Days and Years, An Autobiography Giving an Account of Velikovsky’s Life From the Earliest Years Until 1958

7/25/2019 Days and Years, An Autobiography Giving an Account of Velikovskys Life From the Earliest Years Until 1958

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DAYS ANDYEARSby

Immanuel Velikovsky

Foreword

Days and Yearsis Immanuel Velikovskys autobiography down to 1939, when he was forty-fouryears old. hat was the year he and his family !ame to the "nited #tates. $e was then %ust on the

threshold of the far-rea!hing dis!overies that were to !hange the !ourse of his life.

&ertainly there will be no shortage of biographi!al materials from the last forty years of

Velikovskys life, a period that was so ri!h in resear!h, writing, !orresponden!e, le!turing, and

!ontroversy. 'ut Velikovsky did not !ontinue his own life story past the year 1939. (e have his

working title)Off the Mooringfor the post-1939 portion of his autobiography, but this wasnever written. Velikovsky was always greatly interested in finding %ust the right titles for his

books, and Off the Mooringwould have been a parti!ularly apt title for the story of his bold andunfettered voyages of dis!overy. *erhaps some future biographer of Velikovsky may still use that

title.

houghDays and Years stops at 1939, the years that followed are !overed in part by some ofVelikovskys other books and writings. hus Stargazers and Gravediggers !overs the periodfrom 1939 to 19++. he emphasis is upon the story of Velikovskys resear!h and writing and of

the !riti!isms and other rea!tions that his work provoked. evertheless, there is mu!h personal

detail in that story, as there is also inBefore the Day Breaks,Velikovskys a!!ount of hisrelationship with lbert instein. 'oth Stargazers and Gravediggers andBefore the Day Breaks

may be !onsidered semi-autobiographi!al, though neither book was intended by Velikovsky asautobiography.

) /ynn . 0ose

Preface


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In writing these autobiographi!al pages I am guided by two aims. #hould my work and a!tivity

ever merit preo!!upation with my person, I want to prote!t myself from guesses, ina!!ura!ies

and inventions, whi!h all too freuently are the fate of biographies2 and I wish to give to my

!hildren and to my fellow men an a!!ount of a life spent. I !all it kheshbon ha nefesh,a $ebrewepression whi!h has no ea!t translation, and at !losest would be 4sear!hing of the soul5 of a

man who went ways all of his own.

Vitebsk

he an!ient !ity of Vitebsk strides the (estern 6vina. his large stream rises in the Valdai $ills,

in that watershed from whi!h also the Volga flows east, and the 6neper south. ot far from

Vitebsk the 6vina makes a bend and ma%esti!ally !ontinues to the northwest. It empties its water

into the 'alti! #ea in the 7ulf of 0iga. In 8arist times it used to !arry barges and steamboats

with the produ!e of the region to 0iga and from there to the overseas markets.

Vitebsk was the !apital of the Vitebsk 7ubernia, one of the distri!ts into whi!h 8arist 0ussiawas divided. he town had about sity or seventy thousand people, a substantial part of them

being ews: Vitebsk was in the 4pale5)or inside the 4line of permitted settlement.5 It was not

famous for its learning like a few smaller lo!alities in (estern 0ussia, renowned for their

yeshivotor for the great authorities in ewish studies residing in them and thus attra!ting theneedle of the intelle!tual !ompass. 'ut neither was Vitebsk among the !ities in the 4pale5 whi!h

a!uired an unsavory reputation. ot far away was the town of /iubavit!hi, the seat of the

famous dynasty of $assidi!zadiks;righteous menar! &hagall, born in

Vitebsk, who even in his old age, long away from his birthpla!e, !ontinued to depi!t in many of

his paintings Vitebsk and its ews. &hagall and I never met, unless I !han!ed to !ome a!ross him,

a lad seven years older than myself, in the time we both resided in that !ity2 but I left it mu!h

earlier than he, at the age of si and a half, never to visit it again2 yet I !ould fill many pages with

my memories of Vitebsk.

he !ity buildings were severe, rows of windows usually being the only ornament on their naked

fa!ades2 the hamlet sha!ks of the neighboring villages !arried heavy straw roofs over their log

sidings. he hills, the little gardens, the green shutters, all had a pastel, dreamy uality2 and

!louds had golden rims, and !ows in the !ountryside had bells, and birds were inuisitive andtrusting, or so they appeared to me.

?ne thoroughfare, #molenskaya, !rossed a small !onfluent of the 6vina, the Viluika, and led to

the main suare with asobor;!athedral< and !ourt house2 from the suare the fashionable@amkovaya #treet turned past the !ity garden and !rossed the bridge over the (estern 6vina

with a broad view in both dire!tions. #hould one pursue the route beyond the bridge, one would


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pass streets of single-story houses and arrive at the railroad station2 and !ontinuing farther one

would !ome to a large field that on!e or twi!e a year served as a parade ground. bove were

forested hills with narrow paths amid pine trees)the pla!e is !alled #osoniki and it is %ust

outside the town limits. Arom these hills one !ould !ount in the distan!e, between the town and

the slopes, the number of freight !ars in the train that o!!asionally and slowly !rept along the

plain.

here in #osoniki on a late spring day, in a rented !ottage, my mother gave birth to her third son.

It was >ay B9, 1C9+ a!!ording to the ulian !alendar2 in (estern urope and the meri!as it was

une 1D. he late spring of 1C9+ was unseasonably !ool, and my parents-to-be !ontemplated a

temporary return to town uarters, when the labor pains made my mother lie down. In those days

birth-giving was a home affair, not a !ause to go to a hospital. 'ut there was progress in that not

a midwife but a do!tor would attend. I believe it was about two o!lo!k in the afternoon when I

!ame into the world.

I was never shown that !ottage, and on rare visits to the hills I do not remember having noti!ed

any buildings there2 neither was I, at these o!!asions, interested in su!h information. #osoniki

was for me the happy wide field, a few times filled with people and resounding with brass musi!2

the forested hills had paths !rossed by knotted roots of pine trees, to whi!h the pla!e owed its

name (sosnaE piney first name)I have no middle name)was !hosen by my father, as he told me, on that

solitary walk in the forested hills. $e sele!ted it from a verse of the seventh !hapter of Isaiah2

there was no Immanuel among our an!estors known to him. 'ut he was visited by a thought,

almost a wish !ast before destiny, that I would be predestined to a great task in !onne!tion with

the tragi! history of our nation. ?ne has to visuali8e the time, and also the personality of my

father, a dedi!ated ew with a vision of the national renaissan!e. It was a tragi! time, of utter

despair and of utter hope. (hen I was a !hild of si or seven my father would show me the!hapter in the prophet Isaiah where the name Immanuel is found2 more than on!e he spoke to me

of the faith he put in me.

he events around the time of my birth were as if symboli! of the trends my life would take. In

those days heodor $er8l started his diary in a hotel room in *aris, having been assigned as a

foreign !orrespondent to the trial of 6reyfuss. "ntil that spring $er8l, like so many of the


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$ungarian and ustrian ews, felt alienated from the ewish people. hen, while !overing the

6reyfuss trial, $er8l eperien!ed in the !ourtroom something akin to a transfiguration. $e began

to feel his bonds with his an!ient nation, with its %udges and prophets, and with the eighty

generations of eiles, unbroken by perse!ution. It was then that he !on!eived his 4mighty dream5

and on une 1Dth, the day of my birth, he wrote in his diary: 4I am taking up again the torn thread

of the tradition of our people. I am leading it to the *romised /and. 6o not think this is a fantasy.

I am not an ar!hite!t of !astles in the air. I am building a real house.5 In *aris he also wrote the

first pages of his politi!al manifesto, The Jewish State

In 1C9+ Areud, having two years earlier published with 'reuer the first paper on psy!hoanalysis,

began to write his!nter"retation of Drea#s

In 1C9+ a new era in s!ien!e was started by 0oentgen with the dis!overy of F-rays, followed by

the dete!tion of radioa!tivity by 'e!uerel and of radium by the &uries. he old me!hanisti!

philosophy of the world saw the daybreak of a new understanding of the universe.

&onfigurations of planets at the time of birth are !laimed by astrologers as being de!isive for the

destiny of the newborn !hild. In astrology I never believed ;I think I !an eplain its origineir and #arah

Velikovsky,1

until their end residents of >stislav, a small an!ient town south of Vitebsk, renowned among the

ews. his town must have been founded in very early, possibly pagan, times. In the first half of

the 19th !entury there o!!urred in >stislav the so-!alled 4rebellion of the ews.5 n interested

reader will find details of it in the writings of #imon 6ubnow, the renowned ewish historian,

himself a native of >stislav.

>y father was born in Aebruary onsh$shan%&$ri#of 1C+9. $e had a sister older than himself, abrother Aeivel younger by about five years, a younger sister, the mother of >oshe $alevi, andanother brother, Israel. heir mother #ara, a little woman whom I remember on her visit one

summer, probably in 1C9C, was a daughter of a!ob $otimsker. a!ob $otimsker was thought by

the population of the region to be a holy man. $e was the 6ayan ;religious %udge< in >stislav.

