The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin

According to the Code on Convicts the administration is not bound by the regulations contained in the of Legal. Procedure when. arresting a convict. A convict can be arrested at any time when suspected of a crime (Article 484).

In former days case histories sometimes secretly vanished or cases were dismissed '"for a mysterious reason" (see Kladivostok [1885]. No. 43). They even stole one case history which had been ruled upon by a field court. In his report Mr. Vlasov men- tions Ayzik Shapiro, a convict sentenced to an unlimited term of imprisonment. This convict lived in Due and dealt in vodka. In 1870 he was accused of seducing a five-year.old girl, but the affair was hushed up despite the existence of the corpus delicti. The in- vestigation of this case was conducted by an officer of the post command who had pawned his rifle to Shapiro and owed him money. When the case was taken away from the officer, no docu- ments accusing Shapiro were found. The latter enjoyed great re- spect in Due. \X'hen the post commander asked one day where Shapiro was, they replied, "'They've gone off to drink tea," using the honorific "they" to describe him.

In the Andreye-lvanovskoye settlement a pig was stolen at night from C. Suspicion fell on Z., whose trousers were stained with pig excrement. They searched his homestead, but did not find the pig. Nevertheless, the village commune passed a verdict to confiscate a pig belonging to his tenant A., who could have been an accessory in concealing the pig. The district commander sanctioned this verdict, although he felt it was unjust. He told me, "If we do not sanction the verdicts of the village, Sakhalin will simply have no courts of justice."

The mark on the back of the convict's coat, the shaving of half of the head, and the fetters once used to prevent escape and to facilitate the recognition of convicts have lost their former sig- nificance, and are now retained only as minor punitive measures. The mark, a four-cornered diamond about two vershoks square, is required by the Code to be of a different color from the cloth of the prisoner's coat. Until recently it was yellow, but since this is the color of the Amur and Zabaikal Cossacks, Baron Korf ordered it to be made of black cloth. On Sakhalin these marks have long since lost their significance: the people have grown accustomed to them and are not even aware of them. The same can be said of shaved heads. On Sakhalin heads are rarely shaved, with the ex- ception of those who have been returned to prison after attempting escape, those under investigation and those chained to an iron ball, while in the Korsakov district the practice has been abandoned. According to the Code concerning those under arrest, the weight of the fetters must be between five and fi.ve and a half pounds. The only woman in chains in my time was one who was given the name of "The Golden Hand": her hands were in irons. Irons are mandatory for those on probation, but the Code permits them to be removed if it is necessary for the performance of work, and since chains are a hindrance in nearly every kind of work, most of the convicts have been freed of them. Today large numbers of convicts with unlimited sentences arc not chained, although the Code demands that they be chained hand and foot. No matter how light the irons, they still hamper movement to a certain degree. Some prisoners grow accustomed to them, many others do not. I had occasion to sec older prisoners who covered their chains with their khalat skirts when they saw visitors. I have a photograph which shows a crowd of Due and Voyevodsk convicts in a work detachment, most of them attempting to stand in such a way that their irons would not be visible in the photograph. Obviously, as an ignominious punishment, these irons often achieve their aim, but the feeling of degradation which they evoke in a criminal has scarcely anything in common with the feeling of shame.

He was sentenced to penal servitude for hacking off his wife's head.

Yadrintsev tells the story of a certain Demidov who wanted to discover all the details of a murder and had the wife of the murderer beaten, although she was a free woman. She had fol- lowed her husband voluntarily to Siberia and was therefore not liable to corporal punishment. He then had the eleven-year-old daughter of the murderer beaten. They held the little girl in the air and she was beaten with birch rods from head to foot. After she had received a number of strokes, she begged for a drink and they gave her a salty salmon. They might have gone on to beat her again and again, but the executioner himself refused to go on. Yadrintsev wrote: "Dcmidov's brutality is the natural result of the training inevitable to a man who has been in charge of large numbers of convicts" ("The Condition of Convicts in Siberia," Vestnik Evropy [News of Europe], 187 5, XI, XII). Vlasov's report contains an account of Lieutenant Yevfonov, whose two weaknesses consisted of "turning the convict prison into a public gambling den and a feeding house for crime, and being so brutal that he bred violence in the convicts. One prisoner who had been ordered to receive an excessive number of birch rods killed the guard before the flogging could begin."

The present island commandant, General Kononovich, has always opposed corporal punishment. When the sentences handed down by the police adminisuarion and the Khabarovsk court are shown to him, he usually writes: "Agreed, except in the maner of corporal punishment." Unfortunately he has rarely enough time ro visit rhe prisons and does nor know how frequently the convias are ^Mten with birch rods. This may be happening 200 or 300 yards from his headquarters, and the number of corporal punish- ments inflicted can be judged only by the reportS on his desk. One day when we were sining in his drawing room, he told me in the presence of some officials and a visiting mining engineer: "Here on Sakhalin corporal punishment is almost never inflicted; it is astonishingly rare."

XXII Escapees on Sakhalin - Reasons for Escapes - Composition of Escapees by Origin,

Class and Others

a famous committee of 1868 pointed out that one of the more important advantages of Sakhalin lay in the fact that it was an island. Therc appeared to be no particu- lar difficulty in establishing a large prison on an island separated from the mainland by a stormy sea on the prin- ciple of "water surrounding a center of adversity." Penal servitude on the Roman model could therefore be instituted in such a way that thoughts of cscapc would be nothing but idle fa ntasies. In reality, from the very beginning of Sakha- lin as a prison center, the island proved to be a peninsula. The strait separating the island from thc mainland freezes over during the winter momhs, and the water which serves as a prison wall during the summer becomes smooth and level like a field in winter. Anyonc can then make his way across on foot or by dog sleigh. And it is not impossible to cross the strait in summer. The width is only six or seven versts in the narrows between Capes Pogobi and Lazarev. On calm bright days it is not difficult to make a journey of one hundred versts in a dilapidated Gilyak boat. The people on Sakhalin arc able to see the mainland shore quite clearly even where the strait is at its widest. Every day the convict is fascinated and tempted by the hazy strip of shore with its lovely mountain peaks, which gives promise of freedom and the homeland. In addition to these physical conditions, the committee either did not foresee or overlooked the pos- sibility of escaping imo the interior of the island rather than to the mainland. The two kinds of escape were equally disturbing to the authorities, and therefore Sakhalin's posi- tion far from justified the comminee's hopes.

But it still retains certain advantages. It is not easy to escapc from Sakhalin. Vagrants, who may be regarded as specialists in this activity, tell you candidly that it is more difficult to escape from Sakhalin than from Kariysky or Ncrchinsky penal scrvitude. In spite of the illimitable de- bauchery and indifference which existed undcr the old administration, the prisons were full and the prisoners did not escapc as oftcn as thc guards might have desired, since thcy had much to gain from escapes. Nowadays the offi- cials admit that in view of the inadequate surveillance and thc widc arca ovcr which convict labor is carried on, if it wcrc not for the fcar of the physical difficultics of escaping, thc only people who would rcmain on the island would be thosc who likcd to live on it, and that means nobody.

Thc sca is not thc most fcarful of thc impediments which prcvcnt peoplc from cscaping. Thc impassable Sa- khalin taiga, thc mountains, thc evcrlasting humidity, fogs, dcsolation, bears, hungcr, gnats, sevcre frosts and snow- storms—all thcsc immcasurably assist official survcillance. Evcn wcll-fed mcn who arc not prisoncrs can make no morc than cight vcrsts a day in thc Sakhalin taiga. At evcry stcp hc confronts hugc windfalls, and thick tangles of marsh roscmary or bamboo must bc surmountcd. He finds himsclf sinking up to the waist in marshcs and strcams, and hc must kcep shiclding himself from the gnats. A man who has grown cmaciated in prison, whose f^^ on thc taiga consists of rottcn wood sprinkled with salt, and who docs not know north from south, can make no morc than thrcc to fivc vcrsts a day. Hc is forced to travcl in a widc circle to avoid the cordon. His escape lasts for a wcck or two, rarely for a month, and then, cxhausted with hunger, dysentery and fcver, bitten by gnats, his feet bruised and swollen, wct, filthy, ragged, he either perishes in the taiga, or elsc he summons up the last vestigcs of his strength and turns around and staggers back, praying that God may gram him the supreme g^^ fortune of meeting a soldier or a Gilyak who will send him back to prison.

The main reason why a criminal finds salvation in escape rather than in repentance and work lies in his un- ending awareness of life. Unless he is a philosopher who can live anywhere and under any conditions, he simply can- not prevent himself from desiring to escape and he is not obliged to do so.

