How do the inhabitants of the city live as an auditor? The district town and its inhabitants (based on the comedy N

In this lesson you will look at the structure of the city created by N.V. Gogol in The Inspector General, analyze the characters of its inhabitants, find out in what ways the model of Russian social life is conveyed in The Inspector General, consider the role of off-stage characters in the play, find out what role Nicholas I played in the fate of The Inspector General.

The officials of this city personify all the most important aspects of Russian life:

court - judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin (Fig. 2);

Rice. 2. Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin ()

education - superintendent of schools Luka Lukich Khlopov (Fig. 3);

Rice. 3. Superintendent of schools Khlopov ()

social security - trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika (Fig. 4);

Rice. 4. Strawberry ()

healthcare - doctor Gibner;

mail - postmaster Shpekin (Fig. 5);

Rice. 5. Postmaster Shpekin ()

policeman - Derzhimorda (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6. Policeman Derzhimorda ()

This is not an entirely accurate, not entirely correct structure of a county town. Several decades after “The Inspector General” was published and staged, Maksheev, the son of the mayor of the district town of Ustyuzhna, pointed out some of Gogol’s mistakes in his note. He wrote:

“In a county town there cannot be a trustee of charitable institutions, since there were no charitable institutions themselves.”

But Gogol had absolutely no need (and Yuri Vladimirovich Mann writes about this very well in his book) to convey the real structure of the district city. For example, in a county town there must certainly be a bailiff, but Gogol does not have one. He doesn't need it, because there is already a judge. It was important for Gogol to create a model of the world, a model of Russian social life. Therefore, Gogol’s city is a prefabricated city.

“In “The Inspector General” I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew at that time. All the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person. And laugh at everything at once.”

In the 18th century, a satirical work depicted some separate place where injustices were committed, some island of evil. Outside of it, everything was right, everything was fine. And good forces intervene and restore order. For example, how Pravdin in Fonvizin’s “Nedorosl” (Fig. 8) takes Prostakova’s estate into custody.

Rice. 8. D.I. Fonvizin ()

This is not the case in The Inspector General. Throughout the vast expanse that is located outside the district town, the order is still the same. Officials do not expect anything other than what they are used to expecting, what they are used to seeing.

Yu.V. Mann (Fig. 9) writes very convincingly about what the “Inspector General” situation is and how it was played out by Gogol.

The life of Russian society seemed to Gogol to be a fragmented life, in which everyone has their own small interests and nothing in common. To solve the main problem, you need to find a common feeling that can unite everyone. And Gogol found this common feeling - fear. Fear unites everyone. Fear of a completely unknown, secret auditor.

It has long been noted that there is no positive hero in Gogol’s play. He himself will say this 6-7 years after the play was completed, in his other play “Theatrical Travel” after the presentation of a new comedy.” This is an excellent commentary on The Inspector General:

“Laughter is the only honest face of comedy.”

And about the city it says:

“From everywhere, from different corners of Russia, exceptions to the truth, errors and abuses flocked here.”

But the truth itself is not shown in The Inspector General.

Gogol wrote to Pogodin in May 1836:

“The capital is delicately offended by the fact that the morals of six provincial officials have been taken away. What would the capital say if its own morals were removed, even slightly?”

Satirical plays before The Inspector General could touch much higher spheres. But this does not mean that such people are more high spheres, mentioned in the plays, meant a greater degree of satire, a greater degree of exposure. Gogol, without encroaching on the highest positions of the Russian bureaucracy, speaks of six provincial officials, and their tricks, in general, are not God knows how dangerous and terrible. The mayor (Fig. 10) is a bribe-taker, but is he really that dangerous?

Rice. 10. Mayor ()

The judge takes bribes with greyhound puppies. Strawberry, instead of feeding oatmeal soup to the sick, cooks cabbage for them. It's not about the scale, it's about the essence. And the essence is exactly this: this is a model of Russian life, there can be nothing else. It is important.

It is curious that in 1846, more than ten years after finishing work on the play, Gogol wrote the denouement of The Inspector General.

