lock in the morning. It was one of the "white nights" of early
summer, and he sat down by his window. Suddenly the door-bell rang,
and in rushed Grigorovitch and Nekrasoff, who flung themselves upon
his neck. They had begun to read his story in the evening, remarking
that "ten pages would suffice to show its quality." But they had gone
on reading, relieving each other as their voices failed them with
fatigue and emotion, until the whole was finished. At the point where
Pokrovsky's old father runs after his coffin, Nekrasoff pounded the
table with the manuscript, deeply affected, and exclaimed, "Deuce take
him!" Then they decide to hasten to Dostoevsky: "No matter if he is
asleep--we will wake him up. _This_ is above sleep."

This sort of glory and success was exactly of that pure, unmixed sort
which Dostoevsky had longed for. When Nekrasoff went to Byelinsky with
the manuscript of 'Poor People,' and announced, "A new Gogol has made
his appearance!" the critic retorted with severity, "Gogols spring up
like mushrooms among us." But when he had read the story he said,
"Bring him hither, bring him quickly;" and welcomed Dostoevsky when he
came, with extreme dignity and reserve, but exclaimed in a moment, "Do
you understand yourself what sort of a thing this is that you have
written?" From that moment the young author's fame was assured, and he
became known and popular even in advance of publication in a wide
circle of literary and other people, as was the fashion of those days
in Russia. When the story appeared, the public rapturously echoed the
judgment of the critics.

The close friendship which sprang up between Byelinsky and Dostoevsky
was destined, however, to exert an extraordinary influence upon
Dostoevsky's career, quite apart from its critical aspect. Byelinsky
was an atheist and a socialist, and Dostoevsky was brought into
relations with persons who shared those views, although he himself
never wavered, apparently, in his religious faith, and was never in
harmony with any other aspirations of his associates except that of
freeing the serfs. Notwithstanding this, he became involved in the
catastrophe which overtook many visitors, occasional or constant, of
the "circles" at whose head stood Petrashevsky. The whole affair is
known as the Conspiracy of Petrashevsky. During the '40's the students
at the St. Petersburg University formed small gatherings where
sociological subjects were the objects of study, and read th