Colonel V. A. Pashkov and the Late Nineteenth-Century Protestant Movement in Russia, Jan M. Surer, 1999

hat "new growth should not be interfered with." If oak was encountered in the area marked for cutting, it should be cut for joiners' use rather than just as "common planks." Astrakhan seems to have been one outlet for this timber, and Pashkov considered "hav[ing] at that place a sklad [store] of materials to be sold the whole year round especially if we were to go in for cask making by machinery." 12 He appears to have accepted the new capitalist milieu and 10 Letter to Mr. Hilton, 26 September (old style), 1887, PP 2/l/d/72. 11 PP 2/l/d/95. 12 PP 2/l/d/131. Pashkov hoped that the "working up of all these materials and such employment being offered to the Bashkirs of the surrounding villages [would] put a check to the stealing of wood." 50 was willing to benefit from it when possible. I hear copper will go up in price yet as it has been monopolized by a very powerful syndicate of French capitalists who will keep the price up abroad and ... now dictate there [sic] conditions here. If you could get 13 rubles, I would be glad to sell all the guantity we may produce at that price. 13 The selection of employees, particularly managers or overseers, was a recurring subject in his letters to his son Alick and Owen. 14 Pashkov was very concerned with the character of his managers, and he attached great importance to harmony in their relations with their fellow employees. He was worried at the behavior of one employee named Torrens. "He is carried away by passion and may act unjustly to people, and besides he has little experience," he wrote to Mr. Owen when considering Torrens for a new post in March of 1888. 15 Granted a trial as manager of the copper works at Verchotor, Torrens was to "try and keep his temper under control, acting kindly with the people[,] both the workmen and officials, especially in the case of Giwult [who appears to have been in charge of the Kargalinsky farm] with whom he must cease to quarrel if he is allowed to stay with us." 16 13 Letter to Mr. Owen, February 24/March 7, 1888, PP 2/1/d/lll. 14 A. V. Pashkov (known as Alick) was a student at Cambridge University in the early 1880's. Since Colonel Pashkov's banishment did not apply to members of his family, his son was able to reside in Russia. He passed his officer's examinations in 1888 and reached the rank of major general in 1897 in the Guards. See PP 2/l/d/129, 132; Ikonnikov, L.2, p. 505. 15 PP 2/l/d/117. 16 Letter to Mr. Owen, May 12/24, 1888, PP 2/l/d/131. In the autumn of 1887 both Torrens and a Mr. Hilton had been taken to task by Pashkov for delaying funds to Giwult for the purchase of cattle on the technicality of an unsigned estimate, thus "let[ting] a 51 Of course experience was desirable, as well. One promising candidate for a position had already been working in the region for some time. He was therefore "thoroughly acquainted both with the business, the people and the local