In 1846, Gogol was completely captured by the idea of ​​spiritual salvation, and not only his own, but also his fellow citizens. It seems to him that he is called upon to tell his compatriots some very important truth. Don't laugh at them, but tell them something that can set them on the right path, on the straight road. And this is how he interprets his own play:

"The nameless city is inner world person. Ugly officials are our passions, Khlestakov is our secular conscience. And the real auditor, about whom the gendarme reports, is our true conscience, which, in the face of inexorable death, puts everything in its place.”

This is what the city of Gogol's comedy looks like.

Petersburg theme in “The Inspector General”

Two people come from St. Petersburg to the district city - Khlestakov and his servant Osip. Each of them talks about the delights of St. Petersburg life.

Osip describes life in St. Petersburg like this:

“Life is subtle and political. Theaters, dogs dancing for you and everything you want. They all speak in subtle delicacy. Haberdashery, damn it, treatment. Everyone tells you: “You.” You get bored of walking - you take a cab and sit like a gentleman. If you don’t want to pay him, please, every house has a through gate. And you will sneak around so much that no devil will find you.”

Khlestakov (Fig. 11) says the following:

“You even wanted to make me a collegiate assessor. And the watchman followed me up the stairs with a brush: “Excuse me, Ivan Sanych, may I clean your boots?”

I know pretty actresses.

On the table, for example, there is a watermelon, a watermelon costs seven hundred rubles. Soup in a saucepan, arrived by boat straight from Paris.

I'm at balls every day. There we had our own whist: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the French envoy, the German envoy and me.

And sure enough, it happened that when I walked through the department, it was just an earthquake: everything was trembling, shaking like a leaf.”

Rice. 11. Khlestakov ()

“Everything is shaking, shaking like a leaf” - this is the same fear.

The mayor and his wife Anna Andreevna dream about St. Petersburg. The mayor admits that he is so seduced by life in St. Petersburg:

“They say there are two fish there - vendace and smelt.”

To Anna Andreevna (Fig. 12), of course, this all seems rude. She says:

“I want our house to be the first in St. Petersburg. And so that in my bedroom there would be such an aroma that you could only enter by closing your eyes.”

Rice. 12. Wife and daughter of the mayor ()

Notice how Khlestakov shines through and peeks through in their dreams. It is no coincidence that Khlestakov says:

"I am everywhere! Everywhere…".

In “Dead Souls,” Petersburg is presented as an alluring center. About Khlestakov it is said “a metropolitan thing.” St. Petersburg is a desirable and magical land. It is no coincidence that Bobchinsky (Fig. 13) will ask Khlestakov:

“Here, if you see some nobleman, and maybe even the sovereign himself, tell them that Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city, and nothing more.”

Rice. 13. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky ()

This is another very interesting motive from Gogol: a person who wants to signify his existence, to leave his mark on the world. Khlestakov is also a small man. He dreams too. And his dreams take the form of unbridled fantasy.

This is how the St. Petersburg theme highlights the prefabricated city.

Off-stage characters

In every play, not only those characters who appear on stage are very important, but also those whom we call off-stage. That is, they are mentioned, but do not appear on stage.

Let's start with the two most important for the composition of this play: Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, whose letter is read by the mayor at the beginning of the play, and Tryapichkin, the letter to whom Khlestakov writes at the end of the fourth act.

Chmykhov's letter sets the stage for the play. Khlestakov’s letter to Tryapichkin unties the line of the imaginary auditor.

It is curious that Gogol, in addition to fictional characters, mentions very real persons, and living at that time: Smirdin - publisher and bookseller, Zagoskin - author of the novel "Yuri Miloslavsky", and Pushkin (Fig. 14). It's interesting to see how the first (draft) and second editions fit together.

In the Sovremennik Theater, the place mentioning Pushkin was taken from the first edition, where Khlestakov says:

“On friendly terms with Pushkin. I come to him, in front of him is a bottle of the best rum. He slammed a glass, slammed another, and went to write.”

Rice. 14. A.S. Pushkin ()

This is not in the final version.

Andrei Mironov, who performed the role of Khlestakov in the satire theater, played this place like this:

“On friendly terms with Pushkin. I come to him and say: “Well, brother Pushkin, how are you? - Yes, that’s how it is somehow...”

