fallen into—more correctly, have been forced into. Comparatively most decent have remained the Kronstadt men, but of their original number of 5,000 sent to the Archangel camp there have remained, it is said, after one year only 1,500 persons. And yet they were a young and exceptionally strong and healthy race. The inmates of the camp have lost almost all semblance of humanity. They are absorbed by the one thought of self-preservation by means of gaining the good will of the authorities and thus securing the position of an overseer or some good work. The surest and quickest way of "standing in" with the administration is to turn spy. As a result, all of them—prisoners, overseers and the higher officials—are busy spying on each other. On the average there are (the Bolsheviki keep statistics on every subject) twenty reports of spies every day. Nothing, not a single word spoken, is hidden from the authorities. There is no attempt in the camp at organisation, mutual help, solidarity or united struggle. The female prisoners—formerly of the aristocracy and the intelligentsia—give themselves to any overseer at his first demand, without protest or resistance.
According to the inmates, the régime of the camp has become incomparably more tolerable, the punishments fewer and the treatment more decent after the prison had been investigated by a Commission appointed at the instigation of the Red Cross. Yet the following fact throws light on the character of the existing discipline. When the Anarchists arrived, the peasant Glebov, of Vologda, who know them and who had been imprisoned together with them before, tried to attract their attention by knocking on his window and shouting. For this he was put into the punishment cell for two weeks and afterwards sent to Kholmogori to hard labor.
In the morning all the prisoners must line up for the count and at the given signal sing the "International". Before the investigation the singing of the "International" was obligatory, but now the prisoners are not forced to sing. Yet failure to sing is considered evidence of unrepentance and counter-revolutionary obstinacy. After the song the prisoners are formed into groups of ten for work within the camp. These are selected from the healthy and clad inmates. Many go about in such rags that even the authorities do not consider it possible to send them out into the frost. Refusal to work is punished with the dark cell.
The prisoners receive tea three times a day, with three ounces of sugar. Dinner consists of soup made of some fish, while for supper is given kasha (gruel) of wheat or rice, prepared with fat (imported). The products are of good quality; the food is not only eatable but palatable, but there is not enough of it. Till the investigation the daily bread ration consisted of one pound per person; now it has been increased to a pound and a half.
Besides working within the camp, the prisoners are also employed in the camp shops, in which case they are quartered in the shop lodging houses. They are also sent to the city: to the port and to the various institutions. Those working in the shops and in the city receive half a pound of bread above their regular ration, as well as a fourth part of their earnings (the other three parts are divided equally in favor of the famine relief, the camp educational department and the prisoners' fund, for the time of liberation. In view of the falling valuta, this fund is practically a mere fiction). A score of prisoners live in the city in private apartments, and report only for registration. This, of course, is a dream to be attained only by the few elect. There are neither books nor papers; letters arrive seldom, and there are no aid societies.
Soon after their arrival the Anarchists declared a hunger strike, on the ground of the following demands: to be placed together in a separate wing, to have their elected starosta (official spokesman of the group) recognised by the authorities (in the camp the starosta is appointed by the administration), to receive books, papers and personal apparel; permission to associate with the women Anarchists, and some other lesser demands. The hunger strike lasted eight days. The authorities did nothing except to place armed guards beside the hunger strikers. After awhile word came from the Veh-Tcheka that the demands of the strikers concerned the internal management and therefore the matter was to be taken up by the local administration. Assistant Superintendent Lebedensky agreed to satisfy almost all the demands of the strikers excepting their right of association with the women. That question Lebedinsky left to the decision of Katznelson who was soon to arrive and who was expected to legalise the newly gained rights. When Katznelson arrived he refused to enlarge the privileges of the Anarchists and declared that he would not issue the legalising order, on the ground that the Anarchists were to be sent to Kholmogori, their presence in the Archangel camp being only temporary. Similarly Katznelson refused to release from the camp the Anarchists (Afanassiev, Kisselev, Altshuler and others) who had been senteuced not to the camp but to exile. (Incidentally, there are generally cases where those sent to Archangel for exile, with definite instructions to that effect, are imprisoned in the camp).
Thus the eight-day hunger strike proved of no avail, and the Anarchists faced the question what to undertake in the situation. Then the women Anarchists forced their way
