When I told the old governor that I was engaged on no plan of escape, I spoke3 the simple truth. After my establishment in this prison I felt too much wearied out to think of any such matter. Beyond everything else I wanted rest, to recover myself after the frightful4 tension of the last months. Naturally the desire for freedom did not leave me; no human being in my circumstances could entirely5 abandon the thought of it. But it remained for the time being in the background of my consciousness; I felt I had not the energy to strive seriously for its fulfilment.
Time at first passed peacefully and quietly; I read a good deal, and talked with my new friends. What they had to tell was in part new to me, and very interesting. I had known nothing at all about the particulars of their trial. It remains7 to this day an isolated8 case, in which nearly all the accused were military or naval9 officers. Two of them, the naval lieutenant10 Baron11 von Stromberg and Lieutenant Rogachev, were executed.[49] What most interested me, however, and will most interest others, was to hear about the heroine of this case, the celebrated12 Vera 116Figner.[50] At that time her name was in everyone’s mouth, and for long she was the most popular personage in revolutionary circles. All the young people worshipped her; and the stories that were told of her talent for organisation13, her astonishing powers of invention, her wonderful perseverance14, untiring energy, and boundless15 readiness for self-sacrifice, testified fully6 to the part she had played in our movement. The dignified16 and unselfish conduct of this exceptional woman impressed even the members of the court-martial that tried her.
I had come to know Vera Figner personally in Petersburg, during the year 1877, at a time when she had already adopted the idea of going “among the people.” Twenty-two years of age, slender and of striking beauty, she was even then a noteworthy figure among the other prominent women Socialists17. Like so many other girls, she had thrown heart and soul into the cause of the Russian peasants, and was ready and willing to sacrifice everything to serve the people.
In the summer of 1879 I again came repeatedly in contact with her. While two years before she had impressed me as a very young propagandist, ready to accept without question the views of her comrades, she had now formed her own independent and keenly logical powers of judgment18. As I have previously19 said, this was a time of hot discussion as to our future programme. Some held the opinion that the whole strength of our party should be concentrated on the terrorist struggle to overthrow20 the existing machinery21 of State by attempting the lives of the Tsar and the lesser22 representatives of despotism. Others contended that revolutionary propaganda ought still to be tried and carried further than hitherto; that revolutionists should work among the people, colonise the villages, and instruct the peasants in the manner of the organisation Zemlyà i Vòlya (Land and Freedom). Vera Figner was one of the most strenuous23 supporters of the former view.
117I remember well, how once, when our whole circle had met together at Lesnoye, a summer resort near Petersburg, we were arguing hotly with her as to how propaganda among the peasantry might be made to yield the most fruitful results. She had just returned from a small village on the Volga, where she had been living as a peasant, for purposes of propaganda. The impressions she had received there had stirred her deeply, and she described in graphic24 language the fathomless25 misery26 and poverty, the hopeless ignorance of the provincial27 working classes. The conclusion she drew from it all was that under existing conditions there was no way of helping28 these people.
“Show me any such way; show me how under present circumstances I can serve the peasants, and I am ready to go back to the villages at once,” she said. And her whole manner left no doubt of her absolute sincerity29 and readiness to keep her word. But her experience had been that of many others who had idealised “the people,” and also their own power of stirring them; and we were none of us prepared with any definite counsel that could deter30 her from the new path she had determined31 to tread—simply because she could see no other leading to the desired end.
When I went to Odessa in the late autumn of the same year I found Vera Figner there. In conjunction with Kibàltchitch, Frolènko,[51] Kolotkèvitch, and Zlatopòlsky she was busy with preparations for an attempt on the life of Alexander II., who was about to return to Petersburg from Livadia. The dynamite32 was stored in her house; she had now put aside all doubt, and devoted33 herself with her whole soul to terrorist activity.[52]
She belonged to the Russian aristocracy; her grandfather had won a name for himself in the guerrilla warfare34 against Napoleon’s invasion. Inflexible35 determination 118and tireless perseverance were her most prominent qualities; she was never contented36 with a single task, even the most enthralling37, but would carry on work in all sorts of different directions simultaneously38. While engaged in making ready for this attempt on the Tsar’s life she was at the same time organising revolutionary societies among the youth of the country, doing propaganda work in the higher ranks of society, and helping us in Odessa with a secret newspaper that we were starting for South Russia.
