Gavriil Gliko's “Road to calvary”: from the history of political exile during the reign of Alexander III

The article uses original archival documents to reconstruct major developments in the life of Gavriil A. Gliko, a Greek subject, during his Siberian exile. While living in Odessa, he got involved in Narodniks’ movement in the 1880s. Although he never took an active part in any of clandestine revolutionary groups he was arrested and exiled as a state criminal to Western Siberia. The destiny of this “little man” is a vivid manifestation of a social and spiritual split between Russian autocracy and society which was increasing in the latter third of the 19th and early 20th century. An insight into Gliko’s everyday life in his Siberian exile reveals the Russian Empire’s punitive policy, the bureaucratic mechanism for decision-making by central and local authorities regarding “state criminals” staying in political exile. The author highlights the details of his struggle against police supervision over political exiles and the tightening of political exile conditions in the 1880s, in general. The key motive for Gliko’s protest actions was his intention to protect his human dignity. The author comes to the conclusion that it was the punitive policies of the Russian autocracy manifested through its decisions and actions, often incommensurate with people’s offenses, that multiplied the number of overt and covert opponents of the existing political system. The judicial, penitentiary, gendarme and police officers at all levels were set to take revenge on and punish “the perpetrators”, even those who were not actively involved in anti-government activities, which was detrimental for Russia. As violence between Russian autocracy and the people mounted, “little men”, such as the Greek subject Gliko, were increasingly drawn into the turmoil of revolutionary struggle against autocracy.