1. Pushkin’s role in the creation of the poem.
2. Description of the city.
3. Officials of the provincial city of NN.
It is known that A. S. Pushkin was highly valued by N. V. Gogol. Moreover, the writer often perceived the poet as an adviser or even a teacher. It is to Pushkin that lovers of Russian literature owe a lot for the appearance of such immortal works of the writer as “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls.”
In the first case, the poet simply suggested a simple plot to the satirist, but in the second he made him think seriously about how an entire era could be represented in a small work. Alexander Sergeevich was confident that his younger friend would certainly cope with the task: “He always told me that not a single writer has ever had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so clearly, to outline the vulgarity of a vulgar person with such force, so that all that trifle, which escapes the eye, would flash large in the eyes of everyone.” As a result, the satirist managed not to disappoint the great poet. Gogol quickly determined the concept of his new work, “Dead Souls,” using as a basis a fairly common type of fraud in the purchase of serfs. This action was filled with a more significant meaning, being one of the main characteristics of the entire social system of Russia under the reign of Nicholas.
The writer thought for a long time about what his work was. Quite soon he came to the conclusion that “Dead Souls” is an epic poem, since it “embraces not some features, but the entire era of time, among which the hero acted with the way of thoughts, beliefs and even knowledge that humanity had made at that time " The concept of the poetic is not limited in the work only to lyricism and author’s digressions. Nikolai Vasilyevich aimed at more: the volume and breadth of the plan as a whole, its universality. The action of the poem takes place approximately in the middle of the reign of Alexander I, after the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. That is, the writer returns to the events of twenty years ago, which gives the poem the status of a historical work.
Already on the first pages of the book, the reader meets the main character - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who visited the provincial town of NN on personal business. no different from other similar cities. The guest noticed that “the yellow paint on the stone houses was very striking and the gray paint on the wooden ones was modestly dark. The houses were one, two and one and a half floors with an eternal mezzanine, very beautiful, according to the provincial architects. In some places these houses seemed lost among a street as wide as a field and endless wooden fences; in some places they huddled together, and here there was more noticeable movement of people and liveliness.” All the time emphasizing the ordinariness of this place and its similarity with many other provincial cities, the author hinted that the life of these settlements was probably also not much different. This means that the city began to acquire a completely general character. And so, in the imagination of readers, Chichikov no longer ends up in a specific place, but in some collective image of the cities of the Nicholas era: “In some places, there were tables with nuts, soap and gingerbreads that looked like soap on the street... Most often, darkened double-headed state eagles, which have now been replaced by a laconic inscription: “Pub House”. The pavement was pretty bad everywhere.”
Even in the description of the city, the author emphasizes the hypocrisy and deceit of the inhabitants of the city, or rather, its managers. So, Chichikov looks into the city garden, consisting of thin trees that have taken root poorly, but the newspapers said that “our city has been decorated, thanks to the care of the civil ruler, with a garden consisting of shady, wide-branched trees that provide coolness on a hot day.”
Governor of the city of NN. like Chichikov, he was “neither fat nor thin, had Anna on his neck, and it was even rumored that he was introduced to a star, however, he was a great good-natured person and sometimes even embroidered on tulle.” On the very first day of his stay in the city, Pavel Ivanovich visited all secular society, and everywhere he managed to find a common language with new acquaintances. Of course, Chichikov’s ability to flatter and the narrow-mindedness of local officials played no small role in this: “They will somehow casually hint to the governor that you are entering his province as if you are entering paradise, the roads are velvet everywhere... He said something very flattering to the police chief about the city guards ; and in conversations with the vice-governor and the chairman of the chamber, who were still only state councilors, he even said twice in error: “Your Excellency,” which they liked very much.” This was quite enough for everyone to recognize the newcomer as a completely pleasant and decent person and invite him to the governor’s party, where the “cream” of local society gathered.
The writer ironically compared the guests of this event to squadrons of flies that fly around on white refined sugar in the midst of the July summer. Chichikov did not lose face here either, but behaved in such a way that soon all officials and landowners recognized him as a decent and most pleasant person. Moreover, this opinion was dictated not by any good deeds of the guest, but solely by his ability to flatter everyone. This fact already eloquently testified to the development and morals of the inhabitants of the city of NN. Describing the ball, the author divided the men into two categories: “... some thin ones, who all hovered around the ladies; some of them were of such a kind that it was difficult to distinguish them from those from St. Petersburg... The other type of men were fat or the same as Chichikov... These, on the contrary, looked askance and backed away from the ladies and looked only around... "These were honorary officials in the city." The writer immediately concluded: “...fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin ones.”
