Chapter 14: I Shed Blood for Russia! (Seeking Follow-Reads on Tuesday!)

Regarding Nekrasov's attitude toward himself, which had already become somewhat fanatical, Mikhail was initially a bit unaccustomed, but after thinking carefully about the trends of this period, he could understand it to some extent.

After all, in the strict sense, the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century were the realm of Romanticism; so what were the more prominent characteristics of Romanticism?

It was the pursuit of the sublime and the transcendent, as well as the worship of genius and heroic individuals.

Speaking of this, we must trace back a bit in history; for a very long time, Russian culture was deeply influenced by French culture. A typical example was the Russian upper nobility, who absolutely had to speak authentic French. What? You can't even speak French? Then you're probably just a country bumpkin and an outsider, here to beg in our St. Petersburg noble circle!

So in many Russian literary works, such as Tolstoy's "War and Peace" later on, one would find that the noble characters would occasionally blurt out a sentence of French.

But after Napoleon's invasion war, the Russian nobles saw the world and began to re-evaluate France; at the same time, under the intentional or unintentional shift by the Tsar and the upper noble circles, Russia gradually turned the cultural center in its mind toward Britain.

So who were the typical representative figures of Britain in that period? Naturally, it was the well-known great poet, revolutionary, and old London playboy George Gordon Byron.

And Byron's personality, as well as the "Byronic hero" characters in his works—rebellious, lonely, full of passion and melancholy—this image and emotional tendency deeply influenced the young people of Russia at that time, and in a sense caused the occurrence of the Russian Decembrist uprising.

It naturally also caused immense influence on Russian literature; for example, the Russian literature's "Lao Da" Pushkin, before the shift in Russian cultural worship, wrote everything with a French flavor; later, when the shift turned to Britain, the poems Lao Da Pushkin wrote during this period were almost verbatim copies of Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," "Oriental Tales," and other poems.

At the same time, Lao Da Pushkin also successfully became the old St. Petersburg playboy; hmm, another piece of evidence that Lao Da is like Pushkin has appeared...

Ahem, just kidding; fortunately, in the end, Lao Da Pushkin managed to carve out his own path, and this is what gave rise to the subsequent Russian literature.

Before Pushkin, Russian literature was basically a pseudo-concept; most were imitations of Western Europe, completely under the shadow of Western Europe.

In short, the literary circle of this period always held genius and heroic individuals in especially high esteem.

It wasn't just literature; later, many educated youths often found themselves in this situation: In today's Russia, who doesn't think they are Napoleon?

Let's get back to the main topic for now; after verbally reaching an agreement, the two also specifically discussed the concrete details.

Of course, it was mostly Nekrasov speaking and Mikhail listening; after all, professional matters should be left to professional people. Mikhail knew absolutely nothing about serving as a publisher and probably didn't have the energy for it in the short term.

So basically, he just needed to understand what he was going to do next, and sign a simple contract on the side.

Regarding the contract, Mikhail went through it very seriously; indeed, there were no problems, and the profit-sharing terms were truly generous; simply put, fifteen percent of the collection's profits.

Of course, besides the issues of providing manuscripts and being responsible for review, Mikhail also had to put out a small sum of money to invest.

Regarding this, Mikhail could actually accept it; otherwise, he would really feel uneasy about taking this share of the profits.

As for where this money would come from, on one hand, it was Mikhail's upcoming manuscript fees; on the other hand, Mikhail was already considering whether to go to his classmate Dmitri to shake down some money.

Hmm, let Dmitri suffer a bit more; I'll take the infamy!

After discussing these matters, Mikhail was suddenly exhausted beyond measure; meeting with a figure like Belinsky meant Mikhail's brain had been operating at high speed constantly; suddenly relaxing, he truly felt a wave of headache and dizziness.

So Mikhail forced himself to walk back to his apartment; not long after lying down on the sofa, the whole person had already fallen asleep in this narrow and cramped environment.

Meanwhile, in the distant Chernigov Province, Mikhail's letter, after several days of travel, finally arrived in the hands of his current family.

