with the official "paper" he declared that he would make telegraphic inquiry of the Veh-Tcheka. Convinced of the uselessness of all these excuses, Askareff and the others began their second hunger strike on March 3, which proved of terrible effect upon their constitutions not yet recovered from the first hunger strike. Already on the first day all of them had a high temperature. On the third day Stitzenko showed a temperature of 40°[1], and he became deaf. On the fourth day Askareff also had a temperature of 40°; he suffered convulsions, turned blue and cold, and for a time seemed almost dead. The prison administration, becoming alarmed, ordered the medical staff to list Askareff among the contagious cases, so that in case of his death it could be officially reported that he died not from hunger but from some contagious disease, in all probability typhus.
About this time there was received a telegram from the Veh-Tcheka to the effect that the sentences of Askareff and the others had been set aside, that they were to be put on trial and should therefore be sent to Moscow. The hunger strike was then of course terminated. After having somewhat recuperated in the hospital, the prisoners were transferred to Moscow where they were placed in the "inner prison" (of the Tcheka). Upon their threat to begin a new hunger strike they were transferred on April 1. to the Kisselnaya prison from which they had been removed two months previously.
The story of the other 17 transferred Anarchists is as follows. In Archangel they were sent at night from the railroad station to the Gub-Tcheka, arriving there tired, half frozen and hungry. The Commandant of the Gub-Tcheka wanted to send seven of their number away immediately, to some unknown place. The prisoners declared that they would refuse to be moved till morning. The Commandant drew his revolver and threatened their lives, but that proved of no avail. The prisoners refused to give their names, and the Commandant could therefore not select the seven men he needed. In the morning all the seventeen were taken to the concentration camp, where they were divided into three groups and placed in separate barracks.
The Archangel concentration camp consists of 20 barracks, six of which are occupied by prisoners. The barracks are long buildings, each about 20 sazhen[2] long, containing two rows of double benches placed one on top of the other. In these barracks there are crowded in up to five hundred persons, but just now the barracks contain (owing to reduced "loading") 100 to 150 men each. They all lie on the bare boards: there are no mattresses, pillows or blankets. The place is alive with vermin: the first thing that struck the new arrivals was the sight of scores of naked prisoners carefully picking lice off their underwear. Dirt, cockroaches and lice constantly fall from the upper benches on the lower, right on the sleepers below. On the whole, the upper places are to be preferred, also because it is warmer there, although the barracks are generally tolerably well heated and the inmates do not complain of cold.
Every new arrival is subjected to a thorough search, being completely undressed, examined all over, and so on. All the belongings of the prisoners, such as underwear, clothing, money, little mirrors, etc., are taken from them, to be turned over to the stock room. They are permitted to keep only one change of underwear. Those who have, for instance, both shoes and felt boots, or an overcoat and a fur half-coat, may retain only one of the things. Even the apparel with which the Veh-Tcheka had supplied the Anarchists were here taken away from them in spite of all their protests. The things are supposed to go to the stock room. But between 2 and 3 o'clock on the same night the Anarchists heard a group of overseers go to the stock room and there begin to sort the things. The Anarchists raised a cry, and the keepers retreated in confusion, explaining that they intended only to examine the things again. . . . .
The population of the camp is made up of Kronstadt and Tambovy prisoners, Wrangel and Savinkov men, and a considerable number of Tchekists come to grief. The remarkable peculiarity of the camp consists in the fact that the prisoners serve as their own guards, manage all the affairs of the institution and keep up a most cruel régime. There is no paid staff in the camp. All the positions, comprising those of keepers, overseers, clerks, employees of the general administration, of the hospital, the educational department, and including even the "acting Commandant", are filled by prisoners, mostly from the number of the Tchekists. The members of the administration have feathered their bed so well there that some of them prefer to retain their positions after completing their sentences or receiving a pardon. That was the case with Oyia (educated as a jurist, formerly Chief of the Tambov Gub-Tcheka, sentenced to be shot for colossal thefts of diamonds and other robberies, his sentence later changed to 25 years' service in the camp), the Acting Commandant, the engineer Nosatchenko and others.
That such a régime can be maintained is due to the presence of the many Tcheka men and to the moral degradation and corruption which the great majority of the prisoners have