The convict's passionate love for his homeland is the chief impulse which drives him from Sakhalin. To hear the convicts talk, living in one's homeland is an endless joy! They speak with contemptuous derision, aversion and malice about Sakhalin, of the local earth, the people, the trees and the climate, but in Russia everything is wonderful and delightful. The most audacious imagination cannot tolerate the idea that there may be unfortunate people in Russia. To be living in Tulsk or Kursk gubemija, seeing the native huts every day and breathing the Russian air are for them the greatest happiness. May I be visited with pov- erty, sickness, blindness, deafness and slander, buc, 0 God, let me die in my native land! One old convict woman who was my servanc for a while was cnchanted with my luggage, my books and my blanket because they did not come from Sakhalin but from the homeland. When priests were my guests, she never asked them for a blessing but glared at them with a sneer on her lips because in her view there would be no authentic priests on Sakhalin. Their long- ing for the homeland is expressed in the form of continual melancholy and sorrowful reminiscences intermingled with laments and bitter tears, or in the form of unrealizable ex- pectations astonishing in their absurdity and resembling lunacy, or else they are demonstrated in a form of insanity.i

The aspiration for freedom, which under normal cir- cumstances is one of the most noble attributes of man, sometimes drives convicts from Sakhalin. A strong young convict will attempt to escape as far as possible into Siberia or to Russia. He is usually captured, tried and returned to penal servitude, but this is nat so terrifying. There is a certain poetry in the slow halting march back across Siberia, in the constant change of prisons and companions and convoy guards, and in the adventures he enjoys on the way. This is more like freedom than being in the Voyevodsk prison or working in a road gang. His strength sapped by age, and with no faith in his powers of walking, he escapes to some nearby place: the Amur River or the taiga or the mountains, going as far as he possibly can from the prison, and so he avoids seeing the same walls and the same peo- ple, or hearing the same clattcring of chains and the same convcrsations of the convicts.

The old convict Altukhov, who lives at the Korsakov Post, a man of sixty or more, escapes in the following way. He takes a piece of bread, closes up his hut and, going no more than half a verst from the post, he sits on the side of a mountain and gazes at the taiga, the sea and the sky. After sitting there for three days he goes home, brings out more supplies and again returns to the mountain. There was a time when they used to beat him, but now they only laugh at his escapes.

Some escape to enjoy freedom for a month or a week; therc are some who find even one day sufficient. One day, but it is mine! The yearning for freedom seizes some peo- ple periodically and resembles drinking bouts and fits of epilepsy. They say it appears at certain times of the year or month, and reliable convicts who feel an attack coming on always inform the officials of a forthcoming escape. All escapees without exception arc flogged with birch rods or lashes. These escapes are often quite astonishing in their in- congruity and absurdity. It happens that a sensible, discreet family man will escape without clothing, without bread, without any aim or purpose, in the knowledge that he will eventually be captured, and he docs this at the risk of his hcalth, at the risk of losing the trust of the administration, his comparative freedom and sometimes his pay, at the risk of freezing to death or of being shot. These absurd results should convince the Sakhalin doctors who decide whether a convict is to be beaten that in many cases they are not dealing with a crime but with a disease.

Life terms should also be numbered among the reasons for escape. It is well known that our system of penal servi- tude goes hand in hand with the colonization of Siberia. A person sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia is removed from normal human environment without any hope of ever returning; he is dead to the society in which he was born and bred. So the convicts say, "The dead never return from the grave!" It is this absolute despondency and despair which prompt the convict to decide on escape and to change his fate—it cannot be worse! And this is ■ the ex- pression they use when a man escapes: "He wants to change his fate!" If he is captured and brought back, they say that fortune did not favor him—he was unlucky. Es- capes and vagrancy are inevitable and indispensable evils connccted with penal servitude for life, and they serve as a kind of safety valve. If a convict were deprived of his hope of escaping as the only means of changing his fate, if he thought he would never return from the dead, then without this outlet for his despair, he would probably give vent to despair in some more brutal and more horrible way.

There is still another common reason for escapes. The convicts have a curious belief in the legality of escape, and they regard it as easy, and imagine they will not suffer for it. In fact escapes arc difficult, they arc cruelly punished and they arc regarded as serious crimes. These strange be- liefs have been bred in the people for generations and their beginnings arc lost in the mists of those ancient days when escapes could easily be made and they were even encour- aged by the authorities. A work manager or a prison warden thought he had been punished by God if his pris- oners did not escape, and he was overjoyed when large numbers of prisoners left him. If 30 or 40 men escaped before October 1, the day when winter clothing was issued, this meant a profit of 30 to 40 sheepskin coats for the warden.

According to Yadrintsev, one work manager was heard to greet a new party: "Whoever wants to stay, go get your clothes. Whoever wants to escape gets nothing!" The ad- ministration appeared to approve of escapes, and no one in the entire population of Siberia had any feeling that there was any sin in escaping. The convicts tell about their es- capes with a smile or with an air of regret because the escape was unsuccessful; it would be useless to expect re- pentance or pangs of conscience. Of all the escapees with whom I spokc thcrc was only onc sick old man, fencred to a ball and chain for numcrous cscape auempts, who pas- sionately rcproachcd himself, rcgarding his attcmpts at escape stupid rather than criminal. "\X'hcn I was youngcr I did stupid things," hc said, "and now I must suffcr for thcm."

Thcrc arc many rcasons for cscaping. Among thcsc I includc dissatisfaction with thc prison regimen, thc abom- inablc food, thc brutality of somc officials, idlcncss, inapti- tudc for work, illncss, lack of will power, a tcndcncy toward imitativencss, lovc of advcnturc. Somctimcs cntirc groups of convicts cscapcd in ordcr to "havc a good timc" on thc island, this good timc bcing accompanicd by mur- dcrs and various kinds of barbarism which causcd panic and uncrly infuriatcd thc pcople.

Permit mc to tell a story about an escapc which was madc for thc sakc of vcngcancc. Privatc Bclov woundcd com-ict Klimcnko whcn capturing him and brought him to thc Alcxandrovsk prison. Aftcr rccovcring, Klimcnko again cscapcd, this timc with thc solc purpose of cxacting vcnge- ancc on Bclov. Hc wcnt dircctly to thc guard post, whcrc hc was capwrcd and dctaincd. "'Lead your advcnturcr back again," his companions told Bclov. "It's your hard luck." And so hc did. On thc way thc guard and thc prisoncr struck up a convcrsation. It was autumn, windy and cold. Thcy stoppcd to havc a smokc. \X'hcn thc soldicr drew his colLtr up in ordcr to light his pipc, Klimcnko grabbed his gun and killed him on thc spot. Hc thcn returncd to Alex- androvsk as though nmhing had happencd. Hc was arrcstcd and hangcd soon aftcrward.

And here is anmhcr story about a man who cscaped for lovc. Convict Anem, whosc surnamc I do not rccall, twcnty ycars old, a guard at thc govcrnment house in Naybuchi, was in lovc with an Ainu woman who lived in a yurt on thc Nayba Rivcr, and it is said that his love was rccipro- catcd. For somc rcason hc was suspected of theft and he was punished by being transferrcd to Korsakov prison, ninety versts away from the Ainu woman. He escapcd from the

346

post to Naybuchi in order to visit his beloved and he kept on escaping until they shot him in the leg.

Escapes are sometimes sheer speculation. I shall describe one kind of speculative venture which combines greed with the basest treachery. A vagrant, grown old with his many escapes and subsequent imprisonments and chains, seeks out a more affluent convict among some newly arrived prisoners (the new ones always have money) and suggests that they should escape together. He has no great difficulty in con- vincing him. The novice escapes and the vagrant kills him somewhere in the taiga and then returns to the prison.

A more prevalent kind of speculation is based on the three rubles which the govcrnment pays for capturing a fugitive. After making a preliminary agreement with a sol- dier or a Gilyak, several convicts escape from the prison and meet with their escort at an appointed place in the taiga or by the seashore. The escort returns them to the prison as capwred convicts and obtains three rubles for each. Later, naturally, there is a division of the spoils. It was sometimes ludicrous to see a small, puny Gilyak, armed with only a stick, leading back six or seven broad-shoul- dered, impressive-looking vagrants. One day I saw the soldier L., who was not particularly well built, leading back i i men.

