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ance is determined by local conditions. If it were up to me, I would use the money now distributed in "food allowances" to build teahouses at the posts and in the settlements for the use of all the women and children. I would distribute food and cloth- ing rations to all pregnant women and nursing mothers without exception, and I would only reserve the "food allowances" of one and one-half and three rubles a month for distribution to girls from thirteen years old and until they are married, and I would have this money given to them directly.
Every year philanthropists in St. Petersburg send sheepskin coats, aprons, felt boots, caps, accordions, pious books and pens to be distributed to children here. When these gifts are received, the island commandant invites the local ladies to take charge of distributing and apportioning them. They tell you that all these things are drunk up and gambled away by the fathers, that it would be better to send bread rather than accordions, etc. Such remarks should not disturb generous people. The children are usually delighted with their gifts, and the fathers and mothers arc everlastingly grateful. It would be altogether proper if the philan- thropists who are interested in the fate of the convicts' children could receive detailed information every year—as much informa- tion as possible—about the children of Sakhalin. This information would give their numbers, their ages and sexes, the number of those who can read and write, the non-Christians, etc. If, for example, a philanthropist knows how many children can read and write, he will then know how many books or pencils to send so that no one would feel hurt by being left out. He could ascertain the number of toys and the amount of clothing necessary if he knew their sexes, ages and nationalities. It is imperative that philanthropy on Sakhalin be removed from the jurisdiction of the police administration, which is overwhelmed with work without all this added responsibility, and the organizing of assistance should be left in the hands of the local intelligentsia. There arc many people who would be glad to take on the responsibility of this benevolent activity. Amateur productions are sometimes pre- sented in Alcxandrovsk, the proceeds going to the children. Not long ago the officials of the Korsakov Post collected subscriptions and bought various kinds of sewing materials. Their wives sewed clothing and underwear and distributed them to the children.
Children are an economic burden, and they are God's punish- ment for sin. This does not prevent the childless convicts from raking and adopting someone else's children. Families with chil- dren hope their children will die, while childless families take orphans and raise them as their own. It sometimes happens that convicts adopt orphans and por children because they receive a food allowance and all kinds of assistance, or because an adopted child can be sent out on the street to beg. Yet most of the convicts are probably motivated by good intentions. Not only children, but even adults and the aged, become "adopted children." Thus the settler Ivan Novikov the First, sixty years of age, is the adopted son of settler Evgeny Yefimov, forty-fo years old. In Rykov- skoye, Elisey Maklakov, seventy years old, agreed formally to be- come the adopted son of Ilya Minayev.
According to the Code 011 Convicts, minor children who ac- company their convict or resettled parents to Siberia are supposed to travel by horse-drawn cart. One cart is assigned to every five persons. The Code does not state which children are deemed to be minors. Children who accompany their parents receive cloth- in.., footwear and food allowances during the entire trip. If a family voluntarily accompanies a prisoner into penal servitude, fourteen-year-old children are sent along only at their own request. Children who attain seventeen years of age can leave the penal servitude location and return to their homeland without their parents" approval.
X VIII Occupations of Convict; -
Agriculture - Hunting - Fishing - Migratory Fish: Whales and Herring - Prison Fishing - Craftsmanship
AS I SAID before, the idea of adapting convict and settler labor to agriculture arose at the beginning of penal servitude on Sakhalin. The idea is a very appealing one. Agricultural work obviously has the advantage of keeping the convict occupied, attaching him to the land and reform- ing him. The work is suitable for the great majority of the convicts, for prisoners sentenced to penal servitude are chiefly recruited from the peasants, and only a tenth of the convict and settler population do not come from the agri- cultural class. The idea was successful; and up to the present time agriculture has been the chief occupation of the exiles on Sakhalin, and the colony has continued to call itself an agricultural colony.
The soil has been tilled, and grains have been sown annually during the entire existence of the Sakhalin colony. There was no interruption, and with the growth of the population the arable land annually increased. The labor of the local farmer was compulsory, and it was also hard labor. If compulsion and the taxing of physical strength are considered the basic criteria for penal labor, i.e., forced labor, it would be difficult to find a more suitable occupa- tion for criminals than agriculture on Sakhalin. The sternest punitive aims have been satisfied.
But is it productive? Does it fulfill the aims of coloniza- tion? From the beginning of Sakhalin penal servitude to the present day, the most varied and extreme opinions have been expressed. Some regarded Sakhalin as a fertile island and so described it in their reports and correspondence. I was told that they even sent excited telegrams to the effect that the convicts were at last in a position to feed them- selves, no longer requiring government assistance. Others were skeptical about agriculture on the island and stated flatly that agriculture was impossible. Such differences of opinion arose because Sakhalin agriculture was nearly always judged by people who knew nothing about actual conditions.
The colony was founded on an island which had never been explored. It was terra incognita from the scientific point of view, and the natural conditions and the possibility of farming were judged by such indications as geographic latitude, the close proximity to Japan, and the fact that there were bamboos, cork uees, etc. Occasional correspond- ems frequencly passed judgments based on first impressions, depending on whether they saw the island in g^^ or bad weather, depending on the bread and butter they were served in the huts, or depending on whether they first arrived in a foggy place like Due or in a cheerful place like Siyantsy. The great majority of the officials placed in charge of the agricultural colony were neither landowners nor peasants before entering the service and they knew absolutely nothing about agriculture. In their repons they used the information obtained for them by inspectors. The local agronomists were ill-trained and did nothing, or their reports were distinguished by conscious prejudices, or, hav- ing come to the colony straight from the school bench, they limited themselves merely to the theoretical and formal aspects of the maner and their reports always relied on information which had been gathered for the office by the lower echelons.1
It would appear that the best information might be obtained from the people who plow and sow the land. but even this source proved unreliable. Fearing that their relief allotments would be stopped, and that seeds would no longer be provided on credit, and that they would be forced to remain on Sakhalin for the rest of their lives, the exiles usually said they had less land under cultivation and a smaller yield than was actually the case. The more pros- perous exiles, who did not need relief allowances, also did not tell the truth; they did not tell lies because they were afraid, but from the same motive which compelled Polo- nius to agree that a cloud simultaneously resembled a camel and a weasel. They carefully watched the prevailing weather of ideas and if the local administration did not believe in agriculture, they, too, did not believe in it; but if a con- trary position became fashionable in the administration, they found themselves agreeing, glory to God, that it was possible to live on Sakhalin, the crop yields were good, and there was but one problem—the people were becoming hopelessly spoiled, etc.—and to please the administration they told the most whopping lies and employed every con- ceivable kind of stratagem. So they picked the largest cars of grain from the field and brought them to Mitsul, who g^^-naturedly believed them and drew thc proper conclu- sion about the excellent harvest. Newcomers were shown potatoes as large as a head, watermelons, radishes weighing half a pood, and the newcomers who vicwed thcse monsters found thcmselvcs believing in a fortyfold yield of wheat on Sakhalin.2