SIBERIAN ATROCITIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2781, 10 May 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

SIBERIAN ATROCITIES.

The ghastly story of the flogging and the subsequent suicide of ladies who, as political prisoners, were incarcerated at Kara, in Eastern Siberia, is now fully confirmed. No fewer than five letters, written by four different persons actually living in Siberia, have been received, and the details given by these correspondents, who are on the spot, are confirmed by other communications from St. Petersburg. The latter emanate from certain parties who have connections with official circles, and it is known that the Government has been supplied witb information on the subject by its agents in Siberia. It appears from this correspondent, says a correspondent of the Times, that the tragedy which happened in November, 18S9, was the outcome of a long struggle between the authorities and the female prisoners entrusted to their care. More than a year ago the female prisoners lodged a formal complaint against Maßukoff, the director of their prison at Kara. He had, in a most unwarrantable manner, insulted and brutally ill-treated one of their companions, Mdme. Soluzeff-Kovalsky. This lady was about to be transferred from a Kara prison to a prison at Verkne Udinsk, Acting under orders given by Masukoff, an officer named Bobrovsky, whose ordinary business it is to attend to common law criminals, to convicts and desperadoes of the lowest type, broke into Mdme. Soluzeff-Kovalsky's cell. Bobrovsky was accompanied by several soldiers, and he came so unexpectedly and at so early an hour that Mdme. SoluzeffKovalsky was still in bed. There was nothing to prevent the officer from withdrawing for a few moments so as to enable the prisoner to rise and dress herself. Bobrovsky and his soldiers were not, however, actuated by any such sense of delicacy or even of common decency. They rudely seized their victim, pulled her out of bed and dragged her, while still only, in her nightdress, through the passages to the offices of the prison. Here, amidst the coarsest insults, she was stripped and a convict s dress put upon her. On hearing of this outrage her prison companions entered a formal complaint, but reeeived no answer. Then the prisoners resolved to resort to that most terrible of protests which the extreme character of the suffering endured in Siberia alone can have suggested—a "hunger strike." A long and fearful experience has shown that, as a general rule, the Government pays no attention to the grievances of the exile unless some scandal is produced by cruel death of one or more of the victims. Hence the women of the Kara prison resolved to starve themselves to death unless the director, Masukoff, was removed. This, their first hunger strike, lasted eighteen days, and only ended when Masukoff informed the prisoners that he had tendered his resignation The fact was true. Masukoff had resigned. But then, the Governor-General, B'iron Korf, had refused to accept his resignation. Everything, therefore, remained as before, and the women prisoners made a second hunger strike. This time it only lasted' eight days, for Masukoff assured them he had received a telegram from the Governor-General, accepting his resignation, and giving him orders to prooeed to another prison. The news was a deliberate falsehood, invented in order to induce the prisoners to take food. It, nevertheless, showed how much the Siberian authorities fear cases of death due to voluntary starva- ' tion. They may be ready to commit any villainy that may be concealed, but deaths under such awful circumstances become known, stir public opinion, and attract general attention. When there remained no longer any doubt as to tho deception practised upon them, the women organised their third, and what proved to be their most desperate, hunger strike. It lasted a full 22 days, and naturally many—in fact all—of tho women would have died before the expiration of that time had they not been fed artificially. What this means can be left to the imagination of the reader. It was only done by the exercise of shocking violence. Soldiers and gaolers had to hold down the unfortunate women while the food was forced upon them in an unnatural and meehanical manner. By these extreme measures the authorities frustrated the prisoners' design. By the scandal and outcry that would have followed their death they had hoped to compel the deposition of the hated director of the prison, Masukoff. It was at this juncture that Madame Nahyda, Sihida, whose death was recorded in the first news received from Kara, resolved to sacrifice herself. She determined to insult the director in such a manner as would bring down upon herself a sentence of death, followed by execution by hanging. But, at the | same time, the sensation this would cause would, she imagined, render it impossible for Masukoff to remain at his post. After this prolonged hunger strike only one woman besides herself still rUained sufficient strength to bo able to stand on her feet and walk a few steps. It was on the 22nd day of voluntary starvation that Madame Sihida sent, by one of the guards, a request to see the director upon an urgent affair. Admitted to Masukoff's presence, she at onco called him a villain, and smartly boxed his ears. She was instantly seized, removed from the quarters occupied by the political prisoners, and locked up in the common convicts' prison. A report describing her act was sent to the Governor - General. In response to the application of the director an order was sent that the woman was to be flogged according to the regulations. The surgeon certified that the woman was in such a weak state that corporal punishment was out of the question, and he refused to be present. An order was then sent that the woman should be flogged without the presence of a doctor, and in defiance of the regulations 100 lashes were inflicted on the naked body of the unfortunate lady. As we have announced, she died in two days from the effects of the hundred blows, and as a protest against this inhuman treatment three of the female prisoners committed suicide, and thirty of the men took poisou. Only two of them, however, died, the others having emetics administered to them. All the prisoners ore now isolated and closely watched.