Sakhalin penal servitude in the XX century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Sakhalin exceeded 40 thousand people. At the same time, the proportion of exiles decreased and the number of free peasants and philistines from the exiles, who became former convicts, increased. In 1904 the prisons at Douai and Honors had to be closed. Hard labor as a means of developing the island has clearly outlived its usefulness.
At this time, various anti-conservative political circles and formations are also gaining popularity. One of the points in the programs and constitutions of many of these societies was the abolition of hard labor on Sakhalin. For example, the underground newspaper of those years, Conversations of the Intelligentsia, wrote: “Sakhalin, with its hard labor regime and the suppression of individual rights, is becoming a symbol of general Russian lack of freedom and oppression. And this symbol must be destroyed in the name of the liberation of Russia.” And the government was preparing to abolish it. On August 18, 1904, the governor in the Far East, Admiral E. I. Alekseev, instructed the Governor-General of the Amur Region to prepare the issue of opening Sakhalin "for free colonization." The development of measures to abolish hard labor was entrusted to the Governor of Sakhalin M.N. Lyapunov with the participation of representatives of the ministries of justice, internal affairs, finance, etc. However, the events of the Russo-Japanese War outstripped the pans of the bureaucratic machine of tsarism.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the rivalry between Russia and Japan for influence in Northeast China and Korea led to an aggravation of the international situation in the Far East.
On the night of January 27 (February 9), 1904, Japanese destroyers attacked the ships of the Russian squadron in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. It was a commemoration of the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. The main goal of the Japanese was Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula, so Primorye, Kamchatka and Sakhalin were considered by the Russian military command as secondary footholds.
Therefore, the number of troops on Sakhalin was minimal. To avoid the loss of Sakhalin, a number of measures are being taken to strengthen it. All exiles and convicts were urgently transferred to the implementation of the island's defense plan, created by Minister of War A.N. Kuropatkin. The plan provided for the construction of fortifications near the Korsakovsky post, the construction of a hospital in the village of Vladimirovka, as well as preparations for the defense of the Naibuchi and Tikhmenevsky posts. But these works were immediately suspended, not even having time to begin. On January 28, 1904, the mobilization and formation of free squads were announced on the island. For exiles and settlers who joined the squads, benefits were established and the terms of punishment were reduced.
They even introduced a special uniform for them: a gray pea coat, bloomers and hats with a high crown, the top of which was cross-trimmed with red braid. Instead of a cockade, the cap was decorated with a militia cross. The combatant's equipment included a duffel bag, a shovel or an ax, an outdated Berdan rifle with a bandolier.
The idea of the defense was to pull the enemy deep into the island and use guerrilla tactics. The military governor, Lieutenant-General M.N. Lyapunov, commanded the defense of Sakhalin. On June 24, 1905, the 13th Infantry Division of Lieutenant General K. Kharaguchi, with the help of the squadron of Vice Admiral Kataoka, landed on Sakhalin. On June 27, more than half of the island's defense forces were defeated. On July 11, the Japanese delivered the final blow from the sea, which defeated the remaining army. The reason for such a quick defeat was the fact that the bulk of the troops consisted of exiled convicts.
Many of them immediately fled, having received weapons, others were engaged in looting or went over to the side of the Japanese. On August 23 (September 5), 1905, Russia and Japan in the city of Portsmouth (USA) signed a peace treaty, which, among other things, stated that part of Sakhalin Island south of the 50th parallel was ceded to Japan. The Russo-Japanese War and the Treaty of Portsmouth became another important milestone in the history of the Sakhalin penal servitude.
After 1905, the life of the northern and southern parts of the island went on completely different paths for forty years. The dynamic development of the economy and colonization processes in South Sakhalin was in sharp contrast to what was happening in the northern, hard labor part of the island, which was shaking from the social cataclysms that engulfed all of Russia in those years. While negotiations were going on in Portsmouth, Japan sought to establish itself on Sakhalin as soon as possible.
Civilian population Japanese authorities hastily tried to "evacuate" to the mainland through De-Kastri and Nikolaevsk. A small part of the Sakhalin residents, mainly officials, were taken by steamers to Odessa. In October 1905, convicts, taking advantage of the lack of guards and authorities, made a mess in the post of Aleksandrovsky, set fire to the prison and the building of the district police department. Officials of the General Government made desperate efforts to disperse the "dangerous Sakhalin element" in the Primorsky and Amur regions.
Peasants from the exiles were sent to Western Siberia. Of the small number of convicts who remained by 1905, about 500 people were sent to Transbaikalia to the Nerchen penal servitude. Transition to normal life on Northern Sakhalin it was slow. Villages were depopulated, and some of them were completely abandoned. So, in the Aleksandrovsky district, out of 37, only 14 villages remained, and in the Tymovsky district - 23 villages out of 28. Coal mining in the mines stopped. The roads laid by hard labor were destroyed, overgrown with forest and covered with ravines.
The hands of the government did not reach Sakhalin. Shaken by military defeat, Russia was plunged into the whirlpool of revolutionary events of 1905-1907. It seemed that the island, with its richest natural resources, forgotten ruling circles empire. In the autumn of 1905, a new military governor arrived on the island - Colonel General Staff Arkady Mikhailovich Valuev, who had considerable administrative experience. By this time, there were 5.5 thousand Russian inhabitants and about 2 thousand natives in Northern Sakhalin. “Such a flight is explained by the panic fear induced by the past war, the rumor stubbornly held in the population about a new coming war and the population’s eternal dream of the mainland as a promised land,” A. M. Valuev wrote in his first report.
Prisons and hard labor ceased to exist. Residents of the "free state" made up 79% of the population, exiled settlers - 20%, and only 1% - hard labor. In the end, by the law of April 10, 1906, hard labor on Sakhalin was officially abolished.
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THE FIRST EXILES ON SAKHALIN (1858). Hard labor on Sakhalin
155 years since the event
A small lyrical digression: I lived in Sakhalin during my school years. We studied the history of the Sakhalin region, but for some reason I vaguely remember material about Sakhalin penal servitude. I remember just imagining it as something very scary and terrible. Perhaps there was little information about her at that time. But now I I read with great interest everything that I found on the Internet about the Sakhalin penal servitude. I invite you, dear blog readers, to get acquainted with this unique phenomenon in the history of Sakhalin.