Moreover, many representatives of high society were not without education. So, the chairman of the chamber recited “Lyudmila” by V. A. Zhukovsky by heart, the police chief was a wit, others also read N. M. Karamzin, some “Moskovskie Vedomosti”. In other words, the good level of education of officials was questionable. However, this did not at all prevent them from managing the city and, if necessary, jointly protecting their interests. That is, a special class was formed in a class society. Supposedly freed from prejudice, officials distorted the laws in their own way. In the city of NN. as in other similar cities, they enjoyed unlimited power. The police chief only had to blink when passing a fish row, and the ingredients for preparing a sumptuous dinner would be brought to his home. It was the customs and not too strict morals of this place that allowed Pavel Ivanovich to achieve his goals so quickly. Very soon the main character became the owner of four hundred dead souls. The landowners, without thinking and caring about their own benefit, willingly gave up their goods to him, and at the lowest price: dead serfs were in no way needed on the farm.
Chichikov didn’t even need to make any effort to make deals with them. The officials also did not ignore the most pleasant guest and even offered him their help for the safe delivery of the peasants to their place. Pavel Ivanovich made only one serious miscalculation, which led to trouble; he outraged the local ladies with his indifference to their persons and increased attention to the young beauty. However, this does not change the opinion of local officials about the guest. Only when Nozdryov blabbed in front of the governor that the new person was trying to buy dead souls from him, did high society think about it. But even here it was not common sense that guided, but gossip, growing like a snowball. That is why Chichikov was credited with the kidnapping of the governor’s daughter, the organization of a peasant revolt, and the production of counterfeit coins. Only now have officials begun to feel so concerned about Pavel Ivanovich that many of them have even lost weight.
As a result, society generally comes to an absurd conclusion: Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise. The inhabitants of the city wanted to arrest the main character, but they were very afraid of him. This dilemma led to the prosecutor's death. All these unrest are unfolding behind the guest’s back, since he is sick and does not leave the house for three days. And it doesn’t occur to any of his new friends to just talk to Chichikov. Having learned about the current situation, the main character ordered to pack his things and left the city. In his poem, Gogol showed as completely and vividly as possible the vulgarity and baseness of the morals of the provincial cities of that time. Ignorant people in power in such places set the tone for the entire local society. Instead of managing the province well, they held balls and parties, solving their personal problems at public expense.
Poem "Dead Souls"
Depiction of the world of officials in the poem by N.V., Gogol “Dead Souls”
The society of officials of the provincial city is outlined by N.V. Gogol in the poem “Dead Souls” is sharply critical. Researchers have noted that Gogol’s images of officials are impersonal, devoid of individuality (unlike the images of landowners), their names are often repeated (Ivan Antonovich, Ivan Ivanovich), but their surnames are not indicated at all. Only the governor, prosecutor, police chief and postmaster are described in more detail by the author.
The officials of the provincial city are not very smart and educated. With caustic irony, Gogol speaks about the enlightenment of city officials: “some have read Karamzin, some have read Moskovskie Vedomosti, some have not even read anything at all.” The speech of these characters in the poem is nothing more than a mechanical repetition of words, symbolizing their slow-wittedness. All of them could not recognize a swindler in Chichikov, considering him a millionaire, a Kherson landowner, and then Captain Kopeikin, a spy, Napoleon, a maker of counterfeit notes, and even the Antichrist.
These people are far from everything Russian and national: “you won’t hear a single decent Russian word” from them, but they will “endow you with French, German, and English words in such quantities that you won’t even want...”. High society worships everything foreign, forgetting its original traditions and customs. The interest of these people in national culture is limited to the construction of a “hut in Russian taste” at their dacha.
This is a society in which idleness and idleness flourish. Thus, when registering a transaction for the sale and purchase of serfs, witnesses were required. “Send now to the prosecutor,” notes Sobakevich, “he is an idle man and probably sits at home: the lawyer Zolotukha, the greatest grabber in the world, does everything for him. An inspector of the medical board, he is also an idle man and, probably, at home, if he has not gone somewhere to play cards...” The rest of the officials are no less idle. According to Sobakevich, “there are many here who are closer, Trukhachevsky, Begushkin, they are all burdening the land for nothing.”