Yuri Vladimirovich Mann, in his wonderful book about Gogol, called “Works and Days” (a very detailed and intelligent biography of Gogol), devotes several very important pages to the relationship between Gogol and Pushkin.

The off-stage characters of The Inspector General are no different from those we see on stage. For example, Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, whose letter the mayor reads at the beginning of the first act, calls him a kind godfather, friend and benefactor, an intelligent man, that is, one who does not like to miss what is right in his hands.

Mention is made of an assessor who smells as if he just came out of a distillery. True, the assessor has an explanation for why he smells like that. It turns out that his mother hurt him as a child.

Teachers, one of whom cannot do without making a grimace when he ascends to the pulpit, and the other explains himself with such fervor that he does not remember himself and breaks chairs.

NikolayIin the fate of "The Inspector General"

“If it were not for the high intercession of the sovereign, my play would never have been on stage, and there were already people trying to ban it.”

Rice. 15. Nicholas I ()

From this they sometimes conclude that the play “The Inspector General” was initially banned. But that's not true. There are no traces of censorship prohibition in the documents. Moreover, the tsar generally did not like to cancel the decisions of his officials, official bodies, and did not like to make exceptions to the laws. Therefore, it was much more difficult to lift the ban than to prevent it.

The Emperor (Fig. 15) not only attended the premiere, but also ordered the ministers to watch The Inspector General. The memoirs of contemporaries noted the presence of certain ministers at the performance. The Tsar was there twice - at the first and third performances. During the performance he laughed a lot, applauded, and leaving the box he said:

“Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than anyone else.”

At first, fears of censorship were very serious. And then Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vielgorsky began to petition the sovereign for this play, of course, at Gogol’s request. “The Inspector General” was requested to the Winter Palace, and Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky (Fig. 16), who was a member of the committee of the imperial theaters, read this play in the presence of the sovereign.

Rice. 16. M.Yu. Vielgorsky ()

The Tsar really liked the stories of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky and the scene of the officials being presented to Khlestakov. After finishing the reading there followed highest resolution play a comedy.

This meant that the play was sent to the censor, but everyone already knew that the Tsar liked the play. This is what decided the fate of “The Inspector General”.

It is curious that Gogol asked for payment not per performance, but one-time payment. He received two and a half thousand rubles for his play. And subsequently the tsar granted more gifts: rings to some actors and Gogol too.

Why did the tsar so clearly stand up for Gogol’s comedy? There is no point in suggesting that he did not understand the play. The king loved the theater very much. Perhaps he did not want to repeat history with the play "Woe from Wit", which was banned. The Tsar was very fond of comedies, loved jokes. The following episode is connected with The Inspector General: the Tsar sometimes came backstage during intermission. He saw the actor Petrov, who played the role of Bobchinsky (who speaks in the play “tell the sovereign that there is Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky”), and told him: “Ah, Bobchinsky. Well, okay, we'll know.". That is, in this way he supported the text of the play.

Of course, the tsar did not read the deep implications of Gogol’s play, and did not need to. When “Dead Souls” appeared, he told someone close to him that he had already forgotten “The Inspector General”.

In addition, the king is always more merciful and tolerant than his subjects. Not only Nicholas I loved this game, the same thing happened with Moliere and Louis, right up to Bulgakov and Stalin.

According to some researchers, based on the opinion of contemporaries, the tsar was also quite contemptuous of many of his officials. Having given Russia into the hands of bureaucrats, he himself treated these bureaucrats with contempt. Therefore, the king most likely liked the criticism of officials. If for Nicholas I this was just one of many episodes, then for Gogol it was a very important thing. And he addressed this many times, because for Gogol this is a model of the true relationship between power and the artist: power protects the artist, power listens to the artist, listens to him.

Immediately after Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” a play called “The Real Inspector General” appeared without a signature, but everyone knew that it was Prince Tsitsianov. Everything there followed Gogol. One character with the last name Rulev was a real auditor and brought everyone to clean water. The mayor was removed from city management for five years. The mayor's daughter fell in love with him, and a wedding was planned. The mayor becomes the image of the father-in-law of a real auditor. But, as the history of literature shows us many times, one cannot be saved by the discoveries of others. The play was a disastrous failure and was canceled after three performances.