Duty house on the sea pier in the post of Alexander.
Photo by I.I. Pavlovsky
April 18, 1869 is considered the official date of the establishment of Sakhalin penal servitude.– approval date Alexander II "Regulations of the Committee on the organization of hard labor". The first convict ended up on Sakhalin in 1858 His name is Ivan Lapshin. He served with one of the mining engineers involved in the study of coal deposits. The first years of convicts were delivered to Douai in small batches: in 1870 - 250 people, in 1871 - 165 people, etc. Having worked in the mineone or two years, they returned to the mainland. From January 1880 by order of the head of the Main Prison Department M.N. Galkin-Vrasky convicts who served their sentences in prison remained on Sakhalin and became exiled settlers. On April 10, 1906, hard labor on Sakhalin was abolished. According to historians, during the existence of hard labor on the island, up to 40 thousand convicts served their sentences.
See: The land we live on. - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2007. - P. 37; Kostanov A.I. Creation of a convict colony on Sakhalin // History of Sakhalin and Kuril Islands from ancient times to early XXI centuries. - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2008. - S. 359–360: ill.
Douai, photo 1858
For 50 years on the outskirts Russian Empire an experiment on the re-education of especially dangerous criminals. Back in the early 1850s, tsarist officials conceived the idea of creating a "separate zone" where recidivists, first by forced labor, and then by free labor, could return to "normal human life». For the experiment, Sakhalin Island was chosen - an ideal place from the point of view of the protection of convicts: around the sea, and beyond the sea - deserted places. Another innovation was that after the end of the term of hard labor people were left on the island in "quarantine", trying to make agricultural colonists out of them. As one of the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Panov later admitted, the Sakhalin experiment was written off from the Australian experiment - at that time, the British colonized the "green continent" in almost the same ways.
The first exiles appeared on Sakhalin in 1858- 20 people were sent there on foot along the stage. 4 people died on the way, after 2 years 4 more convicts died on the island itself. But dispatches went to St. Petersburg - "the island is a disastrous place, but you can adapt it to life."
Loading convicts in ports, for example, in Odessa
In 1869, the island was officially declared a place of hard labor and exile.. In total, during the existence of the Sakhalin penal servitude (until 1906), about 37 thousand people. That is an average of about 1,000 people a year. At the same time, for the first 10 years, the exiles were sent to Sakhalin on foot through Siberia.– and their journey here sometimes took up to 14 months. Since 1879, convicts began to be transported by sea on steamers of the Volunteer Fleet.. Ships sailed from Odessa around Asia, stopping at Constantinople, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Nagasaki and Vladivostok. The journey took an average of 65-75 days. All this time the criminals sat in suffocating holds in shackles. In some parties, about 10% of the convicts died on the way (as in 1893).
Korsakov prison
Another innovation was that very few political people were sent to Sakhalin - in 36 years only 58 people. In Siberia, the political conducted missionary activities among the convicts - they taught the convicts to read and write, and treated them. And on Sakhalin, criminals were deprived of such attention.
Entrance to the convict mine
The content of convicts on the island was very harsh. For the first 3-5 years, they were shackled in hand and foot shackles, and sometimes chained in addition to a wheelbarrow. 80% of convicts worked in coal mines(mostly near Aleksandrovsk), the rest - in logging and construction work. They lived in barracks for 30-50 people, with an earthen floor. About 20% of the convicts, while serving their sentences, committed new violations, they were sentenced for especially serious (mostly murders) To death penalty. The sentence was carried out in the Voivodeship Prison, moreover, the executioner was chosen from among the convicts themselves. So, executioner Komlev, sentenced to 55 years of hard labor for murders and escapes from custody, personally executed 13 people.
Shackling the exiles
Failed the hopes of tsarist officials and the strict isolation of convicts. Only from 1898 to 1901 about 1,100 people fled, of which about 320 people ended up on the Japanese islands X. It got to the point where The Japanese Foreign Ministry sent an official letter to Russian colleagues demanding to strengthen the security of prisoners.
Women began to refer to Sakhalin since 1884., they were in prison only while the investigation lasted, and then served special hard labor - a little lighter in content than that of men. So, in shackles they were only in prison, especially dangerous criminals could be kept in them for up to a year.
Female convicts escorted through the streets of Aleksandrovsk
back to camp after work
For what crimes women were exiled here - you can, for example, see from the statistics for 1894 and 1895. In the first case, out of 120 women, 75 were convicted of murder., in the second - out of 84 killers were 52 women. In 80-90% of cases they took the lives of their husbands.
Vojvodina prison
The rest of her days were spent in the Sakhalin penal servitude and the infamous swindler Sonya "Golden Pen" (Blyuvshtein). Moreover, the local administration made good money on it. Journalist Pankratiev wrote about her then:
“Katorga, from the administration to the prisoners, was proud Sonya Golden Pen. Sonya has become the main Sakhalin landmark. Even in solitary confinement, with shackles on his legs, Sonya was haunted. She herself recalled the following - only, it happens, you calm down, again they demand Sonya the Golden Hand. Think again? No, take a photo. I was tormented by these photos...
Sonya was taken out to the prison yard, the scenery was set up - anvils, blacksmiths with hammers, guards - and they allegedly filmed the scene of shackling the Golden Hand in shackles. These photographs were sold by the hundreds on all the ships that came to Sakhalin. These photographs were especially popular in Europe.
Sonka the Goldhand
At the end of 1894, Sonya went to the settlement and was determined to live in cohabitation with Stepan Bogdanov, the most ferocious of the convicts, exiled for murder. The whole island was afraid of him, but Sonya found an approach to him and he acted as a protector and bodyguard with her. .
Coal mining at the mine of the Sakhalin society
As can be seen from this passage, the prison authorities voluntarily distributed women among the convicts. "To endure - fall in love." The ratio of men and women in hard labor was 8-10: 1, and getting a girl was a great happiness. That is why the administration - as part of the experiment - thus rewarded exemplary prisoners (or those needed in the case - for example, executioners or sex workers). At the same time, the administration did not give women the right to choose their partner.
The next stage of the experiment on Sakhalin: the gradual adaptation of the former convict to ordinary life through agricultural work.
