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REPORTS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF EASTERN SIBERIA TO THE TSAR

of the first report of Governor-general Anúchin to the Tsar upon the state of affairs in Eastern Siberia. Delivered to Alexander II., in person, by Adjutant Kozéllo in December, 1880. From a "secret" copy.

During my journey to Irkútsk I inspected a great number of prison institutions, and I regret to have to say that, with the exception of the prison castles in Krasnoyársk and Irkútsk, they are all—that is district prisons, forwarding prisons, and étapes—in a lamentable condition. The state of the étapes in Eastern Siberia is particularly bad, and has already attracted the serious attention of the Minister of the Interior. Large sums of money have been spent in repairs upon them, and 250,000 rúbles have been appropriated recently for the erection of new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál. I doubt, however, whether it will be possible to accomplish anything of serious importance without a change in the existing conditions. There is even danger that the new étapes in the territory of the Trans-Baikál will share the fate of the étapes in the provinces of Yeniséisk and Irkútsk. The reason for this is the lack of technical experts. In the whole of Eastern Siberia, notwithstanding its great distances and enormous area, the civil lists provide for only seventeen architects and architect's assistants. And even this number is greater than that of the persons actually so employed, because, on account of the inadequate compensation received by technical experts here and the ease with which they can find profitable work in European Russia, they are reluctant to come to remote Siberia and enter a service which promises only material and moral privations. Such being the case, most Government buildings here are erected under a technical supervision which is nothing more than nominal. In reality they are built by contractors without any supervision whatever. For example: it is the intention of the Government to erect in the Trans-Baikál territory in 1881 thirty-one étapes and polu-étapes, which will be scattered over a distance of 1043 versts. This work is to be done under the supervision of a single