File:Side-lights on Siberia (1898), page 218, Palatch with plet.jpg

Identifier: sidelightsonsibe00simp Title: Side-lights on Siberia; some account of the great Siberian railroad, the prisons and exile system; Year: 1898 (1890s) Authors: Simpson, James Young, 1873-1934 Subjects: Prisons -- Soviet Union Exiles -- Russia (Federation) Siberia Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel Publisher: Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book

Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image: beard, he smiled as the old natchalnik stepped up to himin his peculiar little way, faced in the same direction, andthen arched his head so as to bring his ear under the mis-creants lips. He wanted to know what was going to happenhim. The Procurator who accompanied us was able to puthis mind at rest: he would not suffer now— (^^a seraittrop. At Alexandrovsky it is still possible to see a ^M/a^c/t;but to what a pithless condition his function has descendedcan be gathered from the fact that he was in one of theIameras along with other prisoners. You will find himin room 15, said the chief warder. At Sakhalin, Nert-chinsk, and Tobolsk, where employment is still found forprofessors of this art, they are kept apart from the prisoners, 218 ALEXANDROVSKY CENTRAL. whose feelings towards tlieiii can readily be imagined: theydo no other hard labour, and are well fed. When vacant,the position is thrown open to offers from the prisoners,but is filled with difficulty. It seems that if in a local

Text Appearing After Image: prison in Siberia discipline or punishment for a crime hasto be enforced with the rozgi—a species of birch-rod—thenone of the prisoners is elected by lot to perform the service.The plet is not given in Eussia, and if a man about to gointo exile is in addition condemned in Eussia to punishment BRANDING. 219 with that instrument, he suffers at Tobolsk, shortly after hehas entered Siberia. The imlatcli at Alexanclrovsky hadmore than once asked to be relieved from his unenviableoffice, as it was a sinecure. The rozgi had not been giventhere for three years, far less the ^let. The latter is amodification of the famous hnut} which was abolished in1845, and although people still often speak of t\\Q plct as theIcnut, the former term is alone used in law. The implementhas a short stout handle, and the thick lash, after taperingfor some distance, divides into three tails. It is nevergiven for a first offence, but in such instances as that ofa recovered Irodyaga or of a murderer who repeats

Note About Images