Why, in Russia lived the Czar, and a great many cruel people; and in Russia were the dreadful prisons from which people never came back.
Polotzk and Vitebsk were now bound together by the continuity of the earth, but between them and Russia a formidable barrier still interposed.

I learned, as I grew older, that much as Polotzk disliked to go to Russia, even more did Russia object to letting Polotzk come.
People from Polotzk were sometimes turned back before they had finished their business, and often they were cruelly treated on the way.

It seemed there were certain places in Russia--St.Petersburg, and Moscow, and Kiev--where my father or my uncle or my neighbor must never come at all, no matter what important things invited them.

The police would seize them and send them back to Polotzk, like wicked criminals, although they had never done any wrong.
It was strange enough that my relatives should be treated like this, but at least there was this excuse for sending them back to Polotzk, that they belonged there.

For what reason were people driven out of St.Petersburg and Moscow who had their homes in those cities, and had no other place to go to?
Ever so many people, men and women and even children, came to Polotzk, where they had no friends, with stories of cruel treatment in Russia; and although they were nobody's relatives, they were taken in, and helped, and set up in business, like unfortunates after a fire.
It was very strange that the Czar and the police should want all Russia for themselves.