- The first Russian tutor's name is Ordo—he is the first slide in the presentation.
- Ordo and the boys go for walks. One time he drops his cigarette case, and in stooping for it, Vladimir finds a butterfly specimen.
- Ordo joins the family in Biarritz, but is sent away, having fallen in love with Vladimir's mother.
- Nabokov thinks he may have seen Ordo on his knees, begging his mother to stay, but it may not actually be his memory:
- "It seldom happens that I do not quite know whether a recollection is my own or has come to me secondhand, but in this case I do waver, especially because, much later, my mother, in her reminiscent moods, used to refer with amusement to the flame she had unknowingly kindled." (8.2.1)
- The next slide is a Ukrainian mathematician who amused the boys with sleight-of-hand magic tricks.
- Nabokov found these tricks endless interesting. "Coincidence of pattern is one of the wonders of nature. The wonders of nature were beginning to impress me at that early age." (8.2.2)
- During his tenure, the Ukrainian tutor is thrown in a drunk tank, but later it comes out that he wasn't drunk at all, but rather suffering from a heart condition.
- Next is an athletic Latvian who likes to punish Vladimir by putting on boxing gloves and punching him in the face. He only lasts a month.
- Then comes a handsome Polish medical student who, on a walk with Vladimir, draws a small gun against raging Cossacks (locals who acted as military police in suppressing revolutions), and wins Vladimir's heart. It turns out that he is having an affair with an older woman, whom he visits by bicycle, and later has a brief romance with Colette's governess while the family is in Biarritz. He stays for a year, and then becomes a successful x-ray specialist.
- On the next slide is Lenski, the radical tutor who sent Mademoiselle packing.
- Lenski puts himself through college painting landscapes on stones.
- In late 1910, he escorts the boys to Germany, and then comes back to Russia with them, staying on for three more years.
- Lenski is a humorless man but a great teacher, and his radical politics make him a target for many.
- He complains to the Nabokovs that the children are snobby, indifferent to the intellectual, political, and historical riches of Russia, and thinks they should have an education amongst the people.
- His poor upbringing makes Lenski angry and overly lustful of goods in common shops.
- He is engaged and planning his marital household. The boys meet his fiancee in Berlin, and Lenski asks that they keep it a secret.