I am told that Tatar tides are still retained in Sakhalin, disregarding the fact that everyone has forfeited all rights to status, prefixes and particles which denote high status. I don't know how correct this is, but I recorded many khans, sultans and oglis. The most common name among the vagrants is Ivan, and the most common surname is Nepom- nyashchy [Unremembered]. Here are some of the vagrants' names: Mustafa Nepomnyashchy, Vasily Bezotechestva [Countryless], Franz Nepomnyashchy, Ivan Nepomnyashchy 20 Years, Yakov Besprozvaniya [Nameless], Vagrant Ivan 35 Years' and Chelovek Neizvestnovo Zvaniya [Man with Unknown Name].
On the same line I noted the relationship of those I interviewed to the master of the house: wife, son, mistress, worker, lodger, son of lodger, etc. ln recording children I noted the legal and illegal offspring, their own and adopted. Adopted children are frequently encountered on Sakhalin and I was not only obliged to record adopted children, but also foster parents.
The relationship of many of those living in the huts toward the master of the house was that of co-owner or half-owner. In both of the northern districts there were two or even three proprietors to a land allotment and so it was in more than half of the households. A settler takes possession of a piece of land, builds a house and starts farming. In two or three years the authorities assign a co- owner, or they give one plot to two settlers at the same time. A convict who has served his term sometimes requests that he be permitted to settle at a certain post or settlement where there is no more room available for settlement, and they are forced to assign him to an already existing home- stead. The number of co-owners especially rises after the announcement of an imperial edict. At such times the administration is forced to find places immediately for several hundred persons.
The fifth line notes age. Women who have passed forty do not easily remember their age and must think before answering the question. The Armenians from Erivan guber- niya never know their age. One answered, "Maybe thirty, maybe I'm even fifty." In such instances there had to be an approximation to the age, which was later verified by the records. Usually youngsters of fifteen and older decrease their age. Some who are already married or who have been prostitutes for a long time say they are thirteen or fourteen. The reason for this is that infants and children in the poorest families receive food from the prison, which is distributed only to those below fifteen years of age, and thus the young people and their parents are forced to tell lies.
The sixth line pertains to religion.
The seventh: "\Vhere were you born?" This quesu'on was answered without difficulty and only the vagrants answered with a quip or merely "I don't remember." When I asked a girl, Natalya Nepomnyashchaya, from which guberniya she had come, she told me, "A bit from all of them."
Fellow countrymen usually stay together, they pass the time together, and when they escape, they also escape together. A Tulyak prefers to become a co-owner with a Tulyak; a Bakinets with another Bakinets. Obviously socie- ties of fellow countrymen exist. When questions had to be asked about an absentee, his fellow countrymen gave the most detailed information about him.
The eighth line asked: "Which year did you arrive on Sakhalin?" Very few of the Sakhalin dwellers answered this question immediately, without strain. The year he acrived on Sakhalin was the year of dire misfortune. Fur- thermore, they don't even know the year, or have forgotten it. I asked an old convict woman when she had arrived on Sakhalin and she answered dully, without thinking, "\Vho knows? Maybe in '83." Either her husband or her lover interrupts, "So why do you wag your tongue for nothing? You came in '85." "Maybe in '85,'' she agrees with a sigh. We begin counting, and the peasant is correct. Men are not as listless as the women, but they do not answer immedi- ately. They ponder and discuss.
"When did they send you to Sakhalin?" I asked a settler.
"I came in the same group with Gladky,'' he answers uncertainly, looking at his friends.
Gladky came in the first group, and the first group— i.e., the first "volunteers"—came to Sakhalin in 1879. Thus I record it. Or they say, "I was in prison for six years, but I have been a settler for three years. So figure it out." "That means you have been on Sakhalin nine years?" "Not at all! Before Sakhalin I was in the central prison for two years." And so forth. Or they say, "I came in the year when they killed Derbin," or "Mitsul died that year."
It was extremely important that I should receive correct answers from those who had come in the '6os and '70S. I did not want to miss a single one. In all probability I was unsuccessful. How many have survived of those who came here twenty to twenty-five years ago is a question which can be said to be fateful for Sakhalin colonization.
On the ninth line I recorded the main occupation and trade.
On the tenth: literacy. Usually the question is phrased in the form: "Are you literate?" Instead I asked: "Can you read?" which often saved me from incorrect answers because peasants who cannot write and can only read printed words say they are illiterate. There are even those who from modesty say rudely, "What's the use of reading? What is literacy?" and only after the question is repeated, they say, "I was able to read print at one time, but now, you know, I've forgotten. We are a stupid people—we are only peasants." Those who are blind or see only with diffi- culty also call themselves illiterate.
The eleventh line pertained to family status: married, widowed or single. If married, where: in the homeland or on Sakhalin? The words "married, widowed, single" do not define family status on Sakhalin. Here very frequently mar- ried men are doomed to a solitary, unmarried life because their wives live back home and refuse to give them a divorce, while single men and widows live a family life together and have half a dozen children. Therefore, even though they did not live alone and even though they con- sidered themselves married, I did not consider it super- fluous to describe them as "single."
Nowhere else in Russia is illicit marriage so widely and notoriously prevalent, and nowhere else does it take the peculiar form it docs on Sakhalin. Illicit marriage or, as it is called here, free cohabitation does not find objectors among either the officials or the priesthood, but, on the contrary, it receives encouragement and is sanctioned. There are settlcments where not even one legal marriage is encountercd. Free couples form a household under the same conditions as legally married couples. They beget children for the colony and therefore there are no reasons to pass separate laws for them at registration.
Finally, the twelfth line: "Docs he receive assistance from the prison?" Based on the answers received to this question, I wanted to find out which portion of the popu- lation was unable to exist without material aid from the prison, ur, in other words, who feeds the colony? Does it feed itself or does the prison feed it? Assistance is received from the prison in the shape of food, equipment or money by all the convicts, by the settlers in the first years after serving their sentence, by paupers and by children of the poorer families. In addition to these o!Ticially recognized pensioners, I noted those exiles living at the expense of the prison who receive wages from the prison for the services they rendered as teachers, clerks, jailers, etc. How- ever, the answers were not quite complete. In addition to the customary allotments, i.e., food and wages, another wide- spread practice is the distribution of assistance which could not always be recorded on the form. For example: assist- ance given to couples when they marry, the purchase of grains from the settlers at deliberately high prices, and, chiefly, the distribution of seeds, livestock and the like on credit. A settler might be in debt to the prison for several hundred rubles which he will never repay, but I was forced to record him as not receiving aid.