Chapter 81 Part Two - Nineteen

Manipulating the fate of all the prisoners in Petersburg was an old general from a German baron.He has made outstanding military achievements in his life and won many medals, but he usually only hangs a white cross in his buttonhole.He is said to have lost his mind by now.During his service in the Caucasus, he received this ankh, which he is particularly proud of.At that time, he led the Russian peasants with short hair and wearing military uniforms, armed with rifles and bayonets, and massacred more than a thousand people who defended freedom, their homes and their relatives.Later, while serving in Poland, he drove Russian peasants to commit various crimes, for which he was awarded medals and new ornaments on his uniform.Later I worked elsewhere.Now he is an old man, but he has obtained this important position, plus a good house, a considerable salary and a distinguished position.He earnestly carried out various orders from his superiors, and was particularly diligent about the tasks assigned to him.He attaches great importance to the orders of his superiors, and believes that everything in the world can be changed, but the orders of his superiors cannot be changed.His job was to put male and female political prisoners in special prisons and solitary cells, so that within ten years half of these people died of colic, some went crazy, some died of consumption, and some committed suicide: some of them died of hunger strike, some of them died with The glass cut blood vessels, some hanged themselves, and some set themselves on fire.

-------- ① Refers to the struggle of ethnic minorities in the Caucasus Mountains against Tsarist Russia in the first half of the 19th century, which was brutally suppressed by the Tsarist army. ② refers to the crime of suppressing the Polish people's uprising by the tsarist army in 1830. The old general knew all this, and it all happened before his eyes, but none of these things touched his conscience any more than the misery caused by natural disasters such as lightning strikes and floods did not touch his conscience.All this is the result of carrying out orders issued in the name of the emperor.These orders are so necessary to be carried out that it is quite useless to consider the consequences of such orders.The old general did not allow himself to think about these things, thinking that the patriotic duty of a soldier does not allow him to think about them, lest he be merciless in execution.

According to the prescribed duties, the old general inspected the prisons once a week and asked the prisoners what requirements they had.The prisoners made various demands on him.He listened impassively and said nothing, but always ignored their requests as illegal. Nekhludoff came by car to the old general's apartment, and the chime bell on the tower was chirping "Glory to God" with a thin chime, and then struck twice.As Nekhludoff listened to the sound of the bell, he could not help recalling the Decembrists' notes about how this lovely hourly music touched the hearts of lifelong prisoners.When Nekhludoff arrived, the old general was sitting in the dark drawing-room beside a small mosaic table, turning a little plate on paper with a young man.The young man was the younger brother of one of his subordinates, a painter.The artist's damp, delicate fingers are embedded in the old general's wrinkled, bony, stiff fingers.The two joined hands held together an upside-down saucer, which turned on the paper on which the entire letter was written.The saucer was answering the General's question: How do souls know each other after death?

The spirit of Joan of Arc was speaking through the saucer when the orderly came in with Nekhludoff's card.Joan of Arc's soul spelled out letters: "They knew each other..." These words were just memorized.As soon as the orderly came in, the saucer had just spelled the word "through" and was slid back and forth.The reason why the saucer is so vacillating, the old general thinks, is because the next word should be "clear", which means that Joan of Arc wants to say that human souls can only know each other by clearing away all worldly distractions.The painter thinks that the next word should be "spirit", and Joan's soul will say that they know each other through the light emitted by the soul itself.The old general furrowed his bushy white eyebrows gloomily, staring at the two hands above the saucer, desperately pushing the saucer toward the letters spelling "Qing", but thought it was the saucer moving by itself.The pale young artist brushed his thinning hair behind his ears, looked at the dark corner of the drawing room with a pair of dull blue eyes, moved his lips nervously, and moved the saucer to the letters spelling "Spirit". push.The old general frowned because the business at hand was interrupted, and was silent for a while, took the business card, put on the pince-nez, grunted because of the pain in his thick waist, stood up, straightened his tall body, and rubbed his hair Numb fingers.

-------- ① Joan of Arc (1412-1431)——French national heroine, led the French people to fight against the British invaders during the Hundred Years War. "Ask him to go to the study." "My lord, let me finish it alone," said the painter, standing up. "I feel like the spirit is still here." "Okay, you can finish it," the old general said decisively and sternly, striding toward the study with firm and even strides on his stiff legs. "Welcome, welcome," the general said to Nekhludoff cordially, in a harsh voice, pointing to the armchair by the desk and beckoning him to sit down. "Have you been to Petersburg long?"

Nekhludoff said he had not been here long. "My lord, is the Duchess in good health?" "Mom has passed away." "I'm sorry, I didn't expect it. It's a pity. My son told me that he had met you before." The general's son was as successful in office as his father.After graduating from the Military Academy, he joined the Reconnaissance Bureau and took great pride in this job.His job is to manage spies. "Yes, I have worked with your father. We are old friends and old colleagues. How are you doing, are you on any errands? " "No, I'm not on any errands."

