EXECUTIONS OF NIHILISTS AT ODESSA.

Kumara Times, Issue 1083, 20 March 1880, Page 3

EXECUTIONS OF NIHILISTS AT ODESSA.

The, Odessa journals report that on the 19th December, in conformity with orders issued by the Governor General and Commander-in Chief of the troops. Todleben, preparations were •- early in the morning for the execution of three Nihilists lately sentenced )to death by the Odessa court martial. The House, of- Detention, in ■which the condemned men were confined, was surrounded by four regiments of infantry and one regiment of Cossacks. Punctually at eleven o’clock in the morning the gates leading into the court yard of this House of Detention opened and gave passage to a black wa go on drawn by two horses, in which the three condemned men were seated, vith their hands tied firmly behind

them, and again bound to a bar affixed to each side of the vehicle. The nobleman, Victor Alexejeff Malinka, a young man of twenty-six years of age, and a volunteer in the 132 d Batalliou of the Infantry Reserves; Josefofl Maidanski, military surgeon of the 7th Regiment of HuSaars, twenty-five years of age; and Ivan Wassilewitsch Drobisaskin, twenty-eight years of age, the son of a priest, were all enveloped in the customary white garment. From round the neck of each if the prisoners was suspended a large black placard bearing the inaci'iption “ gossudarstwennyi preslupuik ” (traitor to the State). During the whole ride from the prison to the place of execution the three prisoners did their utmost to try and make their Voices heard by the dense crowds which lined the way. The waggon was escorted by the 13th Battalion of Chasseurs, which bears the name of the Prince of Bulgaria, and by a hundred Cossacks. In addition to this escort the waggon was guarded by five gendarmes, who rode by its side with drawn swocdsr. As Drobiaskin would net heed' the reiterated command to cease addressing the people, but, on the contrary, shouted to them at the' top of his voice, one of the gendarmes struck him so severe a blow on the <: ' head with the flat of his sword that ib stunned him. Upon this one of his fellow prisoners cried out, “Do not hew us down, unfortunate minion of the Czar,” but the gendarme, threatening him also with the sword, only answered by the injunction “ Moltschi, sobaka !” (silence, hound), Very shortly after this painful incident the place of execution was reached. The three condemned men were unbound from their seats in the waggon and led to the gallows. Their sentence being read by Captain Nesterenko, Malinka was deprived of his rank as nobleman. After this ceremony had been completed Malinka was at once delivered over to the hangman. He, however, demanded permission to address the people, which was refused him by the commander of the town, Major-General Baron Heinz, who inquired if he would not like to confer with the priest. Malinka after scornfully glancing at him, turned to . the hangman and said, “ Now, servjlle wretch, do your work.” Drobiaskin was the next to be placed under the rope. When in this position a priest approached him with a crucifix, but was repulsed with the words, “Let me alone, brother, I do not want any of that humbug.” When the last prisoner, Maidanski, was placed in the executioners hands- he shouted out to the Rabbi, “ Get out of my sight; let me not set eyes upon you.” At halfpast eleven .o’clock all three were banged, and at 12 o’clock the bodies were cut down and cast into the graves which had been dug on the spot. The earth was thrown upon them and stamped down. Major-General Krok then gave the word of command, and the troops, marching off the ground with their band playing, passed over the graves and trod down the earth yet tighter.