$e was all prayer and all humility. In the time when my father was a !hild the !hildren of

>stislav believed that this holy man !ould make himself invisible, and other similar stories were
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told about him. I possess his portrait: a kind fa!e, inuisitive eyes, light brown !urly lo!ks. ?n

his deathbed this 0abbi a!ob blessed all his progeny that none of them would ever need to serve

in the 8arist army)and his blessing held good for almost forty years, until the a8i invasion of

0ussia when a !ousin of mine)a daughter of my elder brother)fell on the battlefield, and

probably many more of the des!endants of 0abbi a!ob served and fell. >y great-grandfather,

who died in about 19D3 or 19DG, must have been born about 1CBD, and the terror of military

servi!e in the army of i!holas I in!ited 0abbi a!ob to sele!t this theme for his benedi!tion.

ewish boys were abdu!ted into the servi!e by 4!at!hers5 at the age of 13 or 1G to stay in the

servi!e for B+ years and then on military settlements for the rest of their lives, without being able

to study rabbini!al law or give their !hildren su!h an edu!ation, a main purpose in the life of

traditional ewry. I was about eight years old when 0abbi a!ob died2 by then we were already

living in >os!ow. Aor days my father did not open the letter informing him of his grandfathers

death, and he wept when he read the news2 never had I heard my father weep so bitterly. he

whole town !losed the stores and %oined in the funeral pro!ession.

I also possess pi!tures of my paternal grandparents. >y grandfather a!ob Velikovsky looks

handsome with an open fa!e and regular features and a bla!k beard into whi!h the first silver

strands had started to spin themselves. I never visited >stislav, and do not know whether I ever

saw him, unless he was one of the elderly men)all of whom !ould !laim to be !alled

4grandfatherH)who visited us in Vitebsk, and who played with my hair, lovingly pulling it.

?f my grandfather, a!ob Velikovsky, my father told me that he never tore off a flower or a blade

of grass, and never killed a fly. >y !ousin >oshe $alevi, who grew up in >stislav, knew him

well.B

$e told me that our grandfather would go alone with his horse-driven !art to the forest, and there

would sound the shofar, the rams horn, in different intonations and rhythms. I would not know

whether he was pra!ti!ing there the art of blowing the horn for the $igh $olidays, or whether he

was spending his solitude in the forest in !ommunion with 7od, as my !ousin would insist. Arom

my father I know that on the #abbath a!ob Velikovsky would speak only in $ebrew2 and sin!e

in those days $ebrew was not yet a spoken language, he eperien!ed diffi!ulties, but would not

give up.

a!ob was a small mer!hant like his an!estors, many generations ba!k. Arom the time of the

&rusades, from the time of the 0oman mpire many of the ews were artisans, mer!hants, andrabbis2 and often the rabbini!al profession was eer!ised simultaneously with the manual or

mer!antile.

a!ob Velikovsky was also eager to do something for the poor of the town. In winter the needy

used to suffer from the !old, being unable to buy firewood by the !art. $e would buy several

!arts of wood and let the needy have the small uantities they !ould afford. >y grandmother
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#ara would go outside in the dark of the pre-dawn winter mornings, on the kno!k of the

4!ustomers5 at the door, to dispense the bundles of wood. #he was small in stature, very tidy, and

a kind person like her father, a!ob $otimsker. 'ut unselfish a!ts !all for retribution)and to the

great hearta!he of my grandparents, rumors rea!hed them of allegations that they were profiting

from this endeavor.

I never saw my maternal grandparents. hey lived in /od8. >y mother was the eldest of ten

!hildren)four daughters and si sons. ahum 7rodenski !ame to /od8 from 7rodno where my

mother was born. mer!hant with a (estern uropean outlook, he traveled abroad and was

highly respe!ted. It was the pride of my mother that she was a daughter of ahum 7rodenski. I

heard also from others that his word in business transa!tions was valued more than any written

do!ument. $e liked my father as his own son and helped him in the beginning of his !areer.

s a boy my father studied in the kheder;preparatory s!hool< together with #imon 6ubnow, thefuture renowned historian of the ewish people. /ike the !hildren of the generation before him

and after him, my father found !andies fallen 4from heaven5 on the table in front of him the first

day at the khederand he, like other !hildren, believed that an angel had tossed them down.

(hen my father rea!hed the age of fourteen or fifteen, he heard the unseen hori8ons !all, and

felt an urge to seek greater goals. he small business of his parents, probably a little shop,

deteriorated2 and it happened on!e that a !reditor slapped the fa!e of my fathers elder sister. his

episode made a fier!e impression on the young man, and he de!ided to strike out on his own and

a!hieve a position in life through study. #tudy meant $ebrew study of the /aw. In >stislav there

were great talmudists, but noyeshiva or a!ademy of learning. >y father !on!eived a plan to go

away se!retly to the famous !enter of ewish learning)theyeshiva of Volo%in. Very possibly hisfather would not have opposed his going to ayeshivahad he asked2 but the reading of a book, I

believe by >endel >oher #eforim, made him emulate the way of leaving the paternal home, and

even the letter of parting he wrote partly !opying it from that book.

(ith a friend whom he persuaded to %oin him #imon departed se!retly from >stislav, leaving a

note for his parents in the hands of his younger brother Aeivel. &ooking their food in the woods,

the two friends !aused a forest fire. fter one or two days mar!h afoot they slept in the house of

a woman who knew and revered a!ob $otimsker. wakening the net morning, #imon heard

the voi!e of his father: travelers who had seen two boys running out of a burning forest probably

dire!ted him. 'ut before starting the pursuit a!ob had asked the advi!e of the rabbi of the town,who advised him to let #imon study and even wrote a letter of introdu!tion to the leader of the

=eshiva of >ir.

In >ir my father was the #at#id;the most studious< of the =eshiva: he spent siteeen hoursdaily in learning, sometimes pouring water into his shoes to keep himself from falling asleep. $e

would not see the sun rise or set, for he would be indoors studying2 and alone, late at his folios,


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he would implore the &reator to redeem $is people. t the words of the prayer 4keeper of Israel,

keep the remnant of Israel5 tears would well up in his eyes.

he time !ame and he was !alled to >stislav to present himself to the !ons!ription board, and he

remained there, o!!asionally studying the 7emarrah at the feet of a lo!al mer!hant-talmudist. $e

improved his knowledge of the 0ussian language word by word with the help of a $ebrew-

0ussian di!tionary. he spirit of $askala, the ewish movement of literary renaissan!e and

interest in se!ular sub%e!ts, was awakened in him. #imon 6ubnow guided him in this, and he, in

turn, kindled in 6ubnow the national idea, as 6ubnow himself wrote, more than fifty years later,

in the $ebrew daily,'aaretzhe issue !arried several other arti!les dedi!ated to my father, and6ubnow narrated among other reminis!en!es, how some Ariday afternoon he was reading The

ove of )ionby the poet >apu on the steps of my grandfathers home.

>y father felt that his world of ideas was too liberal for traditional rabbini!al tea!hings, and he

looked for a !han!e to find a way in life. $is first tries were unsu!!essful, and he began to

a!!ompany his father on his trips to #molensk from where a!ob Velikovsky brought goods for

the mer!hants of >stislav on wagons or sleighs. ?n!e my father remained in #molensk and took

a %ob in a store doing manual work. hen he arranged with his employer to work selling in the

town. 6uring his hours of rest he would try to study at the railway station, but was often asked to

leave2 when late at night he studied by the light of a !andle, the employer in whose house he had

a small room would !all to him to etinguish the light, whi!h !ost money. 'ut on #aturdays my

father used to sit on the suare in front of the synagogue and read, and he greatly en%oyed the

freedom of the #abbath2 he promised himself that he would uphold the holiness of the day of rest

)the great so!ial institution established thousands of years ago by the $ebrew lawgiver)in the

days when he would no longer be dependent on an employer.

hen he started his own business with the blessing and advi!e of one *eter 0ifkin. his man

happened to !ome to the store and, entering into !onversation with my father, was surprised to

find a learned youth at manual work. s soon as his business allowed, my father !alled his

brother Aeivel to #molensk and made him a partner2 and soon many relatives ate at his table.

?ne day my father !on!eived the idea to obtain the agen!y for #molensk from the huge !on!ern

of Vogan, whi!h traded in tea and many other kinds of mer!handise. $e wrote to >os!ow. 0ifkin

advised him not to be so ambitious, but soon an invitation !ame from >os!ow to present

himself. $e waited together with several men of obviously greater wealth. (hen his turn !ameand he made a good impression the 6ire!tor asked him to !ome the net day and sign the papers.

$e answered that he was a ew and would not sign on a #aturday. $ere the story !ould easily

have ended, be!ause Vogans firm did not as a rule employ ews. 'ut my fathers

straightforwardness gained him even more sympathy: the 6ire!tor told him to return on >onday.

$e spent three nights in a hotel near the remlin, listening to the uarter hour melan!holy beat of

the !lo!k on #passky 7ate. (ould somebody !ome to Vogan from #molensk and ask for the


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same business in the meantimeJ $e was un!ertain until the hour on >onday when he was given

the papers to sign. /ater he found out that the mother of the 6ire!tor was ewish and was buried

in a ewish !emetery. $e be!ame the favorite of this man. he 6ire!tor would !all an assistant

and tell him to go with my father and open !redit for him in one bank or another, and the man

would throw his over!oat over his shoulders and go. >any years later, when this assistant

be!ame the 6ire!tor and also the *resident of the >os!ow sto!k e!hange he would stop his

*abrio+et;!arriage< driven by a !oa!hman in top hat, when seeing my father on his early walk,and e!hange reminis!en!es.

I have here gone into some sentimental details of my fathers life and !areer. >y father on!e

wrote his autobiography in $ebrew, during our wandering in the "kraine, in the years of the !ivil

war in 0ussia. his version having been left in 0ussia, he wrote it for a se!ond time in el viv,

this time des!ribing also his work for the revival of the ewish people in its an!ient land and

other efforts for the sake of this homeless nation.

