The process of making friends was hastened partly by the advice which worldly wisdom gave me - to be polite to all and intimate with none, to confide in nobody ; and there was also the belief which we all took with us to College, the belief that here our dreams would be realised, that here we should sow the seed of a future harvest and lay the foundations of a permanent alliance.
The young men of my time were admirable. It was just the time when ideals were stirring more and more in Russia. The formalism of theological training and Polish indolence had alike disappeared, and had not yet given place to German utilitarian·
ism, which applies culture to the mind, like manure to a field, in the hope of a heavier crop. The best students had ceased to con·
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sider learning as a tiresome but indispensable byway to official promotion ; and the questions which we discussed had nothing to do with advancement in the Civil Service.
On the other hand, the pursuit of knowledge had not yet become divorced from realities, and did not distract our attention from the suffering humanity around us ; and this sympathy heightened the social morality of the students. My friends and I said openly in the lecture-room whatever came into our heads ; copies of forbidden poems were freely circulated, and forbidden books were read aloud and commented on ; and yet I cannot recall a single instance of information given by a traitor to the authorities. There were timid spirits who held aloof and shut their eyes ; but even they held their tongues.
One foolish boy made some disclosures to his mother, when she questioned him, under threat of the rod, about the Malov affair.
The fond mother - she was a Princess and a leader in society -
rushed to the Rector and communicated her son's disclosures, in order to prove his repentance. We found this out, and tormented him so, that he left before his time was up.
But this episode, which led to my confinement within the walls of the University prison, is worth telling.
9
Malov, though a professor in the University, was a stupid, rude, ill-educated man, an object of contempt and derision to the students. One of them, when asked by a Visitor, how many professors there were in their department, replied that there were nine, not counting Malov.6 And this man, who could be spoken of in this way, began to treat his class with more and more rudeness, till they determined to turn him out of the lecture-room.
When their plan was made, they sent two spokesmen to our department, and invited me to bring reinforcements. I raised the fiery cross against the foe at once, and was joined by some adherents. When we entered Malov's lecture-room, he was there and saw us.
One fear only was depicted on the faces of all the audience -
that he might refrain for once from rude remarks. But that fear soon passed off. The tightly packed lecture-room was in a fever and gave vent to a low suppressed noise. Malov made some ob-6. There is here an untranslatable play on words.
C H I L D H O O D, Y O U T H A N D E X I L E
jection, and a scraping of feet began. 'You are like horses, expressing your thoughts with your feet,' said the professor, imagin·
ing, I suppose, that horses think by gallop and trot. Then the stonn broke, with hisses and yells. 'Tum him out ! tum him out !
Pereat!' Malov turned white as a sheet and made a desperate effort to control the noise, but failed ; the students jumped up on the benches. Malov slowly left his chair, hunched himself up, and made his way to the door. The students followed him through the court to the street outside, and threw his goloshes out after him.
The last detail was important : if once it reached the street, the proceedings became much more serious ; but what lads of seventeen or eighteen would ever take that into account ?
The University Council took fright and induced the Visitor to represent the affair as settled, and, with that object, to consign the guilty persons or someone, at least, to the University prison.
That was rather ingenious on their part. Otherwise, it was likely enough that the Emperor would send an aide-de-camp, and that the aide-de-camp, in order to earn a cross, would have magnified the affair into conspiracy and rebellion ; then he would have advised penal servitude for all the offenders, and the Emperor, in his mercy, would have sent them to the colours instead. But seeing vice punished and virtue triumphant, the Emperor merely confirmed the action of the students by dismissing the professor.
Though we drove Malov as far as the University gates, it was Nicholas who drove him out of them.
So the fat was in the fire. On the following afternoon, one of the porters hobbled up to me, a white-haired old man who was normally in a state more drunk than sober, and produced from the lining of his overcoat a note from the Rector for me : I was ordered to call on him at seven in the evening. The porter was soon followed by a student, a baron from the Baltic Provinces, who was one of the unfortunate victims enticed by me, and had received an invitation similar to mine. He looked pale and frightened and began by heaping reproaches on me; then he asked me what I advised him to say.
'Lie desperately,' I answered ; 'deny everything, except that there was a row and you were present.'
'But if the Rector asks why I was in the wrong lecture-room ? '
'That's easy. Say o f course that o ur lecturer di d not tum up,
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and that you, not wishing to waste your time, went to hear someone else.'
'He won't believe me.'
'That's his affair.'
When we entered the University yard, I looked at my baron : his plump cheeks were very pale, and he was obviously feeling uncomfortable. 'Listen to me,' I said ; 'you may be sure that the Rector will deal with me first. Say what I say, with variations ; you really took no special part in the affair. But remember one thing : for making a row and for telling lies about it, they will, at most, put you in the prison, but, if you are not careful and involve any other student, I shall tell the rest and we shall poison your existence.' The baron promised, and kept his word like a gentleman.
10
The Rector at that time was Dvigubsky, a survival and a typical specimen of the antediluvian professor - but, for flood I should substitute fire, the Great Fire of 1812.
They are extinct now : the patriarchal epoch of Moscow University ends with the appointment of Prince Obolensky as Visitor.
In those days the Government left the University alone : the professors lectured or not, the students attended or not, just as they pleased, and the latter, instead of the kind of cavalry uniform tbey have now, wore mufti of varying degrees of eccentricity, and very small caps which would hardly stick on over their virgin locks.
Of professors there were two classes or camps, which carried on a bloodless warfare against each other - one composed exclusively of Germans, the other of non-Germans. The Germans included some worthy and learned men, such as Loder, Fischer, Hildebrandt, and Heym ; but they were distinguished as a rule for their ignorance and dislike of the Russian language, their want of sympathy with the students, their unlimited consumption of tobacco, and the large number of stars and orders which they always wore. The non-Germans, on their side, knew no modern language but Russian ; they had the ill-breeding of the theological school and the servile temper of their nation ; they were mostly overworked, and they made up for abstention from tobacco by an excessive indulgence in strong drinks. Most of the Germans came