After serving the term of hard labor, the prisoner received the title of exiled settler, he was given at the expense of the treasury an ax, a shovel, a hoe, 2 pounds of rope and 1 month of provisions - 30 pounds of fish, 15 pounds of corned beef and 1.5 pounds of crackers. With these supplies on his back, the settler went to the remote taiga, 30-40 kilometers from his former habitat, and there he had to build a house and develop a plot of land.
Sloboda of exiles in Aleksandrovsk, photograph
from the personal collection of A.P. Chekhov. 1890
If later the settler was seen "in diligence and integrity", then he, by order of the administration, received in in the form of a loan to a cow, a horse, agricultural implements, seeds for sowing. Besides, exiled settlers for two years remained on government food allowance. So, in a year, about 25 kg of flour, 50 kg of meat, 3 kg of cereals were supposed to per person. For 2 years, 2 pairs of boots and 20 sq. m of cloth. When entering into marriage, a bonus was laid on a husband and wife - 15 rubles each.
Exiled settlers of one of the villages of Fr. Sakhalin. Photo by P. Labbe
Estimated Sakhalin statistician Karpov, in 1895 there were 2,251 men and 222 women exiles. Approximately 30% of them "was a model economy." « Basically, Old Believers, Poles and Stundists were distinguished by diligence, ”Karpov wrote. About 10% hid from the authorities - "got together in criminal gangs, brewed moonshine, wandered around." The remaining 60% of the exiled settlers "served their number", waiting in "some kind of labor - just not to stretch their legs" for the expiration of the term of exile and the opportunity to leave for the mainland.
Sakhalin Ainu
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, about 46 thousand prisoners, exiled settlers, free residents and the indigenous people of the Ainu (about 2 thousand) lived on the island. The loss in the war with Japan, as you know, led to the rejection of South Sakhalin from Russia, the border between the two parts of the island passed along the 50th parallel. On April 10, 1906, the Law on the abolition of the Sakhalin penal servitude was announced. Although the penal system was abolished, the restoration of the full rights of former exiles and convicts was carried out gradually. So, in 1910 they were allowed free enterprise and movement around the island. But these rights became invalid if the person left the island. Only in February 1913 their rights were fully restored. By this time, only about 6 thousand people remained living on the Russian part of Sakhalin (including prisoners in the only prison remaining on the island - in Aleksandrovsk).
WITH the Japanese part of the island, almost all Russians were evacuated. Free people, the Japanese paid the cost of lost property. About 400 runaway convicts and exiled settlers, who got into gangs and lived on robberies and murders, were caught and shot by the Japanese within six months ( royal power been looking for them for years. Only about 220 people remained to live under the Japanese - now former citizens of the Russian Empire. Basically, these were the already mentioned Poles, Old Believers and Stundist Germans.
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The village of Vladimirovka, which grew into the center of the Sakhalin region
(Toyohara, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)
Between 1908 and 1917, the tsarist government tried to repopulate the northern part of Sakhalin - now with free people. Settlers significant benefits were promised: a cash allowance of 400 rubles per family, exemption from military service for 3 years and from taxes for 5 years. But even such excellent economic conditions for those times could not attract more than 600 people to the island in 9 years. Sakhalin continued to be perceived by people as a disastrous, inhospitable place, "almost hell."
Russian history
Vestnik FEB RAS. 2005. No. 2
K.K.KORABLIN
Hard labor on Sakhalin as an experience of forced colonization
Forced colonization of Sakhalin Island by convicts and exiled settlers in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. is considered as a way of settling a given territory, its economic development and increasing the rate of economic growth.
Penal servitude in Sakhalin Island as an experience of compulsory colonization. K.K.KORABLIN (Far Eastern Academy of Public Service, Khabarovsk).
The compulsory colonization of Sakhalin by convicts and exiles is considered as a process that promoted the settlement, development, and economic growth of this area in the second half of the XIX century-early XX century
In the second half of the XIX-beginning of the XX century. the tsarist government considered the Far East as a source of raw materials and as a place to isolate state and criminal criminals. That is why during this period of Russian the history of the island Sakhalin becomes the place of the greatest concentration of the criminal element.
What were they guided by when choosing the territory for the location of the All-Russian exile penal colony? Sakhalin was far from the central part of Russia, and the insular position, according to tsarist officials, practically excluded the escapes of convicts, which were typical for prisons in Siberia. The concentration of a large number of convicts from all over the country in one place made it possible to reduce the financial costs of their maintenance. A large number of free work force made it possible to exploit the richest bowels of the island, supply the Russian fleet and export to neighboring countries. In addition, Sakhalin was of great military and strategic importance for Russia, since for almost a thousand kilometers it "covered" the mainland of the eastern borders of the Russian Empire. Thus, the reasons for the formation of hard labor on Sakhalin were both political and economic in nature.
The organization of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian hard labor colonies served as an example of a hard labor device. In 1859, an experimental batch of convicts (more than 300 people) was sent to Sakhalin from the Nerchinsk mining district for the first time to perform coal mining.
KORABLIN Konstantin Klimentievich - candidate legal sciences (Far Eastern Academy public service, Khabarovsk).
The legal basis for the creation of all-Russian penal servitude on Sakhalin was the Committee's regulation on the organization of hard labor approved on April 18, 1869 by decree of Emperor Alexander II. The text of the provision read: “1) to provide the Governor General Eastern Siberia immediately begin deporting to Sakhalin up to 800 exiled convicts to use them there in work corresponding to the purpose; 2) for the costs of transporting these convicts to Sakhalin, for keeping them there and for organizing temporary administration over them, release now, according to the schedule, at the disposal of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, in advance from the Irkutsk provincial treasury 120 thousand rubles and attribute the indicated amount to account of the state treasury ... ".
After a visit to Sakhalin in 1876 by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, P.A. Frederiks, a decision was made to build the first hard labor prison on the island. It was erected on the site of the barracks of the Duai hard labor team. With its discovery, it became possible to significantly increase the number of convicts. If on January 1, 1874 there were only 356 of them in the post of Douai (337 men and 19 women), and by January 1, 1875 - 300 (286 men and 14 women) (RGIA DV. F. 1, op. 1, 477, l. 207), then by 1882 - already 3500, i.e. 82% of all convicts who were on Sakhalin (RGIA DV. F. 702, op. 1, d. 155, l. 4) .