Prison statistics scarcely touch on the question of es- capees. It may be said that the convicts who escape most frequently are those who feel the difference in climate between Sakhalin and their homeland most keenly. They are primarily natives of the Caucasus, the Crimea, Bes- sarabia and the Ukraine. Lists of escapees or of men cap- tured sometimes contain the names of 50 or 60 men with not a single Russian surname among them;they arc all Oglis, Suleymans and Hasans. There is no doubt that con- victs with long or indefinite sentences escape more fre- quently than convicts of the third category, while those liv- ing in prison escape more frequently than those quartered outside. Young men and novices escape more frequemly than older men.

Women escape incomparably less frequemly than men, and this is explained by the hardships which accompany escape for a woman and partially because in servitude she soon becomes preoccupied with a lasting attachment. Re- sponsibilities toward wife and children restrain men from escaping, but there arc instances when married men have escaped. Legally married wives escape less often than illegal spouses. Whcn I was making the rounds of the huts and asked women convicts the whereabouts of their cohabitants, they often answered, '\Vho knows? Go and find him!"

Convicts of the privileged class escape side by side with convicts of the common class. Leafing through the alpha- betical list at the Korsakov Police Department I came across a former nobleman who had escaped, had been tried for a murder committed during his escape, and received 8o or 90 lashes. The notorious Lagiyev, sent to Sakhalin for murdering the rector of the Titlis Seminary, was a former Korsakov teacher and escaped on Easter night in 1890 with the convict Nikolsky, a priests son, together with three vagrants. Not long afterward there came the rumor that three vagrants in "civilian" clothing had been seen making their way along the shore toward the Murav- )'C\sky Post, but Lagiyev and Nikolsky were no longer with them. The vagrants had probably convinced young Lagiycv and his friend ro escape with them and had murdered them for their money and clothing.

Archpriest K.'s son, who was sentenced for murder, succeeded in escaping to Russia, committed another murder and was sent back to Sakhalin. I saw him one morning in a crowd of convicts near a mine. Extraordinarily emaciated, round-shouldered, with lackluster eyes, wearing an old sum- mer coat and hopelessly ragged trousers, still sleepy-eyed and shivering in the morning frost, he approached a guard who was standing beside me, took off his cap and, baring his bald hcad, began ro beg.

Here are a few figures I was able to find which have some bearing on the time of year when escapes most fre- quently take place. In 1877, 1878, 1885, 1887, 1888 and 1889, 1,501 convicts escaped. The monthly distribution follows:

January

117

July

283

February .

64

August

231

March

20

September

150

Apri l

20

October

44

May

147

November .

35

June

290

December

ioo

If a graph is drawn, its highest points indicate the summer and winter months, with the months of sharpest frosts being the most popular. Obviously the most auspicious con- ditions for escaping are warm weather, when they work outside the prison and the migratory fish run and the berries ripen in the taiga and the settlers have their potato crop; and in winter when the sea is covered with ice and Sakhalin ceases to be an island. The arrival of new convict groups in spring and autumn also present favorable con- ditions of escape. Escapes are least frequent in March and April, for these arc the months when the rivers thaw and it is impossible to obtain fool either in the taiga or from the settlers, who arc usually without bread in the spring.

At Alexandrovsk in 1889, 15.33 percent of the average number of inmates escaped. In the same year 6-4 percent escaped from the Due and Voycvodsk prisons, where prisoners are guarded by armed sentries as well as by guards, and 9 percent escaped from the prisons of Tymovsk district. 1licsc figures represent escapes in a single year, but if we consider the total number of convicts from the very beginning of their arrival on the island, then the ratio of escapes to the total would be less than percent—i.e., of every five persons you see in prison, three have already at- tempted to escape. From conversations with convicts I derived the impression that everyone tried to escape. It was a very rare convict who did not take a holiday during his term of penal servitude.2

An escape is usually planned when the convicts are still in the ship's hold or on an Amur barge while being trans- ported to Sakhalin. During the journey old vagrants who have already attempted to escape from penal servitude tell young convicts about the geography of the island, about regulations and surveillance, and all the other blessings and misfortunes to be expected in escaping from Sakhalin. If they kept vagrants separated from new convicts in tempo- rary prisons and ships" holds, perhaps they would not be in such a hurry to escape. Novices usually escape quite early, not long after they have disembarked. In i 879, Go men escaped shortly after their arrival, first killing their guards.

There is absolutely no need for escapees to take those careful precautions which have been described so well by Vladimir Korolenko in his collection of stories called Sokoli>;eii.^:' Escapes are strictly forbidden, and they are no longer encouraged by the administration, but the condi- tions of local prison life, surveillance and penal servitude, and even the very nature of the land, are such that an over- whelming majority of escapes cannot be prevented. If it were impossible to leave the prison today through the open gates, then tomorrow it would be possible to escape while working in the taiga, where 20 or 30 men go out to work with only one soldier guarding them. A man who has failed to escape while working in the taiga waits for a month or two until he is assigned to work as some official's servant or as a laborer working for a settler. Careful precautions, deliberately deceiving officials, breakouts, the digging of tunnels, etc., are needed only by the few who are in chains, in cells and the Voyevodsk prison, and by those who work in the mines, where the sentries stand guard and are on the march along the entire prison line from Voyevodsk prison to Due. Here an escape attempt is fraught with danger; nevertheless, opportunities present themselves al- most daily. Trackers and adventure-lovers offer assistance in the form of changes of clothing and every kind of sub- terfuge, and sometimes these subterfuges go too far, as in the case of Zolota Ruchka, who changed into a soldier's uniform in order to escape.

In most cases the escapees head north to the narrows which lie between Capes Pogobi and Lazarev, or a little farther north. The land is uninhabited, it is easy to hide from the cordon of guard posts and a boat may be obtained from the Gilyaks or a raft may be built by the convict and a crossing made to the other side. If it is already winter, it takes only two hours to walk across in good weather. The farther north the crossing, the closer it is to the mouth of the Amur, which means Jess danger of perishing from hunger and cold. There are many Gilyak hamlets at the mouth of the Amur, the city of Nikolayevsk is close by, then come Mariinsk, Sofiysk and the Cossack villages, where a man can hire himself out for work during the winter and where, as they say, even among the officials there are people who will give shelter and a piece of bread to the miserable. Since they have no way of knowing the true north, escapees sometimes make a full circle and return to the place they started from.⁴

Escapees often attempt to cross the strait somewhere close by the prison. This requires exceptional courage and favorable circumstances, and also—and most important—a good deal of previous experience of the enormous difficul- ties and risks involved in escaping in a northerly direction through the taiga. Incorrigible vagrants escaping from Voyevodsk or Due prison go to sea on the first or second day after their escape. There is no question of storms and peril. They suffer from a panic-stricken fear of pursuit and a great longing for freedom; even if they drown, it will be in freedom. They usually travel 5 or 10 versts south of Due, to Agnevo, where they build a raft and hurry over to the misty shore, which is 60 to 70 miles away over a cold and stormy sea. During my visit the same method was used by the vagrant Prokhorov in his escape from Voyevodsk prison. He is the same person as Mylnikov, whom I de- scribed in the previous chapter/'

They also escape on lighters and hay rafts, but the sea always smashes them unmercifully and throws them up on the shore. Once convicts escaped on a cutter belonging to the mining administration.r.

Sometimes convicts escape on the ships they are load- ing. In 1883 the convict Franz Kits escaped on the Triumph, having dug himself into the coal. When he was discovered and removed from the coal bunker, he answered all questions by saying, "Give me water. I haven't had a drink in five days."

Having reached the mainland in one way or another, the escapee heads west, begging food in Christ's name, get- ing work wherever possible, and stealing anything he can lay his hands on. They steal domestic animals, vegetables, clothing—in other words, everything that can be eaten, worn or sold. They are captured, held in prison for long periods of time, put on trial, and returned to Sakhalin with a terrible mark on their records. As the reader knows from reading about court trials, many of them reach the Khitrov market in Moscow ,⁷ and some return to their own villages.

In Palevo the baker Goryachy, a simple, openhearted and obviously g^^ man, told me how he rerurned to his own village, visited his wife and children, and was then sent to Sakhalin, where he is now completing his second term.

People say that escapees arc being picked up by Ameri- can whaleboats and taken to Amcrica," and this has been discussed in the press. It is possible, of course, but I never heard of a single case. American whaleboats working the Okhotsk Sea rarely approach Sakhalin and rarer still would they be standing close by when the escapees were on the desolate eastern shore. According to Mr. Kurbsky ( Golos, 1875, No. 312), whole colonies of vaqueros composed of Sakhalin convicts live in Indian territory on the right bank of the Mississippi. These vaqueros, if they actually exist, did not reach America on whaleboats, but probably through Japan. It does happen very rarely that people escape out of Russia altogether. Back in the 1820's we hear of some con- victs escaping from the Okhotsk salt works to the "warm islands," meaning the Sandwich Islands."

