ATROCITIES IN SIBERIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 68, 13 November 1912, Page 2

ATROCITIES IN SIBERIA.

PRINCE KROPOTKIN’S PROTEST, BRUTALITY TO PRISONERS.

Another weighty protest against the atrocities which the Russian Government permits in its Siberian prisons is made by Prince Kropotkin in a letter to the Daily News and Leader. Outrages have recently occurred even more revolting than those which raised a cry of protest last winter. Prince Kropotkin writes as follows from his address at Brighton:— Tlie conditions of life in the hard labour prisons of Siberia, especially in the.Nerchinsk district, are so severe that cases of suicide and insanity among both the political and the com-mon-law prisoners are of a very frequent occurrence.

“Some eighteen months ago, after the suicide of Sazonoff, the chief administration of the prisons nominated special inspectors who were to be sent from St. Petersburg to inspect the Siberian prisons. But, instead of nominating for this important post men who might be desirous of improving the conditions by a more humane treatment of the prisoners, they nominated precisely such men as had won a special notoriety by their brutality towards the prisoners under their control. Thus, among others, they nominated for that post a certain Von Kubc, formerly a prison inspector at Ore], where that terrible wholesale flogging took place which was spoken of last winter in the English press.

Punishment by Flogging. “The result, of the visit of one of these inspectors to a hard labour prison in Siberia has now led to a new tragedy, even more terrible than the previous ones, as I now learn both from private letters and from the Russian papers of September 20tb. “On August 27 th last the Ku torn am Prison in the Nerchinsk district was visited by the Inspector Semcntkov-

sky. In addressing the political prisoners he used the familiar ‘thou’—a term deliberately intended to humiliate them. They did not answer. Thereupon he gave the order to the governor of the prison to put the political prisoners on equal terms with the common law prisoners, even including punishmeilt by flogging; and the same day, by his order, the prisoner Brilien was beaten, dragged out of his cell, and flogged. “On the 28th the political prisoners were told that from the next day the common law discipline would be applied to them, and the same evening the prisoner Brilien, who was now in solitary confinement, was again terribly beaten, and again flogged. “The other prisoners, especially those who were confined to the solitary cells, grew exceedingly excited, and protested loudly in their cells while the beating and the flogging of Brilien took place.

Prisoner Goss Mad. “The result was that during the same night two prisoners kept in solitary confinement, Moshkin and Mikhailoff, poisoned themselves. The poison, however, was not Sufficiently active, and they suffered agonies. Moshkin died, but Mikhailoff went mad. In the rooms, where several prisoners are kept Together, six of them Ryshkoff, Leibli|n, Masloff, Cherstvoff, Odintsoff, and Kosloff, all took poison. They suffered terrible pains, but did not die. Whereupon Ryshkoff, Leibason, and Masloff themselves opened their veins and, of course, bled to death. “Next day the head of the prison ordered a general search to be made in the prison. One more of the prisoners, Pkhalsky, resorted to poison. He was taken to the infirnMv, and died on the way. All four were»buricd next morning in a common grave—the head of the prison Spying: ‘lt is your affair to die; mine is to bury you.’ All the other prisoners have begun the hunger-strike. More victims have thus to be expected. Government Responsibility. *

“Such are the facts. Several St. Petersburg and Moscow papers have published in full the above report, and some sort of inquest into the affair is going to be made by the St. Petersburg prison authorities, but one may be sure beforehand that nothing will come of it. Nicholas II will, no doubt sent ‘his heartiest thanks’ to the torturers, and the head of the Kotumara prison may be certain to have advanced on the road of promotion. But lam certain that in this country these new horrors will arouse a feeling of indignation, and will call forth a Serous protest against these atrocities, which are repeated so often as inevitably to point to the conclusion that they are willed by the Central Government.”