On a more pleasant note, an interesting story related in the Jordanville journal Orthodox Life describes how Nicholas Sobolev was given his monastic name.
On the eve of his tonsure, the head of the St Petersburg Theological Academy where Nicholas was in his 4th year, a Bishop Sergius, had an unusual experience. Bp Sergius went to dinner at the Academy Church warden's home. The 2 daughters of this man, a merchant named Rubakhin, clamored to know what name Bp Sergius would bestow on the new monk the next day. When they heard Dositheus, they insisted that a nicer name be selected.
This intervention of the 2 girls jolted the memory of Bishop Sergius. In his carriage on the way home after dinner, he suddenly recalled that when present at the opening of the latter's relics in 1903, he had promised the soon-to-be canonized Saint that if Bp Sergius became rector of the St Petersburg Theological Academy, the first monk he tonsured would be named after St Seraphim.
Another vignette from the same article which shines light onto the procedures of the Optina Elders took place while Nicholas was debating whether to accept monasticism. The native of Riazan wrote asking the advice of Elder Anatole [ Potapov ].
St Anatole wrote back that he could not tell Nicholas without seeing him in person. Why Nicholas did not make the journey to Optina was not explained.
There may well have been reasons of timing of Academy classes. But it seems to me that the wisest course would have been for Nicholas to go there at the first opportunity. The Optina Elders would not be around to dispense help in a mere 10 or 15 years, though few realized it at the time. The question was too important to trust to random events to point the way.
However, God so arranged it that he was given a second chance to speak with the great Optina Elders. Transferred to Kaluga as assistant supervisor of the diocesan school, Hieromonk Seraphim was able to meet Elders Joseph, Barsanuphius and Anatole II.
The latter was his confessor during this period [ about 1909 to 1910 ], so indeed Elder Anatole's earlier request to see the young Nicholas -- now Fr Seraphim [ Sobolev ] face to face did come to pass.