Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

THE NIHILISTS251into the hands of the police . The historian, unfortunately,has no impartial reports to rely on as to their treatment inprison ; only once, during the ministry of Count Loris-Melikoff,Russian papers were allowed to partly reveal the secretsof Russian imprisonment and Siberian exile, which virtuallyconfirmed all the "underground" literature had asserted,and these revelations are horrifying . They show up theimperfection and cruelty of Russian state institutions, thebrutality and irresponsible arbitrariness of Russian officials .We find that the accused are kept in prison-and what prisons!-for two or three years before being brought to trial, andfor what crime ? simply for having given away a Socialisticpamphlet. We find women in large numbers undressed inthe presence of, or even by, the gendarmes themselves, andsearched by them, to the accompaniment of coarse jokes . Weare told how prisoners were tortured, how nervous prisonerswere disturbed in their sleep, to entice them in their state ofexcitement to make confessions . Condemned prisoners weretreated with the same refined cruelty . There is a largeprison at Novobfelgorod, near Kharkoff, whence the prisonersaddressed in 1878-that is, before the attempts onthe emperor's life-an appeal to Russian society, from whichwe will quote a few facts . In a dark cell, whose windowis partly smeared over with dark paint, lay Plotnikoff, onboards only thinly covered with felt, without covering orpillow, terribly weakened by years of solitary confinement .One day he rose from his boards and began reciting thewords of a favourite poet . Suddenly his gaoler rushed in ." How dare you speak loud here ! " he cried ; `° perfect silencemust reign here. I shall have you put in irons ." Theprisoner vainly pleaded that his legal term for being in ironshad expired, and that he was ill . The irons were again fastenedon him .Alexandroff, another prisoner, heard some peasants singingin the distance ; their song found an echo in his heart, andhe sang the melody . He had ceased for some time whenthe guard entered his cell . "Who has allowed you to sing?"he said ; " I will give you 'a reminder," and with his fiststruck him in the face . Even common criminals are bettertreated . They are allowed to sit together, two or three inone cell . Serakoff was put into the carver for not salutinga gaoler standing a little way off . The career is a cagetotally dark, and so small, that a prisoner has to remain in itin a stooping position . It is behind the privy, whence thesoil is but seldom removed .