University and Military School 1913-1914

After graduating from a classical gymnasium in 1913, Zoshchenko enrolled in the law faculty of Petersburg University in the fall but studied without interest in the chosen profession. During his first year, he passed the minimum — one exam in Roman law. However, he spent a lot of time in the physics lab, where he attended lectures by a professor who caught his attention. In the spring of 1914, almost completely out of money, he went to work in the Caucasus, working there on the railway as a train controller (during the resort season, the Kislovodsk–Mineralnye Vody line, considered luxurious, was traditionally staffed by students), and gave private lessons.

He returned from the Caucasus to Petersburg in the fall, at the start of the "European world war," as World War I was then called. Instead of continuing his university studies, he enrolled in accelerated military courses at the privileged Pavlovsk (today — Mozhaysky Military Space Academy, Zhdanovskaya St., 13), which primarily accepted nobles. At the same time, he was expelled from the university for non-payment of fees. Having completed the four-month military courses with first-class distinction and receiving his first officer rank of ensign, Zoshchenko arrived at the German front in March 1915.

Over the years, Mikhail Zoshchenko gave various explanations for his decision to go to war. In his first major and spirited article of 1922, "About Myself, Ideology, and a Few Other Things," he wrote: "In ’13 I entered university. In ’14 I went to the Caucasus. I fought a duel in Kislovodsk with the legal scholar K. After which I immediately felt that I was an extraordinary person, a hero and an adventurer — so I volunteered for the war." In a later autobiography from 1932, he stated: "In ’14 I volunteered for the front. (More out of curiosity than patriotic feelings.)" And again, in the already mentioned commentary to the story "Returned Youth" in 1933, he said: "In the fall, at the beginning of the war... after attending accelerated military courses, I went to the front as an ensign. As far as I remember, I had no patriotic feelings — I simply could not sit still because of a tendency to hypochondria and melancholy. Besides, I was expelled from university for non-payment of fees." As we see, possible patriotism is removed from his motives, which at that time would have related to Tsarist Russia and been alien and condemned in the proletarian state. However, in "Before Sunrise," only partially published in 1943, in the middle of the Great Patriotic War (the publication was halted halfway by a stern order from above), it was written differently: "In the fall of 1914, the world war began, and I, having left university, went to the army to die with dignity at the front for my country, for my homeland." (Although here his melancholy and longing were also mentioned.)

Sources:

Bernhard Ruben, Zoshchenko

https://kudago.com/spb/list/po-sledam-mihaila-zoshenko-v-peterburge/