Lecture 3: We now take a great chronological leap from the 13th century to the last year of the 18th.
In the midst of the splendiferous and powerful Russian Empire, with its ancient capital of Moscow and new capital of St.
Petersburg, we see the career of a new genius, descended from an African brought to Russia by Peter the Great.
This bright young fellow is brought up in a family whose members adore French literature.
They read it to the boy on every possible occasion, and his extraordinary memory fixes it in place.
They then enroll him in a remarkable school, the Lycée (again, a French name) with the brightest young aristocrats of Russia, under highly talented teachers.
Neither his mischief nor his flair for writing deserted him after he left the Lycée, and he soon found himself banished from St.
Petersburg and forced to spend time in the colorful area of Bessarabia, in the southwestern part of the Russian Empire.