>y father met my mother in the town of #tarodub in the northern "kraine. >y father apparently

!ame there for business. >y mother was sent there by her father to open a bran!h of his trading

house and with her was her eldest brother phim. s I mentioned earlier, my mother was the first

of ten !hildren2 her mother, 'asha, took her out of the gymnasium at an early age in order to help

at home with the ever in!reasing number of brothers and sisters. >y mother regretted not having

had a good s!hooling, and made it a goal in her life to give us, her !hildren, the best s!hooling

possible. =et she !ould speak several languages fluently and at the age of sity, on arriving in the

land of Israel, took herself a tea!her and soon spoke $ebrew and also wrote letters to me in

perfe!t $ebrew.

fter two years of engagement my parents were married. Aor seven or eight years they lived in

#molensk. heir first !hild was a girl, stillborn, and my mother was rather si!k. In the seventh

year my elder brother 6aniel was born in #molensk. fter that they moved to Vitebsk, where

leander was born.

>y father was a dreamer, !hained to his business2 but he also had a grasp of e!onomi! problems

on an international s!ale. >y mother had a pra!ti!al mind with a very strongly developed feeling

of %usti!e2 my father told me how my mother on!e went ba!k to the market to find the vendor

who had given her one single kopek ;half-!ent< too mu!h in !hange.

I have read that /eo olstoy believed that he remembered himself from the age of half a year. I

!ertainly remember myself long before I was three years old, and some of my memories may

refer to my being one year old. >y earliest memory is dreamlike: in a small or!hard or garden I

am !arried on the arm, I believe, of my father2 there was a group of grown-ups, my mother

among them, and the group was slowly walking in the or!hard, it seems toward the house. $ow

old I !ould have been I would not know2 but many memories before I rea!hed the age of three


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are very vivid, not dreamlike, and !ould be des!ribed in many details, as if they had taken pla!e

only re!ently.

he house in whi!h we lived was situated at the riverside: the street, one of the main

thoroughfares, is here !ut by the !onfluent of the (est 6vina, Viluika, spanned by a bridge.

tiny garden was net to our house towards the stream, and a ba!kyard. he house was three

stories high, but the first had a low !eiling and was not o!!upied, but was used for storage and

the like2 we o!!upied the se!ond story. he parents bedroom had its windows to the Viluika, and

in the spring rafts of beams and unatta!hed tree trunks would move from morning till evening

toward the (estern 6vina and down toward 6vinsk and 0iga on the 'alti! #ea. he stream was

small in the summer but in the spring it overflowed and on!e our yard was under water and a

boat floated in it. ?ur beds were at the other !orner of the house2 a pi!ture with horsemen on a

mountain path was above my bed. In the winter snow was outside and the sun was bright in the

windows2 at night I listened to a monotonous sound, and I do not know whether it was a !lo!k or

a drip in the sink or the pulse in my arteries. small and narrow valley lay between the windowsand the net house. It led to a road with a mill, and farther to a field2 the river made there a bend.

In winter on walks there with our un!le Israel, the youngest brother of my father, we would

throw stones that would skip along the i!e, and in spring along the waters surfa!e.

he only pi!ture of us three brothers I know is a photograph showing me sitting in a girls dress,

with bla!k !urls, my brother leander-/ev, !alled /elia, with blond !urls, standing in a pose of

little /ord Aauntleroy, and 6aniel with a short hair!ut. I remember vividly the hour when my

mother took me into the bedroom and !hanged my girls dress to a boys outfit2 my brothers met

me with great %oy when I emerged from the parents bedroom. I remember also when the

hairdresser !ame to us, pla!ed his bag of instruments on the !ou!h, and !lipped my hair,promising that it would be stronger if !ut2 thus my !urls were gone. I was a strong and healthy

boy, the only one of us three who was fed on mothers milk2 my brothers were, as the !ustom

then was, fed by wetnurses. I remember playing under the table when parents and guests dined,

at the age when su!h things are done.

7rowing up somewhat, I would stand in the drawing room, whi!h had a bal!ony, and wat!h the

passing !louds, and pray, probably to the glory of 7od, in my own words. arly I started to learn

$ebrew: a #e+a#ed;tea!her< used to !ome to us2 he would put the book before me)sometimesit was upside down)and I would read the syllables. ?n $igh $olidays we used to visit the

synagogue2 my father had his seat at the ast (all, net to the holy en!losure with the rolls of theorah. he synagogue was situated in a large garden on the uay of the #outh 6vina.

#tanding on the mountain pathway, I liked to wat!h the steamboats with turning waterwheels

moving towards the sea on the broad stream2 and in the winter I remember walking on the i!e of

this great river, a!!ompanied by an employee of my father.


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6uring the summers we used to live in a !ottage on a hill some distan!e from Vitebsk. 'eyond

was a field with rye, farther a forest, in whi!h there were heaps built by ants2 we would wat!h the

ants be!ome agitated when a broken treebran!h was stu!k into a heap. In the forest we !olle!ted

berries. (e tried to persuade a suirrel to !ome down to eat nuts pla!ed on a ker!hief. (e played

in the grass when it was harvested, behind a nearby mill on a lawn surrounded by bushes and

trees. et to the mill there was a road and on the other side of it a pond dammed by the mill2

reeds grew there, and we brought home shells with their o!!upants still inside. narrow rivulet

ran down from the dam, and on!e my brother /elia, who was my permanent playmate, and I

were !aught by the sudden swelling of this rivulet. he road led to a larger road and there I loved

to follow the !arriages uphill and down. Aarther there was a hill with a !hur!h on top and many

ravens flying around and making noise.

?n!e my brother leander and I, probably age + and G, went to a large &hristmas tree party,

arranged by some institution. I would not know how I made the !ausative !on!lusion, being yet

more than twenty years ahead of my medi!al degree, but I thought that the very sweet and tastyalmond milk whi!h both of us en%oyed and of whi!h se!ond helpings were offered from

unwashed glasses, brought measles to my brother)he be!ame ill soon after that evening. he

apartment was divided by a lo!ked door, my brother being transferred to the half where also my

parents bedroom was, my mother taking !are of him, and I was pla!ed under the surveillan!e of

a governess in the other part of the house. 'ut re!overing from measles)then a uite

undesirable si!kness to !ontra!t in view of the many !ompli!ations that the do!tors of that time

were unable to !ope with)my brother !ontra!ted s!arlet fever. gain, entirely on my own, I

arrived at the !on!lusion that the do!tor visiting him daily brought to him the germs of the new

disease. >y mother, afraid of letting me live in the same apartment divided by a lo!ked door, had

me move to an apartment a floor higher. 'ut at last leander re!overed.

In 19DD or the beginning of 19D1 my father left Vitebsk for >os!ow. >y mother soon followed

with 6aniel2 we were left with a 4bonne5 ;Areulein< and partly with un!le Israel. $e was a

ba!helor, liked horses, and kept them when my parents were in Vitebsk. he very move to

Vitebsk was preparatory to establishing a home in >os!ow: only after paying for a number of

years the dues of the first guild mer!hant, !ould my father as a ew make his domi!ile in

>os!ow, generally out of bounds for ews.

hat summer ;19D1< part of Vitebsk burned and we wat!hed the reddened sky from our summer

home. Arom 6aniel !ame letters telling us of the !apital and the many gates in its walls.>eanwhile we, /elia and I, began to learn to read 0ussian and 7erman2 our tea!her was the

4Areulein,5 >eta 0edli!h, the daughter of a miller in evel, not far from Vitebsk. (e had had

governesses previously, but her we !alled our 4beloved Areulein.5 >eta 0edli!h was seventeen

years old when she !ame to us and we be!ame very atta!hed to her.


11/86

In the fall of 19D1, on a walk in the hills of #osoniki, we saw from afar a horseless !arriage, the

first automobile any one of us had ever seen.

References

1. #in!e in many !ases the pla!e of origin of a person was used to form his surname,

Velikovsky)so one of my reader-!orrespondents, also from 0ussia, suggested)!ould

mean the origin of an an!estor from one of the geographi!al pla!es that !ontain ve+iky,asVeliky Volo!hek or Veliky /uki, not far from >stislav.

B. >oshe $alevi was a member of the $ebrew heater $abima in >os!ow and later

founded the ?hel heater in Israel.

3. MoscowG. ?ne day in ?!tober or ovember, 19D1, leander and I were dressed in our warm

!lothes, and winter boots were put on our feet for our travel to >os!ow. (e were driven,a!!ompanied by the 4beloved Areulein,5 in a horse-drawn !arriage over the bridge on the(estern 6vina to the railway station. (e took our pla!es in the se!ond !lass !ompartmentin the train that left in the early afternoon that ?!tober or ovember day. here was ane!hange of harsh words between our Areulein and two gentlemen who insisted ono!!upying the same !ompartment2 but then the gentlemen be!ame more agreeable, andentered into an animated !onversation with our Areulein. In the evening we rea!hed#molensk, but all I !ould see was a pool of water from rain outside our windows. ?nlymany years later, passing through the station in daytime, I saw that, like a fortress, thetown nests on an elevation.

+. In the grey morning I awoke and looked out of the window of the train. In a snowylands!ape of fields and forests trees moved and ran swiftly, the swifter of them, those!loser to the tra!ks, overrunning the trees away from the tra!ks. In my solitary wat!h itappeared to me that the train was !ir!ling for hours as if going up a hill on whi!h>os!ow stood.

K. In >os!ow we were met at the station by our mother and our brother 6aniel, who wase!ited to show us the !apital. (e traveled through to verskaya #treet, and !ame to aresidential hotel in the business se!tion of the town, the itai 7orod, where our parentsand 6aniel lived. here the Areulein and we o!!upied a room. In the hotel I spent timelooking at the in!andes!ent ele!tri!al bulbs with spiral filaments)this was new to me. Inour room Areulein read to us The &rin*e and the &a$"erand the story ofitt+e ord

a$nt+eroyI !ould already read them myself2 I also liked to !opy geographi!al maps,espe!ially of urope, and !olor them.

