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 the Russian public life 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 Khlopov schools ()
social security - the trustee of charitable institutions Strawberry (Fig. 4);
Rice. 4. Strawberries ()
health care - doctor Gibner;
mail - postmaster Shpekin (Fig. 5);
Rice. 5. Postmaster Shpekin ()
policeman - Derzhimorda (Fig. 6).
Rice. 6. Policeman Derzhimorda ()
This is not quite accurate, not quite correct structure of the county town. A few decades after The Inspector General was printed and staged, Maksheev, the son of the mayor of the county town of Ustyuzhna, in his note pointed out some of Gogol's mistakes. He wrote:
“In a county town there cannot be a trustee of charitable institutions, since there were no charitable institutions themselves.”
But Gogol did not need at all (and Yuri Vladimirovich Mann writes very well about this in his book) to convey the real structure of the county town. For example, in a county town there must certainly be a bailiff, but Gogol does not have one. He does not 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 put together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew. All the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person. And laugh at everything at once."
In the 18th century in satire some separate place was depicted where injustices are committed, a certain island of evil. Outside of it, everything was right, everything was good. And good forces intervene and put things in order. For example, how Pravdin in Fonvizin's "Undergrowth" (Fig. 8) takes care of Prostakova's estate.
Rice. 8. D.I. Fonvizin ()
This is not the case with the Inspector. Throughout the vast expanse that is located outside the county town, the rules are still the same. Officials do not expect anything else, except for what they are accustomed to expect, what they are accustomed to seeing.
Yu.V. Mann (Fig. 9) writes very convincingly about what the situation of The Inspector General is and how it is played out by Gogol.
The life of Russian society seemed to Gogol a fragmented life, in which everyone has their own small interests and there is 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 finished, in his other play "Theatrical Journey" after the presentation of a new comedy. This is a great commentary on The Examiner:
"Laughter is the only honest face of comedy."
And about the city it says:
"From everywhere, from different angles Russia flocked here exceptions to the truth, errors and abuses.
But the truth itself is not shown in The Inspector General.
Gogol wrote to Pogodin in May 1836:
“The capital is ticklishly offended by the fact that the morals of six provincial officials have been deduced. What would the capital say if its own morals were brought out, even if only slightly?
Satirical plays before The Inspector General could touch on much higher realms. But this does not mean that such higher realms 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 the sick with oatmeal soup, cooks cabbage for them. It's not about scale, it's about substance. And the essence is precisely this: this is a model of Russian life, nothing else can be. 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 to tell his compatriots some very important truth. Do not laugh at them, but tell them something that can guide them on the right path, on the straight path. And here is how he interprets his own play:
“The nameless city is the inner world of a 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 how the city of Gogol's comedy looks like.
Petersburg theme in The Government Inspector
Two people come from St. Petersburg to the county town - Khlestakov and his servant Osip. Each of them speaks of the delights of Petersburg life.
Osip describes life in St. Petersburg as follows:
“Life is subtle and political. Theaters, dogs dance for you and whatever you want. Everything is spoken in subtle delicacy. Haberdashery, damn it, getting around. Everyone says to you: "You." You are tired of walking - you take a cab, you sit yourself like a gentleman. And if you don’t want to pay him, if you please, every house has a through gate. And you will scurry so that no devil will find you.
Khlestakov (Fig. 11) says the following:
“Even you wanted to become a collegiate assessor. And the watchman was still following me up the stairs with a brush: “Excuse me, Ivan Sanych, can I clean your boots?”
I know pretty actresses.
On the table, for example, a watermelon, seven hundred rubles a watermelon. Soup in a saucepan, came straight from Paris on a steamboat.
I'm at balls every day. We had our own whist there: the foreign minister, the French envoy, the German envoy, and myself.
And for sure, it happened, I pass through the department - just an earthquake: everything is shaking, shaking like a leaf.
Rice. 11. Khlestakov ()
"Everything is shaking, shaking like a leaf" - it's the same fear.
The mayor and his wife Anna Andreevna are dreaming about Petersburg. The mayor admits that he is so seduced by life in St. Petersburg:
"There, they say, there are two fish - vendace and smelt."
