I told Ivan that I thought the general had been exceedingly frank in admitting that he burned the homes of the people and that his soldiers looted and pillaged at their own will and pleasure without restraint. “But he did not admit to you, sir,” said Ivan, “what beastly things they do to our women and little girls.”
Early next morning Ivan awoke me. He appeared to be much excited and asked me to come immediately down-stairs to talk with a man whom he had brought to me. He would not explain, but merely urged me to haste.
When I went below Ivan confronted me with a workingman—a carpenter, I think,—a man of ordinary intelligence. Ivan told me that I must listen to this man’s story.
Briefly it was this: In the dead of night, twelve soldiers with no officer to restrain them had entered his home; they had pinned him in a corner and then each of the twelve soldiers had violated his wife before his eyes.
About the time I was here an official commission was collecting testimony to put on authoritative record the things that happened under “Bloody Alikhanoff.”
“Pacification”
“Of course I order my soldiers to burn down the homes of these people.” General Alikhanoff