L. (e lived in that hotel for a few months. he summer we spent on a da*hain #okolniki. Ibe!ame seven, and I remember well that day. >y father, sitting in a hammo!k in thegarden, asked me how many days, in my estimate, I had lived. $aving in my memory aninehaustible store of events, I made a guess)4a million days52 but then, when my fatherbode me to !al!ulate, I found to my great surprise that all my memories !ame to me fromthe eperien!es of some two thousand days only. Aor that birthday my father gave me


12/86

half a ruble, the pri!e of admission to the !hildrens festival, a big affair that happened tobe on that day. his entitled me to parti!ipate in tra!k running)and I remember how Iran, the first of the group, probably admired2 I was, however, overtaken by one or twoother boys, but still felt happy. In the evening there was a lantern festival.

C. ?ne day boys from the other side of the fen!e threw stones at us and we three brothers

fought valiantly against a 4superior5 for!e, and returned stones. ?ne stone hit me in thetemple. >y mother saw me through the window, my head !overed with blood2 but I didnot !ry, and stood my ground. #he ran down the steps and brought me in to wash myhead.

9. hat summer, thinking of the little pool not far away from our da*ha, I made thefollowing invention, whi!h I eplained to my brothers)though, it seems to me, Iepressed it as though it were an event that had a!tually happened. 'y going very swiftlyover the pool, so that before my foot !ould sink I would move it into a new position onthe surfa!e of the water, I would be able to walk on water. his sounded good inprin!iple, but my performan!e was %ust wishful thinking, and a bit of a fantasy.

1D. It was the time of the 'oer (ar. >y fathers interest in world affairs and even more his

preo!!upation with the problem of the ewish people)whi!h must have been alreadythen manifest to me)made me, when on!e asked, 4(hom do you love more, father ormotherJ5 answer 4father.5 $is idealism, in my !onsideration, gave him the right topreferen!e.

11. >y father in his unusually pleasant voi!e sang $ebrew songs at the evening meal withthe !hildren on his lap2 these were songs of longing for Israel, songs des!ribing 0a!hel,who !ries for her !hildren, or telling of a rose, symboli8ing the ewish people, torn andtrodden by the passers by. $e had beautiful melodies for his songs.

1B. ?ne day my father !alled me into his bedroom. here was a steel safe2 he opened it andshowed me a book by 6r. oseph #apir,)ionis#,in 0ussian, and on the introdu!tion pageit was written that the book owed its appearan!e to the munifi!en!e of #imon Velikovsky.

13. >y father had been one of the leading members of the ewish !ommunity of Vitebsk. $ewent to the #e!ond @ionist &ongress in 'asel as a delegate, and there met $er8l who,impressed by my fathers appearan!e, approa!hed him to press his hand. >y fatherreturned enthusiasti! about the new ational 'ank. $e spent many efforts to persuade hisfriends to parti!ipate in pur!hasing the foundations shares, but found ignoran!e andapathy among the people he approa!hed. hen he made an offer to the Vilno @ionist&ommittee, whi!h was the !entral organ in 0ussia, to !ontribute 3DD rubles for a literarypri8e, whi!h was then a large sum. >ore than twenty manus!ripts were sent in2 themanus!ript of #apir won the pri8e. 'ut the !ommittee needed money to print it, and myfather supplied an additional five hundred rubles, a matter nowhere mentioned. It was notknown that my father gave his last money to make this possible2 in his autobiographywritten many years later he !ommented, 4I thought that if everything is fallen, at least thisshould remain from all my efforts.5 ?n this book a generation of ewry was edu!ated tothe national idea. Its prefa!e was written by >oses /. /ilienblum, a noted ewish figure.he book was also translated into other languages.

1G. In >os!ow we rented an apartment on >ilutenski *ereulok, off >iasnit8kaya #treet. Itwas one of the most modern houses, si stories high, with an elevator. It had a frontstair!ase with the fashionable embellishments !hara!teristi! of Aren!h ar!hite!ture of theturn of the !entury. here was also a ba!k stair!ase for the servants)a family would in


13/86

those days usually have two female servants, a !ook and a !hambermaid. he older ofthem were born still in slavery, abolished in 0ussia one year before it was abolished inthe "nited #tates. ?ne day !rowds filled the streets and the windows, and waited long.Airst a dog ran by, frightened by the !rowds2 then 8ar i!holas II drove by in an open!arriage on one of his rare visits to >os!ow. I saw that his fa!e was white with fear, sin!e

from any pla!e a bomb !ould be thrown at him, as it had been at his father.1+. he business of my father was on ikolskaya in itai-7orod, housed in large flats withnumerous workers2 one flat was used as a storage-pla!e for fabri!s, visited by salespeople who traveled to sell the mer!handise2 another flat was a tea dispensary)importedtea was divided by a do8en or more workers into pa!kages wrapped with lead paper andstamped with the name of my fathers firm. >y mother assisted my father, who wasalways above the details, and easily !heated2 but even the !areful and ea!t nature of mymother did not spare the business from a !ollapse in a few years. o doubt the salespeople took advantage of the freedom they had in giving !redits2 and with the outbreak ofthe 0usso-apanese (ar many mer!hants did not pay their debts, and probably also theimport of tea from &hina was hampered. hus my parents saw their business

deteriorating and apparently heading toward an abyss.1K. #oon after we moved to >os!ow, >eta 0edli!h, who used to tell us stories before we fellasleep, left for her home and sent us her pi!ture2 in her stead !ame >r. >esserer, a$ebrew tea!her from Vilno. $e was middle-aged, with a bla!k beard and bald head2 heleft his family at home, and possessing a diploma, but no knowledge, in dentistry, !ouldlive in >os!ow, otherwise restri!ted to the ews. #in!e the time the ews were epelledfrom >os!ow and then sele!tively readmitted, he was the first and only tea!her of$ebrew in the !ity2 he was to a!t as our edu!ator. $e lived with us a few years. (hen inthe summer of 19DG $er8l died, >esserer !ried bitterly. ?n one o!!asion I remember himeplaining to me the !reation of the soul by 7od: a lighted !andle kindles more !andleswithout losing its own light.

1L. >y lessons in 7erman were displa!ed by lessons in Aren!h. 'y moving the family to>os!ow my mother intended to provide for her !hildren the best possible edu!ation2 thebest gymnasium was !onsidered to be the new >edvednikov, or 9th 7overnment7ymnasium, founded from the beuest !apital left by a ri!h and liberal mer!hant. herewere three 4preparatoires5 followed by eight grades. lready in the first preparatoire theknowledge of Aren!h was reuired. I went to eams at the age of seven for entran!e to thefirst preparatoire2 I was asked uestions, both oral and in writing. I made a favorableimpression, and my mother had to de!ide whether to let me or my elder brother, 6aniel,who also presented himself for eaminations to the third preparatoire, be a!!epted: therewas only one 4ewish va!an!y,5 the governmental rule being that ews !ould !omposebut three per!ent of the students. #he preferred, and %ustly so, that the elder brother bea!!epted.

1C. 6aniel traveled to the s!hool, rather far away, and I was sent several times a week to aAren!h lady, >adame &haulet, who lived in the 6olgi *ereulok in the 6evit!hie *ole onthe outskirts of town. #he had taught in the >edvednikov 7ymnasium in former years,and apparently was re!ommended to us to be my tutor. #he was an elderly noble lady, ofthe 0ussian ?rthodo faith, as I %udged by the many i!ons in her bedroom. #he was verykind to me. a!h time I !ame she would greet me, inviting me to have a !up of sweet teaor !ho!olate with !ookies. #he was a good soul.


14/86

19. he way to >me. &haulets house was long. In >os!ow there were no ele!tri! tramwaysas there were already in Vitebsk)only horse-drawn trolleys. I would walk to the/iubianskaya #uare, where stood the building o!!upied by an insuran!e !ompany,whi!h fifteen years later be!ame the headuarters of the se!ret poli!e, a horrible pla!e.?n the suare along the outside wall of the itai 7orod were little wooden stores with all

kinds of mer!handise2 I would stop at stationery displays, at bookstores, and loaf.#ometimes I would buy a ball of !ho!olate with a 4surprise5 ring inside2 the ring had a4stone,5 and all was for three kopeks.

BD. 6aniel impressed on us early that the business of our parents was de!lining, and that theywere having diffi!ult times. herefore, he told us, we had to save some of the travelmoney. >y way to 6evit!hie *ole would !ost five kopeks)half of the way in a two-storyhorse-drawn trolley and the se!ond half in a one-story small trolley)to whi!h I had totransfer at the uay of the >os!ow 0iver. 'ut traveling only the first half on the openupper de!k of the trolley, one paid three kopeks, but had to go afoot the se!ond half. husto save two kopeks I would walk for an hour, but often I would save the whole amount bywalking the entire distan!e both ways, whi!h at my slow, loafing pa!e, took a full two

hours. #ometimes I would go by the long park along the high wall of the remlin,sometimes through the remlin, by the long rows of !annons displayed there sin!e theapoleoni! war. here was one parti!ular !annon, not very big, that I !ould lift by oneend, and I would not miss doing it ea!h time I passed there. he 8ar bell, broken, thesi8e of a house, and the 8ar !annon, with four immense !annon balls, were mypermanent interest. 'ut most of all I loafed, going by Vol!hovka and >o!hovaya, withtheir many bookstores. I would look attentively at the post!ards, and sometimes buy afew, with romanti! !ontent, su!h as a nymph at a well2 but soon I was more and moreinterested in the books, and be!ame familiar with many titles and authors. 6aniel!olle!ted books, and all of us parti!ipated in this hobby2 the books were mainly works of0ussian authors or of foreign authors in translation, as given to subs!ribers of !ertainperiodi!als, usually in !overs with gilded imprints.

