VAGABONDAGE AND UNIONS
Peculiar phases of criminality to be found in Siberian prisons—Country
overrun with convict fugitives—Terrible privations suffered by these
vagrants—The “call of the cuckoo”—The vagrants known as
“brodyagi”—Number of runaway convicts in the summer months said to
exceed thirty thousand—The formation of the “artel” or union in all
companies of convicts—The power and methods of the “Ivans” or
recidivists in the “artel”—Leo Deutsch’s story—Life of the politicals
in the Middle Kara state prison—The “Sirius” or student who worked
during the night—The humane governor, Colonel Kanonovich—He resigns
rather than obey the government’s orders that the prisoners should be
perpetually chained to wheelbarrows.
Certain types of criminals and some peculiar phases of criminality have
grown up in Russian, and especially in Siberian prisons. They are mainly
due to the negation of proper penitentiary principles and the absence of
any fixed methods of treatment. Callous indifference has generally
alternated with brutal repression and savage, disciplinary punishments.
The chief result has been the growth of classes of criminals seldom seen
elsewhere. The so-called “habitual offender” is to be met with strongly
developed and in a peculiarly vicious form in Siberia. The whole country
is overrun with fugitive convicts who have made good their escape in
various fashions. Some have run from the marching parties, carrying
their lives in their hands as they braved the bullets of the generally
straight-shooting soldiers of the escort; others have successfully
evaded the police at remote points of settlement as established exiles;
not a few have benefited by the exchange of identity with some one who
remained behind. All have become wild men of the woods, the terror of
all peaceable members of society whom they may come across in the
scattered settlements or single houses of the sparsely inhabited
districts. Many thousands of these vagrants are at large in the summer
months, when they may live in the open air and subsist as best they can
on what they find or steal. Large numbers are recaptured; many perish
from cold and starvation when winter approaches; many more give
themselves up voluntarily to save their lives, accepting the severest
flogging or a new sentence as the penalty of their escape.
Yet they are incorrigible wanderers and pass their lives in short
periods of freedom and longer doses of confinement. When Kennan saw a
marching party start, he was shown convicts who were treading the
dolorous road for the sixth time. The captain of the escort assured him
that he had known cases in which the journey had been repeated sixteen
times. In other words, the vagrant had crossed Siberia just thirty-two
times on foot, and had, therefore, walked as much as if he had twice
made the circuit of the globe at the Equator.
The passionate craving for freedom has been well described by
Dostoyevski. “At the first song of the lark throughout all Siberia and
Russia, men set out on the tramp; God’s creatures, if they can break
their prison and escape into the woods.... They go vagabondising where
they please, wherever life seems to them most agreeable and easy; they
drink and eat what they can find; at night they sleep undisturbed and
without a care in the woods or in a field;... saying good night only to
the stars; and the eye that watches them is the eye of God. It is not
altogether a rosy lot: sometimes they suffer hunger and fatigue ‘in the
service of General Cuckoo.’ Often enough the wanderers have not a morsel
of bread to keep their teeth going for days at a time.... They are
almost all brigands and thieves by necessity rather than inclination....
This life in the woods, wretched and fearful as it is, but still free
and adventurous, has a mysterious seduction for those who have
experienced it.”
A curious illustration of this consuming passion is to be found in the
case of an aged convict who had become the servant of a high official at
the Kara gold mines. This man ran away periodically at the return of
spring, and although suffering always the same terrible privations, was
brought back in irons. At last, at the fateful moment, he came to his
master and begged that he might be locked up. “I am a _brodyaga_, heart
and soul, quite irreclaimable, and I cannot resist the cuckoo’s call.
Please do me the favour to put me under lock and key so that I cannot go
off.” He was closely confined until the summer passed, and when the
fever of unrest left him, he was released and became quiet, contented
and docile as ever. A convict who has earned conditional freedom and
received a grant of land, may have married, had children and lived
quietly for some years, when suddenly some day he will have disappeared,
abandoning wife and family, to the stupefaction of everybody. Vagrancy
is in his blood. He probably was a deserter before his conviction; the
passion for wandering has always possessed him. He has hungered after a
change of lot, and nothing would hold him, not even his family, much
less police surveillance or prison bars.
