THE OSTROG AT OMSK
Centre of exile system at Omsk—Dostoyevski—His famous book
“Recollections of the Dead House” based on his experiences in this
Ostrog—Description of the prison and its heterogeneous
inmates—Detestable character of an ex-noble—His attempted escape with
another convict—Another well-born criminal of very different
character—His industry and skill with his hands—The prison
routine—Food—Extra delicacies could be obtained—Passion for
gambling—Various devices for indulging it—Method of smuggling strong
drink into the Ostrog—Drunken carousals—Gazin, the vodka seller—His
history and atrocious crimes—Dostoyevski narrowly escapes being
murdered by him.
In the early decades of the nineteenth century the exile system centred
chiefly at Omsk, an ancient military post situated on the junction of
the rivers Om and Irtysh. A place of arms had been erected here in 1719
to strengthen the Russian dominion among the nomads of the Asiatic
Steppes. This was replaced by a formidable fortress and became a chief
post on the Siberian boundary line. A large town sprang up around it,
which grew into the headquarters of local administration, and was long
the residence of the governor-general of Western Siberia.
Just outside the ramparts of the fortress stood a wooden prison,
enclosed by a high stockade, which has an interesting penal history,
having served for long years as a base and starting point for the
convict exiles on their eastward march. The prison population constantly
numbered about eight hundred and it was the place of durance for several
remarkable prisoners. One of the greatest of Russian novelists,
Dostoyevski, based his famous book, “Reminiscences of the Dead House” on
his personal experiences in this old _ostrog_.[2] He was one of the
early “politicals” who were subjected to the same régime as the
common-law prisoner or ordinary gaol-bird, and he suffered four years as
a hard-labour convict at Omsk. His offence was being involved in the
Petrachevski affair in 1849, and with him in Omsk was the poet Dirov,
who suffered a like term of four years for the same reason.
Footnote 2:
The _ostrog_ was the name given to the stockaded entrenchment or rude
fort built by the Cossack invaders of Siberia in the old days. As
prisoners were confined more and more in these forts, the word
_ostrog_ came to define a place of durance, and is now applied to all
local prisons in Siberia, and provincial lock-ups. The prison had
disappeared when Kennan looked for it on his visit to Omsk. New
buildings have been erected on the site.
Dostoyevski’s treatment, having regard to his offence, was a disgrace to
civilisation, and it is satisfactory to know that intelligent Russian
officials to-day are heartily ashamed of the episode. A full account of
its enormities has been since written by a fellow prisoner named
Rozhnovski, and was published in the Tiflis newspaper, _Kavkaz_. He was
at the mercy of harsh taskmasters, endured the severest discipline, wore
irons always and the prisoners’ dress, and was twice flogged. The first
corporal punishment he received was for complaining in the name of the
other prisoners of filthy foreign matter floating in the daily soup, and
the second was for saving the life of a comrade from drowning, in direct
defiance of his officer’s order to do nothing of the kind. The second
“execution” was so terrible that the victim was taken up for dead; he
lay insensible for so long that he was afterward nicknamed the
“deceased.”
Never have the inner life and history of a Russian prison of that
epoch—the middle of the nineteenth century—been so thoroughly explored
and exposed as by the gifted writer, Dostoyevski. He draws on his own
experience, speaking at first hand from his personal knowledge. He knew
exactly what imprisonment meant, for he had been through it, constantly
subjected to its irksome restraints and almost intolerable conditions.
He had learned to habituate himself to its laws and penalties; to endure
the most acute discomforts; to face with patient resignation the endless
vista of the slow moving years, continually tortured and tormented by
suffering and the complete absence of all that tends to brighten life
and make it bearable. He had ample opportunities for studying and
observing the convicts with whom he was so long obliged to consort. He
draws them with photographic exactitude. He observed, and has
effectively reproduced their traits, thoughts, feelings and inner
nature. He saw them at their best and at their worst; he noted the
generous emotions that sometimes swayed them, the evil passions that
more often possessed them. He can do justice to the sympathy and
compassion lavished on suffering comrades and reprobates; to the envy,
hatred and uncharitableness constantly exhibited when moved by jealousy
or consumed with temper and overmastering desire for revenge. The daily
life of a Siberian place of durance at that time is brought before us
with striking force: its generally wearisome monotony, to which severe
toil is a welcome break; the petty, pitiful recreations enjoyed often at
the risk of punishment; the vices of drunkenness and gambling, strictly
forbidden although constantly indulged in; the gormandising at Christmas
and other festivals. He describes the ambitious theatrical entertainment
given in the convict barrack room, when the convicts, despite the
difficulties raised by discipline and the dearth of means, produced a
striking performance.
