Sixteen years in Siberia

PLAN-THE MINISTER'S VISIT-A SECR

ger to a sentence in my charge-sheet, whereupon the governor looked at me sharply. It was clear his

rtress and here, had been no more successful in detecting them than had previous examinations. The scissors I again concealed; but I wanted to change the German notes, so as to have at any rate part of my money available, and that was not a very simple matter. I bega

sked, coming in and shut

luggage properly wh

anything wrong?" he

tell you that you don't know how to search. Look here! you

cried; "where w

fifty roubles.[28] Take it, and when you are off duty go to a money-changer-there are several on the Ne

o it," he said, and we

ation with the outer world, and this we revolutionists had often effected by bribing warders to take letters into and out of prison. In Ki?v and the

r the post; and next I shall send him to someone I know with a commissi

r fashion. Towards evening he came into my cell again, and laid my notes down on the table. "Take them back," he said; "I am afraid of getting into trouble. See here; a little while ago one of the others had two wa

a "carrier-pigeon." I saw no chance now of changing the notes secretly, so I told

und them in sear

s because I hadn't given them up directly. I'd rather

e. The money was taken charge o

st unpleasantly stuffy and dusty; and the food was inferior both in quantity and quality. But the walks were what was most disagreeable. Imagine a huge circle, divided into sections by partitions running from centre to circumference. In these cattle-pens we were allowed to disport ourselves singly, carefully watched all the while by warders stationed on a raised platfor

corridor looked into the street, and its noises could be heard in the cells-the rumbling of carriages, the cries of stree

t seemed to be expected, and I soon learned that the Minister of Justice, Nabòkov, was coming to inspect the prison. Short

pleased with its frankness. I hope you will

dy said, it was my object to st

ever, as though there were something else he would have liked to say. He bent forward a li

d me he wanted to speak to me when the minister had gone. Some time af

d he, "but I should like to have

mine, Kotliarèvsky touched on the question I had raised before as

brought before an ordinary tribunal and only prosecuted on the Gorinòvitch count, you might be merely 62condemned

se," I cried. "Germany only ext

l giving us this little proof of his friendship. Or, if necessary, it could easily be made out that you had committed some

e come into the hands of the Russian Government, for I had destroyed all my manuscripts before leaving. I could only suppose that when I was out of my cell for exercise some single sheets might have been ab

in for a few years' hard labour did not at all suit the views of Government. So when you were extradited a special council was held in high circles. Of course, I was not there. I am 63not numbered among the elect; but this is what I have been told. At first they were all unanimous in declaring that a modification of the extradition treaty must be arranged, so that you might be brought before a special tribunal. Then, as you can easily imagine, they would have made short work with you! But one of these great personages had a qualm, and he urged, 'Germany might fall in with our vi

o me with the object of loosening my tongue; but perhaps he really had

among others on political prosecutions in Russia. I remarked to him how

punishment at all. I say to myself that in a great state political offences are inevitable. With a population of many millions there must always be a few thousand malcontents,

rists in my opinion there might be in Russia. I answered that I knew nothing at all about

able to judge as to the strength of the terrorist organisa

ot, however, wish to strengthen Kotliarèvsky's opinion about the "friendly powers," s

ite impossible; I reckon at most some hundreds.

opinion, and there

d "the old clothes case." He gave me the following account of this highly important affair of state. In some domiciliary visit the police had found a note containing the names of persons who were assisting the political prisoners by providing them with clothes and other necessaries. Thereupon a number of these persons were arrested

show by it some of the little peculiarities of "administrative methods" in Russia. These "administrative methods" are sometimes extremely unpleasant for th

y name he left off replying to my taps, I could not imagine why. Several days passed. I could hear him going up and down in his cell, could catch his voice when he spoke to the warder, but he left all my signals unanswered; so concluding that he was afraid of being caught (though the officials of this prison did not seem to make much fuss over the knocking), I left off in

days, and that he who remained in his cell should recognise the other by a preconcerted signal. The next thing was to know one another's voice, and this also we succeeded in effecting. We knew that in this prison, "politicals," in the "Case of the 193," not only spoke together, but even conveyed small objects to one another, by means of the water-closet pipes. The sanitary system here was so arranged that on all the six storeys each pair of cells was in commun