At this very moment, a young girl with furrowed brows was staring seriously at the letter in her hand; she appeared to be in the best stage of her life; even though the whole person was somewhat thin and her hair was a bit withered and yellow, she could still leave a beautiful impression on people.

And when she clearly saw the specific content of the letter, the young girl's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, and her face suddenly had a luster; but just as she kept looking, the young girl's expression suddenly became somewhat incredulous and uncertain.

Just at that moment, Mikhail and the young girl's mother, Praskovya, hurriedly walked over and asked anxiously and uneasily: "Dunya! What did Misha write in the letter? Can such good news make him feel a bit better? What is his current situation? Oh my God, I must send him money immediately."

Praskovya was an old woman who looked exceptionally haggard; time and life had left too many traces on her face, but at this moment, talking about Mikhail's reply letter, her face still burst forth with a particularly different radiance.

Although many jokes were made earlier, but! Being a university student in Russia in this era, especially as a university student with a status approaching that of a commoner, is this a joke?

During this period, noble children had absolute priority in education; entering a noble high school through a preparatory school meant admission by interview, without competition; but commoner children often had to pass several major thresholds; in the preparatory education stage, they had to study Latin, Greek, philosophy, mathematics, natural sciences, etc., and among these, only those with excellent grades were qualified to apply for university.

As for schools like St. Petersburg University, which were full of authentic noble masters, the difficulty was beyond imagination; in addition to various languages, the entrance subjects often involved history, geography, a foreign language, and sometimes even chemistry and physics.

Undoubtedly, this was a barrier specifically set up for commoner children.

But this was also normal; even in later generations, what with educational resources, private schools, school district housing, various competitions, various special recruitment channels, and so on, those invisible barriers were everywhere; let alone now, we authentic St. Petersburg masters, having a little privilege, what's wrong with that?

Looking back to those years, our ancestors all entered the pass with Peter the Great, ate all the bitterness they should have eaten, and shed all the blood and sweat they should have shed!

In short, under these circumstances, undoubtedly, Mikhail was a genius from childhood; what two years old could speak, three years old could recite, five years old could speak in verses, ten years old had finished learning Latin and Greek, thirteen years old...

Of course, this was also the path that most intellectuals who could be named in this era generally walked.

What Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky...

To put it plainly, without some intelligence, one couldn't be an intellectual or engage in keyboard politics.

In this era, keyboard politics wasn't playing house; there would really be a large number of intellectuals taking action guided by this or that ideology.

So much so that later, an assassination attempt on Alexander II, an absolutely ruthless move, appeared; who wouldn't say "I'm convinced" upon hearing it?

Getting back to the main topic, under the above conditions, Praskovya, who had watched Mikhail walk this path, naturally felt deep pride for her son and often felt guilty that the poor family environment had restricted her dear Misha's innate genius.

If not for this, the things happening now would not have occurred.

Thank you to the operations brother, and also very much to the recommendation from Big Shot Xiao Shiguang; it was truly a surprise. In the morning, I was still wondering why the favorites suddenly increased so much; I originally thought I was taking off, but I didn't expect I was taking off riding on Big Shot's east wind (dog head).

Hope that in the future, I can take off relying on myself too, hhh.

Still, thank you all masters for your support; very much appreciated.

Also thank Big Shot "npc1801" for the donation; sending a heart.

This book is planned to be written very long, because the nineteenth century was truly full of stars; besides the well-known masters of Russia, those alive in Europe were simply as bright as the stars.

What Alexandre Dumas, Dumas fils, Victor Hugo, Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Dickens, Zola, Hardy, Mark Twain, Whitman, Heine, Ibsen...

This book is generally a "literary master" novel, but it can also be considered a historical novel, interspersed with some interesting things, and then discussing what differences there are between more than a hundred years ago and today.

After reading a lot of materials, I indeed found that such an era and today's era are so similar; young people of different eras also have the same confusion.

For such a long journey, I hope all the big shots will support and follow-read a lot; at the very least, at the very least, don't forget this book on Tuesday (crying).

Thank you all again.

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(End of this chapter)