The largest number of these vagabonds, or “passportless” men, as they
are called, have begun at the earliest opportunity to make a break for
liberty while on the road between the _étapes_. As the party was being
marshalled after the midday rest, or when it reached some defile or
stretch of broken ground, a simultaneous dash was made by several
through the marching cordon of guards. Fire was then opened
instantaneously, and one or more of the fugitives fell while the rest
got away. If the rush was made near some wood and cover could be gained,
the escape was successful. The first step on reaching a safe shelter was
to remove the leg irons by pounding the basils into an oblong shape with
a stone. Then the fugitive’s face was turned westward toward the Ural
Mountains, and one or two might by chance reach European Russia.
As a rule, they travel along byways and tracks known only to themselves
through the _taiga_, or primeval forest, but they sometimes boldly
appear upon the great highways to Moscow. They are often to be met with
in couples or small bands, still in their prison rags, skirting the
forest and keeping near the edge so as to hide quickly at the first
alarm. Before the days of the railway, they would engage in conversation
with friends in any passing party of convicts on the march, and even
dared to salute the officers, who might know them perfectly but who
would not interfere with them. Life is often very hard with them, but
the Siberian peasants are usually charitable, partly from religious
feeling, but not a little from fear, for the _brodyaga_ is vindictive
and capable of showing his ill-will murderously. The doors of dwelling
houses are kept fast shut, but food is often placed outside on the
window-sill,—a piece of bread and cheese or a bowl of thickened milk.
Sometimes the bath-house, at a little distance, in a detached building,
is left open to give a night’s shelter, but it is dangerous to admit a
tramp into the main residence. Leo Deutsch tells the following story of
the unfortunate results of incaution. It is from the lips of one of the
principal actors.
“We’d been a few days on the road when one stormy night we came to a
village. It was pouring in torrents, and we could find nobody who would
let us in, till at last an old man opened the door of his hut. We begged
him in God’s name to give us shelter. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘will you promise
to leave us old folks in peace?‘ ‘What do you take us for, grandfather?‘
said we. ‘Have pity on us!’ So he let us in, and the old woman gave us
something to eat, and they allowed us to lie on the stove by turns.
Well, they went to sleep and we just _did for them_, and went off with
everything that could be of any use to us. We didn’t get far: the
peasants came after us and caught us; and then there was the usual game:
trial and sentence to penal servitude.”
Frequently the recaptured _brodyaga_ is sentenced to only a few years’
penal servitude, when he was originally sentenced for a much longer
period, and thus escape not only gives him freedom for a time, but
considerably lessens his punishment even after a second or third trial.
This is the result of the impossibility of establishing the identity of
persons arrested without passports, but the difficulty has largely
disappeared in recent years with the more systematic methods of
photographing the convicts.
The _brodyagi_ were Ishmaelites against whom every hand was turned. The
people of Siberia showed them little mercy and constantly hunted them
down simply to rob them of anything they possessed. It was better than
chasing an antelope, they said; the beast had only one skin, the convict
had two; his coat, his shirt, boots and clothes, and something in his
pockets. Again—quoting from Deutsch—there was the case of a tramp who
had engaged himself as a labourer during the winter months. When paid
his wages, a mere pittance, he wandered forth; his late master pursued
him, shot him from behind a bush and repossessed himself of the money.
The Siberian woods held many unrecognised corpses, about whom no
questions were asked. Life is cheap in the great convict land.
With the advent of spring, when approaching summer renders life in the
woods bearable, the “free commands,” comprising persons sentenced to
simple banishment or conditionally released, begin to overflow into the
forests, and a constant stream of fugitives bent upon changing their lot
sets westward. The signal for the start is the first note of the cuckoo;
hence the prison synonym for an escape is “to go to General ‘Kukushka’
for orders.” They pass around Lake Baikal, climbing the high, barren
mountains that surround it, or they cross it on a raft or empty fish
cask. Their fires are to be seen in the distance guiding the hunters who
are out to avenge some new outrage of the runaways.