The old prison at Omsk was situated at the end of the citadel just under
the ramparts. It was surrounded by a high palisade of stakes buried deep
in the ground, enclosing a court-yard two hundred feet long by one
hundred and fifty feet broad. A great gate in the stockade guarded by
sentries gave admission to the prison. Looking through the interstices
of the palisades from within, a narrow glimpse was obtained of the
glacis of the fort sloping downward, and of a little corner of the sky
above. The prison buildings consisted of a number of log huts of one
story, each providing a separate barrack to accommodate roughly about
two hundred convicts herded together in very close association. This was
long before the extension of the cellular system to Russia, and the
terrors of isolated confinement did not exist in those days. But life in
common had its peculiar horrors, which our author enlarges upon. “I
could not,” he says, “possibly have conjured up the poignant and
terrible suffering of never being alone, even for one minute, during ten
years. Working always under surveillance in the barracks, ever in the
unvarying companionship of two hundred others; never alone, never! This
enforced cohabitation was the sharpest and most painful sensation
endured. Nowhere is it so horrible as in a prison, where the society
must contain many with whom no one would willingly live.
“Among them were murderers by imprudence and murderers by profession,
simple thieves and chiefs of thieves, masters in the art of finding
money in the pockets of a passer-by or of lifting anything, no matter
what, from the table.... The majority were depraved and perverted, so
that calumnies and scandal rained among them like hail. Our life was a
constant hell, a perpetual damnation.... Those who were not already
corrupt on reception soon became so. Intrigues, calumnies, scandalous
backbiting of all kinds, envy and hatred reigned above everything else.
No ordinary tongue could hold its own against these adepts at abuse with
insults constantly in their mouths.”
A curious trait in this heterogeneous assembly, in which the elements of
evil predominated, was the reticence of the convicts. Some were
malefactors of the worst kind, veterans in habitual crime, guilty of the
most atrocious misdeeds, but they would not talk of them. On one
occasion in the barrack room a miscreant who had killed and cut up a
child of five began to relate the horrible details; how he had tempted
the little one with a toy, inveigled it into a private place, and there
used his murderous knife. He was one of the licensed buffoons of the
establishment, who as a rule found a ready audience, but he was now
received with one unanimous cry of indignant disgust; and he was shamed
into silence. It was contrary to the unwritten law of the prison to
speak of such things.
Another case was that of a parricide, a young man of noble birth who had
filled the post of a public functionary. A wastrel, a spendthrift and a
reckless gambler, he had been a cause of constant annoyance to his
father, who remonstrated with him in vain. The son had reason to believe
that he would inherit a substantial sum from his father, so he killed
him in order to come into the estate more quickly and thus continue his
debaucheries. Presently the corpse was unearthed from a drain; the head
had been severed and placed on a cushion beside the body. The
parricide’s crime was brought home to him, he was tried and convicted,
degraded and deprived of his privileges, and sentenced to twenty years’
hard labour. At the _ostrog_ he was despised by his fellow convicts
because he was shameless and permitted himself to talk lightly of his
crime. He sometimes spoke of his father with extraordinary callousness,
and once, in boasting of the hereditary good health of his family,
quietly remarked, “My father, for example, never was ill until the day
of his death”—by the hand of his unnatural son.[3]
Footnote 3:
In the latter part of his book Dostoyevski corrects this early account
of the supposed parricide, and tells us that it was all a mistake. It
was a grave case of judicial error. The convict, when he had served
ten years’ imprisonment, was proved to be entirely innocent. When the
real murderers had been discovered and had confessed their crime, the
wronged man was set at liberty.
