In Russian and French Prisons | Page 8

1864 was
extended to three Siberian provinces, it was so mutilated as to lose

precisely its best features. A jury is still a desideratum beyond the
Urals. The Lithuanian provinces, Poland, and the Baltic provinces, as
also several provinces in the north and in the south-east (Arkhangelsk
included) remain still under the old jurisdiction; while Wilno and
Minsk received the new law quite mutilated by the reactionary
proclivities of the present rulers.
As to the Russian provinces where the law has been in force since 1864,
all that could be devised to attenuate its good effects--short of actual
repeal, has been done. The examining magistrates (juges d'instruction)
have never enjoyed the independence bestowed on them by the new
law; and this was managed by means of a very simple stratagem: no
examining magistrates were nominated, and those to whom their work
was entrusted were nominated merely ad interim. So the Ministry could
displace and discharge them at will. The judges have been made more
and more dependent upon the Minister of Justice, whose nominees they
are, and who has the right to transfer them from one province to
another--from St. Petersburg, for instance, to Siberia The institution of
sworn advocates, uncontrolled by criticism, has degenerated; and the
peasant whose case is not likely to become a cause celebre, has not the
benefits of a counsel, and is completely in the hands of a creature like
the procureur-imperial in Zola's novel. Freedom of defence was
trampled under foot, and the few advocates, like Urusoff, who have
indulged in anything approaching to free speech in the trial of political
prisoners, have been exiled merely by order of the Third Section.
Independent jurors are, of course, impossible in a country where the
peasant-juror knows that he may be beaten by anything in uniform at
the very doors of the court. As for the verdicts of the juries, they are not
respected at all if they are in contradiction with the opinions of the
governor of the province; and the acquitted may be seized as they leave
the dock, and imprisoned anew, on a simple order of the Administrative.
Such, for in stance, was the case of the peasant Borunoff. He came to St.
Petersburg on behalf of his fellow-villagers to bring a complaint to the
Tsar against the authorities, and he was tried as a "rebel." He was
acquitted by the court; but he was re-arrested on the very flight of steps
outside, and exiled to the peninsula of Kola. Such, too, was the case of

the raskolnik (nonconformist) Tetenoff, and several more. As to Vera
Zassoulitch, who also was acquitted by the jury, the Government
ordered her re-arrest at the very doors of the court, and re-arrested she
would have been if her comrades had not rescued her, leaving one dead
in the riot which ensued.
The Third Section, the courtiers, and the governors of provinces look
on the new courts as mere nuisances, and act accordingly. A great
many cases are disposed of by the Executive a huis clots, away from
examining magistrates, judges, and jurors alike. The preliminary
inquiry, in all cases in which a "political meaning" is discovered, is
simply made by gendarmerie-officers, sometimes in the presence of a
procureur who accompanies them in their raids. This procureur--an
official in civil dress, attached to the blue uniforms of the
gendarmes--is a black sheep to his colleagues; his function is to assist,
or appear to assist, at the examination of those arrested by the secret
police, and thus give an aspect of lawfulness to its proceedings.
Sentence and punishment are often awarded by the Department of
States' Police (which is but another name for the Third Section) or the
Executive; and a punishment as terrible as exile--may be for
life--within the Arctic circle in Siberia is pronounced on mere reports
of the gendarmerie officers. In fact, Administrative Exile is resorted to
in all cases when there is not the slightest indication which could lead
to condemnation, even by a packed court. "You are exiled to Siberia,
because it is impossible to commit you for trial, there being no proofs
against you,"--such is the cynical form in which the announcement is
made to the prisoner. "Be happy that gou have escaped so cheap "--they
add; and people are sent for five, ten, fifteen years to some small
borough of 500 inhabitants within or in the vicinity of the Arctic circle.
In this category are included not only the cases of political offenders
who are supposed to belong to some secret society, but also those of
religious dissenters; of people who frankly speak out their opinions on
Government; writers whose romances are considered "dangerous;"
almost all persons accused of "disobedience" and "turbulent character;"
workmen who have been most active in strikes; those accused of