1899: No More Exile To Siberia

ST. PETERSBURG — A proposal is under consideration for doing away with transporting criminals to Siberia. The Tsar has been guided in this matter by the following considerations.

The system of transporting criminals to Siberia has proved, the more the territory became peopled with voluntary settlers, prejudicial to Siberia itself. With the improvement of means of communication, transportation gradually lost its penal character, while the injury done to the country by the exile of criminals thither is annually increasing.

The abolition of transportation and of hard labor having already engaged the attention of the Emperors Alexander II. and III., the Tsar regards the matter as inheritance from his predecessors, and he gave orders yesterday that a commission should assemble to consider the substitution of another penalty for transportation.

— The New York Herald, European Edition, May 21, 1899