This animal insensibility carried so far was no doubt phenomenal. It
showed an organic defect in the man’s nature, but conscience still
lurked in its lowest depths, and there were times when he was vexed and
tormented by great agitation in his sleep, when he cried aloud, “Hold
him! Cut off his head!” Outwardly, in his waking hours, he never showed
the slightest signs of remorse or repentance, and this is characteristic
of the great bulk of criminals. Dostoyevski avers that in all the years
he mixed with them he never noticed even the most fugitive indication of
regret or moral compunction for crimes committed. “The criminal,” he
adds, “who has revolted against society, hates it, and considers himself
in the right; society was wrong, not he. Is he not, moreover, undergoing
his punishment? Accordingly, he is absolved, acquitted in his own eyes.”
Most convicts exhibited similar personal traits. A few showed a gay,
frivolous demeanour, which drew down on them the unmixed contempt of
their fellows; the larger number were morose, envious, inordinately
vain, presumptuous, susceptible and excessively ceremonious. Their first
endeavour was to bear themselves with dignity; to submit to discipline
and obey the rules, but with self-respect, so long as they were enforced
fairly and reasonably. Established usage had great weight, almost as
much as official regulations. Every new arrival was soon brought into
line and found his level with the rest. A man at first reception might
seek to show off and astonish his fellows by bold talk and loud threats,
but it was all wasted breath; he soon yielded submission, willingly or
unwillingly, unconsciously perhaps, to the predominant tone of the
place.
Class distinctions were not ignored in this Russian _ostrog_, but
convicts of noble birth, of title even, and educated as gentlemen, had
an especially hard time. In English prisons such persons receive a
certain consideration from their fellows, are addressed civilly and
treated with some respect. At Omsk they were cordially disliked and
subjected to many annoyances. There were some half-dozen, like
Dostoyevski, of noble rank, who had been degraded from their position
and were looked down upon and despised by the other convicts, who would
not admit them as members of their class. A gibe commonly heard was,
“Ah, Monsieur’s carriage once drove people in the street; now Monsieur
picks hemp.” Their comrades were aware of their peculiar sufferings and
made sport of them. “It was above all when we were working together,”
declares Dostoyevski, “that we had most to endure, for our strength was
not equal to theirs and we were seldom of much use at labour. Nothing is
more difficult than to gain the confidence of the common people; above
all such people as these!”
The unequal effect of the punishment was very marked in the _ostrog_. “A
common man,” says our author, “sent to hard labour, finds himself in
kindred society, perhaps even in a more interesting society than he has
known. He loses his native place and his family, but his ordinary
surroundings are much the same as before. A man of education, condemned
by law to the same punishment as the common man, suffers incomparably
more. He must stifle all his needs, all his habits; he must descend into
a lower sphere, must breathe another air. He is like a fish thrown upon
the sand. The punishment he undergoes, nominally equal for all criminals
according to law, is ten times more painful and more severe for him than
for the common man. This is an incontestable truth, even if one thinks
only of the material habits that must be sacrificed.”
The principle holds good in penal codes everywhere. As a general rule,
there is no differentiating treatment, no regard for antecedent
conditions of rank, position, or education, and it is argued, no doubt
rightly, that the offender of the better class knows better and has no
excuse for lapsing into crime. When he falls, it is under the impulse of
irresistible evil nature, and his misdeeds will rival the worst. There
were five ex-nobles at Omsk, and the majority, three at least, were
incorrigible blackguards, criminal to the backbone. Dostoyevski sketches
their portraits in a few incisive strokes and in the blackest colours.
One was a man who offered the most repulsive example of degradation and
baseness to which he may fall whose feeling of honour has perished
within him. This youth acted as spy and informer for the governor, to
whom, by the intermediary of a servant, he repeated all that was said
and done in the prison. It was a base trade which he had adopted when at
large in St. Petersburg and before he had completed his studies. Being
short of funds, he sold himself to the police authorities after a
quarrel with his parents, and betrayed a number of associates to obtain
the means for satisfying the grossest and most licentious desires. At
last, moved by insatiable greed, he joined in a mad plot which he should
have seen was hopeless, for he was not without intelligence, and was
arrested, tried and condemned to ten years as a hard-labour convict in
Siberia. He accepted his fate without repining; he could fall no lower,
and as a convict he might perpetrate any villainies without shame or
compunction.
