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panegyrics emanating from the officials in Siberia. Thus, not
only Russia, but the learned of Europe were astounded at the
phenomenal longevity among the exiles: in their credulity
they did not suspect that the almost patriarchally long lives
recorded existed only in the “cooked” official lists of the
Siberian authorities, who prolonged the lives of thousands
of exiles for tens of years after their death or disappearance,
in order to put the money received from the government
for their support into their own pockets!
Now and again complaints were made of the enormous
expenses of the system, but even these were disproved
by the fictitious reports issued by the Siberian officials,
who sent in elaborate statements of expenses incurred in
the construction of roads, bridges, prisons, etc., which
it is needless to say were never built. It was not until
such men as Dostoievsky, Lvov, Savalichin, Maximov,
Rovinsky, Yadrintseff and others had drawn aside the veil,
that light began to spread on the real facts of the exile
system and the untold misery of the victims of it. By and
by the imperative necessity of radical reforms was recognised.
But first of all it was necessary to know what and how
to reform. Unfortunately, trustworthy accounts and figures
were wanting. The reformers were thus compelled to make
thorough statistical researches for themselves. But this
gigantic task, which has been going on up to this day,
has been one of almost insuperable difficulty, because the
primary accounts have either been wanting or worthless.
The only reliable data concerning the exiles relate to the
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