There is tremendous fear of the escapees, and this ex- plains why the punishment for escaping is so severe and so astonishing in its brutality. Whcn a notorious vagrant es- capes from the Voyevodsk prison or from a cell, the reports not only terrify the people on Sakhalin, but even residents on the mainland are afraid. They say that when Blokha escaped, the rumor of his escape so terrified the residents of

Nikolayevsk that the local police captain was compelled to send a telegram: "Is it true that Blokha escaped?"¹⁰

Escaping is dangerous to society in the first place be- cause it encourages and supports vagrancy, and in the second place because the fugitive occupies an illegal posi- tion by the fact that in the overwhelming majority of cases he cannot help but commit new crimes. The largest con- tingent of incorrigible criminals is made up of escapees. Up to the present time the most horrible and brutal crimes on Sakhalin have been committed by them.

Escapes are now mainly forestalled by repressive meas- ures. These measures decrease the number of escapes, but only to a certain extent, and if repression were brought to the peak of perfection it would still not exclude the possi- bility of escapes. There is a limit after which repressive measures lose their effectiveness. It is well known that a convict continues to try to escape even when a sentry is taking aim at him. He is deterred from escaping neither by a storm nor by the conviction that he will drown. There is also a limit beyond which the repressive measures them- selves are conducive to escape. Thus the terrible punish- ment for escaping consists of an extra term of years of penal servitude, and this has the effect of increasing the number of long-term prisoners and those with indefinite sentences while increasing the number of escapes. Generally speaking, repressive measures have no future in the struggle against escapes. They have nothing in common with the ideals of our legislation, which views punishment primar- ily as a measure of reform. \Vhen all the energy and re- sourcefulness of a jailer is spent day by day in placing the prisoner in a physical condition which makes escape im- possible, then it is no longer a question of reforming him, and there is in fact only the question of transforming him into a wild beast and making the prison his cage. These measures are also impractical. First, they are a heavy weight on the population innocent of escaping, while, secondly, im- prisonment in a strongly built prison, with the usual chains, cells, dark holes and iron balls, makes a person incapable of working.

The so-called humanitarian measures, with improve- ments in the prisoner's living conditions, whether they con- sist of an extra piece of bread or in giving him some hope in the future, also significantly decrease the number of es- capes. I will cite one example: in 1885, 25 setders escaped, but in 1887, after the 1886 harvest, only 7 escaped. Setders escape far less frequendy than convicts, while peasants- formerly-convicts scarcely ever escape. The Korsakov dis- trict has the least number of escapes because the crops are better, short-term convicts predominate, the climate is milder and it is easier to obtain peasant rights than on Northern Sakhalin, and on completing their sentence there is no need for them to rerurn to the mines to earn a piece of bread. The easier the prisoner's lot, the less danger of escaping. In this respect great expectations can be held for such measures as the improvement of prison conditions, the construction of churches, the founding of schools and hospitals, and providing for the needs of the convicts' fam- ilies, earnings, etc.

As I have already said, for each captured escapee who is returned to the prison, the soldiers, Gilyaks and others who are engaged in capturing fugitives receive a monetary reward from the government amounting to three rubles per head. There is no doubt that the monetary reward, so tempting to a hungry man, offers an inducement to them and increases the number of those who are "captured, found dead or killed." This inducement, of course, is not worth the ill effects which are inevitably visited on the island population as a result of the evil instincts aroused by the three-ruble reward. \Vhoever is forced to capture escapees, whether he is a soldier or a setder who has been robbed, will capture them without the reward of three rubles. \Vhoever captures them when it is not his duty to do so, not from necessity but simply because it is a profit- able affair, such a man is merely taking part in a miserable enterprise, and the three rubles are nothing more than an expression of his connivance at the basest possible alliance of interests.

According to my clata, out of 1,501 escapees, 1,010 convicts were captured or returned voluntarily; 40 were found dead or were killed in pursuit; 4 5 i were missing. In spite of being an island, Sakhalin loses one-third of all its escapees.

In the reports from which I gathered these figures, those who returned voluntarily and those who were captured are included in one figure, those found dead or killed while being pursued are also listed together, and no one knows how many must be credited to captors and what percentage of the fugitives perished from soldier's bullets.ⁿ

Nostalgia is commonly found among our officials and sailors in Vladivostok. I myself saw two insane officials—a lawyer and a bandmaster. Such cases are not rare among free people Iiving under comparatively healthy conditions, and it is quite understandable that they occur frequently on Sakhalin.

I remember when I was once approaching a ship by cutter I saw a barge filled to ovcrflowing with escapees pulling away. Some of the escapees wcre gloomy, others were laughing uproariously, and one had no feet—they had been frozen off. They were being returned from Nikolayevsk. Looking at this barge teeming with people, I could imagine how many more convicts there were wan. dcring on the mainland and the island.

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko ( 1853-1921). The stories recounted escapes by prisoners from Sakhalin.—TRANS.

^f One day some escapees stole a compass in Duĉ to help them lind thcir way north and to bypass the ccrdon of guard posts at Cape Pogobi, but the compass led thcm straight into the cordon. I heard that in order to avoid the guarded western shore, the con- victs have recently begun to escape along a route eastward to Nyisky Bay, then northward along the shores of the Okhotsk Sea to Capes Maria and Yelizavcta, then southward to enable them to cross the strait opposite Cape Pronge. They told me this was the route chosen by the notorious Bogdanov, who escaped just before my arrival, but this may not be accurate. There arc Gilyak path- ways along the Tym River, and there are a few yurts, but the journey from Nyisky Bay is long, tortuous and arduous. The great privations suffered by Polyakov when he traveled south from Nyisky Bay should be remembered if one wishes to judge the risk of traveling north from the bay.

I have already described the terrible experiences suffered by escapees. Escapees, especially the incorrigible ones, gradually grow accuswmed to the tundra and the taiga, their feet become calloused, and it is not surprising that some of them have been known to sleep while walking. I was told that Chinese vagrants, the khut^- khuzy, who are sent to Sakhalin from the Primorskaya district, can remain at large longer than others because they seem to be able to suhsist on roots and grasses for months at a time.

• On June 29, 1886, the naval vessel Tungus observed a black speck on the sea some 20 miles from Due. When they approached closer they saw two men sitting on a platform of bark atop four lashed logs, and they were obviously heading somewhere. Next to them on the raft was a bucket of fresh water, a loaf and a half of bread, an ax, about a p^^ of flour, some rice, two tallow candles, a bar of soap and 1"\'o bricks of tea. When they were taken aboard and questioned about their identity, it "-'as learned that they were prisoners from the Due prison who had escaped on June 17 ( 12 days earlier), and they were traveling "that way, to Russia.'' A violent storm struck two hours later and the ship was unable to reach the Sakhalin shore. The question is, what would have hap- pened to the escapees in such weather if they had not been picked up by this ship? See Vldivoitok ( 1886), No. 31, with reference to this.

6 In June, 1887, coal was being loaded aboard the ship Tira in Due waters. Usually the coal was brought up on barges towed by a steam cutter, and the barges came alongside thc ship. Toward evening the wind freshened and a storm rose. The anchors could not hold the Tira. so it sailed to De Kastri. The coal barge was cast up on shore near Due, while the cutter sailed to the Alex- androvsk Post and sheltered itself in the river. At night, when the weather grew somewhat calmer, the workmen on the cutter, all of them convicts, gave the guard in charge of the cutter a forged telegram from Due ordering him to proceed immediately to sea to save people supposed to have been carried out to sea on a barge during the storm. The guard had no idea a trick was being played on him, and he unmoored the cutter from the dock. Instead of going south to Duĉ, the cutter turned north. There were seven men and three women on board. Toward morning the weather grew worse. The engine of the cutter was swamped near Cape Khoe. Nine were drowned and their bodies were cast ashore; only one man, the pilot, saved himself by floating on a board. This sole survivor, Kuznetsov, is now working for the mining engineer at the mine in Alexandrovsk Post. He served tea. He is a strong, swarthy, handsome man, about forry years old, obviously proud and ferocious. He reminded me of Thomas Ayrton in The Chil- dretl of Caplain Grant [by Jules Verne).

⁷ Khitrov market was a disreputable square in Moscow.—TRANS.

An old resident of Nerchinsk says: "American whaleboats have given sanctuary to escapees from Botany Bay, and they will do the same for escapees from Sakhalin" (Moscow News, 1875, No. 67).

