NIZHNAYA-KARA—NEW LIFE—STOLEN GOLD

Nizhnaya-Kara, where the penal settlement was situated, had an appearance quite peculiar to itself. The dwelling-houses were at some minutes’ distance from the prison, on a hill-slope descending to the banks of the River Kara, whose bed contains gold-dust and in summer becomes almost completely dry. The place had nothing of the Russian village about it, either in the style of its buildings or its inhabitants. The latter were mostly convicts, both men and women; besides whom there were a few peasants, descendants of former convicts, or of the crown colonists who had been settled here as drudges in the gold-workings. Then there was an infantry battalion of Cossacks stationed here for the purpose of keeping guard over the prison; and finally there were numerous prison officials and Cossack officers.

The mixed nature of the population was evidenced by the variety of their dwellings. Ordinary criminals who were unmarried lived in barracks, where the Cossacks also were housed; the officers and prison officials inhabited neat little houses belonging to the State; and the “politicals” and married criminals lived in wretched tumbledown hovels. Besides the classes already enumerated, there were three tradesmen in Kara, each of whom kept a small general shop.

THE PENAL SETTLEMENT, KARA

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At first we had great difficulty in finding accommodation; for of course it was not possible at once to run up 301habitations for twenty men, all let out of prison at the same time, and we were obliged to put up with lodgings where a number of persons were crowded into each single room. In other ways too there was much inconvenience and discomfort during those early days of freedom; but on the whole our change was distinctly for the better. Merely to have got rid of the detested turnkeys was a joy; we rejoiced also at being free from the barbarous head-shaving, and we might once more wear our own clothes. We were permitted to take up some handicraft, but the exercise of the so-called “liberal professions” was forbidden us. The regulations as to our correspondence were also less severe; we could write letters to our relations, and a number of newspapers that were prohibited in prison were allowed here. But above all, we might now go about freely at all hours, and wander in the neighbourhood of the village to our heart’s content.

On our exit from prison we were placed under the supervision of the staff controlling the ordinary convicts, and shortly after the gendarmerie disappeared from Kara for good. Every morning a prison inspector made the rounds of the settlement with his book, which we had to sign, so that the authorities might be satisfied that none of us were missing. We were not allowed to go beyond ten versts from the village without a special permission from the superintendent—that same Pohorukov whom Fomitchov had assailed.

Our material condition was considerably more comfortable now than it had been in prison. Besides the means of livelihood that had hitherto been available—rations from the State and money sent from home—many of us could now earn something by private exertion. We still preserved our organisation as when in prison, with certain modifications rendered necessary by our new circumstances; we still formed an artèl and elected a stàrosta to arrange the details of our common life. Of course, our domestic economy had considerably extended its sphere; 302we had now much to think of that had not entered into our consideration before.

Autumn brought a good deal of heavy labour for all able-bodied men. Trees had to be felled and carted to serve as winter fuel, and then the wood had to be chopped small for use. In the winter the hay needed for our cattle had to be brought in, for we possessed six cows and four horses. In the spring we looked after our gardens, and in the summer we made hay in the meadows. Cooking was still managed in common, groups of us carrying it out in turn. There was always plenty for all hands to do, and the work was often very hard. I myself found the labour of the winter season extremely severe. It meant rising at three or four o’clock in the morning to harness the horses—a task difficult and disagreeable enough always in the Siberian cold, and a perfect misery in the small hours of the morning—and then driving the sledge ten or twelve versts, loading it with hay, and finishing our job so as to return home by nightfall. Two of us at a time had to load and fetch home four great waggon-loads of hay. Naturally we were very clumsy over the unaccustomed labour, and it happened often enough that ropes would break and the hay get scattered, or that the horses would stray away. In our heavy sheepskins and felt boots we had each as much as we could manage in conducting two heavy waggons on the homeward journey; and despite the extreme cold we used often to be bathed in perspiration.

Yet the hard physical work had a charm of its own. It gave one a quite peculiar sensation to be driving along in the dark over the smooth, white surface of the snow, on and on into the depths of the forest. The profoundest silence reigned everywhere, broken by the crackling of the snow under the horses’ hoofs and the runners of the sledge, and sometimes by the distant howling of a wolf. Myriads of stars sparkled in the firmament, and not a trace of man’s existence was anywhere to be seen. But the cruel 303cold, increasing in severity towards dawn, would soon drive away all poetical ideas. The frost penetrated our sheepskins, and we felt as if we were being pricked all over our bodies with sharp needles. Often the brandy in our flasks would freeze, and although we took all possible precautions, the glass would split and the spirit be left in a frozen lump.

COTTAGE SHARED BY “POLITICALS” IN THE KARA PENAL SETTLEMENT

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These expeditions, fortunately, were not of very frequent occurrence, the turn of each man coming only about three or four times in the course of the winter. The fetching of wood, on the other hand, was continually necessary; but although this, too, entailed considerable exertion, it was not nearly so serious an undertaking.

After a spell of hard work it used to feel luxury indeed to be back in o............