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father, Andrey Petrovitch Grineff, who served in his youth under Count Münich, had retired with the rank of senior major, in the year 17—. He then settled on his property in the government of Simbirsk, where he married Avdotia Vassilievna U, the daughter of a poor nobleman in the neighbourhood. Nine children were born to my parents. All my brothers and sisters died in their infancy. My name had been entered on the strength of the Semionoffsky regiment, thanks to Prince B, a major in the Guards, and our near relative. I was checked as being on leave of absence until the completion of my studies. At that time the system of education was not what it is now. At the age of five I was turned over to the care of the groom Savelitch, whose sober character had earned for him the distinction of being constituted my governor. I managed, under his supervision, to learn to read and write in Russian by the 1