Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/236

220 little acquaintance I have had with Kononóvich, that a Russian colonel is not necessarily a beast." This letter fell into the hands of the police in European Russia, was forwarded through the Ministry of the Interior to General Ilyashévich, the governor of the Trans-Baikál, and was sent by that officer to Colonel Kononóvich with a request for an "explanation." It seemed to be regarded as documentary evidence that the governor of the Kará prisons was on suspiciously friendly terms with the political convicts. Kononóvich paid no attention to the communication. Some months later he happened to visit Chíta on business, and Governor Ilyashévich, in the course of a conversation about other matters, said to him, "By the way, Colonel Kononóvich, you have never answered a letter that I wrote you asking for an explanation of something said about you in a letter from one of the political convicts in your command. Did you receive it?"

"Yes," replied Kononóvich, "I received it; but what kind of answer did you look for? What explanation could I give? Did you expect me to excuse myself because somebody regarded me as a human being and not a beast? Was I to say that the writer of the letter was mistaken in supposing me to be a human being — that in reality I was a beast, and that I had never given him or anybody else reason to suppose that a Russian colonel could be a human being?"

This presentation of the case rather confused the governor, who said that the demand for an explanation had been written by his assistant, that it had been stupidly expressed, and that after all the matter was not of much consequence. He then dropped the subject.

After resigning his position at the mines of Kará, Colonel Kononóvich, who was a Cossack officer, went to Nérchinsk, where he took command of the Cossack forces of the Trans-Baikál. He soon discovered that a small knot of officers, including the isprávnik, were engaged in selling immunity