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

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Text Appearing Before Image: ase of the prisoners,the brand was done by a kind of cupping instrument, orstamp, furnished with small points, which, on being tapped,pierced the skin. A liquid was then rubbed on, and so theconvict was tattooed for life.^ In the Nertchinsk PenalSettlement there is a station called Alexandrovsky, whereall the aged convicts of the district who are unfit for workare collected and supported in almshouses at the G-overn-ment expense; but though I watched carefully for such 1 Through Siberia, p. 464. CHAINING TO WHEELBARROWS. 221 curiosities when visiting that settlement, I failed to remarkany one who had been subjected to the indignity. Later Ilearned that there were none—they had all died out. Theillustration facing p. 222 represents a convict branded withthe letters S, K, and A, the latter standing for arestant, i.e.prisoner. That facing p. 178 represents a hrodrjaga whose armand cheek have been branded with the Eussian B. I haveother photographs in my possession, one of which shows a

Text Appearing After Image: Convict chained to tcheelbarrow, resting. convict who has been branded eight times with the lettersSK. The practice of chaining refractory life - sentencedconvicts to wheelbarrows for months at a time is no longercarried on in continental Siberia, although Mr De Windtfound it lingering in Sakhalin as late as 1894. We next went to the extreme west end of the building,where the indoor labour is carried on. Here the prisonstands very close to the courtyard wall, on the other sideof which is a road that leads to the Peresilni prison and 222 ALEXANDROVSKY CENTRAL. hospital upon the other side of the valley. Across theroad is a cabbage - garden, where great quantities of thestaple vegetable in shtchi are grown. The top storey ofthe building was laid out in a broad corridor, off whichopened four Ivmrras. In one of these several men wereat work on ordinary prison boots and shoes, while a fewwere executing private orders for articles of a superiormake. The excellence of the work in each case c

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