a single blow, and that, furthermore, since he was not legally obliged to witness punishments inflicted by administrative order and without the sentence of a court, he should decline to be present. [It should be noted here that there had been no formal inquiry into the circumstances of Madam Sigída's case and no examination [slédstvie].] The governor of the Kará penal establishment, Gomulétski, did not at once execute the order of the governor-general, but reported to his immediate superior the statement and declaration of the prison surgeon. Baron Korf thereupon directed that the previous order be executed without the presence of the surgeon. Gomulétski still put off the punishment, Masiúkof refused to take charge of the affair, and finally Bobrófski — the same officer who had ill-treated Madam Kaválskaya — was brought from Nérchinski Zavód to serve as executioner. [I forgot to mention in its proper place the fact that after the Kaválskaya affair Bobrófski was promoted to be assistant superintendent of the convict prisons in the whole Nérchinsk mining district.]
On the 6th of November, 1889, Bobrófski arrived at Kará, and immediately carried the order of Governor-general Korf into execution.
Many stories are in circulation with regard to the repulsive details of this infernal act of cruelty, but I will not write them to you because I cannot answer for the truthfulness of them. After the execution Madam Sigída, in a state of unconsciousness, was carried back into the prison, and on the 8th or 9th of November she died — I think from poison. On the night of the 10th Marie Kavaléfskaya, Marie Kalúzhnaya, and Nadézhda Smirnítskaya, who also had taken poison, were brought from their cells to the prison hospital, and died there, one after another.[1] A few days later — November 15th — Dr. Gúrvich was summoned by Masiúkof to the men's political prison to treat twenty more con-
- ↑ Miss Marie Kalúzhnaya, aged twenty-three, was the daughter of a merchant in Odessa, and had been condemned to twenty years of penal servitude. Her story may be found in the article entitled "Prison Life of the Russian Revolutionists," in The Century Magazine for December, 1887, p. 289. Miss Hope Smirnítskaya, aged thirty-seven, was the daughter of a Russian priest, and at the time of her arrest — ten or twelve years ago — was a student in one of the high schools for women [vuíshi zhénski kúrsi] in St. Petersburg. She had been sentenced to fifteen years of penal servitude, ["Russian State Prisoners," Century Magazine for March, 1888, p. 759.] The story and portrait of Madam Kavaléfskaya were given in chapter VII of this volume. [Author's note.]
