To understand Russia's prisons, courts, and police, you have to be a peasant, a servant, a craftsman, or a small citizen. Most political prisoners belong to the nobility, and they undergo strict imprisonment and brutal punishment, but their fate is still not comparable to the shabby wretches with beards. For those people, the police are never polite. Where can the farmer or craftsman lodge a complaint afterward, where can they seek justice?
It's hard to describe the lawlessness, brutality, tyranny, and corruption of the Russian courts and police. As a result, when the common people enter the court, they fear not the punishment according to law but the trial process. They wish to be hastily sent to Siberia—the time when the punishment begins is also when the torment ends. We will never forget that among the suspects arrested by the police, three-quarters were released after interrogation, but they suffered the same severe torture as those who were guilty.