It is estimated that the numbers of vagabonds at large in the summer
months exceed thirty thousand. By far the larger part of these reappear
at the convicts’ settlements when winter arrives. They are not
recognised and have steadfastly refused to recollect their proper names,
so one and all are provided with the same appellation of “Ivan
Dontremember,”—a large family, and the name carries with it the penalty
of five years’ hard labour. When deportation to Saghalien was later
adopted on a large scale, the hope was entertained that the fever for
escape would in a measure be cured by the difficulties and dangers of
the savage conditions of that wild and distant land. The prison
administration strongly recommended that the most incorrigible runaways
should be interned on that convict settlement, where, hemmed in by sea
and ice, they were cut off from the mainland of Asia and circumscribed
in their bids for freedom. The Saghalien _brodyagi_, however, have been
as active for evil and as irrepressible as in Siberia; they have worked
in gangs, and rendered more desperate by the poverty of the country and
the greater difficulties of subsistence, they have become more
recklessly criminal. Fugitives who had broken prison joined forces and
terrorised whole districts, attacking posts and settlements, committing
the worst outrages, and long defying pursuit and recapture. More
detailed accounts of the prevailing lawlessness in Saghalien belong to a
later date.
The multiplication of escapes by the most desperate characters in
Siberia, and their almost inevitable recapture and reconviction,
developed some detestable features in prison life. If anything were
needed to emphasise the misusage of the comparatively innocent victims
of Russian oppression, it will be found in the permitted predominance of
the worst elements. The best were forever at the mercy of the worst; the
hardened miscreants ruled the prisons; they might not be in the
majority, but they depended upon the strength that came with combination
of the truculent and masterful banded together. Where convicts gathered
together in any number the first step was the organisation of the
_artel_, or “union,” which governed the rest with irresistible
despotism. In the days of marching by road the union was generally
formed at the first halting place, when a _starosta_, or “chief,” was
forthwith elected by the prisoners from among their own body, and
nominally by the vote of the majority. But the decision lay really with
the “Ivans,” the recidivists who had been in exile before; the old,
experienced rogues and vagabonds, who imposed their will upon their
comrades through their nominee. It was the ruthless rule of a secret
oligarchy, wielding despotic and irresponsible power entirely in its own
interests. The individual prisoner sacrificed his personal rights to
gain the protection of the association which pretended to stand between
him and the authorities. The union had funds acquired by means of a tax
assessed on the whole body, and from other sources of revenue, such as
the sale by auction to the highest bidder of the privilege of keeping a
sutler’s shop where tea, sugar and white bread were sold openly, and
where tobacco, playing cards and intoxicating liquor might be secretly
purchased.
The will of the _artel_ was law; its functions were far-reaching and its
authority absolute over all the members. It worked secretly and out of
sight, securing its ends by astute devices and a free use of bribes to
officers and soldiers, and by utilising the knowledge that it was backed
up by the whole number of prisoners. Among its duties were concerting
plans of escape with the requisite assistance; the suborning of the
executioner to flog lightly; the hiring of _telyegas_ and sleighs for
conveyance by the road of those who could pay for the privilege,
frequently to the exclusion of the really weak and suffering; the
bribery of all officials; and the enforcement of all contracts and
agreements among the prisoners. It had its own unwritten code, its own
standard of honour and obligation, its own penalties. A member might
commit almost any crime, provided he was loyal and obedient to the
organisation; if he betrayed it or revealed its secrets, no matter under
what compulsion, he was already a dead man. The whole continent of Asia
could not hide or save the unfaithful exile. If condemned by the
pitiless tribunal, his fate would certainly overtake him somehow,
somewhere, even at a long distance from the scene of his offence. The
traitors might secure the protection of the authorities and live
altogether in the strictest solitude, but immunity was only secured for
a time. The blow would fall eventually. Kennan quotes two cases, in one
of which the victim was choked to death on board a convict steamer on
the voyage to Saghalien, and in the other, he was found dead, with his
throat cut, in a Caucasian _étape_.
The chief of the union was a person of great importance; he had the
whole strength of the society at his back and was the recognised
intermediary with the authorities. An astute convoy officer would enter
into relations with him, and in return for a promise that no escapes
would be attempted, winked at the removal of leg irons on the road,
which, as has been said, the wearer could always accomplish by altering
the shape of the anklets. Even a high official, no less a personage than
the inspector-general of exiles, would make a cash contribution to the
funds of the _artel_ to secure this same promise. If any daring convict
should then escape, the union was eager to effect the recapture, either
of the actual fugitive or of some runaway found at large. The ultimate
fate of the fugitive has already been indicated.