The functions of the branches of the Primorsky Regional Administration, which was in charge of Sakhalin penal servitude, as well as the territorial structure of the Primorsky Region, were improved (RGIA DV. F. 1, op. 1, d. 230. l. 3; f. 1, op. 1, d 5736, sheet 386; f. 1, list 1, file 1267, sheet 3). June 16, 1884, in connection with the establishment of the Amur Governor-General in the Far East, Sakhalin Island By royal decree, it was separated into an independent administrative-territorial unit with direct subordination to the Amur Governor-General. On the basis of the highest approved on May 15, 1884, the state of officials and officials of Sakhalin, from the active military generals, the head of the island was appointed with the granting of him the rights of commander of subordinate troops in the rank of division commander, who was directly subordinate to the commander of the Amur military district - the Amur governor general. All administrative, police, civil and military power on the island was concentrated in his hands. The head of the island was appointed and dismissed on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior by the highest decree to the Governing Senate and the highest order by the Ministry of War and had great rights in all spheres of life on the island [ibid., art. 424-426].
In 1875, in accordance with the adopted "Temporary Regulations on the Military and Civil Administration of Sakhalin Island", the island was divided into northern and southern county. At the head of each was a district chief. The title of chief of the district of northern Sakhalin was assigned to the head of the exiled convicts, stationed at the post of Due, the title of chief of the district of southern Sakhalin - to the commander of the East Siberian linear battalion stationed at the Korsakov post. In the sphere of civil administration, the heads of districts had the rights and duties of district police officers (RGIA DV. F. 1, op. 1, d. 500, l. 4).
The administrative-territorial structure of the island was improved. So, according to the regulation “On the management of the island of Sakhalin” adopted on May 15, 1884, its territory was divided into 3 administrative districts: Aleksandrovsky (the center is the Alexandrovsky post), Tymovsky (the center is the Due post) and Korsakovskiy (the center is the village of Rykovskoye). The boundaries of the districts were determined by
especially the Amur Governor-General. There were 52 Russian villages in the Aleksandrovsky district, 21 in Tymovsky, 61 in Korsakov, and a total of 134. In addition, there were several dozen camps of local peoples on Sakhalin - Nivkhs, Ainu, Oroks, Ulchis (Gilyaks), Evenks (Tungus), Negidals, etc.
The management of each district was under the jurisdiction of its chief, as well as the district police department, which was headed by caretakers and their deputies: the Aleksandrovsky district police department - caretakers and the head of the Alexander and Zhonkier hard labor prisons, Tymovskoye - Rykovskaya hard labor prison, Korsakovskoye - Korsakov hard labor prison. Within each district, hard labor prisons and settlements of exiles were subordinate to the district chiefs. To manage the "penal contingent" was also established the position of head of exile, whose office was in the post of Douai. The procedure for keeping convicts in Due was regulated by a special instruction of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia No. 722, which was approved on July 17, 1870 and addressed to the head of the exiles. The instruction contained strict requirements for the performance of prison service for the Duey guard military team, but did not define the specific rights and obligations of the head of the exile. Therefore, due to insufficient regulation of management and the lack of strictly defined powers of the head of exiles, constant friction arose between him and a number of officials (mining engineer, doctor of the exile team, etc.). Despite the fact that the manager of exiles did not have a certain scope of functions (he dealt with the organization of loading and unloading coal on sea vessels, the distribution of exiles to work, the arrangement of prison buildings and premises, control over the regime for keeping convicts, etc.), he was the main figure in the administration of the Sakhalin penal servitude, and, according to the military governor of the Primorsky region G.F. Erdman, a person who “in the absence of a superior commander should enjoy the rights of a provincial military commander and to whom all the military and civil servants of the island were subordinate.
Possessing fairly broad powers, not all heads of exile convicts used them for the common good. For more than seven years, Captain Nikolaev, who had been in charge of Duey hard labor, was sentenced by the court to hard labor for the use of cruel corporal punishment, which resulted in the death of one of the exiles. And Colonel Romanovich, who took the place of Nikolaev, paid serious attention to the existing unrest in the organization of the prison department and directed all his energy to the construction of additional premises for exiles, the settlement of issues of employment of convicts, the establishment of discipline, etc. Lieutenant Epifanov, who was in charge of the Korsakov penal servitude on Sakhalin, for a year of management brought the organization of work to an extreme disorder. The barracks have become "a tavern with a card game and a den of all sorts of crimes." So, one of the exiles, wanting to get rid of corporal punishment with rods, killed the warden. Repeatedly, the convicts tried to take the life of the lieutenant himself. But even after Epifanov was removed from office, the crime rate in the Korsakov District remained high for a long time. There was a case when four convicts who went to work without an escort went to one of the Japanese settlements and killed and burned a Japanese family there (Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library. Brief essay disorders that exist in hard labor. Part 1. B. m. and. B. g. L. 251, 257-257v.).
Prison supervision of convicts was carried out by guards of hard labor prisons, as well as senior and junior guards (for 1 senior guard there were 40 exiles, for 1 junior - 20), these positions were also assigned to the lower military ranks of local military units.
The rapid growth in the number of exiles led to the formation of new prisons throughout the island. Initially hard labor prisons were built in the northern part of the island (Aleksandrovsky district), where there was a more severe climate, and then in the south of Sakhalin - in the Korsakov district. Hard labor prisons were distributed by districts as follows: in the Aleksandrovsky district there were Dueyskaya prison (4 buildings), Aleksandrovskaya (4 buildings), Voevodskaya and Zhonkierskaya; in Tymovsky - Rykovskaya (4 buildings), Malotymovskaya, Derbinskaya and Onorskaya (3 buildings); in the Korsakov district - Korsakovskaya (6 buildings) and Taraiskaya prisons. After an increase in the number of hard labor prisons, they passed into the sole jurisdiction of the heads of districts (who replaced the posts of heads of exiles in the northern and southern districts). The district police departments were in charge of 4 main areas of activity: 1) preparing and systematizing all orders issued by the head of the district, collecting information and reports on the personnel of convicts and their families, maintaining lists of convicts and accounting for the term of punishment served by convicts in the form of hard labor; 2) accounting for the composition of exiled settlers, peasants from exiles and their families, collecting information on the economic part of the settlements, accounting for persons expelled to the settlement, accumulation of information on checks and observations of settlers as a result of police supervision; 3) accounting for the expenditure of money, products and various materials for all types of allowances for convicts, keeping orders on the organization of prison facilities, accounting for debtors, transferring debt from one person to another, accounting for interest on debts, maintaining correspondence on economic issues, accounting for cash flow amounts; 4) collection of information on the number of initiated and completed criminal cases, correspondence with the prosecutor and judicial authorities, as well as collection of information on the measures taken on petitions in connection with criminal and civil proceedings.
