Shouldn't that be "having just lost the father"?

You say that the student wished Lenin to enter university and offered him help, but this reads to me like this: Volodja took it upon himself to prepare him after declining the usual fees for tuition at that time, though even a little money would have come in useful for the family, having just lost the father.

I'm not a native speaker, though, so I might be wrong.

Er, Basil was quicker than I was, and it turns out I was not.