Bibliography

1. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook at 2 o'clock. Korovina V.Ya. and others - 8th ed. - M.: Education, 2009.

2. Merkin G.S. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. - 9th ed. - M.: 2013.

3. Kritarova Zh.N. Analysis of works of Russian literature. 8th grade. - 2nd ed., rev. - M.: 2014.

1. Website sobolev.franklang.ru ()

Homework

1. Tell us about the images of provincial officials depicted in the comedy “The Inspector General”.

2. What model of Russian social life does Gogol present to us in the play?

3. What perception of his play did Gogol arrive at in 1846, when he wrote the denouement to The Inspector General? What spiritual values ​​did he talk about, in your opinion?

In his works, A. N. Ostrovsky explored various topics: merchants, bureaucrats, nobility, etc. In "The Thunderstorm" the playwright turned to the consideration of the provincial town of Kalinov and its inhabitants, which was very unusual for the theater of that time, because usually the focus was more big cities, like Moscow or St. Petersburg.

"The Thunderstorm", written in 1859, is a work of the pre-reform era. The fates of the heroes reflected the “pre-storm” state of Russian society. Indeed, two years after the release of the drama, serfdom was abolished, radically changing the fate of people.

The structure of city life in some respects coincides with the structure modern society. For example, some mothers often destroy their children with their care. These children grow up to be dependent and unprepared for life, just like Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov.

Returning to the city of Kalinov, it is necessary to say about unspoken laws full of injustice. Life is built according to Domostroy, “he who has money has power”...

These laws were established by the “dark kingdom,” namely Dikoy and Kabanikha. Enemies of everything new, they personify oppressive, unjust power.

Dikoy, Savel Prokofich - merchant, significant person in the city. Dikoy appears as an arrogant, domineering and vile person. He ruins people's lives not only with his speech, which is impossible to imagine without curses, but also with his desire to find material gain in everything, without thinking about the lives of other people.

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, Kabanikha - a rich merchant's wife, widow. He ruins his son’s life by telling him how to act and live in general. Prude for daughter-in-law. Unlike the Wild One, Kabanikha does not express her thoughts and feelings in front of all people.

All other heroes are victims of the “dark kingdom”. People are oppressed, without the right to live freely.

Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov, son of Kabanikha. Slave, flexible. He obeys his mother in everything.

Boris Grigorievich, nephew of Dikiy. He ended up in the city because of an inheritance left by his grandmother, which Dikoy must pay. Boris, like Tikhon, is depressed by the life of the city.

Varvara, Tikhon’s sister, and Kudryash, Dikiy’s clerk, are people who have adapted to city life. “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered,” says Varvara.

But not all the heroes finally “gave up” and succumbed to the flow of city life. One Kuligin, a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, is trying to fix and improve the life of the city. He sees injustice in the life of the city and is not afraid to speak out about it. “And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money from his free labors.”

And, perhaps, the most controversial and original hero of the drama is Katerina. "Beam of light" or "defeat of darkness"? It is worth noting that feelings arose between Boris and Katerina. But one thing hampered the development of their relationship - Katerina was married to Tikhon. They met only once, but the heroine’s morality haunted her. She found no other way out but to rush into the Volga. Katerina can in no way be called a “defeat of darkness,” because she destroyed outdated moral principles. Not a “ray of light”, but a “ray of freedom” - this is the best way to describe Katerina. Having lost her life, albeit in Ostrovsky’s drama, she gave people hope for the opportunity to be free. Let people at first not know what to do with this freedom, but later they will begin to realize that each of them is capable of much and should not put up with unjust laws hometown or obey your mother's every word.

