My Universities

The «MediaBook» studio presents the audiobook «My Universities» by Aleksei Maksimovich Gorky (his real surname is Peshkov; 1868–1936), the famous Russian writer, prose writer, and dramatist. One of the most significant and well-known Russian writers and thinkers in the world. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.

«So—I'm going to study at Kazan University, no less than that. The idea of the university was instilled in me by the gymnasium student N. Evreinov, a dear young man, a handsome beauty with a woman’s gentle eyes. He lived in the attic of the same house as me; he often saw me with a book in my hand. That interested him; we met, and soon Evreinov began convincing me that I had “exceptional abilities for science.” — You are created by nature to serve science— he would say, shaking his long hair beautifully. Back then I didn’t know that you could serve science as a guinea pig, but Evreinov proved it to me so well: the universities need exactly guys like me. Of course, the shadow of Mikhail Lomonosov was stirred. Evreinov said that in Kazan I would live with him, I would take the gymnasium course for the autumn and winter, and pass “some” exams—he said “some,” — at the university I would be given a state scholarship, and in about five years I would be a “scholar.” Everything was very simple, because Evreinov was nineteen and had a good heart. After he passed his exams, he left. And about two weeks later, I went after him.»