B1. (hen one year passed and I again had to present myself for eaminations, I was nota!!epted)my Aren!h was but 4satisfa!tory,5 and not 4very satisfa!tory.5 I went anotheryear to >me. &haulet2 at the same time I had at home a tutor for 0ussian andmathemati!s. $e was a medi!al student named 'ialo, and sometimes he used the lessonsto pra!ti!e on me the art of making bandages, a study that I re!ogni8ed twelve years laterwhen myself a student of medi!ine.

BB. fter another year, at the third try, I had again only 4satisfa!tory5 for Aren!h)this was astrategem to keep me out of the uota, promised to somebody else. >adame &haulet,very indignant, sin!e she knew my knowledge in Aren!h was not the reason for my non-a!!eptan!e, went to the 7ymnasium, where she earlier had taught, to talk to the dire!tor. Idid not have any feeling of degradation in that as a ew I repeatedly met re%e!tion, whilethe 7entile boys found a!!eptan!e with no diffi!ulty. 'ut my mother suffered. ?n!e shewent to see the dire!tor, Vasili *avlovi!h edat!hin, who posed as a liberal yet was of adi!tatorial nature with aristo!rati! aspirations, though a !ommoner by birth. #uddenly mymother burst into tears. proud woman, she !ould never pardon herself this display ofhuman weakness2 but she so mu!h wanted me to enter this s!hool, thought to be the best.

B3. wo years we lived in our apartment in >ilutinski *ereulok, and then we moved into amore modest pla!e in ?bidinski *ereulok. =et the two years in our first apartment)from


15/86

my age of seven to nine)left many imprints. ?ur apartment was on the top floor. natti! was over the ad%a!ent part of the building, and there the !hambermaids or !ookswould hang the washed linen to dry)there was no su!h thing as sending linen to alaundry. ?ne day leander, or /olya as we would !all him, and I went to investigate thepla!e. It smelled of pigeon habitats2 heavy beams supported the roof, with one or two

dormers opening onto the steep metal roof. he domesti!s who happened to be there, anunedu!ated folk unable to read or write, thought it a good %oke to bolt the door andfrighten us by denying us a means of returning. ?nly with !hildren !ould the femaleservants, a!tually still living in semi-slavery ;half-day off every se!ond #unday< permitthemselves su!h a pra!ti!al %oke2 and they laughed behind the door. (ithout mu!hhesitation, leander !limbed out of the atti! through one of the dormer windows. heopening was !lose to the edge of the roof and leander, holding on with his fingers tothe tin of the roof, was moving with his feet towards another dormer)si or seven storiesabove the street. he women seeing him there shouted in fear and opened the lo!ked doorand !alled to me. I, however, was already one leg out of the dormer about to follow mybrother and possibly was already !rawling along the roofs edge. I !limbed ba!k and

made my way out through the door.BG. In 19D+ I went for the fourth time for the eaminations of entran!e. his time >me.&haulet went with me to the eaminations2 I was a!!epted, at the age of ten, to the first!lass.

B+. ow that I was enrolled as a student in the 7ymnasium, my mother took me to a store ofuniforms, and soon I was, like all the others, dressed in the s!hool uniform. It was madeof bla!k !loth, and in!luded a bla!k belt with an emblem on the metal bu!kle, and amilitary !ap, with another large emblem in front identifying our gymnasium. here wasalso an over!oat in blue-grey, very similar to the one worn by offi!ers in the army inpea!etime. Aor festive o!!asions we had a short tailless %a!ket, in a dark !olor.

BK. ?urs was an unusally large !lass)fifty nine pupils2 in the following years the numberdiminished to a little over forty. I still remember most of the names: delgeim, lekse%ev,rkad%ev, rmand, 'leklov, Vaganov, Vargaftig, Vasilief, Velikovsky... ;In the 0ussian alphabet theletter V follows the letter '.


16/86

BC. he year that I entered the !lass, two more students were novit*hkior 4green ones5:7olunsky and 7orbov, both very talented boys2 all the others had already spent threeyears in this group, having started at the first preparatoire. In my !lass there was oneother ew)ugene /unt8, the son of a do!tor. (e were free to abstain from the !lass of47ods law,5 or religion, given by a priest.

B9. ?n my way home from the gymnasium I was often %oined by 7olunski, whom his motherbrought and !ame to pi!k up, whereas other students !ame and went by themselves. $isfather was a military staff do!tor, whom I never saw. $is mother was a large woman. heboy was pampered, always warmly dressed, with warm heavy boots long before thewinter set in. $e was very studious, never parti!ipated in any pranks, always knew hislessons e!ellently, was respe!tful toward authorities, and showed little imagination.Aorty-five years later he was a prominent 'olshevik, a professor of international law,designated by the #oviet "nion as usti!e at the $ague tribunal. t his visit to the "nited#tates I !ould still re!ogni8e him by his pi!ture in the press2 but there was no one amongthe fifty nine students who fitted less the role of a revolutionary or member of the'olshevik elite.

3D. 7orbov was the son of a ewish mother, with whom he lived2 she was divor!ed orseparated from her husband, a %usti!e in a minor !ourt in >os!ow. 7orbov later be!ame apoet, then a 'olshevik2 at the height of his !areer he was denoun!ed and purged.

31. Vargaftig, who grew into a very strong boy, was a bapti8ed ew2 not a few ews bapti8edtheir !hildren to open them a road in life. 'eing bapti8ed, they were never againdis!riminated against. 'eing strong and big and %olly, he soon dominated the !lass, andaround him several other boys of some distin!tion grouped themselves. 'ut he did notgrow up to what !ould be epe!ted of him: he later be!ame a tennis player, a boer, atrainer in sport, but nothing outstanding.

3B. nother group in the upper !lasses !entered around @avadski, a very tall and lean boy2 hewas talented in drawing and liked to parti!ipate in s!hool plays. In adoles!en!e he wasnot interested in girls, and in later years be!ame a noted stage dire!tor of one of thefamous studios of the >os!ow rt heater.

33. It seems that I hurry to tell of these boys as they grouped themselves in later grades andas they grew up2 the fall of 19D+ neither showed yet their talents as !learly, nor presagedtheir future.

3G. I was pla!ed at one desk with a boy of *olish etra!tion: #edle8ki. $e tried by variousmeans to frighten me, but was unsu!!essful. *upils sat two to a desk of good oak. heywere pla!ed at the desks a!!ording to their height: smaller boys at lower desks in front.

3+. Aor eight years I would walk in the morning some four or five blo!ks of >os!ows sidestreets to the >edvednikov 7ymnasium and in the afternoon retra!e my steps homeward.>y way passed a kazienka or a government monopoly store that sold e!lusively vodkain bottles of various si8es. ?!!asionally I would see a man of the labor !lass !ome out ofthe store ;it was not permitted to drink inside


17/86

drunk, and the government of the 8ar obtained its revenue from a monopoly that keptthe peasant and labor !lasses in dissolution and mental de!ay. (hen drafted into thearmy, some of the men !alled to the !olors had, during the training, straw tied to one bootand hay to the other, mar!hing under the !orporals barking, 4straw, hay, straw, hayM5sin!e many of the indu!ted !ould not distinguish right from left.

3L. he 0ussian-apanese war was started for the prote!tion of the possessions and!on!essions of the members of the $ouse of 0omanov on the 0iver =alu and in>an!huria. It is true that upon mounting the throne in 1C9G, ikolas had an idealisti!plan for an international !ourt ;the $ague ribunalos!owgendarmes o!!upied a pla!e a!ross the street from the university and shot at students, butthe population of >os!ow, undeterred by the 4bla!k hundreds,5 the but!hers, and similar4patriots5 of >os!ows lower pla!es, staged huge mar!hing demonstrations and won!on!essions from the 8ar: this was the 19D+ revolution.

39. he 8ar was !ompelled to promise land to the landless peasantry and to grant a4!onstitution5 and a representative 6uma ;*arliamentouremt8ev,gathered in Vyborg, Ainland, and wrote the Vyborg de!laration, inviting the population torefuse paying taes2 >uromt8ev and other signers of the do!ument were senten!ed toprison terms.

GD. Arom one 6uma to the net ;there were fourinister, gave his name to the 4#tolypin tie5whi!h meant a noose at the gallows. >any revolutionaries spent their lives in #iberia2some great men and women, like ikolas >oro8ov and Vera Aigner, spent years andde!ades in solitary !onfinement.

Nor would te !"ar tolerate te illustrious e#orts of some of te nobility$

most notably of %eo !olstoy$ to brin& about reforms' !olstoy did not advocate

te overtrow of te re&ime$ but e was (ersecuted by te &overnment for

is call to return to te ideals of early )ristianity' *ile e lay dyin& in te

station master+s ouse at ,sta(ovo$ a refu&ee from is own ouse andestate$ te -oly Synod$ dominated by te !"ar$ forbade (rayers for te

octo&enarian in any of te ,rtodo. curces of Russia$ and wen e died$

e was refused a )ristian burial' So also was te evil !"ar$ wo was to meet

an evil end' Student Years and *anderin&s


18/86

In the early summer of 191B, when I was a tall seventeen-year-old youth, my wish of severalyears standing !ame to fulfillment: I traveled to the land of Israel. >y father still had not seenthe land of Israel, but he made it possible for me to visit the land, then a urkish provin!e. Ideparted as soon as the term in the 7ymnasium was !on!luded. 'y now I had finished theseventh 4!lass5 and one year was still left before graduation. I went first to ursk to meet my

!ompanion, the arrangement having been made by my father. >r. #upraski was not of my age)he was 3K years old, the father of a family, and a delegate to several @ionist &ongresses. I stayedone or two days at his home. he arrival of a gymnasiast from the !apital was an event in the dulllife of a few young girls in ursk and they !ame to meet me in the garden of #upraski. littledog bit me as I approa!hed the waiting group, but true to the !ode of behavior, I did not eventurn around)yet the signs of the dogs teeth !ould be seen de!ades later.

