_ XXI
Two years previous to those events a strong and handsome
young girl of an eastern type, Katia Turchaninova,
came from the Don military settlements to St. Petersburg
to study in the university college for women.
In that town she met a student, Turin, the son of a district
governor in the Simbirsk province, and fell in love with him.
But her love was not of the ordinary type, and she had no
desire to become his wife and the mother of his children.
He was a dear comrade to her, and their chief bond of union was
a feeling of revolt they had in common, as well as the hatred
they bore, not only to the existing forms of government,
but to all those who represented that government.
They had also in common the sense that they both excelled
their enemies in culture, in brains, as well as in morals.
Katia Turchaninova was a gifted girl, possessed of a good memory,
by means of which she easily mastered the lectures she attended.
She was successful in her examinations, and, apart from that,
read all the newest books. She was certain that her
vocation was not to bear and rear children, and even looked
on such a task with disgust and contempt. She thought
herself chosen by destiny to destroy the present government,
which was fettering the best abilities of the nation,
and to reveal to the people a higher standard of life,
inculcated by the latest writers of other countries.
She was handsome, a little inclined to stoutness:
she had a good complexion, shining black eyes, abundant black hair.
She inspired the men she knew with feelings she neither
wished nor had time to share, busy as she was with
propaganda work, which consisted chiefly in mere talking.
She was not displeased, however, to inspire these feelings;
and, without dressing too smartly, did not neglect her appearance.
She liked to be admired, as it gave her opportunities of showing
how little she prized what was valued so highly by other women.
In her views concerning the method of fighting the government she went further
than the majority of her comrades, and than her friend Turin; all means,
she taught, were justified in such a struggle, not excluding murder.
And yet, with all her revolutionary ideas, Katia Turchaninova was in
her soul a very kind girl, ready to sacrifice herself for the welfare
and the happiness of other people, and sincerely pleased when she could
do a kindness to anybody, a child, an old person, or an animal.
She went in the summer to stay with a friend, a schoolmistress
in a small town on the river Volga. Turin lived near that town,
on his father's estate. He often came to see the two girls;
they gave each other books to read, and had long discussions,
expressing their common indignation with the state of affairs
in the country. The district doctor, a friend of theirs,
used also to join them on many occasions.
The estate of the Turins was situated in the neighbourhood of the
Liventsov estate, the one that was entrusted to the management of Peter
Nikolaevich Sventizky. Soon after Peter Nikolaevich had settled there,
and begun to enforce order, young Turin, having observed an independent
tendency in the peasants on the Liventsov estate, as well as their
determination to uphold their rights, became interested in them.
He came often to the village to talk with the men, and developed his
socialistic theories, insisting particularly on the nationalisation
of the land.
After Peter Nikolaevich had been murdered, and the murderers sent
to trial, the revolutionary group of the small town boiled over
with indignation, and did not shrink from openly expressing it.
The fact of Turin's visits to the village and his propaganda work
among the students, became known to the authorities during the trial.
A search was made in his house; and, as the police found a few
revolutionary leaflets among his effects, he was arrested and
transferred to prison in St. Petersburg.
Katia Turchaninova followed him to the metropolis, and went to visit
him in prison. She was not admitted on the day she came, and was told
to come on the day fixed by regulations for visits to the prisoners.
When that day arrived, and she was finally allowed to see him, she had to talk
to him through two gratings separating the prisoner from his visitor.
This visit increased her indignation against the authorities.
And her feelings become all the more revolutionary after a visit she paid
to the office of a gendarme officer who had to deal with the Turin case.
The officer, a handsome man, seemed obviously disposed to grant her
exceptional favours in visiting the prisoner, if she would allow him to make
love to her. Disgusted with him, she appealed to the chief of police.
He pretended--just as the officer did when talking officially to her--
to be powerless himself, and to depend entirely on orders coming from
the minister of state. She sent a petition to the minister asking
for an interview, which was refused.
Then she resolved to do a desperate thing and bought a revolver. _