"Good —— day!"
This cruel farce went on for nearly an hour. At last Kirilovsky asked whether anyone had any request to make, or any complaint against the administration. His question, of course, remained unanswered. If anyone had had the audacity to make a complaint, he would have been taken to the "Sekirka" (the place of punishment) that very day and been flogged to death with "Smolensky sticks."
Kirilovsky's assistant on the administrative side was, as I have mentioned, Toropoff, a typical vagabond, with goggling sheep's eyes. He was formerly a platoon commander in the 95th Division of Gpu troops, which does guard duties on Popoff Island. Apart from his devastating stupidity, his principal characteristic is that he gets married everywhere he goes. On Popoff Island he was not content with a harem of women prisoners, and got married — for the sixth time — to a "cod-eater." ("Cod-eaters" is the name given by the prisoners to the inhabitants of the fishing settlements round the camps, whose main article of food is cod.)
Kirilovsky's assistant on the economic side was one Nikolai Nikolaevitch Popoff. He was always extremely well dressed, was not a Tchekist and not even a Communist. He was a most enigmatic personality. Sometimes he said he had been an officer in the Guards, sometimes an official with special duties in one of the Tsarist Ministries, sometimes Trotsky's adjutant. He was, in any case, a man of very good education and outward polish. He had an impediment in his speech, and was malignant and cruel in his dealings with "K.R.'s." When the prisoners passed him on their way to work, Popoff used to say to his suite of Tchekists — in a loud voice, so that the "K.R.'s" might hear:
"There's a pack of criminals — do you hear? — criminals! They're our enemies. We'll put the wind up the whole crowd of them!"
The "change of cabinet" made little difference to the situation of the prisoners. The only modification was that "putting the wind up" them, and the thieving of State funds and their modest rations by the administration, became more constant than before. Gladkoff stole openly, Kirilovsky under a camouflage of "honesty."
The Solovetsky life and regime in general — the heavy toll of labour, the reprisals, the self-indulgent manner of living of the personnel — remained as they had been.
[32] Count Araktcheeff (1769-1834), the great Roman military organiser. The military colonies scheme, which he endeavoured (unsuccessfully) to carry out, was one of the many projects of the Emperor Alexander I.
CHAPTER XII
DAILY LIFE, WORK AND FOOD
"A Place in the Lamp-light" — "Outside" and "Inside" Work — No Exemption for Illness — Horrors of Wood-cutting — How We were Fed — Prisoners Starved and Government Cheated.