Anna Andreevna (Fig. 12), of course, it all seems rude. She says:
“I want our house to be the first in St. Petersburg. And so that in my bedroom there was such an ambiance that you could enter only by closing your eyes.
Rice. 12. Wife and daughter of the mayor ()
Pay attention to how Khlestakov shines through and peeps through in their dreams. It is no coincidence that Khlestakov says:
"I'm everywhere! Everywhere…".
In "Dead Souls" Petersburg is given as an alluring center. About Khlestakov it is said "capital thing". Petersburg is a desirable and magical land. It is no coincidence that Bobchinsky (Fig. 13) will ask Khlestakov:
“Here you are, if you see any 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 curious motif in Gogol: a person who wants to signify his existence, to leave his mark on the world. Khlestakov too small man. He also dreams. And his dreams take the form of unbridled fantasy.
This is how the Petersburg theme highlights the prefabricated city.
Off-stage characters
In each play, not only those characters who enter the stage are very important, but also those whom we call off-stage. That is, they are mentioned, but they do not appear on the 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, a letter to which Khlestakov writes at the end of the fourth act.
Chmykhov's letter closes the play. Khlestakov's letter to Tryapichkin unleashes the line of the imaginary auditor.
It is curious that Gogol, in addition to fictional characters, mentions very real people, and living ones at that time: Smirdin is a publisher and bookseller, Zagoskin is the author of the novel "Yuri Miloslavsky", and Pushkin (Fig. 14). It is interesting to see how the first (rough) and second editions are combined.
In the Sovremennik Theater, a place with a mention of Pushkin was taken from the first edition, where Khlestakov says:
“With Pushkin on a friendly footing. I come to him, in front of him is a bottle of the best rum. He - clap a glass, clap another and went to write.
Rice. 14. A.S. Pushkin ()
This is not in the final version.
Andrei Mironov, who played the role of Khlestakov in the theater of satire, played this place like this:
“With Pushkin on a friendly footing. I come to him, I say: “Well, brother Pushkin, how is it? “Yeah, it’s kind of…”
In Yuri Vladimirovich Mann, in his wonderful book about Gogol called Works and Days (a very detailed and clever biography of Gogol), several very important pages are devoted 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 an amiable godfather, friend and benefactor, a smart man, that is, one who does not like to miss what is directly floating into his hands.
An assessor is mentioned who smells as if he had just left the distillery. True, the assessor has an explanation why he has such a smell. It turns out that his mother hurt him in childhood.
Teachers, one of whom cannot manage without making a grimace, having ascended the pulpit, and the other explains with such fervor that he does not remember himself and breaks chairs.
NicholasIin the fate of the "Inspector"
“If it were not for the high intercession of the sovereign, my play would not have been on the stage for anything, and there were already people who were busy about banning it.”
Rice. 15. Nicholas I ()
From this, it is sometimes concluded that the play "The Inspector General" was initially banned. But it's not. There are no traces of prohibition of censorship in the documents. Moreover, the tsar generally did not like to cancel the decisions of his officials, official bodies, did not like to make exceptions to the laws. Therefore, it was much more difficult to lift the ban than to prevent it.
The Sovereign 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 king was twice - at the first and third performances. During the performance, he laughed a lot, applauded, and leaving the box said:
"Well, play! Everyone got it, but I got it more than anyone. ”
At first, fears of censorship were very serious. And then Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vielgorsky began to petition the sovereign for this play, of course, at the request of Gogol. "Inspector" was requested in 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. Wielgorsky ()
The tsar really liked the stories of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky and the scene of the introduction of officials to Khlestakov. After the end of the reading, highest resolution play comedy.
This meant that the play was censored, but everyone already knew that the tsar liked the play. It was this that decided the fate of the Inspector General.
It is curious that Gogol did not ask for payment per performance, but a one-time payment. He received two and a half thousand rubles for his play. And later the tsar granted more gifts: rings to some actors and Gogol too.
Why did the tsar so clearly stand up for Gogol's comedy? It is not worth assuming that he did not understand the play. The king was very fond of the theatre. Perhaps he did not want to repeat the story with the play "Woe from Wit", which was banned. The king was very fond of comedies, loved jokes. The following episode is connected with The Inspector General: the tsar sometimes came backstage during the 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 said to him: “Ah, Bobchinsky. Okay, we'll know.". That is, thus supported the text of the play.
