However, his name was withdrawn from the list for the scholarship by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia who insisted that national minorities (inorodtsy) should not benefit from the Academy's scholarships.[1] Another misfortune followed as Zakarov's first teacher, Lev Volkov, refused to allow his daughter to marry Zakharov despite the young people being in love. Instead Volkov had her sent to relatives in the Caucasus with an order to marry her off to any first-comer just to stop the affair.[4]