Adr. You have chosen?
Kore. Between my friends and my enemies? Yes.
Adr. Between the body and the soul.
Kore. Soul! There is none in Russia. When we get possession of our bodies we may be permitted to cultivate souls!
Adr. If you would wait a little, Sasha. Reforms are coming. The Czar will grant a constitution——
Kore. He will grant what we take, no more. And what do we gain if he gives us a constitution and keeps his army? If he gives us schools and exiles the teachers? If he gives us freedom and denies it to the men who have won it—our brothers in the dungeons? No, we want our constitution, not the Czar's—a constitution with law and justice behind it, not an army.
Adr. Is it time? There is so much ignorance yet——
Kore. Ignorance! Where is it greater than among our masters? We suffer as much from their stupidity as their oppression. I hate the ass's head more than the tyrant's!
Adr. But the poor, illiterate peasants. Are they ready——
Kore. Viatka and Perm answer that! There, where they have been let alone, they have established the best governed provinces in Russia. But here, where ignorance is protected—do you know what will happen if Yaltowa is burnt? The peasants of Karitz will be led into the town to pillage and slaughter in the name of Christ.