The history of the letter is as follows. Students of St. Petersburg University and the Mining Institute, three days before Turgenev's departure from St. Petersburg, turned to him with a request to take part in a literary and musical evening organized for charitable purposes. Turgenev refused them, citing ill health. The real reason for Turgenev's refusal was, however, different. In the memoirs of the "Former Student of the Mining Institute", published after Turgenev's death, it was stated that Turgenev refused to participate in the literary and musical evening, bluntly stating that he was "positively forbidden to appear among young people and receive their applause." The political nature of the celebrations of Turgenev, his rapprochement with the youth in an atmosphere of an ever-increasing revolutionary movement and the growing discontent of the democratic intelligentsia, was very disturbing to the government.