“I think of this disgusting creature,” says Dostoyevski, “as of some
monstrous phenomenon. During the many years I lived in the midst of
murderers, debauchees and proved rascals, never in my life did I meet a
case of such complete moral debasement, determined corruption and
shameless turpitude.... To me he was never more than a piece of flesh
furnished with teeth and a stomach, greedy for the most offensive and
ferocious animal enjoyments, and ready to assassinate anyone to compass
them. He was a perfect monster, a mere animal restrained by no feelings,
no rules of conduct.... Fire, plague, famine, no matter what scourge, is
preferable to the presence of such a man in human society.... The
common-law convicts maintained friendly relations with him and were more
affable with him than with us. They thought nothing of his base actions;
espionage and denunciation were in the air as natural products of the
place, and the kindly attitude of the authorities, whose creature he
was, gave him importance and a certain value in the eyes of his
fellows.... He poisoned the first days of my imprisonment and drove me
nearly to despair. I was terrified by the mass of baseness and cowardice
into which I had been thrown. I imagined that every one else was as foul
and contemptible as he.”
Some years later this man was the hero in an escape from the prison
which caused considerable commotion at the time. A change had come over
his circumstances, for his patron and protector, the major for whom he
acted as spy, had left the prison, and his palmy days were a thing of
the past. He then spent his time in forging passports, but pined for
more remunerative employment, and at last resolved to make a bold stroke
for freedom. He allied himself with another convict named Kulikov, a man
of active, enterprising character, full of strength and self-reliance,
who calculated the chances coolly and was prepared to take any risks to
get away from the prison and lead his own life outside. They were well
suited to each other, equally bold and determined, equally intelligent
and cunning.
Their first step was to seduce a soldier to assist them in their flight.
According to the rules, convicts were never suffered to go about without
an escort of one or more soldiers, but thus attended they might leave
the prison precincts and enter the town. The man selected for an escort
was a Pole who had been in trouble, and had served in one of the
disciplinary companies, but had at length rejoined his battalion, in
which he rose to the rank of corporal. He was a prey to home-sickness in
an acute form, and was prepared to risk much to return to his native
country. He was quite willing to further the plans of the intending
fugitives, and managed to form with them part of a force detailed to
execute some repairs at a distant military barrack at that time empty of
troops. In the middle of the job, the corporal took off his two
prisoners, ostensibly to fetch some tools from another shop. Kulikov,
with a wink, added that he would bring back some vodka, but the liquor
never arrived nor the prisoners. They had gone into the town to a secure
hiding place, where they changed their clothes and got rid of their
irons and lay by waiting for a quiet moment to escape after the first
excitement had blown over.
Their disappearance was not realised for some hours. The hue and cry was
then raised and a thorough search instituted. The authorities were most
unhappy, for stringent regulations had been neglected; the convicts
should have been guarded by at least two men apiece and not allowed to
come and go as they pleased. Inside the prison everything was turned
upside down, and the prisoners were repeatedly searched and
cross-questioned. The guards were doubled in the prison and beyond it,
expresses were despatched to all police stations around, and mounted
Cossacks beat up all the surrounding country. It was comparatively open
ground; the forests were at some distance and no cover was at hand. At
the end of a week the prison-breakers were recaptured in a village only
seventy versts distant, and were brought back to the _ostrog_, chained
hand and foot. Severe flogging was the certain retribution for attempted
escape; Kulikov was adjudged by a court-martial to suffer fifteen
hundred lashes, and the originator of the plot five hundred, but as he
was consumptive, he was excused from a portion of the punishment by the
doctor of the prison.
Another well-born convict was of a character so different that he merits
a detailed description. His name was Akim Akimych, and he had been an
officer who, when serving as a sub-lieutenant in the Caucasus, had put a
small tributary prince to death. He was in command of a petty fort in
the mountains, and his neighbour, the prince, made a night attack upon
it, meaning to burn it about his ears, but the enterprise failed.
Akimych pretended not to be aware of his real assailant, and invited the
prince to come and pay him a friendly visit. A great show was made; the
garrison was paraded and the guest royally entertained. After dinner
Akimych took the prince severely to task, reproached him with his
treachery, and shot him. He at once reported this summary action to his
superior officer, who placed him under arrest and brought him to trial
by court-martial, which sentenced him to death; but the penalty was
commuted to twelve years’ imprisonment in Siberia. He bowed submissively
to his hard fate, but defended his conduct. “The prince had tried to
burn my fort. What was I to do? Was I to thank him for it?” he asked
pertinently.
