We drove to the Hotel Bristol, now the headquarters of
the Jaroslavl Executive Committee, where Rostopchin, the
president, discussed with Larin and Radek the programme
arranged for the conference. It was then proposed that we
should have something to eat, when a very curious state of
affairs (and one extremely Russian) was revealed. Rostopchin
admitted that the commissariat arrangements of
the Soviet and its Executive Committee were very bad. But
in the center of the town there is a nunnery which was very
badly damaged during the bombardment and is now used as
a sort of prison or concentration camp for a Labor
Regiment. Peasants from the surrounding country who have
refused to give up their proper contribution of corn, or leave
otherwise disobeyed the laws, are, for punishment, lodged
here, and made to expiate their sins by work. It so
happens, Rostopchin explained, that the officer in charge of the
prison feeding arrangements is a very energetic fellow, who had
served in the old army in a similar capacity, and the meals
served out to the prisoners are so much better than those
produced in the Soviet headquarters, that the members of
the Executive Committee make a practice of walking
over to the prison to dine. They invited us to do the
same. Larin did not feel up to the walk, so he remained
in the Soviet House to eat an inferior meal, while Radek and I,
with Rostopchin and three other members of the local
committee walked round to the prison. The bell tower of
the old nunnery had been half shot away by artillery, and is
in such a precarious condition that it is proposed to pull it
down. But on passing under it we came into a wide