The _artel_, acting through its leaders, the “Ivans,” who helped the
_starosta_ to his place and practically controlled him, claimed the
right to enforce the strict observance of the agreements made between
convicts, and especially in regard to “swops,” or the exchange of
identities, with all the attributes and responsibilities attaching to
each. In recent years, great pains have been taken to prevent this by
such means as the obligation to carry photographs and personal
description which are constantly compared with the individual. But the
exchanges were long made with impunity, facilitated by the loose system
prevailing. Every marching party consisted of two principal classes; the
convicts sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour, and the _ssylny_,
sentenced to exile only as forced colonists. The penalties are quite
unequal, and many of those doomed to suffer the most severe would be
glad to exchange positions with the colonists when any could be induced
to accept the heavier burden. There were many such; it was only a
question of price, and that was not generally high; often a ridiculously
small compensation sufficed and the bargain was soon made.
There are in every exile party a number of abject creatures, degraded
gamblers, who have lost their clothing (government property) and
mortgaged their food allowance for weeks ahead, and who will sell their
souls for a few rubles and a bottle of vodka. Such a creature will
listen greedily to the overtures of the more prosperous convict, who has
won or saved money on the road, and who tempts with splendid offers: a
warm overcoat, five rubles and a few glasses of drink as the price of
his personality. The bribe is backed up by specious arguments. The new
convict might console himself with the thought that he need not remain
long at hard labour. When duly arrived at his destination in the mining
settlements, or at some great prison, he had only to declare that he was
not the man he pretended to be. He would confess, in fact, that he had
fraudulently exchanged with another, whom he named but who could not be
found. The first act of the sham exile would be to escape from the
village in which he was interned and to get lost in the _taiga_. The
false convict might be held for a time and subjected to a severe
flogging and a term of imprisonment, after which he could count upon
release as an ordinary exile.
This is no fanciful story. Cases were of constant occurrence. Leo
Deutsch, when on his way to the Kara mines, was seriously approached by
a comrade on the march, who suggested an exchange and showed
unblushingly how it might be carried out. This man was a veteran “Ivan,”
a criminal aristocrat and dandy among his fellows; he wore a white shirt
with a gay tie under his gray overcoat, and a brightly coloured scarf
round his waist, to which his chains were cleverly attached so that they
did not rattle or incommode him when walking. The suggestion was nothing
less than a cold-blooded murder. The substitute to be provided was to
have some personal resemblance to Deutsch, and would take his place with
the other politicals one day, and disappear the next. When his body
should be picked up presently in a neighbouring stream, it would be
supposed that Deutsch had committed suicide, while in reality, still
alive and hearty, he was to be disguised as the substitute who had been
permanently “removed” to make a place for him. The price of this
atrocity was a few rubles, twenty or thirty at most, and the blood money
was to be divided among the murderers, with a large contribution to the
revenues of the union.
It was to the interest of the _artel_ to encourage these exchanges and
insist upon their punctual performance. The substitute was never
permitted to back out of his bargain. He generally belonged to the class
contemptuously styled “biscuits,” and the name suited these pale,
emaciated creatures, the pariahs of the party, upon whom fell all the
dirty, disagreeable jobs. These poor wretches had lost all power of
will, and cared for nothing but the cards that had been their ruin. They
stole all they could lay their hands on, except from the “Ivans,” who
would have retaliated with a murderous thrashing, justified on the
ground that the thief had stolen from his own people. The condition of
these “biscuits” was heart-rending, especially in bad weather, when,
clothed in rags that barely covered their nakedness, they ran rather
than walked on the line of march so as to keep themselves warm. Their
only pleasure was in gambling, when anything and everything was staked,
even the government clothing for which they were responsible and for
losing which they were punished cruelly.
Next in importance to the chief, the storekeeper was a prominent
official in the union. He had bought his place, bidding the highest
price for it when put up at auction, and he had acquired the exclusive
right to sell provisions to the prisoners, and to supply them secretly
with tobacco, spirits and playing cards. The last mentioned were in
constant use and the games were eagerly watched. When a winner was
lucky, it was customary for him to stand treat to his starving comrades.
The storekeeper also, on the expiration of his office, would entertain
everyone with a feast when the prisoners would hungrily eat their fill,
crying, “It is the storekeeper who pays.”
