THE ABOLITION OF EXILE TO SIBERIA.
WHETHER in deference to the sentimental outcry against political exile to Siberia, or from a sound perception of the true requirements of that vast portion of the Czar's dominions, the administrative council of the Penitentiary Department of the Russian Government has just reported in favour of the total abolition of transporta- tion to Siberia as a judicial punishment. It is true that the Minister of Finance, M. Vishnegradtsky, has since raised some difficulties to the acceptance of the Report on the score of expense ; but as will be seen later on, these are not of a character to prevent, if they may slightly delay, the adoption of the new policy, which has been proposed and
virtually decided upon with the previous knowledge and tacit acquiescence of the Czar. The motives which have dictated this suggestion are admitted to be threefold. In the first place, it' is considered advisable to re- move the opprobrium attaching in the public mind of the Empire and of Europe to the whole Siberian system. In the second place, it is deemed politic that the Government should retain a closer hold upon its political prisoners, than has been effected under the estab- lished practice of banishing them to Siberia ; for a return published only three months ago showed that 50 per cent. of the exiles could not be traced less than five years after they had crossed the Ural Mountains. The third motive, and perhaps not the least potent, is supplied by the in- creased political and commercial importance of Siberia, and by the decision to entrust the completion of a railway across Northern Asia to the Pacific, to the famous General Annenkoff. Whatever else is clear, this much is certain, that Siberia cannot remain a political or social penitentiary when that railway has become an accomplished fact. As the Russian Government is in earnest . about the new schemes for the development of Siberia, it follows that steps must be promptly taken to reorganise the penal system of the Empire.
From the perception of this necessity have sprung the very precise suggestions of the Penitentiary Department, which has made them with a unanimous vote and voice. It begins its declaration with the statement that the present regime cannot possibly be maintained. The second pro- position which it formulates is scarcely less important. Hitherto, both rural and urban communes have enjoyed the right to prohibit the return of any condemned person to his own hearth and family. The Department wish that privilege to be abrogated, thus striking a severe blow at the whole system of perpetual banishment, which is identical with Siberian exile. For the old mode of dealing with political offenders, it is proposed to substitute internment in fortresses or prisons without exception. Two advantages are to be gained by this method,—first, the State retains absolute hold on its victim or enemy ; and secondly, little or no opportunity arises for eliciting external sympathy, or awaking the inconvenient humanitarian instinct of the Russian or other nations. When this proposal was placed before the Finance Minister the other day, he demurred to it on the ground that the outlay involved in the construction of new prisons would be very considerable ; but his objections are said to have been vanquished by the demonstration that this expenditure of 44 million roubles can be met out of the special reserve fund of the State prisons, supplemented by the great future economy secured over the present expense of deportation from the different provinces of the Empire to Northern Asia. The Department goes on to recommend that, while the abolition of transportation to Siberia must be unqualified and complete, the island of Saghalien should be retained as a penal settlement for non- political criminals. Those offenders, also, who on the expiration of their term of sentence in Russian prisons had no fixed residence to go to, might, at the option of the authorities, be deported to this remote island of the Pacific as vagabonds. In this manner it is hoped that Siberia
(just as Australia was with us a generation ago) will be relieved from the stigma of a penal settlement, owing its increase of population mainly to immigrants who have fallen under the ban of the law. At the same time, the promoters of this reform declare that it will be attended with economical and other benefits to the State. Nor, so far as our information justifies an opinion, is there any reason to doubt that these antici- pations are likely to be realised. It is still more clear that the very first condition towards the regeneration and development of Siberia, which is probably the richest as it has hitherto been the least cared-for of the Czar's dominions, is the adoption in principle of the reform suggested by the Penitentiary Department only a week ago. The preoccupation of the Russian Government during the last two centuries in Europe, on the Black Sea, on the
Caspian, and in Central Asia, has been so incessant that it
has never had any leisure to devote to the wants of Siberia, although it is the oldest Asiatic dependency of the Czar.
The first and most obvious want of that province was population, and no more simple way of supplying the deficiency occurred to the minds of statesmen in Moscow or St. Petersburg than to deport those who troubled the Government in the more populous districts, into this barren and deserted wilderness. It cost the State little to drive shoals of defenceless prisoners thither, and the immense distance to be traversed, as well as the rigour of the climate, provided a sufficient security against their return. The practice, which began with the deportation of many of the Swedish prisoners at Pultawa, soon developed into a system that has sent half-a-million Russian subjects to Siberia in the present century, and that is still conveying them there at the rate of 11,000 a year. Several recent writers, Russians as well as foreigners, have drawn attention to this blot in the Russian Administration, and during the same period the Government has been furnished with irrefutable evidence that the exiled political suspect or culprit is not a useful colonist who can develop a virgin soil. The main inducement to Russia to act promptly in this matter, is furnished not by any over-sensitiveness to external criticism, but by the perception that the time has come to take the Siberian question seriously in hand., to ensure the develop- ment of Northern Asia by attracting thither suitable and voluntary colonists from the valleys of the Don and the Volga, and to maintain a powerful and, if necessary, menacing position on the most vulnerable points of the Chinese frontier.
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