The Aleksandrovsky post, founded in 1881 in the northern part of the island on the coast of the Tatar Strait, was chosen as the administrative center of the Sakhalin penal servitude. There was also a central hard labor (aka transit) prison (4 buildings), from where the parties of convicts who arrived on the island were distributed to all districts and hard labor prisons of the island. On the other side of the Tatar Strait (in the city of Nikolaevsk) there was a transit prison for convicts sent to Sakhalin by land from Siberia. The Nikolaevsky prison castle served as a place of concentration of convicts for their further transportation to Sakhalin.
In accordance with Art. 291 of the Charter on Exiles (ed. 1909), the distribution of exiled convicts who arrived on Sakhalin by districts and prisons, as well as their assignment to hard labor, was carried out by the head of the island, “who, in his actions on this subject, takes into account existing needs ...” (RGIA DV F. 702, inventory 1, file 5, sheet 3). He also made decisions regarding the families of convicts who voluntarily arrived on Sakhalin after their relatives. The daily orders of the head of the island prescribed: "... families who voluntarily arrived to the exiles on Sakhalin Island from European Russia ... are distributed to the appropriate districts at the location of their husbands and relatives who arrived on the island at the same time or earlier" .
As a rule, among the relatives who came to Sakhalin, there were wives driven by a sense of compassion and care for their husbands who had ended up in hard labor. After hardship and deprivation during a long circumnavigation they came to Sakhalin with their children in the hope of alleviating the suffering of their husbands with their presence and giving the children the opportunity to be closer to their fathers. However, most of them were simply deceived by the condemned men themselves. Arriving on Sakhalin, the wives paid bitterly for their gullibility. A vivid example of this is an excerpt from a letter from one of the Sakhalin convicts addressed to his wife: “Our dear wife! We inform you that we have arrived on Sakhalin, thank God, safely. The climate here is excellent and the land for any growth is the best. One black earth. As soon as his wife comes to each prisoner, the authorities immediately give out for housekeeping free of charge: two horses, six cows, six ducks and a rooster. A completely finished hut, a cart, a plow, a harrow and other things that follow for a good economy. And therefore, immediately, upon receipt of this letter, sell everything that is available, for which you do not fall and, without putting it off indefinitely, declare yourself to the authorities, arrest yourself and come here. In fact, free women who ended up with children on Sakhalin were forced to drag out a miserable existence. L.V. Poddubsky, a researcher of female hard labor on Sakhalin, wrote: “The terrible living conditions in the settlements, the futility of agricultural and domestic work, in terms of profitability, the absence of any earnings on the island, except for prostitution, the temptation everywhere and the harassment of a woman - by power, violence, cunning, gifts and drinking vodka, with a chronic insufficiency of women - all this prevents the satisfaction of the inherent need of every woman - to create her own small home, and gradually pushes her into prostitution ... Even worse is the situation of a woman who has children, has an extra mouth , unnecessary troubles, and the conditions of existence - moral and physical - and the need remain the same. The fate of children on Sakhalin is physically and morally bleak!...” .
Women who arrived at hard labor were divided into two categories: those who arrived of their own free will along with their husbands sentenced to hard labor and exiled to hard labor for committing, as a rule, serious types of crimes. Of the 120 women who arrived on Sakhalin (in the Alexandrovsky and Tymovsky districts) in 1894, and out of the 84 who arrived in 1895, 75 and 52, respectively, were convicted of the following criminal offenses (Table 1).
Table 1
Types of crimes committed by women serving sentences in Sakhalin penal servitude in 1894-1895, pers.
Type of crime
Murder of husband 27 25
Attempted murder of husband 4 0
Husband poisoning 15 19
Attempted poisoning of her husband 0 4
Killing women out of jealousy 3 0
Poisoning out of jealousy 5 0
Murder out of jealousy 0 4
Murder of cheating lovers 4 0
Killing children 17 0
Source: .
So, 2/3 of those exiled in 1894-1895. women were sentenced to Sakhalin penal servitude for committing violent crimes against a person, where love and hatred played the main role.
Sakhalin prisons did not meet the elementary requirements for compliance with sanitary standards and did not accommodate the constantly arriving exiles. Writer and journalist V.M. Doroshevich described the prison of the Aleksandrovsky coal mine as follows: “I have been in all Sakhalin prisons, but I have never left them to such an extent, literally, sprinkled with insects, as from the prison at the Aleksandrovsky mine ... Rags of clothes, tatters of bedding, dirt - all this teemed with insects. It was leaking from the walls. The floor is earthen from dampness, from the fact that everything spills out onto the floor from standing here the same “slop”, which turned into mud. In order to get to the bunks, a plank was laid along the narrow passage, which squelched in the mud when stepped on. You could reach the ceiling with your hand. In such a “room” from thirty to forty people lay on the bunk. From thirty to forty covered with a thick layer of mud people. The air in the cells was such that dizziness and nausea set in. It was some kind of stench, not air ... ". A.P. Chekhov, who also visited the Alexander hard labor prison during his trip to Sakhalin in 1890, described one of its cells as follows: people and 170. There are no beds at all. They sleep on a hard surface or spread torn bags under them, their clothes and any rotten things that are extremely unattractive in appearance. On the bunks are hats, shoes, pieces of bread, empty milk bottles stuffed with paper or a rag, shoe lasts; under the bunks there are chests, dirty bags, bundles, tools and various rags ... ".
casual wear the exiles were: a gray robe with a yellow “ace” (a hallmark of all prisoners) on the back, a jacket and trousers sewn from the same gray cloth, cats or chirki (coarse leather shoes) on their feet, they wore a “peakless cap” on their heads ( an ordinary soldier's cap, but without a visor). An exception was made for the Sakhalin convicts - the “ace” was made of black cloth, since, according to the Amur Governor-General Baron A.N. Korf, yellow has long been the color of the Amur and Transbaikal Cossacks.