This is described in "Penal Convicts in Okhotsk," Rrmmian Ant/quity, XXII, where an interesting incident is related. In 1885 the Japanese newspapers carried the story that nine foreigners had been shipwrecked near Sapporo. The authorities sent officials to Sapporo to assist them. As well as they could, the foreigners ex- plained that they were Germans, their schooner had been ship- wrecked, and they had saved themselves in a lifeboat. They were taken from Sapporo to Khokodate. When addressed in English and Russian they failed to understand what was being said; they went on repeating, ''German, German." Somehow the Japanese found out which of them was the captain of the ship, and showed him an atlas, asking him to indicate the exact position of the shipwreck. For a long time his finger moved over the map, but he could not find Sapporo. The replies of all the shipwrecked men were vague. At that time one of our cruisers was in dock at Khokodate. The Governor-General asked the captain of the cruiser to provide a German interpreter. The captain sent a senior officer. Recognizing them to be Sakhalin convicts, the same escapees who had recently attacked the Krilon lighthouse, this officer resorted to a ruse; he made them line up in single file and then gave the command in Russian: "To the left in a circle, march!" One of the convicts forgot his role and immediately executed the command. In this way it was possible to learn what country these clever Odyssean travelcrs belonged to. See Vlad/Vortok ( 1885), Nos. 33 and 38.

Blokha is famous for his escapes and for having murdered many Gilyak families. Recently he has been held in "The Irons," chained hand and foot. When the Governor-General was visiting "The Irons" with the island commandant, the latter ordered the chains to be removed, and ordered him to give his word of honor not to escape any more. It would be interesting to learn what honor means to Blokha. When he is being Hogged, he screams, "For what I have done, your worship! For what I have done! I really deserve this!" It is quite conceivable that he will keep his word. The convicts enjoy the reputation of being honorable men.

^{1 1} The Code on Com'ictj designates degrees of punishment for an escape, for absence, for escaping in Siberia, for escaping outside Siberia, for the first, second, third, fourth and subsequent escapes. A convict is considered to have been absent and not to have escaped if he is caught within less than 3 days or if he voluntarily returns within less than 7 days from the time of his escape. For senlers the period of absence is increased in the first instance ro 7 days and in the second to 14. Escape beyond the boundaries of Siberia is considered a more serious crime than escape within Siberia. This difference in the punishments is probably ^red on the idea that an escape to Euro^nn Russia requires a far greater intensity of deliberate evil than an ^rape into some Siberian g11b^»iya. The mildest punishment for ^ape is usually 40 lashes and an increase in the sentence of 4 years of penal servitude; the severest punishment is 100 lashes, an unlimited term of penal servitude, being chained to a ball for 3 years and being retained in the reform category for 20 years. Se ^nides 445 and 446 of the Code on Convicts, edition of 1890.

XXIII Diseases and Mortality of the Convict Population - The Medical Organization The Hospital in Alexandrovsk

IN 1889 the three districts had a combined total of 632 fecblc and incapacitated convicts of both sexes, which is i o.6 percent of the total. Thus there is one feeble and incapacitated convict for every ten persons. Even the population which is capable of working does not look com- plctcly healthy. You will not find well-fed, stout and red- checkcd pcople among the convicts. Even the settlers who do nmhing arc gaunt and pale. Of the i 3 i convicts work- ing on the road in the Tarayka in the summer of i 889, 37 were ill, while the remainder as described by the visit- ing island commandant "presented a horrifying appearance: they were in rags, many had no shins, they were full of mosquito bites and scratches from twigs, but nobody com- plaincd" (Order No. 3 i 8, i 889).

There were 1 1,309 cases requiring medical assistance in i 889. The medical report from which I obtained this figure docs not differentiate betwcen convicts and free men but the writer of the report notes that the penal convicts con- stituted the largest group of patients. Since soldiers are treated by their own army doctors, while officials and their families receive medical treatmcm at home, it can be pre- sumed that the 11,309 consisted only of convicts and their families, the convicts being in the majority, and that there- fore every convict and everyone connected with the con- victs requested medical assistance at least once that year.^J

I can only judge the illnesses of the convict population by the Report of 1889. Unfortunately it is based on data contained in the "True Books" of the infirmaries, which are maintained in a most slovenly fashion, and therefore I was forced to seek assistance from church records and to extract therefrom thc causes of death for the past ten years. The causes of death arc almost always registcred by thc priests in accordancc with the rcports of donors and medical as- sistants, and thcy contain many fantasics,² but in general this matcrial is csscntially thc samc as that in thc "True Books," and is ncithcr beucr nor worse. It is undcrstandable that both thcsc sourccs wcrc far from adcquatc and every- thing thc rcadcr finds below conccrning sickncsscs and mortality is not a truc picturc but mcrely a mcagcr sketch.

Thc infcctious and cpidemic discascs, which arc rc- cordcd in thc rcport undcr scparatc groupings, have not bccn widcsprcad on Sakhalin to datc. Thus, in 1889 mcasles was rccordcd thrcc timcs, whilc therc is no rccord of scarict fcvcr, diphthcria or croup. Dcath from thcsc discascs, which usually auack childrcn, is rccordcd only 4 5 timcs in thc church books of thc past 1 o ycars. This number included "wnsillitis"' and "inflammation of thc throat," which arc of an infcctious and cpidcmic charactcr and always indicatc that a numlx-r of childrcn will dic within a short pcriod of timc.

Thc epidemics usually bcgan in Septcmbcr or Octobcr, whcn thc sick childrcn arrivcd in thc colony on thc ships of thc Voluntary Flcct. Thc coursc of thc cpidcmics was prolongcd, but thcy wcrc not vcry scrious. Thus, in 1880, tonsillitis bcgan to occur in the Korsakov parish in Octobcr and cndcd in April of thc following ycar, causing dcath to only tcn childrcn. Thc diphthcria epidcmic of 1888 bcgan in thc Rykovskoyc parish in thc fall and continucd through the cntirc winter; it thcn jumpcd to thc Alcxandrovsk and Duc parishcs and finally cndcd in Novcmbcr, 1889—i.e., it prcvailcd tor an cntire ycar; 20 childrcn dicd. Smallpox is rccordcd oncc; 18 pcrsons dicd of it in 10 ycars. Thcrc wcrc two cpidcmics in thc Alcxandrovsk district, thc first in 1886 from Dcccmber to Junc and thc second in thc fall of 1889. Thosc tcrriblc smallpox cpidcmics which oncc ran rampant over all thc Japancsc islands and thc Okhotsk Sca, including Kamchatka, and occasionally annihilatcd whole tribes, such as the Ainus, no longer occur here, at least there is no report on them. Pockmarked faces are fre- quently seen among the Gilyaks but this is due to chicken pox (varicella), which in all probability is not infectious among forcigners.^:i

As to types of typhus, 2 3 cases of typhoid fever were recorded, with a 30 percent mortality, and three cases of relapsing typhoid and typhus occurred. There were no deaths. The church records reveal 50 deaths from various forms of typhus and fevers, but these are individual cases scattered throughour the books of all four parishes during a ten-year period. I did not see any indication of the vari- ous forms of the typhus epidemics in the correspondence and in all probability there were none. According to re- ports, typhoid fever was observed only in the two north- ern districts. The causes were found to be the lack of clean drinking water, contamination of the soil near prisons and rivers, as well as the crowded and congested conditions. I myself did not sec even one case of typhoid fever on Nonhern Sakhalin, although I vsitcd all the huts and was in the infirmaries. Some physicians assured me that this form of typhus is nonexistent on the island and I am my- self inclined to believe it. I relate all cases of relapsing fever and typhus on Sakhalin to incursions of scarlet fever and diphtheria. The supposition is that serious infectious diseases have so far found unfavorable ground for their de- velopment.

"Inexactly definable feverish illnesses" are recorded in seventeen cases. The report describes this type of illness as follows: "It appeared chiefly during rhc winter months with symptoms of a remittent type of fever, sometimes with the appearance of roscola⁴ and a general depression of the brain centers. In a short time, within five to seven days, the fever passed and complete recovery occurred rap- idly." This form of typhoid is very prevalent here especially in the northern districts, but not even a hundredth of the cases arc recorded, because the sick are not usually treated; they suffer on their feet or lie on their stoves at home. I became convinced during my short visit to the island that colds play the main role in the etiology of this illness, those who are stricken being people who work in the taiga in cold and raw weather and who sleep under the open sky. People suffering with this illness are most frequently seen on roadwork and on new settlement sites. This is veritable febris sachalinensis.

