Note 78 — Chapter XXII · FIRST DAYS AT KARA—FRIENDS OLD AND NEW
Helen Chisholm translation
See portrait, p. 112. Stefanòvitch was one of the most prominent of the Terrorists, who, helped chiefly by Deutsch and Bohanòvsky, succeeded in instructing and organising several thousands of peasants, and was on the point of heading their insurrection when he was arrested in 1877. Stefanòvitch, Deutsch, and Bohanòvsky were imprisoned at Kiëv, and their escape thence has been related (note, p. 98). Stepniak describes Stefanòvitch (see Underground Russia, Jacob Stefanovic, and Two Escapes) as of very strong and original character, extremely reserved, speaking rarely, and, though a man of action, very cautious and practical. He was the son of a village priest, and kept up constant intercourse with his old father, even when it was most dangerous for him to do so, at a time when whole cities would be thrown into a ferment if his presence in them were suspected. His personal appearance Stepniak describes thus: “He was of middle height, and somewhat slender, hollow-chested, and with narrow shoulders. Physically, he must have been very weak. I never saw an uglier man. He had the face of a negro, or rather of a Tartar, prominent cheek-bones, a large mouth, and a flat nose. But it was an attractive ugliness. Intelligence shone forth from his grey eyes. His smile had something of the malign and of the subtly sportive, like the character of the Ukrainian race to which he belongs. When he mentioned some clever trick played off upon the police he laughed most heartily, and showed his teeth, which were very fine and white as ivory. His entire countenance, with his wrinkled forehead and his cold, firm look, expressed a resolution and at the same time a self-command which nothing could disturb. I observed that in speaking he did not use the slightest gesture.” Stefanòvitch has now (1903) been over twenty years in Siberia. It was expected that in May this year he would be liberated so far as to be permitted to reside in some outlying province of European Russia, but this hope has not been realised.—Trans.