Sixteen years in Siberia: Some experiences of a Russian revolutionistDeich, L. G. (Lev Grigor'evich)
History
Sixteen years in Siberia: Some experiences of a Russian revolutionist
Deich, L. G. (Lev Grigor'evich)
Deich, L. G. (Lev Grigor'evich), 1855-1941; Exiles -- Russia (Federation) -- Siberia -- Biography
My spirits rose on hearing this. I said to myself, “All is not lost yet.
Perhaps everything will go off smoothly, and I shall soon be set free,
if only the Russian Government is kept out of the game.” That was the
thought which occupied me while the magistrate was writing out the
protocol. He then said, pointing to a gentleman who sat at a table
somewhat apart, “That is the interpreter who is assisting us in your
case, a professor of our University.”
During my examination I had once or twice looked round at this
gentleman. He seemed known to me, and his presence caused me involuntary
uneasiness.
“You can speak Russian with the Herr Professor,” concluded Herr Leiblen,
as he left the room to fetch some document.
“Do you not recognise me?” said the interpreter, turning round.
“Professor Thun!” cried I in great astonishment.
“What! am I so much altered that you didn’t know me before?“ he asked,
and did not wait for my answer, but continued without pause, “How can I
help you?”
“Do you know who I really am?” I asked, without replying, and a cold
shudder ran through me.
“Yes; I know your true name. But there is no need for alarm. You have
turned quite pale!”
His recognition had indeed given me no small fright. I had come to know
Professor Thun about a year and a half before this time in Basel,
whither I had then betaken myself in order that, being there at some
distance from the colony of Russian refugees, I might be freer from
interruptions to my studies than when surrounded by friends and
acquaintances. I had matriculated in the Basel University, and was
attending Professor Thun’s lectures on political economy and statistics.
Karl Moor, a leader of the Basel working-men, had introduced me
personally to the professor, who supposed me to be simply a Russian
student, not knowing me by my real name, but under the assumed one of
Nicholas Kridner. He invited me to call on him, and confided to me his
plan of writing a history of the revolutionary movement in Russia. Of
this plan I had already heard, and it was partly this that had attracted
me to Basel. Professor Thun was a Rhinelander, had studied at Dorpat,
and had then passed some years in the interior of Russia. He spoke
Russian fluently, and was pretty well up in Russian affairs. When he
found, in conversation with me, that I was not unacquainted with the
Russian revolutionary movement, he suggested that I should help him in
his work, to which of course I gladly assented; and thus it happened
that we became rather intimate. In this way I learned Professor Thun’s
views regarding the Terrorists and their deeds. He condemned them
ruthlessly; according to his convictions, it was the duty of all
European governments to refuse such persons the right of asylum, and to
deliver them over as ordinary criminals to the Russian authorities. In
particular I had a lively recollection of the following occurrence.
Professor Thun had given a lecture in the Basel “Freisinniges Verein,”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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