Robbery, deception, and bribes reign in the world of officials. These people strive to live well “at the expense of the sums of their dearly beloved fatherland.” Bribes are commonplace in the world of the provincial city. The department is ironically called by the writer “the temple of Themis.” Thus, the chairman of the chamber advises Chichikov: “...don’t give anything to officials... My friends shouldn’t pay.” From this statement we can conclude that these people regularly extort money. Describing the execution of the deal by his hero, Gogol notes: “Chichikov had to pay very little. Even the chairman gave an order to take only half of the duty money from him, and the other, unknown how, was attributed to the account of some other petitioner.” This remark reveals to us the lawlessness that reigns in “public places.” It is interesting that in the original edition this place in the poem was accompanied by the author’s remark: “This has always been the case in the world since ancient times. A rich person doesn't need to pay anything, he just needs to be rich. They will give him a glorious place, and let him use it, and the money will remain in the box; Only those who have nothing to pay pay.”
Describing the governor's party, Gogol talks about two types of officials: “fat” and “thin.” The existence of the former is “too easy, airy and completely unreliable.” The latter “never occupy indirect places, but all are direct, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly... they won’t fly off.” “Thin” in the author’s view are dandies and dandies hanging around the ladies. They are often prone to extravagance: “for three years, the thin one does not have a single soul left that is not pawned in a pawnshop.” Fat people are sometimes not very attractive, but they are “thorough and practical”, “the true pillars of society”: “having served God and the sovereign,” they leave the service and become famous Russian bars, landowners. The author's satire is obvious in this description: Gogol perfectly understands what this “official service” was like, which brought a person “universal respect.”
Both the first and second types are illustrated by Gogol with images of city officials. Here is the first official of the city - the governor. This is an idle man. His only advantage comes down to his ability to embroider different patterns on tulle. Here is the chief of police, “the father and benefactor of the city,” running the merchant shops in his own way. The police chief “only has to blink when passing a fish row or a cellar,” and he is immediately presented with balyks and expensive wine. At the same time, the police terrify the entire people. When a rumor appears in society about a possible revolt of Chichikov’s men, the police chief notes that in order to prevent this rebellion, “there is the power of the captain-police officer, that the captain-police officer, even though he doesn’t go himself, but only went to his place with his cap, then one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.” These are “fat” officials. But the writer describes their “subtle” brothers no less critically, including, for example, Ivan Antonovich, who received a bribe from Chichikov.
The writer emphasizes in the poem that arbitrariness and lawlessness reign in Russia not only at the level of a provincial city, but also at the level of state power. Gogol speaks about this in the story of Captain Kopeikin, a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, who became disabled and went to the capital to ask for help. He tried to get himself a pension, but his case was not crowned with success: an angry minister, under escort, expelled him from St. Petersburg.
Thus, Gogol’s officials are deceitful, selfish, calculating, soulless, and prone to fraud. Civic duty, patriotism, public interests - these concepts are alien to NN city officials. According to the author, “these guardians of order and law” are the same “dead souls” as the landowners in the poem. The pinnacle of Gogol’s satirical exposure is the picture of the general confusion that gripped city society when rumors spread about Chichikov’s purchase of “dead souls.” Here the officials were confused, and everyone “suddenly found ... sins in themselves.” “In a word, there was talk and talk and the whole city started talking about dead souls and the governor’s daughter, about Chichikov and dead souls, about the governor’s daughter and Chichikov, and everything that was there rose up. Like a whirlwind, the hitherto dormant city was thrown up like a whirlwind!” The writer uses the technique of hyperbole here. The possibility of government checks in connection with Chichikov’s scam frightened city officials so much that panic began among them, “the city was completely in revolt, everything was in ferment...”. This story ended with the death of the prosecutor, the main “guardian of the law,” and those around him only realized after his death that he had a “soul.” And this episode is symbolic in many ways. This is the author's call to heroes, a reminder of God's judgment for all life's deeds.