Arom ursk we travelled by train)stopping I believe at iev)to Vienna. here we stayed for aweek. I went to museums, spent time at the *rater, and attended a meeting of the *arliament,whi!h I remember only ha8ily. (ith #upraski I went to the !emetery where heodor $er8lstomb)in bla!k granite if I remember right)was net to his fathers grave. nother part of the

same !emetary was &hristian. I was in a mood that found epression in an elegy.

Arom Vienna we went to rieste)a bustling !ity, then a part of the ustrian empire and its !hiefport. fter two days we boarded the 4Vienna,5 the boat on whi!h, I believe, $er8l had made hisvoyage to the land of Israel about a de!ade earlier. his was my first sea voyage. he blue waterof the driati! and of the >editerranean, the seagulls following the ship, !rimson stony &rete,and the !olorful sunsets, all impressed me. In *ort #aid we spent one night, and the silvery !almwater of the port, with numerous boats and shouting gyptians, was again a new and eoti!s!ene to my eyes and ears. (e traveled now in the first !lass of some ?ttoman ship, and the food,served with innumerable dishes, in!luding big !akes with !andles burning inside !asting areddish illumination, had a flavor out of the Tho$sand and One -ightsin the !apital of el-0ashid.

'e!ause of the urkish-Italian war our ship went all the way to 'eirut. here I lent my passportto a ewish youth who had left 0ussia to es!ape servi!e in the 8arist army. fter he entered the!ountry ;?ttoman urkey


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house of an meri!an !antor, I saw a girl whose fa!e and figure !aught my imagination2 she hadlarge dark eyes, a 0oman nose, was dreamy, and was an embodiment of my taste then, an?riental beauty2 she was, as I found out, only fourteen years old, but ripe for that age. I was inlove with her at first sight. I hardly spoke to her, if at all. he net morning a lady guest at thelittle hotel in whi!h we were staying volunteered to show me where the girl lived and we went to

a little one-story house with green shutters2 the girl)sther 'ashist was her name)!ame out,and I saw her again. Aor many years she was in my thoughts my future bride. o her and her littlehouse I wrote some poetry, and for the net ten years, in faithfulness to her, I preserved my4inno!en!e5 or !eliba!y, until I found my real !ompanion in life.

(e went as far south as atra ;$ederaerhavia. his was the only settlement in the mek ;the plainigdal. >y father was the initiator andorgani8er of the group that had pur!hased >igdal, but he himself did not parti!ipate in theownership sin!e he wished the movement he started to be demo!rati! and popular and note!lusive, as Visot8ki and other people whom he influen!ed to pur!hase the land wanted it to be.

(e did not go farther north, nor did we visit south of $edera. t about that time 0uhama, in thesouth)my fathers se!ond 4pioneer !olony5)was in the throes of being born.

(e spent five weeks in *alestine. I parted with #upraski, who felt a little ill in el-viv, and Iwent to gypt on the de!k of an rab boat. I slept in the life boat that was suspended above thede!k, alone amidst the barefoot rabs, probably pilgrims. ?n the train from #ue8 to &airo it wasso hot that I !ould not help but drink water from the tap in the dirty toilet !ompartment, and Iwonder than I did not !at!h some disease. In &airo I spent several days, went up the &heopspyramid, pulled and pushed by three paid guides, and sitting to rest halfway up felt theimmensity of the stru!ture over the great valley.

?n the streets of &airo, as before in Vienna, prostitutes approa!hed the seventeen-year-old youth,without evoking in him even the slightest desire to follow them.

In leandria I boarded a 0ussian ship bound for ?dessa. I visited *iraeus, went to thens, and!limbed the !ropolis)and was almost late getting ba!k to the ship. In #myrna, on urkeysegean !oast, I went with two students from *etersburg to see the town and the surroundings2from afar our guide pointed out the pla!e where, he said, roy on!e stood)whi!h, I understand,!ould not be the true site. wo oarsmen in their boat !arried us to the ship in #myrna harbor. he


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two !o!ky students in white helmets had some disagreement with the oarsmen, and when one ofthe students pulled a revolver out of his po!ket to intimidate the men, one of these, a true bandit,beat him over his helmeted head with the oar, and only the helmet saved him2 there was blood toall sides. I bent down to help the wounded, and the people who witnessed the s!ene from the shiptold me later that by this movement I saved myself, sin!e the other oarsman, behind me, was

about to stab me with his knife. he shouts from the ship made the oarsmen let us out, to anotherboat, or to the ship itself.

In Istanbul I wandered alone, saw $agia #ophia, visited *erun and 7alata. I saw the dirt and the!olors of the oriental !ity, and the little wooden !ubi!les on the streets where brothel women!alled to the marines. hen, ba!k on the boat, I remember its uiet glide through 'osporus, astorm in the 'la!k #ea, and the landing in ?dessa and a walk on its promenade above the port.Arom there I pro!eeded to iev. ?n ievs main street I !han!ed to meet #upraski who was onhis way ba!k from the land of Israel.

It was the middle of the summer when I returned to >os!ow. 0iding in a horse-driven !arriage

through the street where >me. &haulet lived, I was filled with reminis!en!es of the years I usedto visit her almost daily between the ages of seven and ten. 0eturning from the south, thesummer in >os!ow felt !hilly. ?n ugust 1K ;old style


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I knew history books by heart, and won high praise for my 0ussian !omposition. >y permanentprote!tor was 'oris Ivanovit!h 6unaev. $is le!tures were inspired. $e loved the old 0ussianliterature and traveled in northern regions and !olle!ted by+ins, or songs and ballads, often ofepi! !hara!ter. ?n!e the tea!her of nglish, duard Isaievit!h 0adunski, stopped before me inthe !lass, and !ould not help telling me that at one of the tea!hers meetings 6unaev had

epressed his belief that I would be the future great 0ussian poet.

I, too, liked the old 0ussian by+ins, and the !harms of the language. nd whether it was the storyof *rotopope bbakume, sent away into eile for hereti!al views, or the song about the youngmer!hant alashnikov, by /ermontov, or the tribulations of urgenevs 0udin, whom I defendedin a !ir!le on literature under 6unaev that !ame together some evenings, I lived in 0ussianliterature, and everyone thought that after graduation I would study philology. ?n!e during thephysi!s le!ture, I believe it was the last year, I was observed by the tea!her 'aranov reading abook by >ere%novski on olstoi and 6ostoievsky, and he, with some measure of respe!t to thisinterest of mine, took the book away and gave it to the Inspe!tor ;se!ond only to the 6ire!torurahovsky was a silent,friendly, and industrious pupil. 'ut in our !lass seven gold medals were given, and it was saidthat it was on a!!ount of edat!hins, the 6ire!tors, leaving that year, that the s!hool made thisrather unusual 4splash5)unless our !lass had a true !olle!tion of very !apable students.


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he summer after my graduation)and what a feeling of freedom and relief)we three brothersspent several weeks in Ainland. here, after a visit in Viborg and $elsinki ;$elsingforsy father advised me to talk over the !hoi!e of university with a lawyer, "rison, a friend of his2he advised me to !hoose >ontpellier in the south of Aran!e. I still remember many episodes ofmy %ourney to >ontpellier. ?ne late evening and night I spent on the train, my neighbors beingpeople of show business or the !ir!us. I stopped in Arankfurt on >ain and observed a @eppelinover the town, then a new sight. I did my sightseeing dutifully, visiting the 0oths!hild library2
http://www.varchive.org/dy/student.htm#1http://www.varchive.org/dy/student.htm#1


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!ool ourselves off by a long night walk. (e ate and slept in a little !hamber in the village and inthe morning we !ontinued southward, !limbed towards a !astle built a thousand years earlier by&harles >artel, saw the epanse of the >editerranean)at the other end, we knew, was the landof Israel)and wandered farther amid the dunes and the lagoons.

'a!k in >ontpellier, soon after the !lasses started, we were unpleasantly impressed by therigorous dis!ipline and the disrespe!t shown by the tea!hers to the pupils in one of the !lasses)this was far different from the freedom we had known as students in the universities of 0ussia.#tanding on the platform near my home, from where the auedu!t started, with a bright viewstret!hing in front of us, I suggested to >arek that we not !ontinue the !lasses but go together toIsrael)to whi!h he gladly agreed. ?ur friends in the group were impressed by this de!ision2 tous it seemed to be merely the natural and immediate !onseuen!e of our @ionist attitude.

(e traveled to >arseilles2 from there we wrote home of our de!ision. Visiting the geographi!also!iety of >arseilles, we asked to be shown maps of the #inai peninsula, sin!e we had a fleetingidea to !ross the peninsula by foot, thus repeating the desert wanderings of the !hildren of Israel.

(e were dissuaded from the plan, being made aware of the la!k of roads and of our own la!k ofpreparation. his !ourse would have been rather perilous, if reali8able at all. (e bought tworevolvers in >arseilles.

&limbing the hill on whi!h stands the !hur!h with a giganti! >adonna on its roof, we looked outat the island made famous by the novel The /o$nt of Monte /risto, whi!h I had read many yearsearlier when I was about twelve. hen we boarded a ship2 it brought us to gypt, again on theblue waters of the sea familiar to me from my travels less than a year and a half earlier. In gyptwe found letters from our parents. >y mother regretted my de!ision to drop the study ofmedi!ine, but my father wrote me an enthusiasti! letter and blessed me on my road. >areksparents thought his step unwise. >areks father was a publisher of art books in >os!ow2 he eked

out his eisten!e, and it was an effort to send a son to study abroad. >i!haels monthly !he!kwas not big, less than half of mine. either did >areks parents feel bound to the land of Israel inany way.

