THE HISTORY OF THE KARA POLITICAL PRISON 229

asylums for the insane, and all the existing institutions of that kind in European Russia are full. 1 It is a fact worthy, perhaps, of remark that the life of the political convicts at Kara, which Governor-general Anuchin describes as "unbearable," was made unbearable by the di- rect and deliberate action of the Government itself. Anu- chin caused to be erected in front of the prison windows the high stockade that hid from the prisoners the whole outside world and turned their place of confinement into a huge coverless box ; while the Minister of the Interior, ap- parently without the least provocation, abolished the free command, and ordered the "complete isolation " which re- sulted in the suicide and insanity that the governor-gen- eral seems to deplore. The condition of the state criminals was not "unbearable" under the administration of Colonel Kononovich. It became unbearable as a consequence of the orders that forced the latter's resignation. It was hardly to be expected that young and energetic men would quietly submit to a state of things that was officially recognized as " unbearable," and that was gradu- ally driving the weaker among them to suicide or insanity. In April, 1882, less than a year after Colonel Kononovich's resignation, and less than a month after the delivery of Governor-general Anuchin's report to the Tsar, a few of the boldest and bravest of the state criminals at Kara made an attempt to escape by digging a tunnel under the prison wall. The excavation, which was made under the floor in one of the Mmeras, was not discovered ; but owing to the marshy nature of the ground upon which the building stood, the hole quickly filled with water, and work in it was abandoned. It then occurred to some of the prisoners that they might political prisoners, who dread insanity 1 Report of Governor-general Ami- more than anything else, it is, of course, chin to Alexander III., Chapter V., terribly depressing to have constantly Section 3, under the heading of " Exile before them, in the form of a wrecked Penal Servitude and the Prison Depart - intelligence, an illustration of the pos- ment." (See Appendix H.)

sible end of their own existence.