Note 21 — Chapter V · THE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA—IN THE CATTLE-TRUCK—THE FRANKFORT AND BERLIN PRISONS—THE FRONTIER-STATION—THROUGH WARSAW TO PETERSBURG

Degàiev, a captain of artillery, was a prominent member of the “Naròdnaia Vòlya.” Arrested and imprisoned in the beginning of 1880, he soon turned informer, and betrayed many of his former comrades. By this he not only gained his liberty, but also won the confidence of the notorious persecutor of revolutionists, Colonel Soudyèhkin, commander of the Petersburg Ochrana (a body of secret police). Pangs ofof conscience, or fear of the vengeance of the revolutionists, caused him to make a full confession to them in 1883, and as amends for his treachery he offered to stand by them in an attempt to assassinate Soudyèhkin. The latter was difficult to entrap, being extraordinarily clever and wary; owing to which qualities he had done more harm to the revolutionists than anybody else. Degàiev’s proposal was accepted; and in the winter of 1883 he managed to decoy Soudyèhkin, under pretext of important business, into his house, where two revolutionists were lying in wait, and shot Soudyèhkin down. They were both caught, condemned to penal servitude for life, and imprisoned in the Schlüsselburg fortress. Degàiev escaped to foreign parts, and afterwards disappeared.