isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

HOME AND SCHOOL
evenings the Spentzers would read aloud the classical Russian
poets-Pushkin and Lermontov and their favourite Nekrasov,
the citizen-poet, whose verses were a protest against the miseries
ofTsardom. Lyova would listen entranced and would demur at
being compelled to descend from the golden clouds of poetry to
his bed. From Spentzer he first heard the story of Faust and
Gretchen; he was moved to tears by Oliver Twist; and stealthily
he read Tolstoy's drastic and sombre play, The Power of Darkness,
which the censorship had just banned and which was the
topic of much hushed conversation among the grown-ups.
The Spentzers had chosen a school for him, but he was too
young. This difficulty was overcome, however, when the registrar
at home made out a birth certificate declaring him to be a
year older than he was. A greater obstacle was that the year
before, in 1887, the government had issued the ill-famed ukase
on numerus clausus, under which admittance of Jews to secondary
schools was so restricted that they might not exceed ro and in
some places 5 or 3 per cent. of all pupils.Jewish entrants had to
sit for competitive examinations. At the examination Lyova,
who had not attended any primary school, failed. For a year he
was sent to the preparatory class at the same school, whence
Jewish pupils were admitted to the first form with priority over
outside Jewish applicants.
At St. Paul's Realschule-this was the name of the schoolno
Greek or Latin was taught, but pupils got a better grounding
than in the ordinary gymnasium, in science, mathematics, and
modern languages, German and French. To the progressive
intelligentsia this curriculum seemed best calculated to give their
children a rationalistic and practical education. St. Paul's had
been founded by the German Lutheran parish of Odessa, but it
had not escaped Russification. When Lyova joined it the teaching
was in Russian, but pupils and teachers were of German,
Russian, Polish, and Swiss origin-Greek Orthodox, Lutheran,
Roman Catholic, and Jewish. This variety of nationalities and
denominations resulted in a degree of liberalism uncommon in
Russian schools. No single nationality predominated, and no
denomination, not even the Greek Orthodox, was favoured. At
the worst, a Russian teacher would surreptitiously pester a
Polish pupil, or a Roman Catholic priest would annoy with subdued
malice a Jewish boy. But there was no open discrimination