Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Terror in Russia (1909).djvu/27

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Many pages could be covered with the description of the ill-treatment and the tortures in different prisons of Russia. Only some striking instances, however, can be mentioned here.

It is known through the daily Press that there were so many complaints about the misrule of the head of the Moscow police, General Neuhardt, that a special Commission was sent out by the Senate, under Senator Garin, to inquire into the affair. The head of the police just mentioned has been dismissed; perhaps he will be brought before a Court, and striking instances arising out of his misrule have already been communicated more or less officially to the daily Press. Thus, one of the witnesses, M. Maximoff, examined by the Commission, who had been kept in one of the lock-ups of the Moscow police, deposed as follows:—

The names of the agents of the secret police who used thus to treat prisoners are given in full by the witness. The same witness describes a most terrible case of a woman who was arrested on suspicion of robbery; she would not declare herself guilty.

"The agent of the secret police, Lyndin, was examining a young woman suspected of robbery. She explained how she and the watchman were tied by the robbers. Lyndin did not believe her, and began to beat her with his fists in the breast, so that blood