Who is Pashka from Dreams of My Russian Summers and what is their importance?

Pashka is the only friend the narrator makes in school while he is studying French history. Pashka is older than the rest of the kids in school and is therefore treated as a dunce. He likes to spend his time in the woods and is an avid ice fisher. Pashka regularly takes the narrator with him on fishing outings and is saved by the narrator when he falls through thin ice. Pashka also introduces the narrator to sexuality when he takes him to watch a prostitute having sex with some soldiers, an incident that has a strong impact on the narrator.