For two and pcrhaps thrce years aftcr being relcased from hard labor thc scttlcr reccives an allowance from the trcasury. After this he must feed himself at his own ex- pensc and his own risk. There are no figurcs or documcnted data eithcr in thc existing litcrature or in the official files regarding thc nutrition of settlers. If onc may judge from personal imprcssions and from the fragmentary accounts which can be gathered on the spot, potatoes are the main food of the colony. Potatoes and roat vegetablcs, such as turnips and rutabagas, are often thc only food a family has for a ver' long while. Thcy eat frcsh fish only during the runs, and bccause of its price, salt fish can be obtained only by the more prosperous.10
There is nothing that can be said about the meat. Thosc who have cows prefer to sell the milk rathcr than drink it themselves. They do not store it in crocks but in bottles, which signifies that it is for sale. In general, the settler sells the food produce of his homestead very eagerly, even at the expense of his own health, because he considers money more necessary to him than health. If you do not save enough money, you will not be able to leave for the main-
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land, where you can eat your fill and recover your health while living in freedom.
The uncultivated plants used as food are ramson and various berries such as the cloudberry, bog whortleberry, cranberry, moss berry and others. It can be said that the exiles living in the colony eat vegetables exclusively, and this is true at least of the overwhelming majority. At any rate, their food is characterized by its low fat content, and it is questionable whether this is better than the food ra- tioned from the prison kettles.11
The prisoners obviously receive sufficient clothing and footwear. Both men and women prisoners are issued an overcoat and a sheepskin coat each year. Soldiers, who work just like the prisoners on Sakhalin, receive a uniform every three years and a heavy coat every two years. A prisoner uses up four pairs of shoes and two pairs of work boots a year; a soldier wears out one pair of leggings and two and a half pairs of leather soles. But the soldier has better sani- tary conditions. He has a bed and a place where he can dry his clothes during bad weather. The convict has of neces- sity to wear bedraggled clothes and footwear, because he does not have a bed, sleeps on his overcoat, all his rotten rags foul the air with their evil-smelling emanations, and he has no place where he can dry his wet clothes. Until such time as they provide more humane living conditions for the convicts, the question as to the adequacy of the quantity of clothing and footwear must remain open. As to the quality, history repeats itself here; the same history ap- plies to the issue of bread. \Vhoever lives in sight of the officials receives better clothing; whoever is commandeered for distant work receives worse clothing.12
Now, as to the spiritual life and the satisfaction of needs of a higher order. The colony is called a reform colony, but it contains no institutions or persons who spe- cialize in reforming criminals. There are no instructions or articles in the Code on Convicts regarding religion unless we include the few instructions to convoy officers or non- commissioned officers on whether to use weapons against convicts, or how the priest should "edify them with teach- ings on their duties to their faith and to morality," and explaining to the convicts "the importance of the commu- tations of their sentences," etc.
No definite opinions are ever expressed on this subject. It is accepted that the primary responsibility for reform belongs to the church and to the schools, and then to the members of the free population, who through their author- ity, tact and personal example contribute significantly to ameliorating the condition of the prisoners.
In church affairs Sakhalin belongs to the diocese of the Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile Islands and Blagovesh- chensk.13 Bishops repeatedly visited Sakhalin, traveling as simply and suffering the same discomforts and privations as the ordinary priest. During their visits, while organizing churches, blessing various edifices,!"' and making the rounds of prisons, they spoke words of solace and hope to the con- victs. The character of their guidance can be judged by the following excerpt from a resolution by the Most Reverend Gury in one of the letters which has been kept by the Korsakov Church. "'If not all of them [i.e., the convicts] have faith and contrition, then, at any rate, many whom I personally saw do have. Nothing else but the very feeling of contrition and faith made them weep bitterly when I delivered a sermon to them in 1887 and i 888. In addition to punishing their crimes, the task of the prison is to arouse morally sound sentiments in the prisoners, and especially to prevent them from falling into complete despair during their imprisonment." This point of view was also inherent in the younger representatives of the Church. The Sakhalin priests always keep themselves aloof from punishment and conduct themselves with the convicts not as with criminals but as with people, and in this respect they demonstrate more tact and understanding of their duties than the doc- tors or agronomists, who often interfere in what is none of their business.
The most prominent place in the history of the Sakha- lin Church is held by Father Simeon Kazansky, or, as he is called by the people, Papa Simeon, who was the pastor of the Aniva or Korsakov church in the seventies. He was active during those "prehistoric" times when there were no roads in Southern Sakhalin and the Russian population, especially the military, was scattered in small groups over the entire South. Pop Simeon spent almost all his time in the wilderness, traveling from one group to another by dog sleigh or reindeer sleigh, and in the summer by sail- boat or by walking through the taiga. He was frozen, was snowbound, was stricken by illness, was tormented by mos- quitoes and bears, his boats were overturned in the swift rivers and he had to swim in the cold water, but he en- dured all this with unusual grace, delighted in the beauty of the wilderness, and never complained of his harsh existence. He behaved like an excellent friend in his rela- tions with officials and officers, never refused to join in a party, and during gay discussions always knew how to interpolate an apt biblical text. His opinion of convicts was: "To the Creator of the world all men are equal," and so he wrote in an official letter.15
During his tenure the Sakhalin churches were very poorly furnished. Once when blessing the iconostas in the Aniva church he spoke of its poverty in this way: "We have no bell, we have no books of divine worship, but what is important is—God is here!" I mentioned him pre- viously when I described Popovskiye Yurty. Through sol- diers and exiles his fame has spread all over Siberia and now Pop Simeon is a legend in Sakhalin and far beyond.
At the present time there are four parish churches on Sakhalin: in Alexandrovsk, Due, Rykovskoye and Korsa- kov.10 The churches are not poor. The priests receive a salary of i,ooo rubles a year. Each parish has a choir of singers who read music and are dressed in appropriate kaftans. Services are held only on Sundays and on great holy days. Matins and lauds are sung first, and then at nine o'clock in the morning Mass is celebrated. There are no vespers. The local priests do not have any special obligations arising from the exceptional composition of the population and they behave exactly like our village priests—that is, they confine themselves to church services on holy days, to