As the researchers note, “in Gogol’s depiction of the world of officials one can detect many traditional motifs of Russian satirical comedies. These motives go back to Fonvizin and Griboyedov. Red tape, bureaucracy, veneration, bribery... are traditionally ridiculed social evils. However, Gogol’s depiction techniques are different; they are close to the satirical techniques of Saltykov-Shchedrin.” According to Herzen’s precise remark, “with laughter on his lips,” the writer “without pity penetrates into the innermost folds of the unclean, evil bureaucratic soul. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is a terrible confession of modern Russia."
After describing the landowners, Gogol in his poem moves on to the description of officials and a good part of the book is devoted to this. At the same time, officials are not described in as much detail as landowners, each of whom represents a deep and multifaceted symbol.
Officials, on the contrary, are an almost faceless community that is of interest precisely in its mass. Gogol somewhere even speaks of them as a flock of flies that attack pieces of refined sugar. Thus he reduces the individual value of each and speaks simply in general about a flock of insects.
In this regard, the details of the description are rather meager and just as one fly can differ in the length of its legs or some special wing, so officials also differ in minor details. For example, the governor is distinguished by tulle embroidery, and the prosecutor has expressive eyebrows.
The governor belongs to the class of “fat” officials by Gogol. We are talking about the social hierarchy that Gogol builds in the spirit of social Darwinism: there are lower officials, thin and fat. Accordingly, at the very top of this social pyramid are the fat ones who managed to “bite off” the largest piece.
The governor, like other officials, is a thieving and rather primitive simpleton. He is ready to indulge in pleasantries with others, but in reality he is a scoundrel. Moreover, a disinterested scoundrel, as the author writes about the entire bureaucratic brethren.
The most curious thing, of course, lies in the relationship between the governor and Chichikov, who skillfully presents himself as a worthy person and easily deceives all the officials, who only after a significant amount of time begin to consider the visitor either Napoleon or the Antichrist. The governor is one of them; he is naive and simple, easily susceptible to external deception, and easily follows public opinion. In fact, he is the same lost soul as the serfs that Chichikov buys up.
Only if officials represent a hypostasis of a separate sin and vice, in some ways they may even be similar to various Christian demons (if we take into account the religious and mystical nature of Gogol’s narrative), then officials are petty devils. They fuss over sugar like a flock of flies.
Nikolai Alekseevich Gogol talks about the governor, starting from the seventh chapter of the poem “Dead Souls”. He is a minor character and very little text is given to the man at the head of the city.
The story begins with Chichikov buying dead peasants for pennies and rewriting the price in the documents as for living ones, boasting that he has already bought four hundred souls for his estate in the Kherson province. The charm of the swindler did not leave the governor himself indifferent, who treated him with childish delight and invited him to his ball. At the holiday, he introduced him to the governor’s wife and daughter. The governor is narrow-minded, so only after some time he understands who his adored Chichikov really is. As soon as the scam is revealed, officials begin to shield him, because they are afraid that they will find out about their machinations. At that moment, the swindler, having settled all the issues with the documents, went to other cities to buy Dead Souls and receive 200 rubles from the treasury for each.
In those days, many authors turned to the topic of exposing the arbitrariness of the authorities. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in all his works touches on the theme of lawlessness of officials. In this poem, using the words “thin and thick” in the description of the characters. It implies the accumulation of personal savings by robbing the treasury and ordinary people. Gogol masterfully reflects the personal qualities of the head of the city and, upon meeting Chichikov, clearly draws his portrait: “neither thin nor fat, he has Anna around his neck. It was rumored that he was introduced to the star and embroidered on tulle...” Gogol deliberately wrote about the award and embroidery in one sentence. It turns out that the governor received the order not for devotion to the state, but for embroidering tulle. With the help of hidden ridicule, the author opens our eyes to the idleness of a respected person in the metropolis. Chichikov skillfully flatters the Governor and, based on this, the organizer of the festive evening forms his opinion about the swindler, telling everyone that he is a well-intentioned person. And again the author’s irony in relation to the hero slips through, proving his stupidity.
As we can easily notice, our character is the object of the author’s laughter criticism. The hero's sweet infantilism turns into monstrous selfishness for his loved ones. In the poem, the author satirically transforms reality and this is not the fruit of subjectivity, but an insightful revelation of the falsehood inherent in the entire social system.
The number of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tales includes 32 written works. But due to incorrect spelling, Saltykov-Shchedrin was never able to publish the complete and complete collection.
