REVELATIONS OF SIBERIA. * BEYOND the obvious disagreeables of a severe
climate, a primitive state of society, and the separation from family and friendly ties, exile in Siberia, according to these revelations, by no means comes up to the received notion. It may be that gratitude or appre- hension has restrained the pen of the authoress, and the certainty that what she was writing would be dealt with by the Russian censors ; or it is . possible that exile to Siberia, like other evils, is more supportable in reality than expectation and that the Russian Government really wishes to make its victims as comfortable as may be when once transported to that desolate region. At all Revelations of Siberia. By a Banished Lady. Edited by Colonel Limb Seyrms, Author of "Letters on Poland," &c. ke. In two volumes. Published by Colburn.
events, the established autocracy of the Czar shines out in favour- able contrast with the more uncertain and violent despotisms of France and Austria. A state prisoner of the latter power would hardly be allowed to publish an account of his imprisonment in the Austrian dominions ; and " Napoleon III" has too much of the myna homo to have reached the self-satisfied height of impe- rial dignity which permits to its subjects neither personal censure nor praise.
Eve Felinska, the authoress of these volumes, as we are in- formed by her editor, is a Polish married woman of family, who was implicated in some abortive conspiracy, about 1837, and, after two years' detention and trial, was condemned to exile. Of her alleged crime, accusation, trial, guilt, or innocence, we hear no- thing ; the topics most natural to a patriot and a lady are passed by in a silence more significant than words. She begins her narrative with her start from Xiov, in March 1839 ; gives an account of her journey thence to Tobolsk ; and her final departure, after detention by the thaws of sprint, to the most Northern city of Siberia, Berezov, where her exile in Siberia was passed. As regards what may be called politics, there is scarcely a word, beyond praise of the good regulations of higher class of Russian officers for the benefit of the country and the people, and censure of their inferiors for the manner in which the good intentions of their superiors are baffled by prejudice, ignorance, selfishness, and corruption. When we consider what Eve Felinska was, and what her real feelings must be towards the system which has blotted out her country from the book of nations, and punishes patriotism as a crime, this prudent reserve, if more respectable to all con- cerned, is equally melancholy with the blasphemous adulation which follows the French President. Still something peeps out_ This interview with a once celebrated Pole, which took place at Tobolak, lifts the curtain of baffled hopes, broken health, and dark- ened reason.
"During one of my walks, being accompanied by some friends, I paid a visit to Colonel Severin Krzyzanowski. He was a poor invalid ; both his feet are paralyzed, and he never quits his chamber. One of our company, M. Onnfry Pietraszkiewicz, preceded us to anrize the Colonel of our ap- proach; and we waited in an outer room while his nurse, a German, pre- pared for our reception. "In about a quarter of an hour the Colonel was ready to receive us ; aria, being ushered in we found him sitting in a deep arm-chair I la Voltaire, propped up on both sides, his infirm debilitated body requiring those sup- ports. "His long thin hair was Ernow-white—bleached, as it appeared, by prema- ture age, brought on by much suffering ; and it fell down on his shoulders, reaching nearly to his elbows. His face was excessively pale, and looked as though it were swollen; the lustre of his eyes was dimmed, and their old fire quenched. As he saw us enter, his lips and eyes trembled convulsively, be- traying a strong inward emotion. We perceived that he tried to speak, and could not. He then by a movement of his hand made um a sign to approach his seat, to enable him to shake hands with us. There were but two of us in his room—Miss Josephine and myself.
"It fortunately happened that at that moment the Colonel's mind was perfectly lucid, which, alas! was not its ordinary condition ; and we could see that only the excess of emotion deprived his paralyzed tongue of the power of speech. At length he recovered his self-possession, and for some time conversed with us, though not without difficulty, yet with perfect pre- sence of mind.
"Hearing that our destination was Beresov, a place known to him, having himself resided there fourteen months, he recommended us, when we arrived, to take lodgings at his former landlady's, where he said we should be comfort- able. He tried to reassure us with respect to Berezov and the discomforts of that place, and, perhaps thinking we should be frightened, lauded the single- heartedness and hospitality of its inhabitants. " This conversation he maintained with a difficulty painful to witness. We were obliged to gather what he intended to convey, more from his ges- ticulations and the movement of his lips than from the words he uttered. For some time we went on tolerably well ; but at last the Colonel's faculties, exhausted by his efforts, began to flag. He still went on speaking ; but we could not help observing that imagination carried him back to the shores of the Tagus and the banks of the Seine, the stage of his past military exploits. He then narrated that we could obtain at Berezov plenty of water- melons, grapes, oranges, and a variety of delicious fruits, which we knew were not to be found there, but were the produce of more genial climes. " This conversation, from its character and the direction it had taken, affected me painfully. I was at a loss how to abridge it, otherwise than by taking leave from our unfortunate compatriot; who, on perceiving our movement, grasped our hands, and continued uttering beseechingly with his palsied tongue, ' Pray stay—still longer—longer! But, apprehending lest the effect of our protracted interview should prove injurious to the Colonel's health, we left him."
