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Pioneers | 93 1. Mirkin’s reaction resembles Bazarov’s after his confession of love to Odintsova in Turgenev ’s Fathers and Children. ous irony. “You know how to condemn others for chasing girls—but what about you? You’re a thousand times worse! You don’t need ideal aspirations, but ‘blue veins’ and ‘smiles’! Did you think I wouldn’t understand you? I understood you, you scoundrel, you philistine!!” Suddenly, amidst this terrible philippic, he remembered the words he’d said to Yegorova upon leaving: “You’re just like . . . Turgenev’s Asya. . . .” “Is that a compliment?” he cried in horror, his face blushing with shame and indignation. He was ready to fall through the floor, both from an awareness of his own insignificance and from the thought that with this compliment he’d completely destroyed himself in Yegorova’s eyes.1 He no longer scolded and accused himself. His fall was so obvious and profound that it didn’t need any verbal confirmation and couldn’t be exonerated by words. He stood there motionless for several minutes, withdrawn into himself, cold and merciless. Then he straightened up and said severely, harshly, and decisively, as if pronouncing a verdict, “I’ll be damned if I meet with Olga Yegorova ever again! I’ll be damned if I even think about her!” He left his house and began wandering the streets, forcing himself to walk slowly and calmly, making himself think about Beryasheva’s imminent “betrothal,” about Geverman and his mother, about the literary debate that took placed at Kapluner’s. It was as if he’d gripped his own thoughts in a vise, forcing them to work in a specific direction, not allowing them to return to the episode with Shifrin. After several hours of such intense work on himself, he succeeded in controlling his thoughts, subduing them to his will. Serene, but stern and severe, he returned to his room, extinguished the lamp and lay down on the sleeping bench. He soon fell fast asleep, feeling assured, completely confident, that even in his dreams his thoughts would never dare escape from submission to his will and wouldn’t dare return to the forbidden theme. 30 Mirkin woke up the next morning feeling dejected—and he decided at once that the reason for his bad mood, his quarrel with Shifrin, portended unfortunate consequences. Shifrin was the only person who at critical moments could obtain 94 | Pioneers 1. After his marriage, Abraham Lebensohn spent eight years with his wife’s parents in Michailishok. This gave him the surname “Michailishker.” What follows is a parody on the traditional Jewish blessing, calling on the patriarchs. 2. Micah Joseph Lebensohn (1828–52), son of Abraham Lebensohn; a Russian Hebrew poet and translator. 3. Jacob Reifmann (1818–95), a Russian author and philosopher. 4. Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), a German-Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah was indebted. 5. Moses Aaron Shatzkes (1825–99), a Russian Hebrew author. large sums of money, that is, five or even ten rubles, for urgent or chronic needs. Now this source had dried up, and it was precisely at such a moment when it was necessary to pay the metalworker and when other needs were anticipated. . . . Mirkin was tormented by the idea that he had no right to quarrel with Shifrin. Why had he become so angry with him? In essence, much of what Shifrin had said was actually true. . . .”Some people are terribly harsh to others,” he thought with caustic irony, reflecting on his own behavior. First he set off for the synagogue and asked one of the yeshiva students to divide four rubles and fifty kopecks between two young men who’d left the yeshiva to prepare for the gymnasium and who were now living somewhere outside town, all alone. The remaining four rubles he brought to the Ore Miklet to support those living there for the next month. Meanwhile everyone was gathered there and only waiting for Mirkin to bring the principal “token of betrothal,” the silver coin. At about 2:00 pm the conspirators set off for Beryashev’s shop. Uler walked ahead, on reconnaissance. The rest—Mirkin, Faevich, Tsiporin, and Kornblat— ducked into the municipal garden nearby. They were all in an elated mood. “How did you decide to forsake your textbooks for a few hours?” Mirkin addressed Kornblat, half-joking. “Never mind, I’ll make up for it!” Kornblat replied cheerfully with a sly look, as if he’d cleverly managed to fool...

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