But Vera Figner was still only in the developing stage of her strength and capacities. She was already highly esteemed39 by all who came near her, winning their sympathy and confidence; yet even her greatest friends could hardly suspect the depth of character possessed40 by this radiantly beautiful girl. It was fully shown in 1882, when nearly all her comrades of the Naròdnaia Vòlya were in prison, and the few who had escaped capture had fled into foreign countries; she resolutely41 declined to entertain the idea of flight, though the danger of arrest menaced her at every turn. In 1883 she fell a victim to the treachery of Degàiev,[53] and was sentenced to death; but “by favour” this was altered to lifelong penal42 servitude, and she was immured43 in the living grave of the Schlüsselburg fortress44, where she still is (1902).
To return to my comrades in the Moscow prison, Spandoni and Tchuikòv; besides their own narratives45 of their past experiences I could also avail myself of their formal indictments46, which they had with them. The chief characteristic of these documents was their entire failure to show any grounds for the exceptionally heavy sentences inflicted49. I will set down here what the Public Prosecutor50 had to say against these two companions of my captivity51.
“Athanasius Spandoni was connected with a secret printing press discovered in Odessa in the house of the married couple Degàiev.” Thus began the indictment47, 119and it went on to state that he had refused to make any confession52, but that his membership of the secret society Naròdnaia Vòlya was sworn to by Mme. Degàiev, who also stated that he had twice visited her house. That was absolutely all. Two visits to a secret printing office were punished with fifteen years’ penal servitude!
The “crime” of Tchuikòv was scarcely more serious. His indictment ran as follows:—
“When Vera Figner was arrested in Kharkov, the authorities in that place advised us that Vladimir Tchuikòv, among others, had been in correspondence with her. His house being searched, there were found (1) implements53 for setting up type, (2) implements for making false passports, (3) prussic acid and morphia, (4) various seditious writings (some printed, some in manuscript), (5) a list giving the names of different political criminals, (6) lists for the collection of subscriptions54 to the Naròdnaia Vòlya. Tchuikòv has acknowledged that he agrees with the principles of the Naròdnaia Vòlya.” And on these grounds he was condemned55 to twenty years’ penal servitude.
The charge brought against the rest of the accused in this case, the naval and military officers, were of a similar description; and for these “crimes” they were all condemned to death, the sentence being actually carried out as regards two of their number.
For a time we three were the only inmates56 of the Pugatchev tower, but we were expecting other companions. In about a fortnight after my advent57 the condemned in the already mentioned Shebalìn case were to arrive from Ki?v—four sentenced to penal servitude and four to exile, among the latter two women. We awaited their coming with the greatest interest, but when the party arrived only two were brought to our tower, the exiles Makàr Vasìliev and Peter Dashkièvitch. Paraskovya Shebalina and a young girl, Barbara Shtchulèpnikòva, also condemned to exile, were of course taken to the 120women’s quarters; but the four other men had quite unexpectedly been sent off to Schlüsselburg, as the outcome of a conflict with the prison authorities, of which I will give some particulars.
I have already tried to give some idea of what all convicts must suffer when their fetters58 are first put on and their heads shaved. Until the time of which I write it had been customary (and still is, in the case of anyone belonging to the “privileged classes”) to defer59 the performance of this barbarous ceremony until arrival in Siberia at the town of Tiumen. But it occurred to the officials that the condemned in the Shebalìn case (i.e. Shebalìn, Pankràtov, Karanlov, and Borisòvitch) should be fettered60 and shaved before their transfer to Moscow. This was hotly resented by the victims themselves, and all the other “politicals” in the Ki?v prison joined in their protest. The authorities then employed force to carry out their intention, and thereupon the prisoners “demonstrated” in the usual fashion, that is, by breaking windows, destroying furniture, etc. The occurrence was reported to Petersburg, and thence the order was at once received to send our four comrades to Schlüsselburg. What that meant I have already indicated: burial alive in a state of perpetual martyrdom. Most of the unhappy victims die in a few years, others lose their reason, and many purposely offer violence to the officials in order to win for themselves a speedy execution. It is easy, then, to imagine our feelings on receiving this news about our comrades, especially as there were some among them at whose door no accusation61 of any consequence could be laid. Karanlov, for instance, had only been sentenced to four years’ penal servitude, the court-martial having found it impossible to inflict48 a heavier punishment. He had thereupon married, as his wife would by law be permitted to follow him to Siberia; and his imprisonment1 in Schlüsselburg meant utter separation for them, as he would not even be allowed to write to her.
