"And what is the substance of your wishes, to put it into a very few words?"
"One word is sufficient, 'Autonomy.' We want independence in teaching, 'Lehrfreiheit' as it is in Germany, independent regulation of our own affairs, and liberation from the direction of another department which has neither interest in us nor understanding of us. This demand was unanimously expressed by all the universities; in Moscow only two professors in the whole faculty declared themselves for the prevalent system."
"Was anything accomplished by this inquest?"
"To a slight extent. We obtained a university court, constituted of professors, and the permission to form scientific societies among the students."
"That is not so bad. And you say that the students are not in sympathy with that?"
"No, they are afraid that discontent may be lessened by these concessions, and they wish to be discontented until they have accomplished everything."
"A constitution and freedom of the press. They do not even use the right to form scientific societies. _At present there is no studying done at our universities_; politics have swallowed up everything, and the radical element has seized the leadership completely. They hope in a few months, by means of demonstrations, and Heaven knows what fateful resources, to attain a constitution, and after that there will always be time enough for study. At present, study, too, would be treason against the cause of freedom. The universities are only political camps awaiting the call to arms and nothing more."
"But in this respect, at least, they must be glad of their independent university courts--that is, that at any rate they punish their youthful misdeeds more leniently than the police."
"No. In the first place, it is only disciplinary matters over which our court has jurisdiction; and then, in the second place, you forget that the students do not at all want to be mildly treated, but to be sacrificed."
"Of course. It is hard to reckon with motives that one scarcely understands. But one thing is still unintelligible to me. It cannot exactly be said that Russia is a radical country in the sense that the whole upper stratum is radical. How is it that the student body, which comes principally from this upper stratum, is so laden with revolutionary tendencies?"