However, he couldn't quite handle the thought of his parents knowing he'd been exiled.
His father was quite a character. Despite being a grumpy old man whose highest rank in the military was only Lieutenant, he had seen a lot in life and weathered many storms. Therefore, Herzen wasn't too worried about his father's reaction.
But his mother, this unfortunate woman, had given birth to Herzen during the Patriotic War of 1812. While his father went to St. Petersburg to deliver a letter, this seventeen-year-old girl was arranged to stay in a small village in the countryside of Yaroslavl.
Mother and son lived in a small, smoky farmhouse, surrounded by these scruffy "semi-barbaric" people. They wore old fur coats and spoke a language she couldn't understand, and all this happened during the terrifying November winter of 1812. The only attendant staying with her had also tragically died of illness during this period, leaving her to cry day and night.
