"Up to the present they have confined themselves to patriotic demonstrations. They might become dangerous if they once decided to go to lectures--not even then to their fellow-students, but to the professors, who have greater doctrinal freedom, and who also make use of the right to express their opinions, of course within the limits of their special subjects. [Shortly after this interview a professor in Kharkov who had expressed sympathy for the Japanese was actually informed against by the conservative students and disciplined by the authorities, a thing which led to great student demonstrations.] Moreover, there are special spies which keep watch over the professors and students, but luckily they are too illiterate to understand the import of what is said, and therefore can do little damage." "Are the professors sufficiently in sympathy with each other for the formation of a university esprit de corps?" "Most certainly. The common suffering, the fact that they are forbidden to take open part in politics draw them together. Where in other places rivalries and differences of opinion occasion dissensions, here there is to be found only one solid whole--oppression is the firm cement. And only in this way is it possible to make some resistance to the absolutism of the police. In _open_ resistance we are quite weak, yes, even defenceless, against the brutality of the régime, but in _passive_ resistance we are almost unconquerable because of our close contact with each other." "Ah! And so here there is brought to my attention one of those subterranean sources of public opinion in Russia, which I have so long sought." "Of course. The universities form at least one of the main channels." "And you consider the next generation to be thoroughly impregnated with ideas of independence?" "Thoroughly." To the question with which I always parted from my authorities--that is, what he believed the immediate future contained for Russia--this professor, whose department I am not at liberty to indicate, but of whom I can say that he is particularly well informed, gave the following answer: "We are exhausted. The transition to the financing of railroads, tariff legislation, the tightening of screws of taxation bring in money for a while, but no real power. We are on the brink of a crisis. I believe that the war will greatly accelerate and force us to discount our coupons.[9] Then, in my opinion, it cannot be long before a sort of national assembly is called. This is my belief and my hope. Conditions of excitement like the present ones at our universities cannot be long endured under any circumstances. In one way or another a change must take place, and we must hold fast to the hope of better things." FOOTNOTES: [8] The Russian is liberal until his thirtieth year--and then he joins the rabble. [9] Den Coupon zu kürzen. XXIV BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE[10]