Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Nekhlúdoff grew especially fond of Kryltzóff, a consumptive young man condemned to hard labour, who was going with the same gang as Katúsha. Nekhlúdoff had made his acquaintance already in Ekáterinburg, and talked with him several times on the road after that. Once, in summer, Nekhlúdoff spent nearly the whole of a day with him at a halting station, and Kryltzóff, having once started talking, told him his story and how he had become a revolutionist. Up to the time of his imprisonment his story was soon told. He lost his father, a rich landed proprietor in the south of Russia, when still a child. He was the only son, and his mother brought him up. He learned easily in the university, as well as the gymnasium, and was first in the mathematical faculty in his year. He was offered a choice of remaining in the university or going abroad. He hesitated. He loved a girl and was thinking of marriage, and taking part in the rural administration. He did not like giving up either offer, and could not make up his mind. At this time his fellow-students at the university asked him for money for a common cause. He did not know that this common cause was revolutionary, which he was not interested in at that time, but gave the money from a sense of comradeship and vanity, so that it should not be said that he was afraid. Those who received the money were caught, a note was found which proved that the money had been given by Kryltzóff, he was arrested, and first kept at the police station, then imprisoned.