In 1889, 27 bccame ill with croupous pneumonia; a third of them died. This illness was evidently just as dan- gerous to the convicts as to the people who were free. Church records for the ten-year period give croupous pneumonia as the cause of 125 deaths; 28 percent of these were recorded in May and June with the start of the bad, changeable weather, when convicts were sent to work far from the prison. Forf-six percent died in December, Jan- uary, February and March, i.e., during the winter.:; The main causes of illness from croupous pneumonia arc the extreme cold in the winter, sharp changes in the weather and hard labor during inclement weather. The rcport of March 24, 1889, by Dr. Perlin, the phpician of the district infirmary, says: "I was constantly dismayed by the tre- mendous morbidity of penal servitude workers suffcring from severe inflammation of the lungs." These were the causes, in Dr. Perlins opinion: "Logs 6 to 8 vershoks in diameter and 4 sazhcns long being hauled 8 versts by 3 workcrs, the approximate weight of the log being 25 to 35 p

Dyscntcry or bloody diarrhea is recorded only five times. Therc were known cpidemics of dysentery in Duĉ in 1880 and in Alcxandrovsk in 1887, but the church records show a total of eight deaths due to this illness during the ten- year period. Old correspondence and reports often mention dysentery, which in former days was probably as common as scurvy. Convicts, soldiers and foreigners suffered from it and there are further indications that suggest it was caused by the vile food and the abominable living condi- tions.⁷

There was no case of Asiatic cholera on Sakhalin. I observed erysipelas and military hospital gangrene myself, and apparently both these illnesses are not infectious in the local infirmaries. There was no whooping cough in 1889. Intermittent fever was recorded 428 times, more than half of the cases occurring in the Alexandrovsk district. The report names the causes as the warmth of the habitations, which lack sufficient fresh air, contamination of the soil near habitations, work in localities which undergo periodic flooding, and the construction of settlements in such locali- ties. All of these unhealthy conditions do exist; nevertheless the island does not give the impression of being a malarial location. During my visit to the island I never saw anyone suffering from malaria and I do not recall even one settle- ment where men complained of this disease. It is possible that many of the recorded examples were contracted when they were still in Russia and they arrived on the island with an already enlarged spleen.

Death from malignant anthrax was mentioned only once in the church records. Neither glanders nor hydro- phobia has been observed on the island.

Diseases of the respiratory organs cause one-third of the deaths, tuberculosis in particular being responsible for 1 5 percent. The church records only contain data on Chris- tians, bur if we added the number of Moslems who die from tuberculosis there would be an impressive percentage. In any case, adults on Sakhalin are susceptible to tubercu- losis to a high degree. Here it is a most frequent and most dangerous disease. Deaths occur most often in December, when it is extremely cold on Sakhalin, and in March and April. The lowest incidence of death is in September and October. Herewith is a breakdown of deaths from tubercu- losis by ages:

From o to 20 years of age

3%

From 20 to 25 years of age

6%

From 2 5 to 3 5 years of age

43%

From 35 to 45 rears of age

27%

From 4 5 to 55 years of age

12%

From 55 to 65 years of age

6%

From 65 to 76 years of age

2%

Consequently, those in the 25-35 and 35-45 age brack- ets, workers in the prime of life,⁸ are most subject to the peril of dying from tuberculosis. The majority of those who died of tuberculosis are convicts ( 66 percent). This predominance of working-age convicts gives us the right to conclude that the significant mortality from tuberculosis in the penal colony is produced by the adverse living condi- tions in the prison wards and the oppressivcncss of penal labor, which exacts more cnergy from the worker than prison farc can give him. Thc raw climate, all the depri- vations suffcrcd during work, escapcs, and imprisonment in cclls, thc turbulcnt lifc in thc prison wards, thc insuffi- cicncy of fats in thc food, longing for thc homcland—these arc thc causcs of Sakhalin tuberculosis.

Syphilis was rccordcd in 246 cascs, with five deaths. All of thesc, as statcd in thc rcport, wcre old syphilitics in sccondary and tertiary stagcs of thc discasc. Thc syphilitics whom I saw wcrc pathctic. 'licsc ncglccted, chronic cascs indicated a complctc lack of medical inspection, which in cffcct should have bccn ideally thorough in view of the scant convict population. Thus in Rykovskoye I saw a Jew with syphilitic consumption. Hc had not bcen treated for a long timc and was slowly wasting away whilc his family impaticntly awaited his dcath. And this occurrcd about half a vcrst from thc hospital. Thc church records indicate I 3 dcaths from syphilis.^fl

Thcrc werc 27 I cascs of scurvy recordcd in 1889, with 6 dcaths. Thc church records show 19 deaths from scurvy. Somc twcnty to twcnty-fivc years ago this discase was incomparably more prcvalcnt on the island than within thc past dccade, and many soldiers and prisoners pcrished from it. Somc of thc old writers who favored the founding of thc penal colony on thc island completely denied the existcncc of scurvy, whilc thcy simultancously praised wild garlic as a marvelous preventivc of scurvy. They wrote that the people storcd hundreds of poods of this preventive for the winter. The scurvy which raged on the Tatar shore would scarcely have spared Sakhalin, where living condi- tions at the posts were hardly any better. At present this disease is most frequently imported by prisoners arriving on the ships of the Voluntary Fleet. This is also stated in the medical reports. The district commander and the prison doctor in Alexandrovsk told me that on May 2, 1890, the Petersburg landed 500 prisoners, 100 of whom were suffer- ing from scurvy; 5 i of these were put into the infirmary and the clinic by the doctor. One of these sufferers from scurvy, a Ukrainian from Poltava whom I found in bed in the infirmary, told me he had contracted scurvy in the Kharkov central prison.¹⁰

Of the common illnesses due to the bad diet I espe- cially recall marasmus, from which people of working age, not old people, die on Sakhalin. One died at 27, another at 30, others at 35, 43, 46, 47, 48 years of age. Could it be a priest's or a medical assistant's slip of the pen when "senile marasmus" is recorded as the cause of 4 5 deaths of people who were still young and had not yet reached the age of sixty? The average life expectancy of the Russian penal convict is not yet known, but judging by appearance, peo- ple in Sakhalin age and grow senile very early in life, and in the majority of cases a forty-year-old convict or settler is already an old man.

The exiles do not usually request treatment at the in- firmary for nervous disorders. Thus, only 16 cases¹¹ of neuralgia and convulsions were recorded in 1889. Obvi- ously only those who are ill with nervous disorders who have come on foot or in some conveyance to the infirmary are treated. Meningitis, apoplexy and paralysis caused 24 cases, with io deaths; epilepsy is recorded in 3 i cases, and mental aberrations in 25. As I stated previously, people with mental illnesses are not treated in a separate instiru- tion on Sakhalin. During my visit to the Korsakov settle- ment a mental case was found living among syphilitics, and I was told that another became infected with syphilis. Others living in freedom worked together with healthy persons. They were cohabitants, they escaped and were put on trial. I personally met a number of insane persons in the posts and settlements.

I recall that in Due a former soldier constantly talked about the oceans of air and sea, his daughter Nadezhda and the Persian Shah, and of his killing the Kristovosdvizhensky church deacon. One day in my presence in Vladimirovka a certain Vetr'akov, who had spent five years in penal servi- tude, approached thc settlement inspector, Mr. Y., with a stupid and idiotic expression and extended his hand in a friendly manncr. "Arc you greeting me?" said the aston- ished inspector. It appeared that Vet^'akov had come to ask if he could have a carpenters ax from the government warehouse. ''I'll build myself a shack and later I'll build a hut," he said. He had long been recognized as a lunatic, had been examined by a physician and found to be a para- noiac. I asked his fathcrs name. He answered, "I don't know." Nevertheless they ga\e him an ax.

I cannot even discuss the cases of mental disorders, of thc onset of progressive paralysis and the like, where a greatcr or lesser specialized diagnosis is required. All these people arc working and arc considered healthy. Some arrive here alrcady ill or thcy bring the germination of illnesses with them. Thus the church records describe convict Goro- dov as having died from progressive paralysis. He had been sentenced for premeditated murder, which he had probably committed after having already been stricken with the dis- case. There are many on thc island whose sufferings every day and every hour offer a sufficient reason for a weak man with broken nervcs to go insanc.¹²

There were 1 ,76o cases of gastrointestinal disorder re- corded in 1889. In ten years 338 died; of these 66 percent were children. July and August arc the most dangerous months—a third of the total of children's deaths occur in those months. Adults also die most frequently from gastro- intestinal disorders in August. This is probably because August is the month of the migratory fish runs and they gorge themselves on fish. Gastric catarrh is a common ill- ness. Natives of the Caucasus always complain that their "heart hurts," and vomit after eating rye bread and prison cabbage soup.

