STUDENT LIFE IN RUSSIA.
Nowhere in the world is the student subject to such a strict, searching, and rigorous discipline as is the student in a Russian university. From his entrance into school the boy of ten or eleven years of age has to go through a long and tedious process of training, the nature of which tends more to fit him for army service than to fill the professor’s chair.
In the preparatory class the boy is taught the names of the royal family in order, and the names of the entire dynasty in their rank and order. These he must know by heart.
Next comes the way to render honor and salute all military officers should he meet them or speak about them. Here, also, he must learn by heart the Russian national anthem: “God Save the Czar.”
Next come marching, and the various military commands. An account is kept of the physical developments of each boy, so that when he is sixteen years old it can be seen by his physical progress if he is fit for the army service.
At this time the scholar receives a passport of “identification” and a book containing the rules and regulations which are to govern his life in the institution.
The discipline the Russian student has to undergo may produce one of two results. The student may be made obedient or abjectly slavish, or the rules and laws by which he is governed may give him food for reflection and create a natural aversion to the authorities.
Here are some of the requirements: Each student must wear a military uniform, with brass and nickel-plated buttons, which have to be polished every day; each student must also clean his own shoes; mustache and beard are not allowed; hair must be clipped close; smoking and carrying a cane are forbidden, as well as the use of any intoxicants whatsoever.
While walking to and from school the student must carry on his back the knapsack filled with books, weighing in all about twenty-five or thirty pounds. This he must do in all kinds of weather.
The student cannot attend any social or public gathering or entertainment, neither can he go to the theater or concert hall. He must not be on the streets after seven p. m. He must not read any newspaper whatsoever, or any books but those written by Russian authors and approved of by the censor.
Any one observing the violation of any of these rules may demand the student’s passport and return the same to the authorities, for which the informer receives a reward, while the student is punished by being locked up for twelve hours in a dark room.
Secret societies or organizations among the students are not to be dreamed of; neither are students permitted to gather in groups. Two may converse or speak with one another, but three together are not allowed.
A young Russian who says he attended one of these institutions is our authority for the statement that there is always among the students one spy in ten. The same person declares that when a spy makes an unfavorable report, the student reported against suddenly disappears.
If inquiry is made for the missing student, the inquirer will be told that the young man was considered a dangerous subject to the community, and was therefore removed out of harm’s way. The teachers, professors, and directors of universities are appointed by a body selected for that special purpose by the czar himself.
Many parents, knowing the risks and the dangers their boys are subject to while in a Russian university, educate them abroad. The young man sent abroad for education is looked upon by the authorities as a dangerous subject, full of liberal ideas and opinions concerning public problems.