The clerk of the hotel was an exile, and so was one of the waiters. Isvoshchiks, or hackmen, counted many exiles in their ranks, and so did laborers of other professions.  Occasionally clerks in stores, market men, boot makers, and tailors ascribed their exile to some discrepancy between their conduct and the laws.  I met a Polish gentleman in charge of the museum of the geographical society of Eastern Siberia, and was told that the establishment rapidly improved in his hands.  Two physicians of Irkutsk were ‘unfortunates’ from Warsaw, and one of them had distanced all competitors in the extent and success of his practice.  Then there were makers of cigarettes, dealers in various commodities, and professors of divers arts.  Some of the educated Siberians I met told me they had been taught almost entirely by exiles.

Before the abolition of serfdom a proprietor could send his human property into exile.  He was not required to give any reason, the record accompanying the order of banishment stating only that the serf was exiled “by the will of his master.”  This privilege was open to enormous abuse, but happily the ukase of liberty has removed it.  The design of the system was no doubt to enable proprietors to rid themselves of serfs who were idle, dissolute, or quarrelsome, but had not committed any act the law could touch.

A proprietor exiling a serf was required to pay his traveling expenses of twenty-five roubles, and to furnish him an outfit of summer and winter clothing.  A wife was allowed to follow her husband, with all their children not matured, and all their expenses were to be paid.  The abuse of the system consisted in the power to banish a man who had committed no offence at all.  The loss of services and the expense of exiling a serf may have been a slight guarantee against this, but if the proprietor were an unprincipled tyrant or a sensualist, (and he might be both,) there was no protection for his subjects.  It has happened that the best man on an estate incurred the displeasure of his owner and went to Siberia in consequence.  Exile is a severe punishment to the Russian peasant, who clings with enduring tenacity to the place where his youthful days were passed.

Every serf exiled for a minor offense or at the will of his master was appointed on his arrival in Siberia to live in a specified district.  If he could produce a certificate of good behavior at the end of three years, he was authorized to clear and cultivate as much land as he wished.  If single he could marry, but he was not compelled to do so.  He was exempt from taxes for twelve years, and after that only paid a trifle.  He had no master and could act for himself in all things except in returning to Russia.  He was under the disadvantage of having no legal existence, and though the land he worked was his own and no one could disturb him, he did not hold it under written title.  The criminal who served at labor in the mines was placed, at the expiration of his sentence, in the same category as the exile for minor offences.  Both cultivated land in like manner and on equal terms.  Some became wealthy and were able to secure the privileges of citizenship.