Cases of female illnesses were infrequent in 1889. Only 105 were recorded. There are almost no healthy women in the colony. One of the commissions which inquired into the provisioning of convicts—the director of the medical department was one of those who sat on the commission— declared inter alia that "about 70 percent of the convict women suffer from chronic female illnesses." Sometimes there was not one single healthy woman in a group of female prisoners arriving on the island.

The most prevalent eye disease is conjunctivitis. Its epidemic form is not contagious among foreigners.¹³ I can say nothing about more severe eye afflictions because all disorders of the eye are included in the figure of 2 i i cases. In the huts I saw people who had only one eye, with cata- racts, completely blind. I also saw blind children.

There were i ,2 i 7 persons who requested medical aid for traumatic injuries, for dislocations, fractures, contusions and all types of wounds. All these injuries were suffered at work, in a variety of unfortunate accidents, in escapes (shotgun wounds) and in fights. This group contains four infirmary cases of women who had been beaten by their cohabitants.¹⁴ Rigor was recorded in 290 cases.

In ten years there were I70 cases of unnatural death amid the Orthodox population. Of this number 20 were sentenced to death by hanging, 2 were hanged by unknown persons, 27 committed suicide—in Northern Sakhalin they shot themselves ( 1 shot himself on sentry duty), and in Southern Sakhalin they poisoned themselves with wolfs- bane. Many were drowned, frozen to death, crushed by trees; one was torn to bits by a bear. In addition to such causes of death as stroke, heart attack, apoplexy, general paralysis of the body, etc., the church records show 17 cases of "sudden death." More than half of these were between the ages of 22 to 40, and only i was over 50.

This is all that I can say about morbidity in the penal colony. Despite the exceptionally weak development of infectious diseases, I still cannot fail to acknowledge their significance on the basis of the above figures. There were i 1,309 patients requesting medical aid in 1889. During the summer most of the convicts work and live at a consider- able distance from the prison and even in the prison a medical assistant is assigned only to large groups. Since the majority of the settlers cannot walk or ride to the in- firmary becausc of the great distances and the terrible weather, this figure applies chiefly to that portion of the population which lives close to the medical stations at the posts.

According to data in the report, there were 194 deaths in 1889, or 12.5 pcrcent, for every thousand persons. This percentage might serve as the basis for a magnificent illu- sion and suggest that Sakhalin is thc hcalthicst place in thc world. Howcver, it is ncccssary to wcigh the following facts. Under ordinary conditions half of the deceascd are usually childrcn, and somewhat Icss than a quartcr are thc agcd. But therc arc vcry fcw children on Sakhalin and there are almost no agcd, so that in actuality thc coefficicnt of 12.5 pcrcent rcfers only to those of working age. Since it is shown to bc lowcr than the facts warrant, and since it was calculatcd in rclation to a population of 15,^^, thc death ratc is at least half again as large as that indicatcd hcre.

At present Sakhalin has three medical centcrs, one in each district: in Alexandrovsk, Rykovskoye and Korsakov. Hospitals arc called district infirmaries in thc old-fashioned way, and thosc huts or wards wherc paticnts with minor illncsscs are treatcd are callcd clinics. Each district is as- signcd one physician, and all mcdical mattcrs arc headed by thc director of the mcdical dcpartmcnt, a physician. The military havc thcir own infirmarics and doctors, and the military doctors oftcn substitute temporarily for prison doctors. During my visit, because of thc absence of the di- rector of the medical departmcnt, who had left to attend a prison cxhibition, while the prison doctor had taken a leavc of absence, the military doctor was in charge of the Alcxandrovsk infirmary. During my presence in Due the military doctor substituted for the prison doctor during the executions. The local infirmaries are guided by civilian hos- pital rcgulations and are supported by prison funds.

I will say a few words about the Alexandrovsk in- firmary. It consists of several buildings resembling bar- racks,¹⁵ with 180 beds. When I approached the infirmary, the new barracks with their heavy round logs glistened in the sun and exuded a coniferous odor. In the dispensary everything was new, everything was shiny and there was even a bust of Botkin¹⁽ⁱ sculptured by a convict from a pho- tograph. "It's not a very good likeness," said the medical assistam, glancing at the bust. As usual there were large boxes of medicinal bark and roots, from which a good half had already been dispensed. As I proceeded farther inta the barracks, I found the floor between the two rows of beds has been covered with fir twigs. The beds were of wood. On one lay a convict from Due with his throat cut. The wound is over half a vershok long, dry and gaping. You can hear the air escaping. The patient complains that he had been hit by a falling tree which injured his side. He requested admittance to the surgery, but was refused by a medical assistant. Feeling deeply insulted, he attempted suicide—he cut his throat. There is no bandage on his neck; the wound is left to heal itself. Some three to four arshins to the right of this patient is a Chinese with gangrene, to the left a convict with erysipelas. In the corner lies another with erysipelas. . . . The dressings of the surgical patients are filthy; the marine cord is suspicious, looking exactly as though it has been walked on. The medical assistant and the infirmary workers are undisciplined, do not understand questions, and look unpleasant. A convict called Sozin, who had been a medical assistant when he was free, is the only one who obviously knows the proper regimen in a Russian hospital, and it seems to me that he is the only person in the entire hospital staff who will not offend the god Aes- culapius by his attitude toward his duties.

Later I visited the ambulatory patients. The receiving room next to the dispensary was new; it smelled of fresh wood and varnish. The desk where the donor sits is en- closed with a wooden lattice like a banker's office, so that during his examination the patient never comes close to the doctor, who in the majority of cases examines him from a distance. Next to the doctor there is a student medi- cal assistant who plays silendy with a pencil. h looks as though the assistant is undergoing an examinadon.

Some men and women are scurrying about while a guard with a revolver stands at the door. This strange cir- cumstance disturbs the patients, and I feel that there are no syphilitics or women who will willingly discuss their ill- nesses in the presence of the guard with the revolver and of other men. There are few patients. They are all suffering either from febris sachalitiensis, from eczema, or their "hearts hurt," or they are malingerers. Convict patients keep begging to be released from work.

A }Oung boy was brought in with an abscess on his neck. I must incise it. I ask for a scalpel. The medical as- sistant and two men jump up from their seats and run off; they return in a liule while and hand me a scalpel. The instrument is blunt, but they tell me this is impossible be- cause the blacksmith sharpened it recently. Again the assistant and the men jump up and after two or three minutes they bring me another scalpel. I begin to cut, and this scalpel also proves to be dull. I ask for carbolic acid; they bring it to me but they take their time. h is obvious that carbolic acid is seldom used. There is no basin, no cotton balls, no probes, no good scissors, and not even enough water.

The average daily number of ambulatory patients is I I, the average yearly number (for 5 years) 2,581. The average number of bed patients is I 38. The infirmary has i senior,¹⁷ i junior physician and 2 medical assistants, a midwife (I for 2 districts) and, terrible to relate, there are 68 workers, 48 men and 20 women. In 1889, this in- firmary cost 27,832 rubles, 96 kopccks.^,K

The I 889 report states that there were 2 I forensic examinations and autopsies in all 3 districts. Injuries re- quired 7 examinations, pregnant women 58, and 67 exami- narions were conducted to determine the ability to with- stand corporal punishment according to the sentences of the court.

I add here excerpts from this report which cover the hospital inventory. In all three infirmaries the total inven- tory was as follows:

Gynecological set, i; laryngoscopic set, i; maximum thermometers, 2, both broken; thermometers "for taking body temperatures," 9, 2 broken; thermometers "for taking high temperatures," i; trocar, i; injectors, 3, the needle broken in i; pewter syringes, 29; scissors, 9, 2 broken; enema tubes, 34; drainage tubes, i; large mortar and pestle, i, with cracks; razor strop, i; cupping glasses, 14.

