Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1883 — Exile Life in Siberia. [ARTICLE]

Exile Life in Siberia.

A Russian journal gives this picture of cfcsolation of life in the frozen and barren regions of Siberia: A steamboat arrived at St. Petersburg, from Tioumen, toAving a transport with 664 prisoners on board bound for Siberia. The transport had a terrible passage. Caught in the ice, it was delayed six days in the trip from Tioumen to Tomsk. On account of this delay the prisoners on their arrival at the latter town were in a deplorable condition, deprived of everything and infected with diphtheria, typhus, smallpox and other diseases. Two days afterward there came from Tioumen another transport with 538 prisoners. Finally a third vessel came with 700 of those unfortunates. The prison was too small for these 2,000 people, but nevertheless they were crammed into it. Among them were 100 political prisoners; and this fact is noteworthy, since it cannot be ascertained from whence they came. Whether they are condemned to banishment or to penal servitude in the mines nobody knows. Neither can it be ascertained by what tribunal they have been tried, t since, according to the official figures, the total number of convictions for political offenses during the last few years fall short cf so high a figure. Must we, then, believe that there is some truth in the rumors according to which people arrested on the charge of high treason have been brought before secret tribunals? Or have these political prisoners been simply dealt Avith by the legislative branch of the Government? There is no choice except between these two alternatives, equally to be deplored. * Naturally, the population of Siberia is far from contented with this continual arrival of prisoners, and vigorous protests are raised against the present system, coupled Avith demands for its radical change, and for a more efficacious control over the functionaries appointed in Siberia. The Siberian press consists of only a small number of papers, which are for the most part at the mercy of the local authorities, who suppress all the news that might in any way compromise them. Finally, with a view of remedying this deplorable state of affairs, there was founded at St. Petersburg a short time ago a weekly journal, the Oriental Review (Nosstochnote Obosrenie), under the management of a man who has a thorough knowledge of Siberia. As the journals of Moscow and St. Petersburg are not subjected to censorship, the Oriental Review has been able to bring to the knowledge of the Central Government many offenses that would otherwise have remained forever unknown. It must be said in justice to the Central administration that it attaches a great deal of importance to the revelations of the Review, and more than one official in Siberia has been dismissed from his post or put on trial in consequence of these revelations.