The "Rules Relating to Police Surveillance" are not enforced with uniform strictness at all times, nor in all parts of Siberia, and the extent to which they debar exiles from employment is largely dependent upon the character of the officials who are intrusted with their enforcement. General Tseklínski, the late governor of the territory of Semipalátinsk, treated the exiles in his jurisdiction with humanity and consideration; not because he was in sympathy with their views, but simply because he was a gentleman and a humane and considerate officer. The same statement may justly be made, I think, with regard to Mr. Nathaniel Petukhóf, who at the time of my visit was acting-governor of the province of Tomsk. In the province of Tobólsk, on the other hand, the administrative exiles have always been treated with harshness, and at times with brutal severity. In April, 1888, the political exiles in the town of Surgút,[1] to the number of nineteen men, addressed a respectful letter to the Minister of the Interior, protesting against the treatment to which they were subjected, declaring that their situation had become insupportable, and solemnly giving notice that, whatever might be the consequences, they would no longer submit. A copy of this protest has been sent to me from Siberia, and lies before me as I write. It is too long to be quoted here, but a translation of it will be found in Appendix C. How desperate the situation of these exiles must have been appears from the fact that some of them had almost finished their terms of banishment, and had only to suffer a little longer without complaint in order to be free; but
- ↑ Surgút is a small town of 1300 inhabitants, situated on the right bank of the river Ob, in the province of Tobólsk about five degrees south of the arctic circle. It is 575 miles northeast of the city of Tobó1sk, and 2500 miles from St. Petersburg.
meet there the governor of the territory of Akmolínsk, and he impressed me as a man who would be quite capable of preparing for the governor-general's signature just such a letter as that which was sent to the Akmolínsk exiles in response to their petition for leave to teach music. In some parts of Eastern Siberia official acts even more extraordinary and incredible than these came under my direct personal observation.
