Read Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia Page 2
PREFACE.
There are few difficulties that cannot be surmounted by patience,resolution, and pluck, and great as are the obstacles that nature andthe Russian government oppose to an escape from the prisons of Siberia,such evasions have occasionally been successfully carried out, and thatunder far less advantageous circumstances than those under which thehero of this story undertook the venture. For the account of life in theconvict establishments in Siberia I am indebted to the very valuablebooks by my friend the Rev. Dr. Lansdell, who has made himselfthoroughly acquainted with Siberia, traversing the country from end toend and visiting all the principal prisons. He conversed not only withofficials, but with many of the prisoners and convicts, and with Russianand foreign residents in the country, and his testimony as to themanagement of the prisons and the condition of the convicts is confirmedby other independent writers personally cognizant of the facts, and likehim able to converse fluently in the language, and writing from intimateknowledge of the subject.