Akimych was a strange medley of opposite qualities. In aspect tall and
much emaciated, in temper obstinate, and not very well educated, he was
excessively argumentative and particular about the accuracy of details.
He was very excitable, very quarrelsome, easily offended and most
sensitive. The other convicts, who generally despised the nobles,
laughed at him when not afraid of him, and he claimed at once a footing
of perfect equality with them, which he maintained by insulting them,
calling them thieves and vagabonds and, if necessary, beating them. He
had a keen appreciation of justice and fair play and would interfere in
anything he thought unjustifiable, whether it concerned him or not. He
was esteemed for his straightforward ways and not a little for his
cleverness and skill with his fingers.
Akimych could do almost anything; he was an adept at all trades, was a
good cobbler and boot-maker, an excellent locksmith, a painter, and a
carver and gilder. These trades he had acquired in the prison by merely
watching and imitating his fellow workmen. One handicraft at which he
laboured assiduously was the making of variegated paper lanterns, which
he sold at a good price in the town, from where orders came in
abundance. He also manufactured baskets and toys, so that he was never
without money, which he spent in the purchase of shirts, pillows, tea
and extra food. Akimych laboured methodically and regularly until a late
hour in the night, and then put away his tools, unfolded his mattress,
repeated his prayers and turned in to sleep the sleep of the just.
After the night closing, the interior of the barrack became a hive of
industry. It looked like a large workshop. Strictly speaking, private
labour was not permitted, but this was winked at as the only means of
keeping the convicts quiet during the long hours of a winter’s evening.
They were then quite safe from interruption. During the day, some of the
under officers might come in prying and poking about, and the convicts
had to be on their guard. As soon as the gates were padlocked, however,
everyone sat down in his place and began his work. The interior of the
barrack was suddenly lighted up; every man had his own candle and his
wooden candlestick, and they all set to work without fear of
interruption. Work was not exactly forbidden, but the possession of
tools was, and the order was secretly evaded. Each man hungered for the
earnings of this private labour, a few coppers, and that it apparently
was allowed in this Russian _ostrog_, unlike prisons elsewhere, was a
tangible boon, a certain small compensation for the loss of liberty.
Money might be spent, surreptitiously, in buying tobacco and drink, both
strictly prohibited, but all the more sweet because indulgence in them
was forbidden. Besides, if not quickly expended, the money might be
confiscated in the constant and minute searches made. The prisoners were
being continually “turned over,” and ruthlessly deprived of any money
that might be found. The only safe plan was to entrust the cash to one
old man, who was strictly honest and extremely cunning at concealment.
One of his hiding places was in the stockade at some height, where the
stump end of a branch protruded; it was removable, and within was a
cavity running down to some depth. The secret was jealously guarded, for
the convicts were expert thieves and without a scrap of conscience.
Dostoyevski, for the safe keeping of his small possessions, bought a
small box with a lock and key. This was forced open the first night and
everything was abstracted. At another time, a comrade who pretended a
warm friendship, stole his pocket Bible from him, the only book he was
permitted to possess, and sold it forthwith for drink. The friend had
been asked to carry it into the barrack only a few yards away. On the
way he met a purchaser and at once disposed of the Bible for a few
kopecks. He confessed the theft the same evening, explaining that he had
a sudden craving for vodka and could not resist it. When the thirst was
on him he would have committed murder to gratify it. He talked of the
theft as quite an ordinary incident, and when reproved was not in the
least ashamed. He listened calmly, agreed that it was a very useful book
and was sorry he had taken it, but in his inner heart thought the
grievance was mere nonsense.
Ameliorations of this life might be secured (for money); recreations
were possible, though they were mostly vicious, and amusements even
might be surreptitiously enjoyed or winked at by the authorities. Human
nature is so constituted that it becomes habituated to anything, and the
inmates of the _ostrog_ learned to endure its worst evils, and, except
for the pain of personal chastisement or the acute sufferings engendered
by disease, they spent their weary, unlovely days with dogged, callous
indifference.
