Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/281

Rh not participate in this hunger-strike for the reason that, in their opinion, the action of the commandant Masiúkof was not the result of an evil intention, but rather of a weak character and general stupidity. [It is said that Masiúkof, really, is not a bad man.] Finally, at the expiration of sixteen days, the male political convicts persuaded the women to abandon their hunger-strike, and send memorials to the governor of the Trans-Baikál and the chief of the Irkútsk gendarmerie. All of these memorials embodied a protest, on the part of the signers, against the violent treatment of Madam Kaválskaya, and some of them contained a demand that Masiúkof, as the person chiefly to blame for the trouble, should be removed. In due course of time the memorials were answered. The governor of the Trans-Baikál replied that the right to pass judgment on the acts of officials belonged exclusively to the Government which employed such officials, and that any person who should affront or insult a Government official would be held to legal accountability. The colonel of gendarmes in Irkútsk, who was Masiúkof's direct superior, replied that he expected to come to Kará soon, and that he would then make a personal investigation. Some weeks later this officer—Colonel von Plótto—did go to Kará, instituted there an inquiry into the