did not think it necessary to get up.[1] About a week later General Khoróshkin, the governor of the Trans-Baikál, ordered that she be taken to the central convict prison at Vérkhni Údinsk.[2] The execution of the order was attended with rough treatment. and in- sult. Lieutenant-colonel Masiúkof, the gendarme officer in command of the political prisons,[3] intrusted the whole matter to a petty officer of the prison administration, named Bobrófski. The latter did not think it necessary to inform Madam Kaválskaya beforehand that she was to be taken away, but suddenly appeared in her cell with a file of soldiers at four o'clock in the morning, and dragged her, half-naked, out of bed. The soldiers tore off from her all of her own underclothes, making meanwhile various insulting remarks, and dressed her forcibly in the clothing provided by the Government for common criminal women.[4] At this she fainted, whereupon they laid her, still unconscious, upon a blanket, carried her down to the bank of the river, and put her into a small boat for transportation to Strétinsk.[5] [The water in the Shílka was so shallow at that time that the steamers were not running.] As a result of all this the women in the women's political prison demanded that the commandant Masiúkof, who had permitted such treatment of Madam Kaválskaya, be removed, and they enforced their demand with a hunger-strike [voluntary self-starvation] that lasted sixteen days. Although the men's political prison was secretly in communication with the prison of the women, the male convicts did
- ↑ It is a rule in all Russian prisons that when an officer — and particularly an officer of high rank — enters a cell, every prisoner shall rise to his or her feet and stand in the attitude of attention. Madam Kaválskaya neither rose to her feet nor noticed in any way the governor-general's entrance. [Author's note.]
- ↑ The new prison described in chapter IV. of this volume. It is distant from Kará about 600 miles. [Author's note.]
- ↑ Appointed in place of Captain Nikólin since my visit to Kará. [Author's note.]
- ↑ At the time of our visit to Kará political convicts of both sexes were allowed, as a rule, to wear underclothing purchased by themselves with their own money, and to have their own bedding. Under the order issued by the prison administration on the 1st of March, 1888, they would not be entitled to this privilege, particularly if they were about to be subjected, as Madam Kaválskaya was, to "dungeon conditions." [Author's note.]
- ↑ The distance from Ust Kará to Strétinsk is about seventy miles up-stream, and Madam Kaválskaya must have spent at least three days in the small rowboat with the soldiers who had already stripped her naked and insulted her. [Author's note.]
invalid, or semi-invalid, and all of my other informants agree that she had consumption. Her name must be carefully distinguished from that of Madam Kavaléfskaya, which it resembles. Both women were at Kará. [Author's note.]