At daybreak every morning a drum beaten near the principal entrance
roused all from the last refreshing sleep obtained in the small hours
when mosquitoes and more loathsome insects had desisted from their
attacks. The convicts rose from their plank beds to the music of
clanking leg irons, their inseparable companions, and, trembling with
cold as the icy air rushed in through the unbarred open gates, gathered
around the water pails, took water into their mouths and washed their
faces with their hands. These pails had been filled the night before by
appointed orderlies. Personal cleanliness is not entirely neglected by
the peasant class in Russia, nor even by convicts, and the periodical
vapour bath was greatly appreciated. The orderlies, like the cooks, were
chosen by the convicts themselves from among their numbers; they did not
work with the rest, but, as elsewhere, attended to the washing of the
floors, the condition of camp bedsteads, and the provision of water for
ablutions and for drinking.
After roll-call, the entire number proceeded to the kitchen, where the
first meal of the day was eaten in common. The convicts, in their
sheepskin overcoats, received their ration of black bread in their
parti-coloured, round, peakless caps, from the cooks who had cut up the
loaves for them with the “rascal,” the prison knife, which was the only
weapon permitted in the place. As many as could find room, sat grouped
around the tables and laughed noisily; some soaked pieces of bread in
the cups of sour tea, _kvas_, in front of them; others drank the tea
they were permitted to provide for themselves. This privilege was
extended to food generally, and the convicts who could pay for it bought
their own, which was cooked in the public kitchen and substituted for
the ordinary prison fare. Osip, one of the prison cooks, or “cook maids”
as they were commonly called, prepared the food, which was purchased in
the town market by the old soldiers who were attached to the prison to
watch over the general discipline and good order of the place. They were
good-natured veterans, always ready to run messages and purvey to the
needs of the prisoners.
Dostoyevski at first could not stomach the regulation cabbage soup, but
eventually overcame his repugnance. Meanwhile, he had his own private
table, which cost him no more than a couple of rubles monthly, and he
had a morsel of roast meat every day, cooked by Osip in some mysterious
fashion that was never divulged. Osip was practically his servant, and
was paid regular wages. Suchilov was another who acted as personal
attendant, boiled the tea-urn, performed commissions, mended clothes and
greased the great-boots four times monthly. Suchilov was an “exchange,”
a convict who had changed places with another of longer sentence,
assuming the punishment for a sum in cash. He was a poor devil, always
impecunious, ready for any menial occupation and regularly employed as a
lookout man by the gamblers when at play. For five kopecks a night he
kept watch in the passage in absolute darkness and in temperatures
varying between winter cold and extreme summer heat, to give alarm if
any superior officer paid a night visit, for when caught at cards the
convicts would pay the penalty with their backs,—all would be soundly
flogged. But the terrors of corporal punishment did not conquer the
passion for play. There were always men who had the wherewithal,—a small
piece of carpet as board, or “deck,” a candle and a greasy pack of
well-thumbed cards. The fortunate possessor of these necessaries
received fifteen kopecks for their use. The game played was chiefly
_gorka_, or “three leaves,” a pure game of chance, and it was continued
until far into the night, often until the break of dawn, or within a few
minutes of the morning drum. The stakes were for copper coins, but
relatively large sums were won and lost.
The passion for gambling was deeply rooted and still consumes the
Russian prisoner. Among the exiles travelling in pain and anguish across
the Siberian continent, it had such a hold that men would risk their
last farthing of the meagre allowance issued for daily rations, and if
unlucky, would be obliged to go hungry or depend entirely upon charity.
Cards were generally forthcoming, but when none were on hand, various
ingenious devices were put in practice on the road. One was to spread an
overcoat, or soiled linen foot-robe, on the floor of the prison room,
and the game was to guess the exact number of fleas that would jump upon
it in a given length of time, and back the opinion with a wager. Another
plan was to chalk two small circles, one within the other, on one of the
sleeping platforms, _nary_, and place a number of vermin in the inner
circle. Then the player would bet on the animal he believed would first
cross the line into the outer circle. These unsavoury methods were also
pursued in the old English war prison at Dartmoor.
