LIFE IN RUSSIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 402, 25 June 1908, Page 4

LIFE IN RUSSIA.

Full of Incident. { A fair idea of the condition of affairs in Russia may be gained from the following particulars supplied by the St. Petersburg correspondent ot the Otago Daily Times. The sudden swoop of the Russian police on Russian revolutionists hiding in Finland led (through the seizure of letters and documents) to a series of similar swoops in St. Petersburg on February 20th, thirty-two revolutionists being seized in their houses or in the street. The police raids begad at ten o’clock in the morning, and were conducted with the utmost skill and caution by plain-clothes men. In some instances, however, resistance was offered, one young man in Vasiliy Ostrov shooting two of the secret police who attempted to arrest him, but not wounding them seriously. The arrests were made all over St. Petersburg, the residence of Mr N. V. Myshkoff, a millionaire merchant, but an honest and respectable man, who owns fifty steamers on the Volga, was searched and several arrests made. The whole staff of a shop in Xuameusky Street were arrested. Even the printing office of the Government newspaper, the “Russia,” was visited by the police, and a student called Votsik taken therefrom. At the couer of Gardener’s Street and Catherine of Prospect the secret police arrested a very well-dressed young woman, aged ig. The young lady went very quietly to the police station with a policeman in uniform called Turin, but on reaching the third storey of the house in which the station was located she suddenly drew a revolver from her pocket and twice fired point blank at Turin. She missed him, however, whereupon Turin threw himself on her, but just then she fired the third time, wounding the policeman in the head. By this time, however, the sound ot the firing had brought out all the policemen in the station, and the girl was immediately disarmed and secured. At 3 p.m. a well-dressed and respect-able-looking young man was walking past the Hotel d’Europe, in Michael Street, accompanied by a handsome young lady in stylish dress, when three members of the secret police stepped forward and tried to seize the lady. The latter quickly stepped back, however, and got on the platform of one of the tram cars which starts from this point for the Islands. The plain-clothes men and one ordinary policeman pursued the girl, whereupon she drew a revolver and fired, but luckily at that moment one of the detectives knocked down her hand, so that the bullet struck in the snow in the ground. The girl then bolted down the Nevsky Prospect, but was followed and secured. As to the young man, her companion, he told the police that if they attempted to search him he would blow himself, them, and the whole police station up. It was fully an hour before the police succeededin tying him so that he could not move, and then they found secured around his waist a peculiar belt of small, ovalshaped bombs, with a novel clockwork arrangement attached. Had the prisoner been able to set the clockwork in motion there would now be a considerable gap in the row of houses on the Nevsky Prospect. On Februaay 21st over 50 arrests were made.