the RMS, stating the conditions he insisted upon if he were to remain director

of the Conservatory. The original of this letter is no longer extant, but the rec-
ord of meetings convened by the Directorate of the RMS indicates that Obolen-
sky included a report in which these conditions were set out. They were as
follows:
1. Diplomas and certicates in variable form are to be produced quickly
and presented to the persons due to receive them before the start of the
vacation.
2. Diplomas with the names of those I have not approved, I will not sign.
3. The examinations for 1865 and 1866 are to be considered valid only
for those persons who have received their diploma or certicate with
my approval. The graduation of anyone in the obligatory subjects with
a mark of 3 or 4 I consider invalid, and I demand their reexamination,
for up to the present time the guide rules for conducting examinations
were not fully understood by anyone and the marks were awarded by
everyone without appreciating their proper value.
4. Henceforth, examinations must be conducted in accordance with my
instructions and my program, and the nal awarding of the diploma or
certicate, with due regard for the opinion of the council of professors,
depends on me and is approved by the grand duchess.
5. Contracts are to be concluded with all the professors.
6. The Council of Professors is to assemble each month for consultations
with me about various matters concerning the Conservatory. The opin-
ions of the majority are to be recorded in a journal (as a document),
but if I disagree with them I act according to my own conviction.
7. The journals and the resolutions of the professors up to the present
time are considered invalid and everything is subject to reexamination.
8. The students are wholly subject to my instructions and they cannot
make reference to any lack of agreement between their professors, that
is, in the event of an ad hoc test which I may deem it necessary to sub-
ject someone to at any time, my demand for someone to take part in a
Conservatory soire or a concert of the Russian Musical Society, my
assigning them to this or that class among the classes I have devised.
9. I retain the right to transfer a student from one professor to another
within the same specialization.
10. All documents and papers issuing from the Conservatory, and also
invitations for examinations, etc., are written in my name and not in
the name of the Russian Music Society, as it has been done up to now.
11. I receive a monthly salary of thirty-six hundred rubles without accom-
modation, or three thousand rubles with accommodation, inseparably
from the Russian Music Society, and on a nine-monthly basis.124
Barenboym tells us that points 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 were declined by the RMS
Directorate and he includes a fragment of a letter from Yelena Pavlovna in
which she states her reasons: I nd, however, that the proposed letter of Mr.

The Founding of the Russian Music Society 119