In 1911, after graduating from the Kozlovsk Commercial School, Konstantin Fedin matriculated at the economic department of the Moscow Commercial Institute. The institute had been founded on private funds from famous merchant families in 1907.

The Academic Committee designed a ‘normal plan’ for the entire four-year course of study at the university. Students could optionally increase or decrease the recommended list of subjects each semester. It was important that the time of the lectures chosen did not coincide, and the course of lectures calculated for the year was not reduced by the student. For the first two years of study, the student had to write an essay on one of the subjects indicated in the ‘normal plan.’ During the first three years of study, it was necessary to pass an exam for knowledge of one foreign language: French, German, or English, also the student’s choice.

The pages for the first and second year of study of the main cycle and the third year have been filled in for the subject book on display at the exhibition. At this time, Fedin chose to study the subjects of the administrative and financial cycle, with possible: commercial/financial, pedagogical and industrial cycles. By the end of the third year of study, Fedin needed to take the German language exam but was not ready for it. Therefore, in the summer of 1914, Konstantin’s father gave him the necessary funds for a trip to Germany in order to establish contacts with suppliers of goods and give him the opportunity to practice German. Fedin returned to his homeland only in September 1918. He was immediately re-instated at the Commercial Institute. Fedin turned to the knowledge obtained within the walls of the Moscow Commercial Institute in his writing, if not directly, then indirectly through their heroes.