(9) SHOGANATA CHAKH-MISYANZ, 14 years old: I was among those women that did not succeed to hide in time. On Monday morning two Cossacks came up our stair-case. I ran into the room and was about to hide myself, but they broke into the room and one after another violated me. I was a virgin. I became unconscious.[6] Why continue this revolting story? During the length of my stay in this region each day added to the weight of tragedies. I was more than five weeks, all told, in the Caucasus. Time enough for me to see what Russian administration there means, time enough to learn of and to witness the terrible inhumanities of an army of “pacification” under a General Alikhanoff. The hours I spent with my officer companions were pleasant hours, bright with song and laughter. They were good fellows. And yet--I could not but understand, through them, and through other officers and officials with whom I came in contact, why assassination is deemed a legitimate weapon of warfare by the people of the Caucasus. I am a thoroughgoing American in spirit. As such, revolution is my most sacred heritage. If I lived in the Caucasus, suffering and bleeding under Russian misrule, I would be a revolutionist. If my home were invaded, and burned by an Alikhanoff before any legal evidence were gathered against me; if members of my household were abused by Cossacks precisely as hundreds of girls and women there are abused, I think I might reply to these barbarous weapons--sanctioned and approved by the Czar’s government--with the most effective weapons I could command--possibly even the revolver, the knife, and the bomb. It is easy enough to talk restraint, when one has not been wronged. To look upon the things I looked upon in the Caucasus with one’s own eyes brings the awfulness of the régime home with overwhelming force, and if one is not actually driven to take up arms in defense of helpless, outraged, human beings, one is at least forced to charity and forbearance in passing judgment upon the methods of these wronged people in their efforts to defend themselves, and to correct by every means they know the cruel and inhuman régime under which they live and suffer. CHAPTER VI COURTING ARREST A journey in the interior--Warned back--The start--A typical Volga province--Causes of the famine--Arrival at Tsaritzin--Two medical students--“Open! Open to the Police!”--The search--Condition of the peasants--Pesky--A group of remarkable personalities--Village customs--A dramatic meeting--A night ride--A sudden interruption in our plan.