An Autobiography

"[...] Here I must break the thread of my story in order to acquaint the reader with the antagonism which was inevitable to arise between opinion in academic circles and the new trend in art which these two societies stood for. I will not expatiate on the aggressive hostility with which the reactionary and conservative set in the Academy and the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Art met the activities of Diaghileff, and particularly his review, Mir Iskoustva-and God knows what he endured in that struggle! I will touch here only on the musicians and their attitude towards the whole of this new movement. Certainly the majority of the Conservatoire pedagogues[...]."