I have never maintained that Russian prisons are what
they ought to be. I do not believe they are what they
might be, and I am sure they are not what those
highest in authority would like them to b e ; but all
this does not justify the representation of them to be
what they are not.
Had a pamphlet been put forth saying that Russian
prisons are the best in the world, that there is not a
speck of dirt to be found in one of them, that every
prisoner is as well employed as those in the prisons of
London, Paris, or Breslau, that the efforts for their
moral and spiritual welfare are better even than they
were in Newgate— a string of superlatives, in fact—
I should have declared that they were utterly untrue ;
and then I can imagine myself being regarded as a
detractor, as some would now make me a defender,
o f Russian prisons, whereas I disclaim to be regarded
as one or the other. I f readers have drawn the conclusion
from anything that I have written or said,
that I thought Russian prisons in general needed no
improvement and no reform, then I have been altogether
misunderstood, and I hasten to say that there
is abundance of room for both. But having now, as I
hope, justified my position with reference to what I
said of the prisons of Siberia, and related what I know
of the fortress prison in Petersburg, I shall change the
venue and relate what I saw of the prisons of Russian
Central Asia.
the firm cannot find any record upon the subject. It does not materially
affect the truth, however, of what I said, though, if the statement about
the publishers be true, it is, of course, a pity that an author should thus
be laid open to suspicion he does not deserve, and I therefore recall
the sentence, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
C H A P T E R X L IV .
TH E P R ISO N S OF R U S S IA N C EN TR A L A S IA .
Visit to prison at Omsk.—-Difficulties in providing prisoners with
literature.— Exaggerated statements as to uncleanness of Russian
prisons.— Visit to prison at Semipolatinsk.— A Raskolnik fanatic.—
Criminal statistics of Semipolatinsk.-—Visit to prison at Viem y.—
Official report of the prisons of Semirechia.— Local voluntary committees.—
My distribution of books.— Visit to prison at Ta sh k en dH j
Alleged overcrowding of Russian prisonsH-Visit to prison at
Khokand.— Prison visitation in Samarkand.— Lavatory arrangements,
and misrepresentations concerning them.-r-My testimony
and its limits.
P H E visitation of prisons and hospitals was a
X principal object that took me to Central Asia,
just as three years previously it had led me to visit
Siberia. Accordingly I thought it better to devote a
chapter to this subject than to interrupt the narrative
of the journey by detailed descriptions en route.
The first prison we visited was in the suburbs of
Omsk, a building of dazzling whiteness, both without
and within, with accommodation for 240 prisoners ;
but the average number of 135 on its books. There
were 22 rooms for ordinary use, a hospital with 5
rooms more, and 1 5 cells. The two punishment cells
were dark, or could be darkened (I forget which), but
not with the Egyptian darkness that reigns in the