In establishing Sakhalin penal servitude, the tsarist government, along with penitentiary goals, also pursued economic ones, intending to develop the natural resources of the island. And indeed, the economy of Sakhalin, the culture of production and agricultural labor during the period of the all-Russian penal servitude on the island received a certain development, albeit a weak one. Dozens of settlements islands, mineral deposits (iron ore, coal) were developed, telegraph lines, large areas of land have been cultivated, agricultural farms have been established, roads have been established, sea berths have been erected, etc.
At the same time, hard labor was not limited to coal mining, uprooting forests, stone processing, road construction, they covered almost the entire life of the island's settlements. Construction of utility and administrative buildings, drainage of swamps, catching and salting of fish, haymaking, loading and unloading sea vessels, keeping streets and squares clean, growing grain and vegetable crops, raising livestock, poultry, performing locksmith, carpentry, leather work, servicing meteorological stations, postal
and passenger transportation, etc. - all this was a kind of hard labor, which, of necessity, “merged” with the life of a penal colony, so you can’t talk about them as something independently existing on the island. The pre-revolutionary researcher of the domestic penitentiary system, Professor D. A. Dril believed that: “On Sakhalin, as in other institutions for hard labor, there are no special “hard labor” works.” The most difficult, in his opinion, for the convicts were mining, road work, the work of log haulers and wood haulers, and relatively more or less light - servants, messengers, watchmen, scribes, draftsmen, some crafts.
The development of coal deposits, as a rule, was carried out in bad faith, in a predatory way. There were no technical devices to facilitate the work of convicts and increase its productivity. People were dragging heavy sleds loaded with coal along the dark, damp corridors. underground mines. At the exit from the mine, coal was loaded into trolleys and delivered by rail to warehouses.
According to V.M. Doroshevich, the hardest work went to those convicts who, in the underground coal mines in the dark, cold and damp, performed the so-called torticollis work, i.e. “... when the worker is lying, twisting his neck so as not to hit himself in the head he used a pick to cut such a hole in the coal seam that only one person could crawl through it. These works were considered not only the most difficult of all existing ones, but also downright murderous! . Hard labor in the Sakhalin coal mines was also difficult because for many years the convict saw only the mine, the road to the prison and the sea without interruption.
The colonization of the island contributed to the widespread construction of buildings and the emergence of new settlements. Therefore, with the onset of winter, all convicts not engaged in compulsory work went to the taiga to harvest building material. Only two types of tree species were cut down - larch (it was used mainly for building the foundations of houses) and spruce (it was used for laying the upper crowns). Former political prisoner I.P. Yuvachev (Mirolubov) left his memories of this type of hard hard labor: “... Frost at thirty degrees ... Excited, sweating, they (prisoners. - Auth.) Should not stop to rest otherwise, in severe frost, their bad fur coats will instantly freeze. The log is pulled to the prison yard, where it is received by the guard with a arshin in his hands. If he rejects the tree, the workers must again go to the taiga... Having piled their log on top of others in a pile, exhausted, hungry workers rush to have lunch and drink tea; and if it’s already late, then go to bed soon - tomorrow you have to get up again at three in the morning! .
Among the prisoners who arrived on Sakhalin were artisans, factory workers, townspeople, who at one time were engaged in trade and various crafts. They also spent a lot of hard labor on meeting the needs of the prisons themselves. Cooks, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, water carriers, scrubbers, orderlies, cattlemen, etc. worked here every day. The military and telegraph departments, infirmaries, officials of various services also used hard labor. Each official, even in the rank of clerk, could take on an unlimited number of servants. However, in 1872, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, N.P. Sinelnikov forbade the return of convicts into service. But the employees unceremoniously circumvented this prohibition. On this occasion
A.P. Chekhov wrote that “this is not hard labor, but serfdom. A hard labor. Slave, dependent on the will of the master and his family, catering to their whims, participating in
kitchen squabbles. Becoming a settler, he is in the colony a repetition of our courtyard man, who knows how to clean boots and fry cutlets, but is incapable of agricultural work, and therefore hungry, abandoned to the mercy of fate ... ". The use of convicts as domestic servants was finally eliminated by order of the head of Sakhalin, Major General V.O. Kononovich, dated October 31, 1888, No. 276: not to collect any fees for women ... What I announce for proper execution ”(RGIA DV. F. 1, op. 1, d. 1114, l. 6).
According to the Charter on those held in custody (ed. 1890), those sentenced to hard labor enjoyed the right to pay for their labor in the amount of 1/10 of the amount earned. One half of the remaining funds went to the state treasury, and the other half went to the income of the hard labor prison. The deductions going to the income of the prison were intended to pay for the internal prison work in which the convicts were employed, as well as to remunerate the managers of these works, the persons of prison management and supervision. Of the insignificant money that the convict received, he could use only half of the amount due to him, and the other half was given to him after his release. At the same time, as a punishment, the convict was deprived of the right to use not only the intended part of the money, but also all earnings. This provision was enshrined in Art. 366 of the Statute on Detainees and was widely used by the prison administration of the island.
After the end of the period of hard labor in the detachment of the reformed, the convicts were transferred to the category of exiled settlers and received the right to live in the villages of the island with the obligatory housekeeping. A few years later, they were transferred to the category of "peasants from exiles", who had the right to stay forever on Sakhalin or, having paid off the loan that they took from the state for "housekeeping", leave the island and settle on the mainland Far East and Eastern Siberia, and then, having received permission, they could also leave for the European part of Russia, but without the right to reside in the capital and provincial cities. However, "peasants from the exiles" due to adverse climatic conditions that are not conducive to employment agriculture did not want to live on the island. Having received the right to leave, they sought to leave the hated place as quickly as possible. “God forbid,” said the former convicts, to stay on Sakhalin; put a living person in a coffin - I don't want to. Just let God get out. Even if my hut had been sprinkled with gold, even then I would not want to stay. Gold is lived, but the place where I and my offspring live is not lived.
