"I am going after the shadow"
Stephen Graham learnt Russian so that he could read Russian literature in the original. In 1906 he also found the courage to visit Russia for the first time. It was not a good time to go there, for the tsarist government had been shaken the previous year by the so-called 1905 Revolution, which threatened to destroy the Romanov dynasty. Stephen travelled first to Warsaw - Poland was then in the Russian Empire - where he was arrested by police who believed that his Box Brownie camera might be a bomb! When he was released he travelled on to Moscow, before heading east to the provincial town of Nizhni Novgorod. Stephen saw Russia at first through the eyes of the books he had read. He hoped to find a woman in the mould of the heroines of Turgenev, although few Russian women were attracted to a stuttering Briton with little money. His first visit nevertheless confirmed Graham in his love of the country and he went back to Britain determined to return there.
Stephen could not settle back into the humdrum life of London. When sitting in church one day he was inspired by the preacher's words that 'Noone has achieved much in life who has not at one time or another staked everything on an act of faith'. He therefore decided to give up his Civil Service job in order to live in Russia, despite the advice of his boss, who warned him that he was giving up the substance of a good salary and a pension at sixty in pursuit of a 'shadow' . 'I am going after the shadow I said smiling'.
In 1908 Stephen travelled for a second time to Russia, hoping to earn his living through teaching English, with the aim in the long-term of becoming a successful writer. He went first to the home near Kharkov of Nikolai Lebedev who had helped Stephen learn Russian when he (Nikolai) had been a student in London. Stephen's introduction to Russia was not easy - the rail journey was slow and his overcoat was stolen when he was still on the train. He borrowed a wolf-skin coat from the Lebedevs who introduced him to their neighbours during the New Year festivities for 1908. Graham ruefully noted he had never drunk so much before!
Click below for a brief audio description of Stephen's first visit to Moscow
Stephen could not settle back into the humdrum life of London. When sitting in church one day he was inspired by the preacher's words that 'Noone has achieved much in life who has not at one time or another staked everything on an act of faith'. He therefore decided to give up his Civil Service job in order to live in Russia, despite the advice of his boss, who warned him that he was giving up the substance of a good salary and a pension at sixty in pursuit of a 'shadow' . 'I am going after the shadow I said smiling'.
In 1908 Stephen travelled for a second time to Russia, hoping to earn his living through teaching English, with the aim in the long-term of becoming a successful writer. He went first to the home near Kharkov of Nikolai Lebedev who had helped Stephen learn Russian when he (Nikolai) had been a student in London. Stephen's introduction to Russia was not easy - the rail journey was slow and his overcoat was stolen when he was still on the train. He borrowed a wolf-skin coat from the Lebedevs who introduced him to their neighbours during the New Year festivities for 1908. Graham ruefully noted he had never drunk so much before!
Click below for a brief audio description of Stephen's first visit to Moscow