How young Nekrasov and the future governor of St. Petersburg walked the last of their pants at Christmas and stoked the stove with a chair In January 1843 there was a slight frost in St. Petersburg. 21-year-old failed philology student Nikolai Nekrasov from the Yaroslavl province and 18-year-old cadet Mikael Loris-Melikov, originally from Tiflis, shared a rented room and tried to join the lifestyle of the capital’s youth, despite the lack of money.