In &airo we !limbed the pyramids, but on!e again I omitted visiting their interior)fa!ed withthe !hoi!e, it appeared more interesting to spend money for the as!ent. 'y boat we !ame to affa.In el-viv we re!eived from 'e8alel affe, one of the leading !iti8ens and a remote relative ofmy mother, a letter to isenberg, the dire!tor of gudath-etaim, in 0e!hoboth. (e were seenonly by his assistant, and were in!luded in the !adres of plantation workers on a day-to-daybasis. (e took two rooms in the 4!olony,5 as 0ehoboth and other settlements were !alled, andate in a primitive laborers kit!hen. 'ut of work in the field not mu!h was done: it was the rainyseason and during the rain we had to stay home and were not paid. ?ne day we worked at sli!ingthe earth and pulling out the roots of ingi+,a strong weed, and my tallness was not an advantagesin!e the work was done in a bending position. nother day we worked in planting. nd again!easeless days of rain. #ome days we subsisted on !ho!olate powder and !ondensed milk,preparing this drink again and again. In our room, I read 6ostoievskys The Brothers 0ara#azovand was impressed.


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I met sther 'ashist at the suare where mail was re!eived, and again on a late afternoon on thehills near 0ehoboth, when other girls were with her. I languished, hardly e!hanging a word withher. his was untypi!al sin!e among my friends in the 7ymnasium I was the most daring andable to start an a!uaintan!e with a girl, surprising these 4wolves-to-be.5 $ere I was withoutinitiative and without spee!h.

>arek and I would go to visit the huts of thesho#ri#;the sentriesarek and I used to go to affa, a walking distan!e of five hours in ea!h dire!tion,but it did not appear to us impra!ti!al to make this trip ea!h time on foot. ?n the way, in es-@iona, we would take oranges in some grove)to take for ones meal was regarded as permitted)and bury a few in sand and find them on our way ba!k from affa.

?n our way we slept one night in 0ishon le @ion. #in!e during those days the founding meeting

of the $istadruth was taking pla!e, presided over by 'en 7urion, there was no pla!e to sleepunder a roof, and we slept on the ben!hes in front of the large synagogue building. In the middleof the night some pious man awakened us and brought us to sleep in a $assidi! prayer house2 itwas a !old winter night.

t the end of 6e!ember)and we had long sin!e given up the idea of working for gudathetaim ;all we earned was a few silver !oinserhavia. *oria, a small settlement, wasbuilt above the lake of innereth ;7alilee


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In about 19D9 >igdal on the shores of innereth /ake was begun at my fathers initiative. In theyears 19D+ and following he had influen!ed by personal efforts one by one a group of prominentews in >os!ow to parti!ipate in the redemption of land in *alestine, not by donation of a fewrubles to the ational Aund ;eren-a%emethigdal. I remember with what unusual devotion and effort myfather made this possible. It had not yet been tried, and nobody !ould think in terms of a nationalbusiness a!tion, buying land in an ?ttoman provin!e, governed by"ashas and ?ttoman law. >yfather needed to persuade people, but by nature he was not what one !alls a 4talker.5 #o he4spoke his heart.5 $is idea was not to have one settlement in *alestine, but to have a !entral!ooperative, !omposed of ews of >os!ow, whom ews of other 0ussian towns would trust, andin whose steps they would follow. his !ooperative he intended to !all Sheerith!srae+hisname, familiar to him from his prayers when a youth in theyeshiva, was holy to him: 4theremnant of Israel.5 =et the group he organi8ed de!ided to be e!lusive and was disinterested togather around itself more groups and to found more settlements. hen my father, again

negle!ting his own business, devoted his time and energies to !reating a new group. ndlessly hetried, visiting those of his a!uaintan!es whom he thought !ould be persuaded to be!omemembers of #heerith Israel. he sum pledged by ea!h member was about five thousand rubles, asubstantially smaller amount than for >igdal, yet large enough in those days in 0ussia2 it was tobe paid in installments.

>y father started this one-man !rusade, as was said, when the revolution of l9D+ had not yetbeen suppressed, and a pamphlet by *rof. ?. (arburg was disseminated by a messenger when itwas not very wise to do so. 'uying land in urkey was seen as a politi!al a!tivity abroad andmust have aroused the 8arist administrations suspi!ion. >y father asked to have these a!tivitieslegali8ed. $e was !alled before a !ommittee of the 7overnor-7eneral in >os!ow. $e was ill on

the day he had to appear but went nevertheless, together with *rof. #!hor, a !on!ert pianist andprominent figure. he matter, dis!ussed and uestioned before this bureau!rati! assembly, wasreferred to the administration in *etersburg. 'ut my father, who went there with a fever, fell si!kwith pneumonia. he si!kness dragged on)he was sent to >enton in the south of Aran!e tore!uperate, but he had 6r. 'u!hmil, an orator who had parti!ipated in @ionist !ongresses fromthe first one on, !ome out to him, and engaged him to travel to !ertain distri!ts in 0ussia to try tofind people interested in sa!rifi!ing part of their property to invest in the land of Israel. =et 6r.'u!hmil failed in the task. "pon his return from abroad, my father resumed his #heerith Israelwork, as soon as he was able to do so. (henever he would obtain another signature on the list he!arried with him, he !ould not refrain from showing us that the list of names was growing. ndhow many times did he fail, too, to influen!e the men he went to seeM $e was oblivious of hisown business. he epenses in!urred by the organi8ation work he !arried gladly2 in his entire lifehe always gave, never took from anyone. Ainally, when he had about forty signatures, a groupfrom 'ialosto!k %oined.

here was land for sale in southern *alestine. 6r. 0uppin, then new in *alestine, looked for away to reali8e the pur!hase. 6r. !hlenov influen!ed the group to invest the funds in 7emama, inthe distri!t of 7a8a. >y father wished to start from the etreme egeb, from el-rish, whi!h wasunder the 'ritish, who governed gypt2 this was in line with the idea of 6r. $er8l, who thought


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of beginning in the small area outside of the urkish provin!e. =et 7emamas land was bought.>y father was asked by the group to !hoose a $ebrew name for the new settlement, and he!hose 0uhama2 in the prophet $oshea, the re%e!ted daughter, symboli8ing the ewish people, isrenamed 0uhama, the one to whom gra!e and !ompassion are shown. In most settlements,espe!ially in those founded by 'aron 0oths!hild, the settlers employed the !heaper rab

laborers, thus making it impossible for ewish workers to get a foothold2 but my father insistedthat in 0uhama ewish workers should be hired. hen he stipulated that ten per!ent of the landshould be owned by the workers2 finally, that only $ebrew should be the language of 0uhama.(hen the 4!olony5 was founded, the members of the group gave my father a palm tree, whi!hstood in our apartment.

>arek and I arrived in 0uhama in the last week of pril of 1913. "ntil then, I believe, nobody ofthe >os!ow group had been there to see the pla!e built. $irs!hfeld, a farmer from 0ishon le@ion, was !hosen as manager, and he was eminently fitted for the %ob, where ewish work andthe $ebrew language had to be honored. $e offered to let me see the books, but I was notinterested to !he!k on what he spent. >arek and I worked a little in the field, with other workers,

their number being about thirty, or we rode horses.

he pride of 0uhama was its artesian well. t a depth of about fifty meters water was found andthus the problem of settlement in the south seemed solved from the standpoint of water.7emama, the former name, means a!tually (aste or 6eserted /and. he new name waspropheti!ally !hosen.

(e stayed in Israel during the winter months. >emorable and dear is the religious eperien!e Ihad when I went alone to the 4!ave of #amson5 in the afternoon, alone in the deserted height,and returned in the dark.

In spring >arek and I returned to >os!ow, traveling by fourth !lass. few days after !omingba!k I !ontra!ted diphtheria. 'ut I was tall and generally in good health, and I pulled through.

In the spring of 191G I entered the "niversity of dinburgh, #!otland, and took pre-medi!al!ourses in the natural s!ien!es. I had the opportunity to hear le!ture of $enri 'ergson, then avisiting professor at dinburgh. 'ut I was handi!apped by la!k of familiarity with the etensivenomen!lature, espe!ially in botany and 8oology. Aor the first time I had a spell of inde!ision)Ihad to !ompel myself to persevere in my resolve to study medi!ine. here was in dinburgh avery small 0ussian !olony. I stayed for only one term.

?n my return to >os!ow for summer va!ations the #ara%evo !risis was ripening. #oon there was

war, and I was stranded in 0ussia. >y parents were at that time in 7ermany, and with diffi!ultythey made their way ba!k via #wit8erland and 'ulgaria.

I enrolled in an institution whi!h was not under the >inistry of du!ation, but under the >inistryof &ommer!e. he "niversity of >os!ow sin!e its formation had en%oyed autonomy, whi!hmeant that there were not trustess, the university being managed by a re!tor who, instead ofbeing appointed by the government, was ele!ted by the professors. ow the rea!tionarygovernment of sar i!holas II wished to take away this autonomy from >os!ow "niversity,


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and this !aused the re!tor and most of the professors and anybody with a good name to leave theuniversity and to found a new s!hool under th >inistry of &ommer!e. Aor this reason it was!alled the &ommer!ial Institute, but a!tually it was a full-fledged university. he best minds in%urispruden!e and philosophy were tea!hing there. I studied at the Institute for the net twoyears, taking !ourses in philosophy, law, an!ient history, and other sub%e!ts. ?f these my favorite

sub%e!t was an!ient history. 'ut sin!e the Institute had no medi!al fa!ulty, I sought admission tothe >edi!al #!hool of >os!w "niversity. fter one year at the &ommer!ial Institute I wasadmitted, following an interview with the new minister of edu!ation, 7raf Ignatiev. Aor this I hadto travel to *etrograd ;the present /eningrady brotherleander, alarmed by my worsening !ondition, insisted on !alling a do!tor who had !ured afriend of his. 6r. /oewenthal, a small and slenderly built elderly man, was kind to the patient, butharsh on the family, demanding stri!t rules. here was a !onsilium between the two do!tors, andthey raised their voi!es one against the other. 6r. /oewenthal be!ame my healer.