“The Golden Rooster” is a story by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, where a characteristic example of this writer’s lyrical sketches is clearly expressed. “The Golden Rooster” is part of a series of miniature paintings
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov is a fairly famous author of various works, who is considered a truly great creator. Many of the works contain sad thoughts and feelings that defined his past
In fact, this is a very deep question, since it concerns the very nature of man. It is dual: the animal nature is combined with the divine nature
Many people take a bath. This is an ordinary and quite familiar procedure. And no one had previously suspected that at this time one of the basic laws of physics was being fulfilled. But one day Archimedes sat in the bath
Starting from the seventh chapter of the poem “Dead Souls,” bureaucracy is the focus of the author’s attention. Despite the absence of detailed and detailed images similar to the landowner heroes, the picture of bureaucratic life in Gogol’s poem is striking in its breadth.
With two or three masterful strokes, the writer draws wonderful miniature portraits. This is the governor, embroidering on tulle, and the prosecutor with very black thick eyebrows, about whom there is nothing to remember after death except these thick eyebrows, and the short postmaster, wit and philosopher, and many others. Gogol gives in the poem a unique classification of officials, dividing representatives of this class into lower, thin and fat. The writer gives a sarcastic characterization of each of these groups. The lowest are, according to Gogol's definition, nondescript clerks and secretaries, as a rule, bitter drunkards. By “thin” the author means the middle stratum, and the “thick” are the provincial nobility, which firmly holds on to their places and deftly extracts considerable income from their high position.
Gogol is inexhaustible in choosing surprisingly accurate and apt comparisons. Thus, he likens officials to a squadron of flies that swoop down on tasty morsels of refined sugar. Provincial officials are also characterized in the poem by their usual activities: playing cards, drinking, lunches, dinners, gossip. Gogol writes that in the society of these civil servants, “meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness” flourishes. Their quarrels do not end in a duel, because “they were all civil officials.” They have other methods and means by which they harm each other, which is more difficult than any duel. Gogol portrays this class as thieves, bribe-takers, slackers and swindlers who are bound together by mutual responsibility. That’s why the officials felt so uncomfortable when Chichikov’s scam was revealed, because each of them remembered their sins. If they try to detain Chichikov for his fraud, then he too will be able to accuse them of dishonesty. A comical situation arises when people in power help a swindler in his illegal machinations and are afraid of him.
In his poem, Gogol expands the boundaries of the district town, introducing into it “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin.” It no longer talks about local abuses, but about the arbitrariness and lawlessness that is committed by the highest St. Petersburg officials, that is, the government itself. The contrast between the unheard-of luxury of St. Petersburg and the pitiful beggarly position of Kopeikin, who shed blood for his fatherland and lost an arm and a leg, is striking. But, despite his injuries and military merits, this war hero does not even have the right to the pension due to him. A desperate disabled person tries to find help in the capital, but his attempt is frustrated by the cold indifference of a high-ranking official. This disgusting image of a soulless St. Petersburg nobleman completes the characterization of the world of officials. All of them, starting with the petty provincial secretary and ending with the representative of the highest administrative power, are dishonest, selfish, cruel people, indifferent to the fate of the country and the people.
In the artistic space of one of Gogol's most famous works, landowners and people in power are connected with each other. Lies, bribery and the desire for profit characterize each of the images of officials in Dead Souls. It’s amazing with what ease and ease the author draws essentially disgusting portraits, and so masterfully that you don’t doubt for a minute the authenticity of each character. Using the example of officials in the poem “Dead Souls,” the most pressing problems of the Russian Empire of the mid-19th century were shown. In addition to serfdom, which hampered natural progress, the real problem was the extensive bureaucratic apparatus, for the maintenance of which huge sums were allocated. People in whose hands power was concentrated worked only to accumulate their own capital and improve their well-being, robbing both the treasury and ordinary people. Many writers of that time addressed the topic of exposing officials: Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky.
In “Dead Souls” there are no separately described images of civil servants, but nevertheless, the life and characters are shown very accurately. Images of city N officials appear from the first pages of the work. Chichikov, who decided to pay a visit to each of the powerful, gradually introduces the reader to the governor, vice-governor, prosecutor, chairman of the chamber, police chief, postmaster and many others. Chichikov flattered everyone, as a result of which he managed to win over every important person, and all this is shown as a matter of course. In the bureaucratic world, pomp reigned, bordering on vulgarity, inappropriate pathos and farce. Thus, during a regular dinner, the governor’s house was lit up as if for a ball, the decoration was blinding, and the ladies were dressed in their best dresses.