It is clear from Information on Receipt and Expendi- ture of Medications in the Governmental Medical Institu- tions on Sakhalin Island that in all three districts the fol- lowing were expended during the reported year: 36V2 poods of hydrochloric acid and 26 poods of chlorated lime; carbolic acid, i8V2 pounds; aluminum crudum, 56 pounds; and more than a pood of camphor. Camomile, one pood, nine pounds. Quinine, i pood, 8 pounds, and 5 V2 pounds of red cayenne pepper. (The report does not contain the amounts of alcohol used.) Oak bark, i pound; mint, i V2 poods; arnica, pood; marshmallow, 3 poods; turpentine, 3 Y2/2 poods; olive oil, 3 poods; another type of olive oil, i pood, 10 pounds; iodoform, pood. . . . According to the data in the In/ormation, not including the lime, 63^ poods of all sons of medications, hydrochloric acid, alcohol, dis- infecting and dressing materials were used. Consequencly the Sakhalin population can pride itself that in i 889 it was given a tremendous dosage.

I will cite two articles of the law pertaining to the convicts' health: (i) Work which is harmful to people's health i's not permitted even if chosen by the prisoners themselves ("Supreme Affirmation of the Opinion of the Government Council," January 6, 1886, p. i i). ( 2) Preg- nant women are excused from work until their delivery and after delivery for forty days. Afterward women who are breast-feeding their babies are assigned lighter tasks to the extent required to prevent harm to the mother or the breast-fed baby. Convict women are usually permitted one and a half years to breast-feed their children. (Code on Convicts, Article 297, 1890 edition.)

In 187 4 the ratio of the sick to the total population in the Korsakov district was 2 27.2: I oo ( Sintsovsky, "Hygienic Condi- tions of the Convicts,"' Health, 1875, No. 16).

Incidentally, I came across such diagnoses as excessive suckling of the breast, lack of development toward life, psychical heart disease, inflammation of the body, inner exhaustion, curious pneu- monias, growth, etc.

See Vasilyev, ''A Journey to Sakhalin Island," Archives of Forensic Medicine ( 1870), No. 2, for information on this epi- demic disease, which extended all over Sakhalin in 1868, and on the vaccination of foreigners in 1858.

* Rash (Lal.).

Thcre was not a single case in July, August and September of 1889. Only one Jeath has occurred from croupous pneumonia in October during the past ten years. This month can be considered the healthiest on Sakhalin.

⁶ lncidentally I founJ the following in this report: "The con- victs are subjected to brutal beatings with birch rods and are brought to the infirmary in an unconscious state after the beat- ing."

' Dr. Vasilyev often met Gilyaks on Sakhalin whtJ were suffer- ing from dysentery.

^s I remind the reader that these age groups refer to 24.3 per- cent and 24.1 percent of the entire convict population.

⁸ Syphilis is most frequently observed in the Alexandrovsk Post. This concentration of the disease is explained in the report as being due to the significant number of newly arrived prisoners and their families, the soldiers, the artisans, and the entire incom- ing population, the arrival of ships in the Alexandrovsk and Due \\aters, and summer seasonal work. The report also contains measures used against syphilis: (i) examination of convicts on the first and fifteenth of every month; ( 2) examination of newly arrived convict groups to the island; ( 3) weekly examination of women of questionable character; ( 4) ins^xtion of those formerly afflicted \\'ith syphilis. Despite all these examinations and inspec- tions, "a significant percentage of syphilitics are not included in the records." Dr. Vasilyev, who was assigned to Sakhalin in 1869 to render medical aid to foreigners, found no Gilyaks suffering from syphilis. The Ainus call syphilis a Japanese disease. The

Japanese who come to work in the fishing industries are obliged to present a medical certificate to the consul certifying that they are not suffering from syphilis.

¹⁰ The prolonged incarceration in central prisons and ships' holds is conducive to scurvy and sometimes whole groups of prisoners became afflicted with it soon after arriving on the island. One correspondent writes: "The last transport of prisoners from the Kostrom arrived in good health, but now everyone has scurvy" ( Vladivostok, 1885, No. 30).

ⁿ A convict complaining of migraine or sciatica is often sus- pected of malingering and denied access to the infirmary. One day I saw a large group of convicts begging the prison warden to send them to the infirmary. He refused because he did not want to be bothered sorting out the sick from the well.

¹² For example, pangs of conscience, longing for the homeland, pride, constant abuse, loneliness and the various quarrels among convicts.

Dr. Vasilyev says: "Among the Gilyaks the continuous con- templation of fields of snow is tremendously influential in causing diseases of the eyes. I know through experience that a few days after continuous contemplation of snow fields blennorrheal in- flammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes can take place." Convicts are very prone to night blindness (nyctalopia). Some- times it attacks entire groups of prisoners, who can only grope in the darkness, holding on to one another.

The writer of the report comments on these cases as follows: "The distribution of convict women as cohabitants for convict settlers is of a coercive nature." To avoid being sent out to work, some convicts maim themselves by chopping off the fingers of their right hand, or in other ways. Malingerers are especially ingenious. They apply red-hot five-kopeck pieces to their flesh, purposely get frostbitten feet, use some sort of Caucasian pulverized drug which when applied to a small wound or even an abrasion produces a foul ulcer with a putrid excretion. One inserted snuff into his urethra, etc. The manzy [Chinese], who are sent here from the Primorskaya district, malinger more than any others.

The infirmary cov.ers an area of 8,57 4 square sazhens, consists of 1 1 buildings and is divided into 3 sections: (1) The adminis- trative building, which includes the drug dispensary, surgery, re- ceiving office, 4 barracks, a kitchen with the woman's section next to it, and the chapel. The entire complex is called the infirmary.

( 2) T""'o buildings for male and female syphilitics, a kitchen and guardroom. ( 3) Two buildings housing patients suffering from epidemic diseases.

Sergey Petrovich Botkin, 1832-89. Renowned clinical physi- cian. Firsr ro build an experimental medical research laboratory in Russia. Author, lecturer and medical innovaror.—TRANS.

He is rhe director of rhe medical department.

1'i Clothinf* and linen cosr r,795 rubles, 60 kopecks; f^^, 12,832 rubles, 9-4 kopecks; medicines, jurpical insuuments and apparatus, 2,309 rubles, 60 ko^xks; the commissariat, office and other ex- penses, 2,500 rubles, 16 ko^xks; the medical personnel, 8,300 rubles. Repairs were made at pri^n cC05t; the workers »'ere free. Now I invite you to make a compari^n. Zemstvo Hospital in Serpukhov, Moskovskaya was built luxuriously and

furnished according to ^^&rn scientific requircments. In 189 3 there was a daily nera.ge of 4 3 bed patients, an aver^e of 36.2 ambulatoC}' patirots ( 13.278 yearly), and the doctor op- erated daily on serious carcs, was on the alert for epidemics, maintained complicated records, etc. This, thc best hospital in the dinnct, c<»-t the ZcJNtvo I2,8o3 rubles, 17 k^^cks in 1893; insurance and building repairs a^ounted to 1,298 rubles and the workers" wajiles of 1 ,260 rubles were included in the roral. (See o/ th, Serpakhorsko,e ZemsI'ro fftg-.i-

zrtioJIs for /892-93.) Medicine is very expen.ive on S.khalin; in addition the infirmary is disinfected '"by fumij^rion with chlorine," there is no ventilation, and the soup "hich I saw pre- pared in Alexandrovsk for the patienrs was extremely salty, becauK it was made from corned Until recently, su^^^dly "due to

an inwffic.ient supply of kitchenware and diaorganization in (hc kitchen," rbe patienrs were fed from the c^^ot pri^rn kettle (Order No. 66, 1 890) .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amon Pavlovich Chekhov, outstanding nineteemh-cemury Russian shan-stary writer and world-famous dramatist, when asked for an autobiography by the editor of a maga- zine, wrote:

"You want my autobiography? Here it is. I was born in Taganrog in i86o. I graduated from the gymnasium. I got an M.D. from Moscow University. I received the Pushkin Prize. I began to write in 1879. I took a crip to Sakhalin in 1890. I took a trip to Europe, where I drank excellent wine and ate oysters. ... I sinned a litde in the drama, but moderately. My works were translated imo all languages, except foreign. . . .

'"With my colleagues, the doctors, as well as my fellow writers, I have excellent relations . ... I would love to get a pension. But it is all nonsense. \'\'rite whatever you wish . . . if you run out of facts, replace them with lyrics."

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS

Luba and Michael Terpak, an American husband-and-wife translating team, received their training in Slavonic lan- guages at Columbia University. They have translated poetry from the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian, have wriuen anicles about travel in the USSR and on the Soviet theater, and have had a great deal of experience in simultaneous translation from the Russian and the Ukrainian.

[1] Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769-1859) at the age of sixry made a famous journey across Asiatic Russia in search of geologi- cal data. George Kennan ( 1845-1924), the American explorer, studied the Siberian prisons in 1886 and wrote his classic work Siberia and the Exile System.