Baron Kriegsmuth

Baron Kriegsmuth is a high-ranking prison official in St. Petersburg, a general of German descent who has outlived his wits, whose duty is to keep political prisoners in solitary confinement under conditions that lead to death, madness, and suicide, and who carries out these regulations with a quiet conscience, believing them to be prescribed from above. He is a figure of immense moral blindness, whose entire sense of duty and self-worth is bound up in the mechanical execution of orders, making him one of the most chilling embodiments of the bureaucratic evil that Nekhludoff encounters in his quest for justice.

Identity and Background

Baron Kriegsmuth is an old general of German descent, described as having outlived his wits. He has received a profusion of orders but wears only one, the Order of the White Cross, which he greatly values. He earned this order while serving in the Caucasus, where he commanded Russian peasants to kill more than a thousand men defending their liberty. Later, he served in Poland, where he again made Russian peasants commit many different crimes, earning more orders and decorations. Now, in his old age, he holds a position that insures him a good house, an income, and respect. He strictly observes all regulations prescribed "from above," to which he ascribes special importance, considering that everything else in the world might be changed except these regulations.

Duties and the Prison System

Kriegsmuth's duty is to keep political prisoners, men and women, in solitary confinement in such a way that half of them perish in ten years' time, some going out of their minds, some dying of consumption, some committing suicide by starving themselves to death, cutting their veins with bits of glass, hanging, or burning themselves to death. He is not ignorant of this; it all happens within his knowledge, but these cases no more touch his conscience than accidents brought on by thunderstorms or floods. He considers these occurrences a consequence of the fulfilment of regulations prescribed "from above" by His Imperial Majesty, and therefore it is absolutely useless to think of the consequences of their fulfilment. He does not even allow himself to think of such things, counting it his patriotic duty as a soldier not to think of them for fear of getting weak in the carrying out of these very important obligations.

Interactions with Prisoners and Nekhludoff

Once a week, Kriegsmuth makes the round of the cells, one of the duties of his position, and asks the prisoners if they have any requests to make. He listens to them quietly, in impenetrable silence, and never fulfills any of their requests, because they are all in disaccord with the regulations. When Nekhludoff visits him to request an interview for Gourkevitch's mother and permission to send him scientific books, the General responds by stating that this does not depend on him, as there is a regulation confirmed by His Majesty concerning interviews. He dismisses the request for scientific books by saying, "Don't you believe it. It's not study he wants; it is just only restlessness." He speaks of the prisoners in a general way, as if they were all a specially bad race of men, and enumerates the comforts they enjoy, such as three courses for dinner, including meat, and a sweet dish on Sundays, claiming, "God grant every Russian may eat as well as they do." He also mentions that writing is not forbidden, as a slate and slate pencil are provided, but the prisoners do not write. He concludes that they very soon get quite tranquil, and even grow fat and become very quiet.

The Old General's Self-Justification

When Nekhludoff asks about the prisoner Shoustova, for whose release orders had been given, Kriegsmuth cannot remember her name, saying, "I cannot remember all their names, there are so many of them," as if reproaching them because there are so many. He then begins persuading Nekhludoff to serve, saying that "honest noblemen" are particularly needed by the Tsar and the country. He does not doubt the righteousness of his position, not because the thing is so, but because if it were not so, he would have to admit himself to be not a noble hero living out the last days of a good life, but a scoundrel who sold, and still continues in his old age to sell, his conscience. After Nekhludoff leaves, the General returns to a séance with a young artist, where they are using a saucer to receive messages from the soul of Joan of Arc, who has just spelled out that souls will know one another by light emanating from their astral bodies. The General reads this with approval, and then asks, "But how is one to know if the light of all is alike?" and again crosses fingers with the artist on the saucer.