FIGHT WITH SOCIALISTS AT ODESSA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 254, 2 November 1878, Page 5

FIGHT WITH SOCIALISTS AT ODESSA.

Another scene of bloodshed (says an Eugiieh paper), has taken place in Kussia. This iima the place is Odessß, but the circumstances are identical with those which marked the close of the Vera-Ziasulitch prosecution. Large crowds bad gathered round the Criminal Court to hear the result oi ; a Socialist trial. Great interest was manifested in the affair on account of the semi-heroic circumstances attending the capture o{ the offenders. Seven in number — five men und two females — . the Socialist?, last January, kept at bay nearly a whole winter's night, in the Sadovoi-street the police forca of Odfssa, and it was not until nearly 200 men hud been collected on the spot that the daring defenders wereeeizad. The object of their obstinate defence waß simple. The seven conspirators were in the rooms of Covaleveky printing pamphlets for their secret society, branchee of which existed all over the town, and when they found themselves caught by the police they t r ied to ksep them out until they had burnt their paperp. The entrance to their lodgiug they rapidly loopholed, and from door and window kept up such a furious fuailade upon all who approached the rooms, that a company ot soldiers were sent for and made to fire volleys at the windows from the opposite side of the way. Even this failed to daanfc the defenders, and it was not until another company of soldiers with fixed bayonets swarmed into the house and bucked down the door that resistance ceased. In the struggle two socialists and ten Boidiers were wounded. The same evening arrests werß made in different parts of the town. Three weeks a«»o the trial commenced at Odessa. From the outset public interest was greatly excited, and on extra number of soldiers were ,put on to guard the Court. At the close of the proceedings wh9ti it was annouueed that one of the socialists had been sentenced to ba shot, four to be imprisoned for a term of years in the dreary mines of Siberia, aud ihu two girls to be exiled to Tobolsk for life, the confederates of the conspirators

showed their disapproval by firing wiih revolvers at the Court. The guards returned the fire; the Socialists replied again, and a fight ensued, in which the mob was eventually dispersed, but not before four soldiers had been injured and two spectators killed. Coming so soon after the Zissulitch case, the assassination of tbe Chief of the Secret Police at Kieff, and the discovery of arms secreted by the revolutionists at Karkoff, this outbreak at Odessa is another warning which the Czar will do well to take to heart.