'It means, it seems to me,' said Levin, beginning to get excited, 'that in a nation of eighty millions there can always be found not hundreds, as is now the case, but tens of thousands of men who have lost their social position, happy-go-lucky people who are always ready to go... into Pugachev's robber band [Pugachev was the leader of a very serious rebellion in the reign of Catherine the Great.] or to Khiva, or to Serbia...'
–Eso significa, a mi juicio ––dijo Levin que comenzaba a irritarse otra vez–, que en un pueblo de ochenta millones se encuentran, no ya centenares, sino decenas de miles de hombres que han perdido su posición social, gente atrevida, pronta a todo, que siempre está dispuesta a enrolarse en las bandas de Pugachev o cualquier otra de su especie, y que lo mismo va a Servia que a la China...