A craving for strong drink was constantly exhibited, and strange to say,
could generally be gratified. A large business was done in smuggling
spirits into the _ostrog_. The trade was hazardous but proportionately
lucrative. It was undertaken by the convict who was ignorant of any
handicraft or too idle to acquire one. His capital was his back, which
he was ready to lay bare to the lash if detected in the nefarious
traffic, and he must possess a small amount of cash to expend in the
vodka. This money he entrusted to some resident in the town, soldier,
shopkeeper or free labourer, who brought it up to the prison and
concealed it in some hiding place agreed upon outside the gates, on the
works to which the convict had access. The stuff paid contribution in
transit, and was well watered, but the convict buyer had no redress and
took what he could get. With the fluid a length of bullock’s intestines
was left, which, when washed, was filled with the vodka and wound around
the waist of the convict about to introduce it into the prison. The
carrier ran the risk of detection when searched, but he had a bribe
convenient to slip into the hand of the corporal at the gate, and he
might have the good luck to escape observation. If he failed, he paid
the penalty of a severe flogging. On the other hand, the forbidden
liquor might win through, and the convict dealer would then have a
supply of stuff for the convict customers among his comrades.
As soon as enough money had been earned or stolen, the time was ripe for
a carouse, a drunken holiday, when the whole sum, painfully put
together, kopeck by kopeck, was lavished in one glorious burst of
self-indulgence. The man was resolved to enjoy himself. “These days of
rejoicing had been looked forward to long beforehand,” says Dostoyevski.
“He had dreamed of them during the endless winter nights, during his
hardest labour, and the prospect had supported him under his severest
trials. The dawn of this day so impatiently awaited has just appeared
... accordingly he takes his savings to the drink seller who at first
gives him vodka, almost pure, but gradually as the bottle gets more and
more empty, he fills it up with water. It may be imagined that many
glasses and much money are required before the convict is drunk. But, as
he is out of the habit, the little alcohol remaining in the liquid
easily intoxicates, he drinks all he can get, pledges or sells all his
own clothes and then those belonging to the government. When he has made
away with his last shirt, he lies down in a drunken sleep and wakes up
next day with a bad headache.” Then he began again to work for many
weary months and amass the means for another debauch.
As for the drink seller, he made his profit to be spent in adding to his
stock in trade. But this time he drank it himself. Enough of trade, he
would have a little amusement. Accordingly he ate, drank and paid for a
little music, and kept it up for several days until his money was gone,
unless, indeed, misfortune overtook him. It might be that some of the
officers had noticed his condition, and he was dragged before the major
in the orderly room, where he was arraigned, convicted and punished with
the rods. Then he shook himself like a beaten dog, and after a few days
resumed his trade as drink seller. Detection was not frequent, for the
convicts would do all they could to shield a man under the influence of
drink. Russians have generally a sympathy for drunkenness. Among
convicts it amounted to worship. The condition implied aristocratic
distinction, and the man in his cups swaggered and showed himself off
with a great assumption of superiority.
The phrase “pay for a little music” needs explanation. A convict in
funds and half drunk was in the habit of hiring a musician to make a
greater show. There was one who had been a bandsman in the army and who
possessed a fiddle which he was ready to play for anyone who paid him,
and he would follow his employer about from barrack to barrack, grinding
out dance tunes with his utmost strength and skill. His face showed his
disgust and boredom, but if he slackened his arm he was roughly reminded
to go on more briskly and earn his wage properly.
This love of ostentatious extravagance found other outlets. Drinking to
excess was not the only form of self-indulgence. Gormandising was
another. The convict when in funds would treat himself to a fine feast,
the materials for which were brought in from the town by the old soldier
go-between above mentioned. The occasion chosen was always on some
religious festival and began by the convict placing a wax candle before
the holy image or _ikon_ in its honoured corner. Then he would dress
himself with extreme care and sit down to dinner in state. He would
devour course after course,—fish, meat, patties,—gorging himself quite
alone. It was seldom that the selfish creature invited any comrade to
share his repast.
A fondness for new clothes was very noticeable in the prosperous
convict, and he was not forbidden to substitute the garments of his
choice for the prison uniform, which consisted of a coarse shirt, long
gray dressing gown, loose drawers and peakless cap. Their taste in
clothes ran to gay waistcoats and fancy trousers, coloured shirts, and
belts with metal clasps. On Sundays the dandies in the prison put on
their best clothes to strut about the barrack yard. But the glory of
display soon yielded to the temptation to buy drink and make a little
cash. The evening of the very day on which they were first worn the
smart clothes would disappear, sold or pledged to the convict
pawnbrokers, ever ready for business.