County town and its inhabitants
The comedy "The Inspector General" has been topical for more than 150 years. Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, Democratic Russia. But people do not change, the old order, the relationship between superiors and subordinates, city and countryside, is preserved, so when we read “The Inspector General” today, we recognize a modern provincial city and its inhabitants. Gogol wrote a comedy in which he ridiculed the ignorance of provincials, for example, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin read five or six books and is therefore a freethinker, attaches great weight to his words, his speech, like many other officials, is incoherent and abrupt. The trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, treats his wards without understanding anything about medicine, and the doctor Gibner does not know a word of Russian, that is, he is hardly capable of healing. A local teacher makes such grimaces that those around him are simply horrified, and his colleague explains with such fervor that he breaks chairs. It is unlikely that after such an upbringing, students receive the proper knowledge. When students grow up, they switch to public service. And here everything is the same: drunkenness, bribery, abuse of one’s position, veneration of rank. It is enough to recall just some of the heroes of the comedy and their habits: the assessor who is always drunk; Lyapkin-Tyapkin, confident that if he takes bribes with greyhound puppies, then this is not a crime; money embezzled by officials for the construction of a church that allegedly burned down; complaints from merchants that the mayor could have taken any fabric or other goods from them; Dobchinsky’s phrase that “when a nobleman speaks, you feel fear.” The wives of these provincial inhabitants were brought up on magazines subscribed to from the capital and local gossip. It is not surprising that the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg caused such a stir among them - provincial suitors were up for grabs, and the young gallant man managed to court both the mayor’s wife and daughter. However, Khlestakov embodied the ideal of life not only in the eyes of the ladies, but also of all other inhabitants of the district town. They believed his fantastic stories because their content corresponded to the dreams of every provincial: the first house in St. Petersburg, thousands of couriers, friends - foreign ambassadors and the like, soup straight from Paris... It is not surprising that the mayor did not immediately believe what Khlestakov promised marry Marya Antonovna. When other inhabitants of the district town found out about this, their envy of their former friends clearly manifested itself. And how they gloated when they found out that the auditor was not real! Thus, he describes all the vices of the inhabitants of the district town, of which there were hundreds throughout Russia. This is hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, bribery, ignorance. And yet I would like to believe that reading and staging “The Inspector General” today will help change the moral image of Russia, and its inhabitants will help to realize their own vices.

“The Inspector General” belongs to those works that capture the reader and viewer instantly and as if by surprise. Gogol wrote about his work: “I decided to collect everything bad that I knew and laugh at it at once - this is the origin of “The Inspector General.”
The author paints us an unsightly picture of the district town and its “fathers” - bribe-takers and slackers, busy only with satisfying their desires and whims.
The mayor does not care about the townspeople subordinate to his authority, robs merchants, and spends government money on his own needs. He himself is a swindler and in every boss he sees a swindler waiting for bribes. Mistaking Khlestakov for an important official, Anton Antonovich pleases him in every possible way, hoping that he will remain in his position. Other officials behave in the same way: judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika, postmaster Shpekin. These officials have no idea that they can honestly fulfill their duties, live in the interests of society, and work for the benefit of people. They don’t even know such words.
The discovery of a deception with a false auditor and the arrival of a genuine official from St. Petersburg leaves them confused. And most likely not for long.
The author makes it clear that everything will happen again with several nuances. Maybe there will be more bribes, they will suffer from fear, but everything will work out, they “played the dress rehearsal” with Khlestakov perfectly.
Gogol was an honest artist, he showed the true life of Russia, harsh and dramatic, and this is his merit.

