p. 315 | J. W. SCOLES by J. W. Scoles

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 27, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 20.

J. W. SCOLES

By J. W. Scoles

THE LAND OF THE CZARS. NO. 2.

OWING to the peculiar condition of affairs in Russia, nearly every individual within the domain is looked upon with suspicion. His social relations, his religion, his political opinions, his home life, in fact, almost everything he does or says, is subject to examination and criticism according to the most arbitrary requirements of law. This is only the natural result of the practical workings of Church and State when united, and although in this instance shameful abuses are not only allowed but are actually produced under such a system, these extremes are possible in all countries in which the civil power is dominated by the religious element. In Russia, a man may be what we would call an honest, upright citizen, and yet because of some religious idea contrary to the established faith he is at once condemned and exiled to Siberia. The same is true also of political offenders. Things which in this country would be considered only the expression of honest opinion, are there seized upon with eagerness as political treason, and the luckless offender, whose chief crime has been that he dared to express aloud the thoughts of his heart, is immediately banished across the Russian frontier. And thus it comes that criminals, conspirators, Christians, and others, in a medley lot, are forced to bid good-bye forever to home, friends, and former associations, and take up the weary line of march as exiles to a far-off land.

People have been led to look upon Siberia as a desolate prison, and in one sense of the word such an idea is not far from correct. Forbidden under pain of death to ever return to Western Russia, and in many instances kept under continual police surveillance by guards appointed for that purpose, a large share of the exiles are virtually prisoners in the full sense of the word. But it must not be supposed that because they are prisoners they are necessarily vile, for this is by no means the case. While numbers of them are actually criminals, and are really depraved, there are many others among them who belong to the cultivated and better classes, but who, for reasons already given, have been virtually banished from the empire, for, although Siberia is a part of the Russian Empire, and its inhabitants are under Russian government, it is so distinct and separate as to be considered as an altogether different country, and it is in this light that we shall treat it in these articles except when referring to its connection with Russia proper in a general way.

We naturally look in a gloomy light upon any country set apart for exile and prison purposes, and perhaps this is one reason which has given to so many the idea that Siberia is but little better than an Arctic waste. We have also been accustomed to consider that because so little attention was given to the country in geographies and atlases it must form only a small part of the earth's surface, similar to the ideas which were held until recently in regard to Alaska.

It has only been within a very short time past that people in general have awakened to the fact that Siberia is a vast division of the world, with various diversities of climate and vegetation. Roughly speaking, it embraces territory 5,000 miles long by 2,500 miles broad, and its area is almost twice that of the United States. Its climate includes nearly all the variations of temperature found from the Arctic zone to torrid regions. It can readily be seen that such a vast scope of country, with these conditions just named, cannot be altogether a barren and fruitless region. This fact has been abundantly demonstrated by the completion, within the past year or two, of the railway across the Ural Mountains, over into Siberia proper, since which time thousands of tons of Siberian productions are annually sent to Russian markets. It is a fact, however, that large portions of the country are entirely uninhabitable, owing, in some instances, to the natural unproductiveness of the soil; in others, to the terrible extremes of heat and cold experienced. In some places there is a difference of as much as 120 degrees between the average temperature of January and that of July. The winters in general are severe throughout the greater part of Siberia, but fortunately they are of short duration in many localities. This doubtless accounts for the immense forests that cover some parts of the country, as well as explaining the great profusion and variety of flowers with which the earth is carpeted there. Mr. Kenman says he has never, even in California, beheld such incredible floral displays as he saw in Siberia. He speaks of the wild-cherry blossoms being so profuse as to resemble white clouds, while in some places the steppes as far as the eye could reach were a perfect ocean of forget-me-nots, so numerous that the ground was entirely hidden by them.

It is not, however, to such bowers of beauty as these that the exiles are sent. No, no; many hundreds of weary miles their tired and manacled limbs must yet trudge, through summer's heat and winter's snow, until far off to the east and north, away across the plains, they find in the forced labor of the colonies and mines, or the gloomy solitudes of impenetrable prisons, their life-long round of work and toil, hardships and privations, which they feel are never to cease until, worn out by fatigue and weakened by disease, the poor, tired body refuses to longer endure the strain put upon it, and drops into the welcome grave, where the weary sufferer at last can rest.