There is now, however, little chance of any such extended organisation
among the convicts on the journey or in the forwarding prisons. The
officials have learned how to prevent and break up such combinations and
more recent regulations have rendered them inoperative. So the old
_brodyagi_ must lament for the good old days and the power that they
once exercised.
Some curious details of the organisation of the _artel_ in the Middle
Kara, or state prison for politicals, are given by Leo Deutsch. It was
formed for domestic administration and was worked fairly and equitably
for the general good. Coöperation was the leading principle. All issues
of food, the daily rations for the whole number, were collected and
afterward divided with such additions as were provided out of a common
fund obtained by general contribution of moneys received by prisoners
from their friends at home. This fund was expended in three ways: one
part went to the “stock pot” as explained above, to supplement the food;
a second was applied to help prisoners about to be released; and the
third was divided as pocket money among the whole number, to be spent
according to individual taste, in buying small luxuries or books
approved by the authorities. The _starosta_ kept strict account; no
actual money passed hands; paper orders circulated and were debited to
each member on a monthly balance sheet, with the result brought out as
“plus” or “minus.” It was the same as in ordinary life; some thriftless
people were always in debt; the impecunious hoped to get clear at
Christmas time when gifts came in, but if still on the wrong side, the
“minus” was “whitewashed” by the consent of the _artel_ but not always
with the concurrence of the debtor, who was sometimes too proud to
accept the favour.
Under this union, life in common was admirably organised, with a
division of labour and a regular roster of employment. Work was of two
classes; for private purposes, and for the general good. The former
included washing of clothes and mending, the latter cooking, cleaning,
attending to the steam bath and the various domestic services. No pains
were spared to insure cleanliness. All rooms occupied by the prisoners
were scrupulously washed and kept tidy; the bed-boards and floors were
regularly scrubbed with hot water; the beds were aired; tables and
benches were washed in the yard; all sanitary appliances were thoroughly
disinfected. Proper ventilation was insisted upon, and close attention
was paid to hygienic conditions. All worked cheerfully, and illness only
was allowed as an exemption. The cooking was done by groups of five each
which served for a week at a time. A head cook, an assistant cook for
invalids, and two helpers made up the group. This was hard work,
fatiguing while it lasted, but a relief to the monotonous life. The
kitchen became a sort of club-house, where men came to laugh and jest
and play practical jokes, a pleasant change in their gruesome existence.
The dietary was meagre and little varied on account of dearth of
materials. Thin soup and black bread was the staple food, but the
soup-meat was often served as a separate dish with great ingenuity, a
favourite method being to mince it with groats. This dish was nicknamed
“Every-one-likes-it,” and it was joyfully welcomed on the days it
appeared on the bill of fare. Another favourite dish was the _pirog_, a
sort of “resurrection pie,” containing scraps saved up during the week.
Except on rare holidays, when roast meat and white bread were supplied
out of the fund, the food was neither nutritious nor appetising. But
many of the cooks were skilful,—worthy, as the prisoners declared, of
“better houses.” The cook’s perquisite was the issue of a rather
increased portion of food.
Certain officials were appointed by the _artel_. A “bread issuer” cut up
the loaves and served them out to the different rooms; it was his duty
also to collect the scraps, even to the crumbs, and send them to the
“free command,” where ex-prisoners in semi-liberation resided; and the
pieces helped to feed the horses and two cows, the property of the
union. There was a poultry man, too, who took charge of the fowls, which
were raised and tended most carefully. Two bath-keepers were in charge
of the steam bath, the one luxury in the prison, indulgence in which
once a week afforded a short period of delightful ease and comfort. What
the bath meant to the convicts in the Omsk _ostrog_ has already been
described.
One of the most important offices was that of librarian of the prison.
He was elected by ballot. By degrees the library at Kara had reached a
large number of volumes, partly brought in by prisoners, partly sent
from Russia, always with permission. It contained many standard works in
several languages; history, mathematics and natural science were largely
represented; the books were well cared for and cleverly rebound by
self-taught workmen. The librarian at Kara was long a political named
Vladimir Tchuikov, a youth who had been condemned to twenty years’ hard
labour for being in correspondence with a remarkable woman
revolutionist, who was long buried alive in the Schlüsselburg fortress.
