Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/417

Rh colonization. When one of these poor wretches has spent all his money, and perhaps has gambled away all of his clothing and mortgaged his food-allowance for weeks in advance, he gets into such a condition that for five or ten rúbles and a bottle of vódka he will sell his very soul. The hard-labor convict, who is generally a bold, enterprising, experienced recidivist, and a man, moreover, who has won and saved some money on the road, then approaches the hungry, thirsty, half-naked, and wholly destitute colonist, and says to him, "If you will exchange names with me and go in my place to the mines, I'll give you my warm shúba [overcoat], five rúbles in money, and a bottle of vódka. You won't have to stay at the mines long. After I have had time to reach your place of colonization and run away, you can tell the nachálnik [chief] at the mines who you really are, and say that you have been sent there by mistake. He will make inquiries, and as soon as he finds out that you are not me, he will send you back to your place of colonization; and then we '11 both be all right."

The persuasive eloquence of the hard-labor convict, backed by five rúbles, a warm shúba, and a bottle of vódka, is generally too much for the resolution of the unfortunate colonist. He consents to the proposed exchange of names and identities, and the artél is at once convened to note, sanction, and mentally record the transaction. At the next and at every subsequent roll-call of the party, the hardlabor convict answers to the name of the colonist, and the colonist must answer to the name of the hard-labor convict. The more dangerous criminal, who, perhaps, should serve out a life sentence at the mines for murder, is turned loose in some East-Siberian village from which he immediately makes his escape, while the petty thief, drunkard, or wifebeater goes into penal servitude at the mines of Nérchinsk or Kará.

Although the exchanging of names has been practised by convicts in Siberia from time immemorial, and although it