The outflow of exiled settlers was followed by a government decree in 1880, which forbade the exit of exiled convicts who had served their sentences and obligated them to build houses and engage in agriculture. The travel ban had its effect, and the number of settlements on Sakhalin began to grow rapidly. In the late 70s and early 80s of the nineteenth century. settlements were founded: Maloye Tymovo, Rykovskoye and Derbinskoye (Tymovskoye), the village of Vladimirovka and the military post of Aleksandrovsky, which became the center of the Sakhalin penal servitude (instead of the Due post); Korsakovka village grew up next to the Aleksandrovsky post. In the late 80s and early 90s of the nineteenth century. settlements were founded: in 1889 - Valze, Voskresenskoye, Uskovo; in 1890 - Small Longari, Taulan; in 1891 - Upper Poronai, Daldagan, Slavo, Hamdasa-1; in 1892 - Onor, Hamdasa-2, etc. Thus, in 15 years (from 1879 to 1894) 79 new settlements appeared on Sakhalin.
To further improve the organization of the penal colony and the economic development of the island, the administration of hard labor made every effort to involve all the convicts released for settlement in agricultural work. They were given the opportunity to settle in one of the districts of the island and acquire their own household plots, for this the administration was looking for new land plots (RGIA DV F. 1, op. 1, d. 1114, l. 7).
V.O.Kononovich, who was known for his liberal views on the organization of the prison system in Russia, with the personal permission of the Amur Governor-General A.N.Korf, made an unprecedented decision on the early release of certain categories of convicts who proved their correction by “hardworking and kind behavior” , for their settlement on Sakhalin and the establishment of a household. The conditions for early release from punishment in the form of hard labor were specified in detail in the order of the head of the island dated November 3, 1888 No. 294, it provided everyone who deserved it, “the full opportunity to prepare in advance everything that a settler needs for an honest working life, without fail is consistent with the types of government in relation to the spread of new settlements on the island and the construction of roads between them ... Starting to apply the right granted to me in practice, I make it an indispensable condition that all those released ahead of schedule be grouped into artels of quite healthy people who know the peasant economy, and would certainly go to completely new places ... The choice of people worthy of this mercy is entirely entrusted to the district chiefs ... Dismiss from hard labor, subject to the above conditions, I will be for two, and in especially respectful cases, for three years before graduation full term works ... No early release general rule, and how mercy is granted only to those on whom one can rely, and therefore it cannot be given to everyone ... I ask the district chiefs to take this matter seriously ... and see to it that it does not become a mere formality and into the hands of clerks ”(RGIA DV. F. 1, op. 1, d. 1114, l. 15).
Everyone who stayed on Sakhalin for further living and doing their own farming, the administration of the island provided financial assistance: from state warehouses, the necessary amount of timber was issued for building a house and erecting outbuildings, iron, glass, nails, axes, saws, shovels and other necessary equipment were released. If in the future the settler was noticed "in diligence and integrity", then, by order of the district administration, he received a cow, a horse, agricultural equipment, seeds for sowing in the form of a loan. In addition, the exiled settlers for the first time (for a period of no more than two years) remained on state-owned food (food rations for one exile convict on Sakhalin per year consisted of 1 pood and 27 pounds of flour, more than 121 pounds of meat and 5 pounds of cereals) and prisoner clothing allowance (issued state-owned shoes and cloth for tailoring prisoner clothes). Such persons were about 30% of the total number of exiled settlers. In addition, those entering into marriage for the first time were given an irrevocable cash allowance for setting up a household: a) women of free status who married a settler, in the amount of 50 rubles; b) men who marry an exile, in the amount of 30 rubles. (moreover, 15 rubles were given to him irrevocably, and 15 rubles in the form of a loan with an installment plan for 10 years). So, in 1895, 2251 men and 222 women were on the state food supply. The cash allowance issued that year to persons who were on state food and clothing allowances was equal to
the amount of 190,228 rubles. 85 kopecks, which was 54,952 rubles. 90 kop. more than in 1894. In addition, in 1895, the administration of the island issued to the exiled settlers who began to organize their own household: various tools - in the amount of 4633 rubles. 82 kopecks, seeds - 6848 rubles. 63 kopecks, livestock - 9000 rubles. 29 kop.; total - 20,482 rubles. 74 kop. .
See Table 2.
table 2
The area introduced by exiled settlers on Sakhalin into agricultural circulation in 1886, des. *
Okrug Under bread Under vegetables Under arable land Under haymaking Total
Alexandrovsky 400 209 609 765 1374
Tymovsky 387 266 653 1687 2340
Korsakovskiy 113 23 136 265 401
Total 900 498 1398 2717 4115
* In 1 tithe (dec.) 2,400 sq. sazhen, or 1.09 ha. Sazhen (sazh.) - an old Russian measure of length, equal to 3 arshins (2.13 m).
For 50 years, on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, an experiment was held to re-educate especially dangerous criminals. Back in the early 1850s, tsarist officials conceived the idea of creating a "separate zone" where recidivists could return to "normal human life" first through forced and then free labor. For the experiment, Sakhalin Island was chosen - an ideal place in terms of protecting convicts: the sea is all around, and beyond the sea - deserted places. Another innovation was that after the end of the penal servitude, people were left on the island in "quarantine", trying to make agricultural colonists out of them. As one of the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Panov later admitted, the Sakhalin experiment was written off from the Australian experiment - at that time the British colonized the "green continent" in almost the same ways.
The first exiles appeared on Sakhalin in 1858 - 20 people were sent there on foot along the stage. 4 people died on the way, after 2 years 4 more convicts died on the island itself. But dispatches went to St. Petersburg - "the island is a disastrous place, but you can adapt it to life."
In 1869, the island was officially declared a place of hard labor and exile. In total, during the existence of the Sakhalin penal servitude (until 1905), about 37 thousand people were exiled here. That is an average of about 1,000 people a year. At the same time, for the first 10 years, the exiles were sent to Sakhalin on foot through Siberia - and their journey here sometimes took up to 14 months. Since 1879, convicts began to be transported by sea on steamboats of the Volunteer Fleet. Ships sailed from Odessa around Asia, stopping at Constantinople, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Nagasaki and Vladivostok. The journey took an average of 65-75 days. All this time the criminals sat in suffocating holds in shackles. In some parties, about 10% of the convicts died on the way (as in 1893).
