticket to Odessa. After bis incarceration in the Kharkoff prison a series of audacious attempts were made to obtain a release. A band of Nihilists came to succor him from Kieff, and two of them, dressed as gendarmes, presented themselves at the door of the gaol with an order to convey him to the presence of the governor. The chief warder was on the point of removing Fomin from the cell, when, by a curious coincidence, two real gendarmes arrived with a genuine order, and exposed the plot. The Nihilists then hired a house opositel the prison, and began burrowing under the road to Fomin’s cell., This was dicovured during the mending of a drain, and the excavators had to fly to escape arrest. Fomin himself now tried to break out of prison, and with the aid of some of the seventy criminals who shared a room with himself, he dug out the inside of the chimney, and climbed up the channel to the roof. Six of his companions escaped with him, but the entire party was captured six miles from Kharkoff, Last March Fomin was put on his trial, and the day the order was signed summoning the courtmartial, the Governor, Prince Krapotkin, out of revenge, was assassinated. The trial ended in the condemnation of Fomin to the mines of Siberia for life, but as it was imagined that the careless trans-Ural officers would not keep him in safe custody he was removed to perpetual imprisonment in the citadel at Wilna. From this confinement he has now successfully escaped, and by this time has probably joined the Nihilist refugees in Switzerland.