Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. A Ruined Family
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were happier, in being able to procure by their labour the
necessaries of life.
After a time, Alexander managed to save sufficient to buy a
locksmith’s shop and tools. His fame as a skilled workman
spread, and orders came in not only from his neighbours, but also
from people at a distance of 200 kilometres. The police,
however, would not allow him to go far from his house,
fearing that he would spread his liberal views among his
neighbours. He received a commission to build a church,
through his engineering abilities, but the authorities vetoed it.
They went so far that they would not allow him to marry,
because his fiancée, being also a political exile, was deprived of
her civil rights.
Alexander sent in an application to be registered as a
common peasant, that he might have, at least, some elementary
rights of living, but for a long time received no answer.
Growing wearied at the delay, he committed the enormous
crime of visiting his betrothed without the permission of the
police. They soon discovered his absence, raised a hue and
cry, and despatched messages in all directions about his
“escape.” He was speedily captured by gendarmes and sent
to his former place of exile.
He would probably have had to drag on this weary existence
for many years, had not the Governor-General of Eastern
Siberia, a kind-hearted man, come to Irkutsk and visited all the
exiles. When he found that Alexander was of no common stamp,
and possessed such great skill in engineering and architecture,
and was besides of a quiet and gentle disposition, he ordered
him to be given a position in the workshop of one of the
goldmines of Nerchinsk. Soon, too, he recovered his civil rights,
and his eight years of martyrdom closed. But it must not be
imagined that his position was restored to him. He will never
be free from the constant surveillance of the police, for all
Russian exiles have to endure this, even after their sentence is
worked out, if not of the regular police, of the secret spies,
which is still worse. But his life became comparatively
bearable; he is married, and allowed to support his family by his
labour and skill.
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