Another innovation was that very few political people were sent to Sakhalin - in 36 years, only 58 people. In Siberia, the political conducted missionary activities among the convicts - they taught the convicts to read and write, and treated them. And on Sakhalin, criminals were deprived of such attention.
The content of convicts on the island was very harsh. For the first 3-5 years they were shackled in hand and foot shackles, and sometimes chained in addition to a wheelbarrow. 80% of the convicts worked in coal mines (mostly near Aleksandrovsk), the rest - in logging and construction work. They lived in barracks for 30-50 people, with an earthen floor. About 20% of the convicts, while serving time, committed new violations, for especially serious (mostly murders) they were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in the Voivodship prison, and the executioner was chosen from among the convicts themselves. So, the executioner Komlev, sentenced to 55 years of hard labor for murders and escapes from custody, personally executed 13 people.
The hopes of tsarist officials for the strict isolation of convicts did not come true. Only from 1898 to 1901. about 1100 people fled, of which about 320 people ended up on the Japanese islands. It got to the point that the Japanese Foreign Ministry sent an official letter to Russian colleagues demanding to strengthen the security of prisoners.
Women began to refer to Sakhalin since 1884, they were in prison only while the investigation lasted, and then served a special penal servitude - a little easier in content than that of men. So, in shackles they were only in prison, especially dangerous criminals could be kept in them for up to a year.
For what crimes women were exiled here - you can, for example, see from the statistics for 1894 and 1895. In the first case, out of 120 women, 75 were convicted of murder, in the second, out of 84, 52 women were murderers. In 80-90% of cases they took the lives of their husbands.
The rest of her days were spent in the Sakhalin penal servitude and the infamous swindler Sonya "Golden Pen" (Blyuvshtein). Moreover, the local administration made good money on it. Journalist Pankratiev wrote about her then:
“Katorga, from the administration to the prisoners, was proud of Sonya Golden Hand. Sonya has become the main attraction of Sakhalin. Even in solitary confinement, with shackles on his legs, Sonya was haunted. She herself recalled the following - only, it happens, you calm down, again they demand Sonya the Golden Pen. Think again? No, take a photo. I was tormented by these photos...
Sonya was taken out to the prison yard, the scenery was set up - anvils, blacksmiths with hammers, guards - and they allegedly filmed the scene of shackling the Golden Handle in shackles. These photographs were sold by the hundreds on all the ships that came to Sakhalin. These photographs were especially popular in Europe.
At the end of 1894, Sonya went to the settlement and was determined to live in cohabitation with Stepan Bogdanov, the most ferocious of the convicts, exiled for murder. The whole island was afraid of him, but Sonya found an approach to him and he performed the functions of a protector and bodyguard with her.
As can be seen from this passage, the prison authorities voluntarily distributed women among the convicts. "To endure - fall in love." The ratio of men and women in hard labor was 8-10: 1, and getting a girl was a great happiness. That is why the administration - as part of the experiment - thus rewarded exemplary prisoners (or those needed in the case - for example, executioners or sex workers). At the same time, the administration did not give women the right to choose their partner.
The next stage of the experiment on Sakhalin: the gradual adaptation of the former convict to ordinary life through agricultural work.
After serving the term of hard labor, the prisoner received the title of an exiled settler, he was given at the expense of the treasury an ax, a shovel, a hoe, 2 pounds of rope and for 1 month of provisions - 30 pounds of fish, 15 pounds of corned beef and 1.5 pounds of crackers. With these supplies on his back, the settler went to the remote taiga, 30-40 kilometers from his former habitat, and there he had to build a house and develop a plot of land.
If in the future the settler was noticed "in diligence and integrity", then, by order of the administration, he received a cow, a horse, agricultural equipment, seeds for sowing in the form of a loan. In addition, the exiled settlers remained on government food allowance for two years. So, in a year, about 25 kg of flour, 50 kg of meat, 3 kg of cereals were supposed to per person. For 2 years, 2 pairs of boots and 20 sq. m of cloth. When entering into marriage, a bonus was laid on a husband and wife - 15 rubles each.
According to Karpov, a Sakhalin statistician, in 1895 there were 2,251 men and 222 women exiles. Approximately 30% of them "had a model economy." “Basically, the Old Believers, Poles and Stundists were distinguished by their diligence,” wrote Karpov. About 10% hid from the authorities - "got together in criminal gangs, brewed moonshine, wandered around." The remaining 60% of the exiled settlers "served their number", waiting in "some kind of labor - just not to stretch their legs" for the expiration of the term of exile and the opportunity to leave for the mainland.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, about 46 thousand prisoners, exiled settlers, free residents and the indigenous people of the Ainu (about 2 thousand) lived on the island. The loss in the war with Japan, as you know, led to the rejection of South Sakhalin from Russia, the border between the two parts of the island passed along the 50th parallel. On April 10, 1906, the Law on the abolition of the Sakhalin penal servitude was announced. Although the penal system was abolished, the restoration of the full rights of former exiles and convicts was carried out gradually. So, in 1910 they were allowed free enterprise and movement around the island. But these rights became invalid if the person left the island. Only in February 1913 their rights were fully restored. By this time, only about 6 thousand people remained living on the Russian part of Sakhalin (including prisoners in the only prison remaining on the island - in Aleksandrovsk).
Almost all Russians were evacuated from the Japanese part of the island. Free people, the Japanese paid the cost of lost property. About 400 fugitive convicts and exiled settlers, huddled in gangs and living by robberies and murders, were caught and shot by the Japanese within six months (the tsarist government had been looking for them for years). Only about 220 people remained to live under the Japanese - now former citizens of the Russian Empire. Basically, these were the already mentioned Poles, Old Believers and Stundist Germans.
Between 1908 and 1917, the tsarist government tried to repopulate the northern part of Sakhalin - now with free people. The settlers were promised significant benefits: cash allowance - 400 rubles per family, exemption from military service for 3 years and from taxes - for 5 years. But even such excellent economic conditions for those times could not attract more than 600 people to the island in 9 years. Sakhalin continued to be perceived by people as a disastrous, inhospitable place, "almost hell."