121The case of the Shebalìns was even more sad. The young wife had scarcely parted from her husband when her child—an unweaned infant, whom she had with her in prison—fell ill and died. She herself succumbed62 to her grief, and late in the autumn died in the Moscow prison.
Soon after these arrivals there came fresh batches63 of “politicals,” until the great prison was full to overflowing64. The Lopàtin case contributed many. Hermann Lopàtin is one of the best-known figures in our Russian revolutionary movement. In 1884 he had returned from abroad (whither he had earlier been obliged to flee), in order to resuscitate65 the organisation of the Naròdnaia Vòlya, all the active members of which were in prison in consequence of Degàiev’s treachery. Lopàtin had almost to begin at the beginning again in reorganising that terrorist society, and travelled for this purpose all over Russia, establishing fresh connections everywhere. As he could not depend on his memory he had to write down the names of members, with notes as to their capacity for usefulness, and he kept the bit of paper with this list on it always about his person, meaning to destroy it if in any danger. Unfortunately, this proved impossible, for one day he was seized in the street by the secret police and overpowered before he could manage to swallow the compromising document, though he had actually got it into his mouth. All whose names were on his list were, of course, arrested, and imprisonments were made all over Russia. The numerous persons who were sent to the central prison in Moscow in consequence of Lopàtin’s capture were for the most part scarcely out of boyhood, and their guilt66 entirely consisted in their being named in Lopàtin’s list.
One case that especially moved me was that of Rubìnok, a young student from Moscow University, aged2 only nineteen, highly gifted, and developed intellectually far beyond his years. He was condemned to three years’ exile in Eastern Siberia, and was eventually sent to one 122of the most forsaken67 corners of the earth—in the province of Yakutsk, beyond the arctic circle. While there he was somehow or other set upon by the half-savage natives and nearly killed, in consequence of which violent treatment he lost his reason and became permanently68 insane.
There was much said in our prison (and throughout Moscow, too) about the fate of another young student of the Peter Rasoumòvsky Academy. His name was Kovalièv; he had been arrested on some trifling69 count, and confined in the police prison. A certain officer of the guard, Belino-Bshezòvsky, was also there, under examination for some criminal offence. This representative of our gilded70 youth entered into league with the gendarmerie to take advantage of the young student’s inexperience; and they planned no less than the concoction71 of a false attempt at assassination72. The officer pretended to Kovalièv that he himself belonged to the revolutionists, and tempted73 the boy with the suggestion of killing74 the Public Prosecutor of the Moscow Courts (the present Minister of Justice, Mouravièv). The unwary youth fell into the trap, and the agent provocateur furnished him with a loaded revolver; then, when Kovalièv was to be examined by the Public Prosecutor, he was suddenly seized on his way to the office by the gendarmes75 (instructed, of course, by Belino-Bshezòvsky), searched, and the weapon found on him. He was at once charged with being caught in an attempt to murder the Public Prosecutor. In his despair he tried to commit suicide, but was prevented. The provocative76 r?le played by the gendarmerie was here too flagrant to be concealed77, and the representations of the victim’s father were successful in rescuing him from their clutches. An order was sent from Petersburg to hush78 up the affair. Rumours79 were current everywhere that Mouravièv had been privy80 to the action of the gendarmerie, his attempted assassination being designed to fix public notice upon him and bring him to the front. But I have no means of knowing how far there was any foundation for this report.
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1
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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enthralling
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| 迷人的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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immured
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| v.禁闭，监禁( immure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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indictments
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| n.（制度、社会等的）衰败迹象( indictment的名词复数 )；刑事起诉书；公诉书；控告 | |
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indictment
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| n.起诉；诉状 | |
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48
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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49
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
prosecutor
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| n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人 | |
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51
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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52
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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53
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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54
subscriptions
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| n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助 | |
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55
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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56
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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defer
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| vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从 | |
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fettered
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| v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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batches
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| 一批( batch的名词复数 )； 一炉； （食物、药物等的）一批生产的量； 成批作业 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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resuscitate
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| v.使复活，使苏醒 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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71
concoction
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| n.调配(物)；谎言 | |
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assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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gendarmes
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| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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78
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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