Notwithstanding the extent of Madame Felinska's travels and her sojourn both at Tobolsk and Berezov, she appears to have seen but little, at least she tells but little, of the actual condition of the exiles. Escape is so difficult, not to say impossible, that surveillant* would appear to be almost nominal. The banished ocoupy them- selves, visit, and in short live acoording to their means, much as they would do if at home. That is, if they have money, they spend it as they please ; or if they have none, they can follow any emu- pation they know or can acquire. At Tobolsk and Berezov, our authoress engaged apartments, bought furniture, marketed, and visited, including the Russian officers, as she might have done in Paris or London. The sources of her income are not clear. The Government allowance to a Tartar Khan was equivalent to ten- pence a day ; a sum insufficient to maintain dignity or style, but apparently enough to support a man in the remoter regions of Siberia.
The appearance and characteristics of the country are among the most remarkable traits of the work, and from their novelty and suggestiveness not the least interesting. The district of which Berezov is about the central point has its frontier two thousand miles and upwards from the principal town, and contains but fif- teen thousand inhabitants. Roads there are none : in winter, communication takes place between Tobolak and Berezov along the
frozen surface of the rivers, and for the few months of summer is carried on by water. The native tribes of Ostiaks and Samoieds live in a state little above that of the Esquimau. The few settle- ments are on the banks of rivers ; as, indeed, it is only by means of them that intercommunication can lake place, for even in winter- time any person who attempted to travel across the snow, would inevitably be starved or frozen, and in summer would find the route impassable. The town of Berezov is beyond the limits of agri- culture, save a few vegetables introduced by exiles, and cultivated like exotics. Flesh of some kind—as fish and game, captured or bartered from the Ostiaks, and more rarely butcher's meat—is the principal food; the excessive cold preserving it throughout the year, for in the height of summer ice-cellars keep it frozen. This summer is short : snow is not got rid of till the end of May, and hoar frosts at night begin in July. Spring there is none : what is the end of the " sweet season" in happier climes, produces at Be- rezov masses of melted snow, mud, slush, and streams of running water. This was a sight at the latter end of May,—the writer using the old style. "The 13th [24th] of May was one of the great days of the year in our lit- tle community. The mass of ice on the Soswa, which had previously been immoveable, and despite the increased volume of currents beneath, and the deluge of waters above' blocked up the river with its frozen masses, at last, after so long braving the shocks of the hostile elements, gave way, and began to move with all its stupendous bulk Northward, carrying everything before it.
"Gradually, before our eyes, the different localities began to change with the moving ice • the road over the river to Tobolsk planted on both sides with green cedar branches, the various paths trodden across the ice by human steps, the holes cut for fishing, and those for the use of cattle, and which were fenced around with branches of fir and larch, looking like so many beautiful green bowers on a white plain—all these objects, on which our eyes had been accustomed to dwell with delight during the winter, now broke up, and with slow, silent, and solemn motion, set out on their distant pilgrimage.
"This migration to distant regions, of things so familiar to us, and which we had no hope of ever seeing again, had something in it peculiarly mourn- ful,. and the objects themselves, as though responding to our feelings, seem- ed, by their lingering movements, to depart with regret, still murmuring to us their eternal farewell. Thus it fares always in this world. Everything is transient, and all in turn pass away. "The whole pack of the ice, with its paths, and pits, and branches, sud- denly halted lower down the river, at a distance of about a verat from Bere- zov, where a sharp angle impeded the current ; and here it seemed to bid us a reluctant adieu. Prompted by I know not what motive, I walked to the spot, and felt delighted to behold once more each well-remembered object. Not until some hours had elapsed did the huge pile take another start, and pass away for ever. The close of the day saw the river free, and its blue waves floating tranquilly and proudly along, without encountering any obstacle."
Berezov itself, communicating by water with Tobolsk and the Northern Ocean, is a place of some trade in fish and furs, and of some jollity, in winter-time especially, when the rein-deer come home and draw sledge-parties about. Snow and intense frost make a firm road everywhere ; in warmer weather even the town itself would not be passable to a fastidious Londoner.
" The banks of the river, on which the town is built, are elevated. The SOH is sandy, and the streets are always dirty and muddy, even during the greatest summer heat. On the surface of the mud, however, during sum- mer, a dry incrustation is formed ; but wo to the person who, trusting in its apparent solidity and firmness, should venture to direct his unfortunate feet on it, as the deceitful crust would break under him, and he would have hard work to emerge from the quagmire beneath. " Communication from one house to another is therefore not easy ; and boards, large long wooden planks, and round stems of whole trees, are laid across the streets, to facilitate it. In some places we observed pools of clear water, too deep to be ever dried up. These pools are honoured by the in- habitants with the appellation of ozera, or lakes. " In our towns such a wretched state of things would never be tolerated; for what inhabitants would like to have their houses built in streets which are impassable for any vehicle ? But here this inconvenience is of no im- portance. During the whole summer we did not see one carriage pass through the streets. There are no wheels, no carts, no horses • and there are, of course, no roads. In town, all communications between the inhabi- tants are effected on foot, and out of its precincts, by boats on the river."
The paucity of information respecting the condition of exiles in Siberia will probably at first disappoint the reader. When this feeling is got over, the volumes will be found interesting, from their
tghictures of a country, people, and state of society, new to the Eng- lish this generation.
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