The comedy “The Inspector General” has been topical for more than 150 years. Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, democratic Russia... But people do not change, the old orders, the relationships between superiors and subordinates, city and village, are preserved, so when we read “The Inspector General” today, we recognize a modern provincial city and its inhabitants. Gogol wrote a comedy in which he ridiculed the ignorance of provincials, for example, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin read five or six books and is therefore a freethinker, attaches great weight to his words, his speech, like many other officials, is incoherent and abrupt. The trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, treats his wards without understanding anything about medicine, and the doctor Gibner does not know a word of Russian, that is, he is hardly capable of healing. A local teacher makes such grimaces that those around him are simply horrified, and his colleague explains with such fervor that he breaks chairs. It is unlikely that after such an upbringing, students receive the proper knowledge. When students grow up, they switch to state education. service. And here everything is the same: drunkenness, bribery, abuse of one’s position, veneration of rank. It is enough to recall just some of the heroes of the comedy and their habits: the assessor who is always drunk; Lyapkin-Tyapkin, confident that if he takes bribes with greyhound puppies, then this is not a crime; money embezzled by officials for the construction of a church that allegedly burned down; complaints from merchants that the mayor could have taken any fabric or other goods from them; Dobchinsky’s phrase that “when a nobleman speaks, you feel fear.” The wives of these provincial inhabitants were brought up on magazines subscribed to from the capital and local gossip. It is not surprising that the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg caused such a stir among the lower classes - provincial suitors were up for grabs, and the young gallant man managed to court both the mayor’s wife and daughter. However, Khlestakov embodied the ideal of life not only in the eyes of the ladies, but also of all other inhabitants of the district town. They believed his fantastic tales because their content corresponded to the dreams of every provincial: the first house in St. Petersburg, thousands of couriers, friends - foreign ambassadors and the like, soup straight from Paris. It is not surprising that the mayor immediately believed that Khlestakov promised to marry Marya Antonovna. When other inhabitants of the district town found out about this, their envy of their former friends clearly manifested itself. And how they gloated when they found out that the auditor was not real! Thus, he describes all the vices of the inhabitants of the district town, of which there were hundreds throughout Russia. This is hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, bribery, ignorance. And yet I would like to believe that reading and staging The Inspector General today will help change the moral image of Russia, and its inhabitants will become aware of their own vices.

City N and its inhabitants.

One of the most expressive, impressive images of Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” is certainly the image of the city N.

The reader gets acquainted with him almost from the first pages of the famous work. From the dialogue of those frightened by the imminent arrival of an official, a small provincial town appears in all its glory: Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin, the local postmaster, who opens other people’s correspondence without any remorse and reads it with pleasure, seems to blow up the city authorities with his news.

We can safely say that in a small work, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol manages to brilliantly show all layers of society: the people, the merchants, the bureaucrats. “The Inspector General” reflects the main areas of life: trade, social, spiritual.

From the very first pages of the play we learn about the dirt that has not been removed from the city streets for many years. Particular attention is paid to the huge puddle on central square, through which in bad weather it is impossible to pass. However, the Mayor is convinced that the deplorable state of the city is not his fault, but that the same townspeople are to blame. “What a nasty city this is! Just put up some kind of monument somewhere or just a fence - God knows where they’ll come from and they’ll do all sorts of crap!”

It turns out that officials had previously highlighted these shortcomings, but did not consider it necessary to put everything listed above in order. They suddenly begin to care about the comfort of the townspeople only after the news of the arrival of the auditor.

And what morals reign in this amazing town! People. who represent the state, turn the lives of city residents into survival rather.

The reader learns with horror about the order in the local hospital. Here, sick people walk around in scary gray caps, and few people actually think about curing them. As Strawberry put it, “...the closer to nature, the better - we don’t use expensive medicines. The man is simple: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will recover.”

The teaching also amazes with the “flight of imagination”. One of the teachers “makes scary faces”, another talks with such inspiration about the affairs of “bygone days” that the students are simply afraid of him: “He is a learned head - it’s obvious, and he’s picked up a ton of information, but he only explains with such fervor that he doesn’t remembers himself. I listened to him once: well, for now I talked about the Assyrians and Babylonians - nothing yet, but when I got to Alexander the Great, I cannot tell you what happened to him. I thought it was a fire, by God! He ran away from the pulpit and slammed his chair on the floor with all his might. Of course, Alexander the Great is a hero, but why break the chairs? This is a loss to the treasury."

What is justice like? Law and order certainly reign here! However, from the wishes expressed by the Governor, the reader can learn that here, too, the picture is far from being the best. Bribery, condoning illegal actions - all this does not decorate the city of N.

I even feel sorry for the inhabitants of this town, but they, in my opinion, are so accustomed to this way of life that they cannot imagine their existence without such wonderful “little things” as bribery, flattery, laziness, stupidity of the commanding officials...

Gogol wrote this work in the first half of the 19th century, but how recognizable some of its scenes are now! Russia is certainly changing for the better, but some features of city life, it seems to me, are far from being corrected...