The officials in the provincial town were of two types: the first were subtle and followed the ladies everywhere, trying to charm them with bad French and greasy compliments. Officials of the second type, according to the author, resembled Chichikov himself: neither fat nor thin, with round pockmarked faces and slicked hair, they looked sideways, trying to find an interesting or profitable business for themselves. At the same time, everyone tried to harm each other, to do some kind of meanness, usually this happened because of the ladies, but no one was going to fight over such trifles. But at dinners they pretended that nothing was happening, discussed Moscow News, dogs, Karamzin, delicious dishes and gossiped about officials of other departments.
When characterizing the prosecutor, Gogol combines the high and the low: “he was neither fat nor thin, had Anna on his neck, and it was even rumored that he was introduced to a star; however, he was a great good-natured man and sometimes even embroidered on tulle himself...” Note that nothing is said here about why this man received the award - the Order of St. Anne is given to “those who love truth, piety and fidelity,” and is also awarded for military merit. But no battles or special episodes where piety and loyalty were mentioned are mentioned at all. The main thing is that the prosecutor is engaged in handicrafts, and not in his official duties. Sobakevich speaks unflatteringly about the prosecutor: the prosecutor, they say, is an idle person, so he sits at home, and the lawyer, a well-known grabber, works for him. There is nothing to talk about here - what kind of order can there be if a person who does not understand the issue at all is trying to solve it while an authorized person is embroidering on tulle.
A similar technique is used to describe the postmaster, a serious and silent man, short, but witty and philosopher. Only in this case, various qualitative characteristics are combined into one row: “short”, “but a philosopher”. That is, here growth becomes an allegory for the mental abilities of this person.
The reaction to worries and reforms is also shown very ironically: from new appointments and the number of papers, civil servants are losing weight (“And the chairman lost weight, and the inspector of the medical board lost weight, and the prosecutor lost weight, and some Semyon Ivanovich ... and he lost weight”), but there were and those who courageously kept themselves in their previous form. And meetings, according to Gogol, were only successful when they could go out for a treat or have lunch, but this, of course, is not the fault of the officials, but the mentality of the people.
Gogol in “Dead Souls” depicts officials only at dinners, playing whist or other card games. Only once does the reader see officials at the workplace, when Chichikov came to draw up a bill of sale for the peasants. The department unequivocally hints to Pavel Ivanovich that things will not be done without a bribe, and there is nothing to say about a quick resolution of the issue without a certain amount. This is confirmed by the police chief, who “only has to blink when passing a fish row or a cellar,” and balyks and good wines appear in his hands. No request is considered without a bribe.
The most cruel story is about Captain Kopeikin. A disabled war veteran, in search of truth and help, travels from the Russian hinterland to the capital to ask for an audience with the Tsar himself. Kopeikin’s hopes are dashed by a terrible reality: while cities and villages are in poverty and lacking money, the capital is chic. Meetings with the king and high-ranking officials are constantly postponed. Completely desperate, Captain Kopeikin makes his way into the reception room of a high-ranking official, demanding that his question be immediately put forward for consideration, otherwise he, Kopeikin, will not leave the office. The official assures the veteran that now the assistant will take the latter to the emperor himself, and for a second the reader believes in a happy outcome - he rejoices along with Kopeikin, riding in the chaise, hopes and believes in the best. However, the story ends disappointingly: after this incident, no one met Kopeikin again. This episode is actually frightening, because human life turns out to be an insignificant trifle, the loss of which will not suffer at all to the entire system.
When Chichikov’s scam was revealed, they were in no hurry to arrest Pavel Ivanovich, because they could not understand whether he was the kind of person who needed to be detained, or the kind who would detain everyone and make them guilty. The characteristics of officials in “Dead Souls” can be the words of the author himself that these are people who sit quietly on the sidelines, accumulate capital and arrange their lives at the expense of others. Extravagance, bureaucracy, bribery, nepotism and meanness - this is what characterized the people in power in Russia in the 19th century.
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