It was also charged against him that he was found in possession of
implements for printing and manufacturing false passports, and of a list
of subscriptions to the journal, _Will of the People_. As a librarian he
was invaluable; he had a prodigious memory and could indicate any
article on any given subject which had appeared in a certain work or
pile of newspapers.
Leo Deutsch describes the effect made upon him by Tchuikov at their
first meeting. “I noted their youthful but worn faces (Tchuikov and
Spandoni); both of them wore spectacles and on their heads were round
caps with no brims. With their yellow sheepskins and rattling chains, my
comrades gave one the impression that they could not be real convicts,
but were just dressed up for the part—so great was the contrast between
their refined faces and behaviour and this uncouth disguise.”
Other officials under this coöperative association were the general
“dividers,” one for each room, whose duty was to parcel out with great
care every atom of food, and especially the tid-bits arriving from
friends, which he divided honourably and exactly. He was also the carver
for the room. As has been said, the utmost generosity prevailed; no
prisoner claimed to retain any gifts he received from outside; all
linen, clothing, and boots were handed over to the chief, and their
final possession was decided by lot, their nature being first declared,
so that any one in need might put in a claim to draw for them.
Some further details of the common life at this time in the Middle Kara
state prison will be found interesting. All the inmates were more or
less acquainted with one another; all were comrades devoted to a common
cause. Youth was a general characteristic, and its buoyancy and sanguine
spirit animated every one. Light-hearted conversation, with jokes and
laughter, were not unknown; free association was not forbidden; the
prisoners were not locked up singly or confined to a particular room,
but were at liberty to run to and fro exchanging ideas and sometimes
news when it came in, which was but rarely.
Each room had its nickname, the survival of a dim and distant past. One
was called the “Sanhedrin,” another the “Yakutsk,” a third the “Volost,”
and a fourth the “Nobles’ room.” There was always a large contingent of
clever and well educated young men among the politicals, but the popular
idea of the lesser officials that they were all nobles, princes and
counts was ridiculously far-fetched. Still, they profited by the
civility and consideration accorded to them. Many were deeply read; many
were members of the universities who were eager to improve themselves.
Some of them were known as “Siriuses,” a prison name given to the ardent
students, who worked in the middle of the night, taking advantage of the
hours of perfect stillness broken only by the snores of the sleepers.
The “Sirius” turned in early in the evening when the noisy chatter of
many voices was disturbing to study, but he could sleep through it and,
waking at midnight, would light the shaded lamp at his table and work
till dawn. Then when Sirius, star of the morning, arose, he again took a
short rest for a couple of hours.
The attainments of these students sometimes reached a high standard;
they were proficient in metaphysics, abstruse mathematics, or languages,
and professors in each of these branches were glad to take pupils.
Marvellous skill in handicrafts was also acquired, mainly from books of
technical instruction, and lessons in theory were admirably applied in
practice. One clever workman constructed a pocket lathe out of a few old
rusty nails, and by its help fashioned all the parts of a clock which
kept good time, although he was no watchmaker. The possession of the
tools required for these productions was forbidden by the rules, and
they were kept out of sight when the regular searches and inspections
were made. When the rules in this respect were relaxed, there was a
great development in arts and crafts, a vise was set up in one of the
rooms, and an amateur photographer opened a regular studio.
A mechanical genius, an original and inventive character, was prominent
among the politicals at this period. He was Leo Zlatopolski, a student
of the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg, who had joined the
revolutionary party and through his mechanical skill had been of great
assistance in the manufacture of bombs. Prison seclusion had stimulated
his inventive powers. He designed a flying machine and planned a
circular town, in which everything was to be run by electricity, but he
did not despise working for the improvement of domestic appliances, such
as new schemes for the boiling of potatoes and the making of shoes. He
had advanced theories for the heating of dwellings; he invented new
games of cards and aspired to regenerate and reorganise daily life. But
none of his schemes were practical, and his comrades made him their
butt, although he was really a very capable and learned man. The
activity and productiveness of the political prisoners reminds us of the
same qualities exhibited in the Omsk _ostrog_ as described by
Dostoyevski.
Other amusements were much indulged in during the more troublous times.
Chess was played in the long, dismal, and monotonous hours, and by first
class performers who had studied the game scientifically. There were
well-contested tournaments, the result of which excited lively interest.
