1889. Kari tragedy

Nikolai Kasatkin. "Kari tragedy" (1930)

125 years ago, on the night of November 20, 1889, at the Kari convict in Transbaikalia, four women -confused - Nadezhda Sigida, Maria Kalyuzhnaya, Maria Kovalevskaya and Nadezhda Smirnitskaya - took a deadly dose of morphine. They protested against the fact that on the eve of the 28-year-old Sigida was subjected to bodily punishment for trying to give a slap in the face of the gendarme officer. In solidarity with them in a male political prison on November 24, 16 people, led by Felix Koon, tried to poison themselves, taking large doses of opium. Two died - Sergey Bobokhov and Ivan Kalyuzhny.

The Kari tragedy became widely known not only in Russia, but also abroad. Under the pressure of mass protests, the government was forced to prohibit bodily punishment against women. Soon, the political prison of the Kari hard labor was liquidated - the prisoners were transferred to other prisons.