d under a score of political
exiles, who seemed to be no worse off, socially, than any one else, for
they moved freely about in society and were constantly favoured guests
of the Chief of Police. The exiles, however, were not permitted to take
part in the private theatricals I have mentioned, a restriction which
caused them great annoyance. Their loud and unfavourable criticisms from
the stalls on the evening in question were certainly not in the best of
taste, and, to my surprise, they were not resented by the Governor's
staff. This incident will show that, in Yakutsk at any rate, the
"politicals" are treated not only with leniency but with a friendly
courtesy, which on this occasion was certainly abused. Mr. Olenin, an
exile whose term of banishment was expiring, told me that he had no
fault whatever to find with Yakutsk as a place of exile, so much so that
he had resolved not to return to Russia at the end of his sentence, but
to remain here and complete an ethnological work upon which he was
engaged. As will presently be seen (in the eighth chapter), I do not in
any way hold a brief for the Russian Government, although I have
occasionally been accused (in the English Press) of painting its prisons
in _couleur de rose_ for my own private ends. I simply state what I saw
on this and subsequent occasions, and am glad to say that in Yakutsk
the condition of the political exiles was as satisfactory as it could
possibly be made in such a rigorous climate and amidst such cheerless
surroundings.

I obtained from Mr. Olenin a plain and unvarnished account of the
Yakutsk prison revolt, and subsequent "massacre," which aroused such
indignation in England a few years ago. It was then reported that the
political exiles here were subjected to such cruelty while in prison
that they unsuccessfully tried to starve themselves and then mutinied,
upon which both men and women were mercilessly butchered. As a matter of
fact, at the commencement of the incident the exiles were not confined
in prison at all, but were living in provisional liberty. What really
happened was this. A party (numbering about half a dozen of both sexes),
which was bound for Verkhoyansk, carried more baggage than usual, and
the season being far advanced, the Governor of Yakutsk directed that the
exiles should start forthwith without their belongings, which should be
sent after them as soon as possible. Otherwise, he explained, the
politicals might not reach their