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The complication was of this nature: Alexey Alexandrovitch's

characteristic quality as a politician, that special individual

qualification that every rising functionary possesses, the

qualification that with his unflagging ambition, his reserve, his

honesty, and with his self-confidence had made his career, was

his contempt for red tape, his cutting down of correspondence,

his direct contact, wherever possible, with the living fact, and

his economy. It happened that the famous Commission of the 2nd of

June had set on foot an inquiry into the irrigation of lands in

the Zaraisky province, which fell under Alexey Alexandrovitch's

department, and was a glaring example of fruitless expenditure

and paper reforms. Alexey Alexandrovitch was aware of the truth

of this. The irrigation of these lands in the Zaraisky province

had been initiated by the predecessor of Alexey Alexandrovitch's

predecessor.