Usury was followed in the _ostrog_ quite as a profession. Money was
borrowed on all kinds of pledges, often upon articles of equipment, the
property of the government. There was no good faith about the
transaction. When the money had been advanced, the borrower would go at
once and inform the authorities that goods belonging to the state were
in the unlawful possession of the usurer, who was forthwith obliged to
give them up and accept his loss with the usual penalty of the lash.
A notable specimen of the dealers in vodka was a convict named Gazin, a
terrible creature of gigantic proportions and enormous bodily strength.
“A more ferocious and more monstrous creature could not exist. He was a
Tartar with an enormous and deformed head, like a gigantic spider of the
size of a man.” The strangest reports were current about him. He was
said to have been at one time a soldier; to have been repeatedly exiled,
and to have as often escaped only to be recaptured. He had been guilty
of the most frightful crimes. He took a delight in killing small
children, whom he attracted to some deserted spot, terrified into
convulsions, tortured horribly and then murdered. In the prison,
however, he seldom exhibited his worst traits. He was generally quiet in
demeanour, rarely quarrelsome, and careful to avoid disputes, having too
great a contempt for his companions and too good an opinion of himself.
His face was not without intelligence, but cruel and derisive in
expression like his smile.
Gazin was the richest of all the vodka sellers, and at regular intervals
used his stock in trade for self indulgence. Twice yearly he got
completely drunk and when in his cups displayed all his brutal ferocity.
As he grew more and more excited, he assailed his comrades with gibes,
invectives and venomous satire long since prepared. When quite
intoxicated, he waxed furious and, flourishing his knife, truculently
rushed at some one to kill him. Then a combined attack was made upon
him, and he was disarmed after he had been made unconscious by blows
upon the pit of the stomach. When well beaten, he was wrapped up in his
pelisse and thrown on to his camp bed to sleep off the effects of drink.
On every occasion exactly the same thing occurred; the prisoners knew
what would happen as did Gazin himself. This went on for years until his
physical energy began to fail; he weakened, complained of illness, and
frequently became a patient in hospital, where he was well treated and
in due course died.
Gazin, in one of his drunken bouts, fell foul of Dostoyevski and nearly
murdered him. He came into the kitchen one day, followed by his fiddler,
and staggered up to a table where our author sat with a friend or two
drinking. He smiled maliciously and asked with an insolent jeer how they
could afford to buy tea. No answer was given, as any contradiction would
have maddened him. Their continued silence had just the same effect.
“You must have money,” he went on, “a great deal of money; but tell me,
are you sent to hard labour to drink tea? Please tell me; I should like
to know.” Still there was no reply. He trembled and grew livid with rage
and looking round for some weapon of offence, seized the heavy bread box
and rushed at Dostoyevski, raising it over his head. Death seemed
imminent for one and all when a diversion was fortunately created by a
voice crying, “Gazin! they have stolen your vodka.” The miscreant
instantly dropped the box and ran off to recover his treasure. It was
never known whether there had been any theft, or whether the words were
invented as a stratagem to save the lives threatened.
The vodka seller was in his glory at Christmas time, when there were
great festivities and a drunken orgy was in progress with the tacit
permission of the authorities. Gazin kept sober until toward the end of
the celebration. He stood by the side of his camp bedstead, beneath
which he had concealed his store of drink, after bringing it from his
customary hiding place deep buried under the snow in the barrack yard.
“He smiled knowingly when he saw his customers arrive in crowds. He
drank nothing himself; he waited for that till the last day when he had
emptied the pockets of his comrades,” who degenerated into the wildest
excesses, singing, laughing and crying by turns, patrolling the barrack
room in bands, and striking the strings of their _balalaiki_ or native
guitars.
To drink to excess was the chief way to find an outlet for rejoicing; it
was also the means of deadening the hideous anticipation of acute and
inevitable pain. A convict sentenced to be flogged invariably contrived
to swallow the largest possible dose of spirits beforehand, often a long
time ahead and at a fabulous price. A certain conviction prevailed that
a drunken man suffered less from the plet or “the stick” than a sober
one in the full possession of his faculties. In one case, an ex-soldier
awaiting punishment infused a quantity of snuff into a bottle of vodka
and drank it off at once. He was seized with violent convulsions,
vomited blood, and was taken to hospital unconscious. His lungs had been
hopelessly affected, phthisis declared itself and he soon died of
consumption.