But is it a prosperous government headed by V.N. Kokovtsov, is he, an effective, moderate, highly professional prime workaholic and - "part-time" - finance minister, given the opportunity to work long and smoothly?

-It's strange, - the two gentlemen exchanged opinions. - They criticize Emperor Nicholas II ... But who appointed Witte? Who appointed Kokovtsov? At whom was the economic boom of 1904-1914?

- The glitter of Witte and Kokovtsov "embarrassed", - the interlocutor replied vaguely, - and this shine was relatively short. Witte and Kokovtsev were replaced ... New people replaced them ... New events changed the economic flowering ...

- And do you think that the arrival of new people and events gives grounds for criticizing Emperor Nicholas II?

The interlocutor was silent. Uncertainly shrugged his shoulders.

Among the public was an unusual person - a village peasant in a shirt for release, trousers and boots, but with a guard. The employee sympathetically asked the Siberian peasant why he was thoughtful. The answer was: "I can not decide whether to convoke the Duma or not to convoke?".

- Why is Russia dissatisfied with me, because by August of 1914, by the beginning of the world war, I had put out four and a half million troops? I was at the head of the military department and everything was all right, - said the military minister Sukhomlinov.

The student only sighed in response to the words of VA. Sukhomlinov. The public was seized with an awkward and dreary silence.

To the group "headed" by S.Yu. Witte was joined by Nikolai Petrovich Durnovo, a graduate of the military-legal academy, Russian statesman (the director of the police department, and the senator, and the Minister of the Interior, and a member of the State Council), who arrived at the presentation of the book, and the author of the famous prophetic Note. His statements led many into a pensive state:

- Are we ready for such a stubborn struggle, which, undoubtedly, will be the future war of the European peoples? This question has to be answered negatively without taking offense.

Proof of this is the huge number of pending, unaccepted, unapproved bills of the military and naval departments, and, in particular, the plan for organizing our state defense, which was submitted to the Duma under the State Secretary Stolypin.

The defeated army, which, moreover, lost its most reliable personnel during the war, embraced by a common peasant aspiration for land, will prove too demoralized to serve as a stronghold of law and order.

Legislative institutions and opposition-intelligent parties deprived of real authority in the eyes of the people will not be able to contain the divergent popular waves raised by them, and Russia will be plunged into a hopeless anarchy, the outcome of which does not lend itself to foresight.

Under the exceptional conditions of the impending pan-European war, this, again, regardless of its outcome, will present a mortal danger both for Russia and for Germany. In the conquered country, inevitably a social revolution will break out, which, by the force of things, will spread to the victor country.

Counter-opinion - not very legible - was heard from (ex) Military Minister Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov:

-... Anyway ... we can not escape, and it is more profitable for us to start ... earlier." Moreover, it is (personally) your (Minister SD Sazonov) and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (VN Kokovtsova) a belief in our unpreparedness. And the Sovereign and I - we - believe in the Army and know that ... only one good thing will happen for us.

The people gathered in front of the cafe-library heard a loud invitation from Gorky:

- Gentlemen! Comrades! I ask you to go to the library!

July 10, 2017 - July 23, 2017

This translation: 21 August 2017

III.The Tale of Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Louis Antoine de Bougainville is one of the people of amazing fortune.

He was born in Paris in 1729. Early lost his mother - at the age of five. But family ties with Versailles, with the royal court - these connections provided the boy and custody, and upbringing, and education.

Accidentally being a little boy in the Versailles park without the accompaniment of adults, Louis Antoine enthusiastically looked at the growing variety of flowers.

"Are there flowers in nature that do not grow here, monsignor?" - He asked involuntarily to the man approaching him. "If only in the other hemisphere," - joked the man in response, and gave the boy a beautiful flower.

Ladies, to whom the boy was taken away, laughing, explained that he did not have to ask questions to the king of France.

During his studies at the college, de Bougainville shows the talents of a mathematician.

1754 and 1756 - the years of his first major publication (two volumes were published).

He is preparing for a career as a lawyer, studying law.

But his plans are corrected: walking along the street with a Roman law textbook in his hand, de Bougainville sees how a brilliant officer presents a beautiful bouquet to a beautiful lady.

De Bougainville begins military and diplomatic careers. Participates in battles in Canada.

The researcher's interests do not leave him. Rotating in the scientific community, he hears the phrase: "South America - the continent of unusual colors." Military career becomes naval.

De Bougainville leads an expedition to create a French colony in Port Saint Louis on the Falkland Islands, at that time unoccupied.

In 1766-69 he became the head of the first French round-the-world expedition on the ships "Boudeuse" and ";toile".

In Brazil, the botanist Philibert Kommerson (Philibert Commer;on), part of the first French round-the-world expedition, discovered a flower named " Bougainvillea".

Swimming was not without other pleasant events.

For example, in May 1768, de Bougainville finds out that one of the servants who sail with the expedition is in fact a woman disguised as a man. It was the friend of the botanist Philibert Kommerson; It is believed that she was the first woman in the world to have passed around the world on a ship.

Due to this circumstance, de Bougainville had the opportunity to perform a gallant act, but not so much in relation to a particular woman, as to the female sex in general.

Who else in the world history - Who had such an opportunity? Sandro Botticelli?