According to this new state of affairs the chief governing power over Sakhalin was entrusted to the Governor-General of the Pria- mur region, and the local government was entrusred to the island commandant, who was appointed from among the military gen- erals. The island was divided into three districts. The prisons and settlements in each disrrict were under the aurhority of district commandants, who correspond to our district police captains. They were in charge of the police administration. Each prison and the nearby settlements were administered by a prison warden. When settlements arc administered by a special official, he is called the supervisor of settlements. Both of these positions correspond to our district police officer. Working under the island commandant is an office manager, a bookkeeper and treasurer, an agricultural inspec- tor, a land surveyor, an architect, a translator of the Ainu and Gilyak languages, the supervisor of the central warehouses and the chief of the medical department. Each of the four military com- mands must have a staff officer, two officers, and a physician. In addition there is an adjutant for administering the armed forces on Sakhalin Island, his aide and an auditor. There are also four priests and those other employees who are not directly connected with the prison, such as the manager of the post and telegraph office, his assistant, the telegraph operators and two lighthouse keepers.
One day of rummaging through office materials is sufficient to drive one to despair over the inflated figures, false totals and the "idle fabrications" of the various assistants to the wardens, senior guards and clerks. I was completely unable to find any reports on the year 1886. I find penciled annotations in the reports reading: "Obviously this is untrue." Particularly extensive fabrications were noted in sections dealing with the convicts' family status, children and the lists of crimes committed by the convicts. The island commandant told me that one day when he wanted to know how many prisoners arrived yearly from Russia on the ships of the Voluntary Fleet, beginning with I 879, he was forced to re- quest this information from Prison Administrative Headquarters because the local offices did not have the requisite figures. The island commandant complains in one of his reports: "Regardless of repeated requests, no information on I 886 has been produced. I am placed at an even greater disadvantage because it is im- possible for me to establish the exact information because of the lack of data. No data was collected in former years. Thus, at present it is extremely difficult to learn the number of personnel as of January 1, 1 887, as well as of settlers and peasants."
13 The obscene police captain in Gogol's play Revizor.—TRANS.
h In fulfilling their duties the local officials are often exposed to serious dangers. When he traveled on foot along the entire length of the Poronaya River and back, Butakov, the commander of the Tymovsky district, contracted dysentery and almost perished. One day Bcly, the commander of the Korsakov district, was traveling by whaleboat from Korsakov to Mayka. A storm rose, and they were forced out to sea. The boat was battered by waves for almost forty-eight hours, and Mr. Bely himself, his rower, who was a convict, and a soldier who found himself on the whaleboat by chance decidcd that the end had come. They were cast ashore near the Krilon lighthouse. When Bely met the lighthouse keeper and saw himself in a mirror, he found gray hairs where there were none before. The soldier fell asleep and could not be awakened for forty hours.
15 Today such diversions as amateur plays, picnics and evening parties are becoming frequent. Formerly it was difficult even to organize a game of preference. Intellectual interests arc also being increasingly cared for. Journals, newspapers and ^roks are on order. Telegrams come daily from eastern agencies. There are pianos in many homes. Local ^^ts find readers and audiences. At one time a handwritten journal, Butonchilz [Little Bud], was pub- lished in Alexandrovsk, but it stopped with the seventh issue. Senior officials are provided by the government with warm and spacious accommodation; they have chefs and horses. Minor offi- cials rent quarters from the settlers, taking either an entire house or furnished rooms with all the necessary appurtenances. The young official, a ^^t, whom I mentioned at the beginning rented a room decorated with numerous paintings, a fancy bed with a canopy, and there was even a tapestry on the wall depicting a horseman shooting a tiger.
The island commandant receives 7 ,ooo rubles, the director of the medical department 4,ooo, the agricultural inspector 3,500, the architect 3,100, and the district commanders 3,500 rubles each. Every three years an official is granted six months' leave of absence, his position remaining secure. In five years he gets a 25 percent raise in salary. In ten years he goes on pension. Two years is counted as three years of service. Travel allowances are also not skimpy. A prison warden's assistant who has no rank receives a travel allowance from Alexandrovsk ro Petersburg in the amount of 1,945 rubles, 68 ^ kopecks. This is a sum which would be sufficient to make a trip around the world in complete comfort (Orders No. 302 and 305, 1889). Travel allowances are also issued on retirement and to those who take a leave of absence, both five and ten years after entering the service. They do not have to take a leave of absence, and these travel allowances serve as additional compensation. Priests receive travel allowances for all the members of their families. An official going into retirement usually requests a travel allowance during the winter to Petro- pavlovsk, which is some 8,500 miles away, or to Kholmogorsky Uyezd, which is 7,000 miles away. Simultaneously while applying for retirement he sends a telegram to the Prison Administrative Headquarters with a request for passage for himself and his family to Odessa on a ship belonging to the Voluntary Fleet. It should be added that while an official serves on Sakhalin, his children are educated at government expense.
Nevertheless, the local officials are dissatisfied with life. They are irritable, argue among themselves over trifles, and are bored. A predisposition to consumption, and nervous and psychic dis- orders can be observed among them and among members of their families. During my stay in Alexandrovsk one young official, a kindly man, always carried a tremendous revolver, even in day- time. When I asked him why he carried such a cumbersome weapon in his pocket, he said seriously:
"Two officials are planning to beat me and have already attacked me once."
"And what can you do with the revolver?"
"It's very simple. I won't stand on ceremony, and I'll kill them like dogs."
XXI The Morality of the Exile
PopJilation - Crimes - Investigation and Trial ; Punishment - Birch Rods and Lashes - The Death Penalty
some convicts bear their punishment with fortitude, readily admit their guilt, and when you ask them why they came to Sakhalin, they usually answer, "They do not send anyone here for their good deeds." Others astonish you with their cowardice and the melancholy face they show to the world. They grumble, they weep, are driven to despair, and swear they are innocent. One considers his punishment a blessing because, he says, only in penal servitude did he find God. Another attempts to escape at the first opportu- nity, and when they catch up with him, he turns on his captors and clubs them. Accidental transgressors, "un- fortunates," and those innocently sentenced' live under one roof with inveterate and incorrigible criminals and outcasts.