The Kharkoff Lycée--Bogomoloff and Socialism--Atheism--Natural History studies--Private lodgings--Private lessons in histology from Professor Tschelkoff--A borrowed microscope--First article --Italian Opera--The gold medal. In 1856 Dmitri Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff in order to make them enter the Lycée. They passed their entrance examination quite satisfactorily; Kolia was admitted into the fifth class and Ilia into the one below it. They were day boarders and lived in the house of one of their former tutors. This was at a time when the new and liberal reign of Alexander II. was giving birth to many hopes; the Lycées preserved but insignificant traces of the hard regime of Nicholas I. Previous narrow and doctrinal teaching was giving way to a current of realistic and rational ideas, physical and natural science had become the vogue, and professors were trying to come into touch with their pupils and to influence their intellectual development. The boys on their side were founding mutual instruction clubs, attending popular Sunday lectures, interesting themselves in social questions--in fact the revolutionary movement was beginning to strike root. Life in general was intense, aspirations exalted, and hopes radiant. During his first school year Elie worked assiduously in all branches of the curriculum, and his name soon appeared on the honours list. The Russian language teacher became his friend, and greatly contributed to his development by choosing for him books of general knowledge. Under this direction Elie read, among other things, Buckle's _History of Civilisation_, which had at that time a very great influence on the young Russian mind. According to the author's principal thesis, the progress of humanity depended chiefly upon that of positive science; this idea sunk deeply into the boy's mind and confirmed his scientific aspirations.