Alexei Alexandrovich had won a brilliant victory at the meeting of the commission on August 17th, but the consequences of that victory crippled him. The new commission for the investigation into all aspects of the life of the racial minorities was appointed and sent to the scene with extraordinary swiftness and energy, inspired by Alexei Alexandrovich. Three months later a report was presented. The life of the minorities was investigated in its political, administrative, economic, ethnographic, material and religious aspects. All questions were furnished with excellent answers, and answers not open to doubt, since they were not the product of human thought, which is always subject to error, but were the products of institutional activity. The answers were all the result of official data, the reports of governors and bishops, based on the reports of regional superiors and vicars, based for their part on the reports of local officials and parish priests; and therefore all these answers were indubitable. All the questions, for instance, about why there were crop failures, why the populations clung to their beliefs, and so on - questions that would not and could not be resolved for centuries without the convenience of the institutional machine - now received a clear and indubitable resolution. The results were in favour of Alexei Alexandrovich’s opinion. But when the reports of the commission were received, Stremov, feeling himself cut to the quick at the last meeting, employed a tactic that Alexei Alexandrovich did not expect. Drawing several other members with him, he suddenly went over to Alexei Alexandrovich’s side, and not only hotly defended the carrying out of the measures suggested by Karenin, but offered additional measures, extreme ones, in the same spirit. These measures, intensified far beyond Alexei Alexandrovich’s fundamental idea, were accepted, and then Stremov’s tactic was revealed. These measures, carried to an extreme, suddenly proved to be so stupid that statesmen, and public opinion, and intelligent ladies and the newspapers all fell upon them at one and the same time, voicing their indignation both at the measures themselves and at their acknowledged father, Alexei Alexandrovich. Stremov then withdrew, pretending he had only been blindly following Karenin’s plan and now was himself surprised and indignant at what had been done. This crippled Alexei Alexandrovich. But in spite of declining health, in spite of family woes, he did not give in. A split occurred in the commission. Some members, with Stremov at their head, justified their mistake by their trust in the inspection commission directed by Alexei Alexandrovich, which had presented the report, and said that the report of this commission was nonsense and nothing but waste paper. Alexei Alexandrovich, with a party of people who saw the danger of such a revolutionary attitude towards official papers, continued to support the data provided by the inspection commission. As a result, everything became confused in higher spheres and even in society, and, despite great interest on everyone’s part, no one could make out whether the minorities were flourishing or were actually in need and perishing. Alexei Alexandrovich’s position, as a result of that and partly as a result of the scorn that fell on him owing to his wife’s infidelity, became quite shaky. And in that position Alexei Alexandrovich took an important decision. He announced, to the surprise of the commission, that he would request permission to go personally to investigate the matter on the spot. And, having received permission, Alexei Alexandrovich set out for the distant provinces.
Alexei Alexandrovich’s departure caused a great stir, the more so as at his departure he officially returned under receipt the travelling money allotted him for twelve horses to take him to his destination.
‘I find it very noble,’ Betsy said of it to Princess Miagky. ‘Why provide for post horses when everyone knows there are railways everywhere now?’
But Princess Miagky disagreed, and Princess Tverskoy’s opinion even vexed her.
‘It’s all very well for you to talk,’ she said, ‘since you have I don’t know how many millions, but I like it very much when my husband goes inspecting in the summer. It’s very healthy and pleasant for him to ride around, and I make it a rule that the money goes for keeping a coach and coachman.’
On his way to the distant provinces Alexei Alexandrovich stopped for three days in Moscow.