In the late spring of 191K I went to the &rimea, and after a summer there, returned to resume mystudies. he net term I again worked furiously. 'ut before the new year 191L I still felt rundown and went to islovodsk in the &au!asus. here, in the mountainous resort, I took a room ina pension, but a few days later I found out that before me a patient dying of tuber!ulosis had usedthe same bed and mattress. I moved out and took another room. ?n!e, walking on the snow-!overed hills of the islovodsk *ark, I spat blood. #eeing blood on the white snow, I be!amedepressed and thought that I had be!ome si!k with tuber!ulosis. I applied to a do!tor. $e had afive-ruble note on his table, as if left by a previous patient, but, sin!e I found it there again on thenet visit, I reali8ed that it was a sign to the patient not to leave less ;in 0ussia there was nopra!ti!e of billing a patient2 money was usually stu!k into the the do!tors hand


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new day brought e!iting news. he 8ar, last of the 0omanovs, abdi!ated. I remember that day.Aull of emotion I went a!ross the hills of islovodsk2 I met an old man. $e seemed unaware ofthe news, or it did not mean mu!h to him. 4? little birds, little birds)su!h a snow, no food foryouJ $ow will you surviveJ5 said he.

I left for >os!ow. he land was in ealtation. hose years of war had witnessed 0asputinsbaleful rise to power over the 8arina, and hen!e the 8ar, and hen!e the !ountry. n illiterate4monk,5 a debau!hing fraud, 0asputin hypnoti8ed and mystified her as his mental prisoner2 anyprospe!tive prime minister had to !rawl to him and kiss his hand to be appointed)this was the!ase with prime ministers 7romykin, #tuermer and *lotopov. hese were the days of (orld (arI, and the 8arina, originally a 7erman prin!ess, was suspe!ted of disloyalty to 0ussia and itsarmy.

*rin!e =ssupov and a few monar!hists lured 0asputin to a dinner party and killed him in order tosave the monar!hy from !omplete perdition. his was the beginning of the revolution2 ten weekslater, the war lost, the land in anar!hy, the 8ar was for!ed to resign and *rin!e /vov formed the

*rovisional 7overnment, with erensky as minister of %usti!e.

fter two weeks in >os!ow I left again for the &rimea, where I remained for eight months,mending my health, living in a village in the &rimeas mountainous !rest. I returned to >os!owat the news that a new revolution, of the end of ?!tober, had !hanged the order in 0ussia. he?!tober 0evolution of 191L was followed by the &ivil (ar. he (hite armies were brandishinganti-semiti! slogans. he train did not go straight to >os!ow. ll was in a state of great strain. Inthe fall, with the !ountry already under the 'olsheviks, I printed my pamphlet, The Third34od$s,under the pen name Immanuel 0am.

I spent the winter and the following spring as an intern in the !lini!s, and also attended the

!ourse of *rof. 0oss.

?n an evening in late ovember or early 6e!ember 191L I was in >os!ow, only a few weekssin!e the street fighting against the regime of erensky was over. #ome of the buildings showedthe wounds of the battle: many stu!!oes were po!ked by numerous bullet-holes, and here andthere a larger hole in a bri!k wall showed where artillery shots had fallen. here was no%ubilation, as there had been in Aebruary, some nine months earlier, when the regime of the 8arfell2 the atmosphere was gloomy, either be!ause su!h is the late autumn in >os!ow, or be!ausethe fratri!idal fight, at a time when 0ussia was still engaged in war with 7ermany, was a!heerless affair.

'ut the white &olumned $all of the old obility $ouse was illuminated. he pla!e had not yetbeen designated for the meetings of the ll-0ussian #oviets2 and so soon after the ?!tober;a!tually ovember< 0evolution, many of the a!tivities whi!h soon thereafter were to be bannedwere still possible in >os!ow. he ews of >os!ow !ame there to parti!ipate in a festival: onovember 3, during the very days when the !ity was in the grips of the street fighting, the so-!alled 'alfour 6e!laration had been pro!laimed by the government of /loyd-7eorge in ngland.It was not yet the foundation of the state, but the promise of a national home was made)a veryunusual message, awaited for some two thousand years. ?nly a !ouple of years earlier, su!h a


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4messiani!5 event would have been laughed down by the same ewry in >os!ow. 'ut the lasttwo months were by themselves an apo!alypti! time. he ews of >os!ow filled the white!olumned hall, the pla!e of many glorious ball festivities in the past. I, too, went there. I was atthat time a student in >os!ow "niversity, in my early twenties. ll the pla!es in the brightlyilluminated hall were taken, and I stood to the side of the platform, built for the presiding

offi!ers, speakers, and notables of the !ommunity, or of the @ionist movement. I stood leaning onone of the big white marble pillars, hidden from most of the publi! by this pillar. mong thenotables on the platform the absen!e of one person was !onspi!uous: 6r. a!obson was thepresident of the organi8ation that !alled the meeting2 and if I was not wrong, I had seen him atthe beginning of the evening)but then he disappeared.

s I stood there, and the speakers repla!ed one another on the platform, my fa!e must haveglowed with some inner light)not be!ause of what the speaker said2 not even be!ause of thisvery festive !onvo!ation2 I had believed that this event would !ome, and therefore was lessaroused by it than those for whom it was above all epe!tations. 'ut still my fa!e must haveglowed with some not everyday epression, be!ause I was suddenly approa!hed by a stranger,

who made his reuest in the very first senten!e: 4I am a s!ulptor2 I would like to make as!ulpture of your head. (ould you like to sit for meJ5

he man was not ea!tly small, but somewhat undersi8ed. $e had long hair, sti!king in strains,whi!h should denote an artist2 on the other hand, he had something proletarian, even plebeian, inhis fa!e and figure. $is fa!e, and espe!ially his forehead and his nose were bony, and the skinwas brownish-sallow, tautly stret!hed and thin on the forehead, but lying in deep faults on his!heeks. $e looked up to me2 nevertheless, there was in his bearing something of a prin!e newly-re!ogni8ed from the !rowd of beggars, as if he was the man of the day. $is age may have beenthirty-five, but these must have been thirty-five years of deprivations. $is 0ussian was very bad:not as of a foreigner, but as of a ewish man who had spent his life entirely in a =iddish-speaking

!ommunity. !tually, I had never heard a 0ussian ew so poorly in possession of the language ofthe !ountry.

I asked him his name, and he spoke it)Itkin2 it was familiar to me, and a!tually, I had alreadyanti!ipated that he was Itkin. Aor the last two weeks I had read a few times in the newspapersabout him. $e really was the sensation of those days, when today one would think nothing !ouldhave been sensational in 0ussia net to the politi!al revolution, or the events on the 7erman-ustrian front. 'ut it was not so. Itkin was the unusual news. he newspapers)there were stillthe bourgeois dailies)wrote about an ehibition of his works shown to a sele!t !rowd. 'ut thestory around him or, better, his dis!overy, was interesting. $e had been a !obbler in some smalltown in south-western 0ussia until this very year. I believe he did not even have his own shop,but worked for somebody else2 and in the time that he !ould spare from work or sleep heprodu!ed some unusual !arvings. hen three sisters, baronesses)the titles were not yetabolished in 0ussia)all three unmarried, living in >os!ow, be!ame aware of his eisten!e andwork, interested themselves in him, and brought him to >os!ow2 they put at his disposal amansion that belonged to them. ll this was told in the papers, whi!h also reprodu!ed printssome of his s!ulptures.


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$earing his name, I told him that I had heard about him, and !ould read the satisfa!tion on hisfa!e. 'efore he gave me his address)to whi!h he invited me to !ome in a few days)heinterrupted himself and said: 4$ave you heardJ a!obson died of a heart atta!k.5

(e stood in the ba!k of one of the marble pillars, between the platform and a room in the ba!k,

in whi!h some a!tivity was going on. I was surprised, sin!e I knew the man. (e inuired in theroom: it was true. 6r. a!obson had felt badly, apparently had a heart-atta!k, was ushered home,and died there. 'ut we were told not to spread the news. he festivities of the 'alfour de!larationwent on, and the organi8ers thought it better not to sadden the gathering by the news. here werespee!hes and singing, the large !rowd not suspe!ting that the organi8er of the affair had died thesame evening.

?utside the weather was windy and !old. ll the leaves in the parks and boulevards of >os!owhad already fallen, pat!hes of snow lay in the streets, and the wind 8oomed in the wires stret!hedbetween the poles.

few days later, at the appointed hour, I was ringing at the door of the mansion, in one of theside-streets. he mansion was not large, but it was not a private home2 it had all the attributes ofa mansion: the elaborate fa!ade in front, the epensive iron work, the very large and tallwindows, the luurious marble stair!ase. he s!ulptor !ame down himself to open the door.*ossibly the house had been put at his disposal be!ause otherwise it would have beenreuisitioned by some revolutionary group, not ne!essarily !ommunists. t that time groups ofpeople !alling themselves anar!hists rang bells, reuisitioned private autos, or o!!upied villas,and there was no person or agen!y with whi!h one !ould lodge a !omplaint.

Itkin led me upstairs to his studio)a room with

Documents

Days and Years, An Autobiography Giving an Account of Velikovsky’s Life From the Earliest Years Until 1958