The general lowered his head disapprovingly. "I have something to ask of you, General," said Nekhludoff. "Very well. What can I do for you?" "I beg you to forgive me if I ask you inappropriately. But I have to trouble you about that." "What's the matter?" "You have a man named Gurkiewicz imprisoned here. His mother asked to see him, or at least to give him some books." The general expressed neither pleasure nor displeasure at Nekhludoff's question, but turned his head on one side and closed his eyes, as though thinking.In fact he was not thinking at all, nor was he interested in Nekhludoff's questions, for he knew in his heart that he would answer them as prescribed.He was just closing his eyes and meditating, not thinking about anything at all.

"It's, frankly, out of my hands," he said after a pause. "The issue of prison visits is clearly stipulated in the decree approved by the highest authority. Anyone permitted by the law can be approved. As for books, we have a library here, and all permitted books can be lent to them." "Yes, but he needs academic books, and he wants to study knowledge." "Don't believe what they say." The general said after pondering for a while. "They're not trying to be intellectual at all. They're just making a fuss." "However, they are in such a miserable situation that there must be some activity to pass the time," said Nekhludoff.

"They're always complaining," said the general. "We know them." He spoke of them as of a special kind of bad quality. "In fact, the conditions provided to them here are very comfortable, which is rare in prisons," the general continued. As if to confirm his statement, he enumerated in detail the comfortable conditions provided for prisoners, as if their purpose were to arrange comfortable quarters for prisoners. "It used to be pretty tough, but now they're well looked after here. They're always eating three courses, and there's always meat: either steak or meatloaf. There's an added dish every Sunday, which is dessert. Oh, God bless, if every Russian could eat such food!"

The general, like all old people, would repeat it several times when he encountered something he wanted to emphasize.Now he wanted to prove that those prisoners were greedy and ungrateful. "We give them religious books, and old magazines. We have plenty of proper books in our library, but they seldom go to them. At first they seem to be interested, but then half the pages of the new books are not cut, and the old books are not. People are interested in it. We also did an experiment," the general said with a half-smile, "and deliberately put some pieces of paper in the book. As a result, the pieces of paper were all intact. Besides, they are not forbidden to write here. "The general continued. "Give them slates, give them slate pens, and they can write for their amusement. They can erase and write. But they don't write either. No, they settle down pretty quickly. They're just a little fidgety at first, Later, he even gradually gained weight and became very quiet," said the general, never realizing how cruel his words were.

Nekhludoff listened to his hoarse old voice, looked at his stiff hands and feet, his dull eyes under white brows, and at his bare cheekbones with slack flesh and skin held up by the straight collar of his uniform, And the White Cross of which he was particularly proud--acquired for the extreme cruelty and bloody massacre--knowing in his heart that it would be superfluous to refute him or expose the substance of his statement.But he still kept his composure, and asked about another case, about the prisoner Shustova, and said that he had received news today that an order had been issued to release her. "Shustova? Shustova... I can't remember the names of all the prisoners. Because there are too many people," he said, clearly blaming too many people for the crime.He rang the bell and ordered the clerk to be called. Before the clerk came, the general advised Nekhludoff to take up some errands, saying that all noble and honest people (he thought he was one of them) were especially needed by the emperor ... "and the country."He added the words "and the motherland" obviously just to make his voice more pleasant. "Although I am old, I still have to try my best to be a good job." The clerk, small and stocky, with intelligent eyes, came to report that Shustova was locked up in a special, heavily guarded place, and that the official papers concerning her had not yet been received. "We'll release her the same day as soon as the official papers come in. We won't keep them, they're not very welcome," said the general, trying to smile mischievously again, only to make his old face look even worse. ugly. Nekhludoff got up to take his leave, trying to restrain himself from showing mixed feelings of disgust and pity for the wretched old man.As for the old man, he thought that there was no need to be too harsh on the frivolous son of his old colleague who was clearly not walking the right path, as long as he taught him a few words by the way. "Good-bye, boy, don't take offense, I say this out of love for you. Don't deal with the people we're imprisoned here. None of them are innocent. They're immoral people. I know them." Yes," he said in an unmistakable tone.He really had no doubts about it, not because it was true, but because otherwise he could not be sure that he was a worthy hero, able to live comfortably and comfortably, and become a betrayer. Conscience, a scoundrel who continues to betray his conscience in his later years. "You'd better get some errands," he went on. "The emperor needs upright people ... the motherland also needs upright people," he added. "Well, what's the matter if we're all as bad as you are? Who's going to do it? We criticize the system all the time, but we don't want to help the government ourselves." Nekhludoff sighed deeply, bowed lowly, shook the big, bony hand that was magnanimously extended to him, and left the room. The general shook his head disapprovingly, rubbed his waist, and walked into the reception room again.The painter has recorded the reply of Joan's soul and is waiting for the general there.The old general put on his pince-nez and read: "They know each other through the light of the soul itself." "Ah," said the general approvingly, closing his eyes. "If everyone's light is the same, how can we recognize it clearly?" he asked, and sat down at the small table again, holding his fingers with those of the painter. Nekhludoff's carriage was just driving out of the gate at that moment. "It's a very stuffy place, sir," said the coachman to Nekhludoff. "I thought of going away before you came out." "Yes, very stuffy," agreed Nekhludoff, took a deep breath, and looked with relief at the soot-gray clouds in the sky, and at the silver lights on the Neva River stirred up by boats and ships Shiny waves.