Nadezhda Sigida - The Kara Katorga Tragedy

The Kara Katorga Tragedy

Sigida arrived at the time of disorders in prison and demands of political prisoners to remove the prison commander, V.P.Masyukov, being guilty of brutal treatment towards the inmates. Nadezhda Sigida slapped the prison's chief Maksyutov in the face. This resulted in her transfer into the criminal section of the prison, and the governor-general Andrei Korf sentenced her to 100 birch-rods. But no one would fulfill the order for corporal punishment of a political prisoner who was a woman, as it was banned. An inquiry was made to the attention of Pyotr Nikolayevich Durnovo, Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, who in his turn reported to Alexander III of Russia. The tsar's response was Flog her!. Pyotr Durnovo filed a second report, stipulating that Sigida was an educated woman with poor health. The tsar's resolution was the same: 100 birchrods.

The sentence was executed on November 7, 1889. In protest to corporal punishment of a woman, Nadezhda Sigida and 29 other political prisoners of Kara katorga took poison and seven of them, including Nadezhda Sigida, died.