In i 872, Sinelnikov, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, forbade the use of convicts as servants. But this prohibition, which is still law here, is bypassed in the most flagrant manner. The college registrar assigns half a dozen servants to himself, and when he goes out on a picnic, he sends scores of convicts ahead with the provisions. General Gintse and General Kononovich, the commandants of the island, fought against the evil, but not energetically enough. At any rate, I found only three orders regarding the ques- tion of servants, these being such that an interested person could interpret them as he pleased. Apparently abolishing the Governor-General's order, General Gintse in 1885 permitted officials to employ convict women as servants if they paid them two rubles a month, the money to be re- turned to the treasury (Order No. 95). In 1888, General
Kononovich annulled his predecessor's order and wrote: "Convict males, as well as females, are not to be assigned as servants to officials, and no money is to be paid to the women. Since the government buildings and the services connected with them cannot remain without supervision and upkeep, I permit the necessary number of men and women to be assigned to each building, their duties to be properly indicated, i.e., guards, wood carriers, floor scrub- bers, etc., following the requirements" (Order No. 276). But since the government buildings and services connected with them related to the official quarters, this order was interpreted as a permit to employ convict servants at no cost at all. At any rate, when I was on Sakhalin in 1890, all the officials, even those who had no connection whatever with the prison administration (for example, the manager of the post and telegraph office), employed convicts to take care of their private needs in the most blatant manner. Furthermore, they paid no salary to these servants, who were fed at the expense of the treasury.
Permitting convicts to be used as servants by private persons is in complete contradiction with the point of view of a legislator concerned with evaluating punishment. This is not penal servitude, it is serfdom, since the convict does not serve the government but is in the employ of a private individual who has no connection whatsoever with cor- rective measures or with the concept of proportionality of punishment. He is not sentenced to penal servitude but to slavery, subordinated to the will of the head of the house- hold and his family, gratifying their whims and participat- ing in kitchen squabbles.
On becoming a settler, he is nothing more than a serv- ant on a country estate, who knows how to clean boots and fry cutlets but is incapable of working the soil and there- fore goes hungry, at the mercy of fate. Permitting convict women to go into domestic service has its own special drawbacks in addition to all the others. This is aside from the fact that within the environment of forced labor, fa- vorites and kept women always give rise to a rottenness which is utterly degrading to human dignity; in particular, they completely distort discipline. One of the priests told me that there were instances on Sakhalin when free women or soldiers in service were forced, under well-known cir- cumstances, to clean up and carry out the mess left by a convict woman.5
What is grandly called the ''factory industry" in Alex- androvsk is well organized in its outward aspects, but to date has been of no serious significance. In the foundry, which is run by a self-taught mechanic, I saw bells, wheels for carriages and wheelbarrows, a hand mill, a lace-making machine, faucets, stove appliances, etc., but all of these gave the impression of being playthings. The articles are excel- lent but there is no market for them. It would certainly be more advantageous to procure them for local consumption from the mainland or from Odessa than to set up their own steam engines and hire a complete staff of paid employees.
Naturally, there would be no regret at such expenditures if the shops were schools where the convicts could learn trades. In fact, it is not the convicts who work in the foundry and machine shops but experienced settler artisans who are junior supervisors with a salary of eighteen rubles per month. Enthusiasm over an article is very evident here. The wheels go round and the hammers pound and the steam whistles blow in honor of the quality and salability of their work. Commercial and artistic considerations have no connection whatsoever with punishment. Meanwhile, on Sakhalin, as well as everywhere else where there is penal servitude, every undertaking should be directed toward the immediate and long-term consideration of criminal reform. Local factories should not strive to market stove doors and faucets on the mainland, but should attempt to develop useful and well-trained artisans.
The steam mill, the lumberyard and the blacksmith's shop are kept in excellent order. The people work happily, probably because they recognize the usefulness of their work. But even here the work is mainly carried out by spe- cialists who were millers, blacksmiths and so on in private life, and not by those who did not know how to work be- fore they came here. They knew nothing then, and now, more than others, they require experience in the mills and at the blacksmith's forges, where they could be trained to develop their skills.6
1 A very fine description of Russian prisons in general was given by N. V. Muravyev in his article ''Our Prisons and the Penal Question," Ruuky Vestnik 1878, Vol. IV. To learn about the Siberian prisons which were the protoypes of those on Sakha- lin, see the report by S. V. Maximov, "Siberia and Penal Servi- tude."
2 Maidan, from a Persian word meaning a public square or market place. In Russia it meant a privately owned and semi- clandestine commissary patronized by prisoners.—^^NS.
3 A package of nine or ten cigarettes costs one kopeck; a small loaf of white bread, two kopecks; a bottle of milk, eight to ten kopecks; a piece of sugar, two kopecks. The sale is made for cash, or on credit, or by barter. The maidan also sells vodka, cards and candle ends for playing cards secretly at night. It also rents cards.
4 "Working Conditions for Construction Work, According to the Imperial Edict of April i 7, i 869" (Petersburg, i 887). When assignments are given for various types of work, the following must be considered: the physical strength of the laborer, and his experience. The law gives the number of working hours per day, conforming to the time of year and the region of Russia. Sakhalin is regarded as being equivalent to the central part of Russia. The maximum working hours are twelve and a half hours per day in May, June and July; the minimum, seven hours in December and January.
Vlasov writes in his report: "The strange relationship berneen an officer, a convict woman who is his mistress, and a soldier who acts as her coachman, cannot but evoke astonishment and regret." They say that this evil is permitted only because it is impossible to obtain servants from among those who are free. But this is not true. First, the number of servants can be limited; officers find that it is quite possible to get along with the services of only one orderly. Second, the officials here on Sakhalin receive a good salary and can hire servants from among the settlers, from peas- ants who were formerly convicts, and from free women, the majority of whom are impoverished and would therefore not refuse to earn some money. This thought probably occurred to the administration, for there is an order which permitted one woman settler, since she was incapable of farming, "to obtain means of livelihood by entering the service of officials" (Order No. 44, i 889).