Music was greatly cultivated, and the prison choir had a large repertory
of the now widely popular Russian composers. One of the gifted
handicraftsmen constructed a very passable violin which was constantly
in use, and less ambitious performers were proficient with the simple
hair-comb. Physical exercise was obtained within the prison enclosure
during the winter on snow slides, after the fashion of the modern
toboggan at fashionable winter resorts in Europe.
The relegation of political offenders to the Kara mines began in 1873,
but did not become a regular practice till 1879, when the terrorists’
propaganda seriously alarmed the Russian government. It was then
resolved to subject the worst cases to penal servitude under the same
painful conditions as common criminals, with whom they worked side by
side at the gold placers. This was no child’s play, but it was not
unendurable. On the contrary, the daily egress from prison for six or
eight hours into sunshine and open air was much appreciated. For some
time the supreme power at Kara was wielded by the humane and rightly
esteemed Colonel Kanonovich, during whose mild régime the prisoners
enjoyed the privileges detailed above. But with the changed temper of
the government and the increased severity decreed, Colonel Kanonovich
proved restive and declined to give effect to the new orders. He had
already protested against some of the penalties enforced, especially
that of chaining to wheelbarrows, and although he was unable to abolish
it or relieve those subjected to it without permission from St.
Petersburg, he gave orders that whenever he visited the prisons all
suffering that inhumane punishment should be released from the
wheelbarrows for the time so that his eyes might not be offended by the
sight.
This savage and abominable practice, although discontinued on the
Siberian continent, is still authorised by law, and is constantly
inflicted at Saghalien on convicts condemned to a life sentence. The
penalty consists in making a prisoner fast to a small miner’s
wheelbarrow by means of a chain attached to the middle link of the leg
irons. While the chain is long enough to allow of freedom of movement,
the victim cannot take any exercise, nor cross his cell without
trundling his wheelbarrow in front of him. One political offender,
Shchedrin, indignant at the gross misconduct of Colonel Soliviof,
adjutant to the governor-general of Trans-Baikal, struck him in the
face. This man was sentenced to the wheelbarrow and was sent back to
Russia to be imprisoned in the Schlüsselburg. He travelled across Asia
fastened to his wheelbarrow, even when in a vehicle. When jolted on the
rough roads, he was so much bruised by his barrow that it was found
necessary to unchain him and lash the implement behind the cart, and
this strange spectacle was witnessed by many. Shchedrin became insane in
the “stonebags” of Schlüsselburg, and he died eventually in an insane
asylum. At night it was necessary to hoist the wheelbarrow into such a
position as to allow the sleeper to lie alongside.
A high-souled, chivalrous man of the stamp of Colonel Kanonovich could
not bear to witness the miseries of his charges unmoved. He was not a
revolutionist, nor in sympathy with the reforming spirit, but he was
willing to admit that many of the political offenders were disinterested
patriots and that there were among them numbers of refined and
cultivated men and women. He treated them, as I have tried to show, with
kindness and consideration, and sought to lighten and brighten their
grievous lot. When at last he saw that he was to be employed as an
intermediary for the infliction of fresh tortures, he resolved to resign
rather than be responsible for them. He wrote boldly to his superiors
saying he was not a hangman, and that he would not do violence to his
feelings by enforcing the cruel orders recently issued. When his
resignation was accepted, and he was recalled to St. Petersburg, he was
sharply taken to task by Governor-General Anuchin as he passed through
Irkutsk.
“No one holding your views,” said this great official, “could expect to
retain his appointment as chief of the Kara prisons and mines. I
question whether any one like you can hold a post in the government
service.” “Very well,” was the sturdy reply, “then I will get out of it
forthwith. The government has imposed an impossible duty on me, and I
cannot perform it and keep an approving conscience.”
Colonel Kanonovich fortunately had many influential friends, and the
accusations brought against him could not injure him permanently. He was
an officer of the Cossacks and was appointed to another command in the
Trans-Baikal, and later promoted to be a general officer, in charge of
the enlarged penal colony of Saghalien. He also supervised the erection
of the new Verkhni Udinsk prison, in which a praiseworthy and
conspicuous effort at reform was subsequently made. The building of the
political prison at Middle Kara was under his direction, but he left
just before it was occupied and was in no wise responsible for the
atrocities committed there.