id,
aim. No, I am speaking only of the riff-raff. In every period of
transition this riff-raff, which exists in every society, rises to the
surface, and is not only without any aim but has not even a symptom of
an idea, and merely does its utmost to give expression to uneasiness and
impatience. Moreover, this riff-raff almost always falls unconsciously
under the control of the little group of "advanced people" who do act
with a definite aim, and this little group can direct all this rabble
as it pleases, if only it does not itself consist of absolute idiots,
which, however, is sometimes the case. It is said among us now that it
is all over, that Pyotr Stepanovitch was directed by the _Internationale,_
and Yulia Mihailovna by Pyotr Stepanovitch, while she controlled, under
his rule, a rabble of all sorts. The more sober minds amongst us wonder
at themselves now, and can't understand how they came to be so foolish
at the time.

What constituted the turbulence of our time and what transition it was
we were passing through I don't know, nor I think does anyone, unless
it were some of those visitors of ours. Yet the most worthless fellows
suddenly gained predominant influence, began loudly criticising
everything sacred, though till then they had not dared to open their
mouths, while the leading people, who had till then so satisfactorily
kept the upper hand, began listening to them and holding their peace,
some even simpered approval in a most shameless way. People like
Lyamshin and Telyatnikov, like Gogol's Tentyotnikov, drivelling
home-bred editions of Radishtchev, wretched little Jews with a mournful
but haughty smile, guffawing foreigners, poets of advanced tendencies
from the capital, poets who made up with peasant coats and tarred boots
for the lack of tendencies or talents, majors and colonels who ridiculed
the senselessness of the service, and who would have been ready for an
extra rouble to unbuckle their swords, and take jobs as railway clerks;
generals who had abandoned their duties to become lawyers; advanced
mediators, advancing merchants, innumerable divinity students, women
who were the embodiment of the woman question--all these suddenly gained
complete sway among us and over whom? Over the club, the venerable
officials, over generals with wooden legs, over the very strict and
inaccessible ladies of our local society. Since even Varvara Petrovna
was almost at the beck and call of this rabble, right up to the