Of course, the tsar did not read the deep subtexts of Gogol's play, and did not need to. When the "Dead Souls" appeared, he told one of those close to him that he had already forgotten the "Inspector General".
In addition, the king is always more merciful and tolerant of his subjects. This game was not only loved by Nicholas I, the same was with Molière and Louis, up to Bulgakov and Stalin.
According to some researchers, based on the opinion of contemporaries, the king 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 tsar 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 referred to 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 "Inspector General" appeared without a signature, but everyone knew that this was Prince Tsitsianov, a play called "The Real Inspector". There everything was following Gogol. One character with the surname Rulev was a real auditor and led everyone to clean water. The mayor was removed from the management of the city for five years. The mayor's daughter fell in love with him, and a wedding was planned. The mayor becomes the image of the real auditor's father-in-law. But, as the history of literature shows us many times, one cannot save oneself by other people's finds. The play suffered a crushing failure and was withdrawn after three performances.
Bibliography
1. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook at 2 o'clock Korovin V.Ya. and others - 8th ed. - M.: Education, 2009.
2. Merkin G.S. Literature. 8th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. - 9th ed. - M.: 2013.
3. Kritarova Zh.N. Analysis of works of Russian literature. 8th grade. - 2nd ed., corrected. - 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 come to in 1846, when he wrote the denouement to The Inspector General? What spiritual values did he speak about, in your opinion?
The comedy "The Inspector General" refers to those works that take the reader by surprise. N.V. Gogol himself said about his work that he wanted to collect in it all the worst that he knew and at one time laugh at it. The plot of the comedy is considered topical, as it remains relevant to this day. It develops around a small provincial town and an ordinary official passing by. In one county town, the author managed to collect all the social vices.
At the head of the city was the mayor, who did not care about the life of the townspeople, but only his own needs. To do this, he greedily robbed merchants and spent government money. Being a swindler himself, he also saw swindlers waiting for a bribe in all other bosses. For this reason, taking Khlestakov for an important official, he tried in every possible way to please him. He did not even notice obvious inconsistencies in the guest's story. And when Khlestakov complained about the lack of money, he took it for a hint of a bribe.
The same inveterate swindlers are other officials in the city. Among them are judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, the trustee of charitable institutions Strawberry, the superintendent of schools Khlopov, the postmaster Shpekin, and others. The news of the arrival of the auditor greatly frightened these officials, and they decided to restore order in their subordination. For the sake of the “important” guest, it was decided to expel unnecessary patients from the hospital, cover unfinished buildings with fences, fire bad workers, remove garbage from the roads, etc. As the action develops, it turns out that an eternally drunk assessor works for the judge, an unbalanced teacher teaches at the school, that is, the true face of the people inhabiting the city is revealed.
The vices of the officials themselves can be listed endlessly. Strawberry believed that if ordinary people die in a hospital, then this is their fate. At the same time, he did not consider it necessary to buy any medicines or at least change linen in the wards. Lyapkin-Tyapkin took bribes with greyhound puppies, spent all his time hunting and was not particularly interested in cases in court. As a result, complete chaos reigned at his work, and after fifteen years of work as a judge, he himself did not know how to distinguish right from wrong. Shpekin opened all the letters passing through his mail, as he himself said, for the sake of curiosity and pleasure.
Not in at its best the female half of the city also appears before the reader, represented primarily by the wife and daughter of the mayor. The only thing that interests them is the outfits, because of which they often quarrel among themselves. In addition, both are incredibly flirtatious. At the sight of an "important" guest, they try vying to please him. Among other female characters in the city, the daughters of Strawberry, non-commissioned officer and locksmith Poshlepkina stand out.
Thus, describing the inhabitants of the county town, the author tried to create collective image Russian society of his time. He clearly showed that the activities of officials were directed not at the people, but against them. Moreover, "state" people committed many crimes, remaining unpunished, and the population meekly endured and only supported this state of affairs with their behavior.
The Inspector General belongs to those works that capture the reader and the viewer instantly and as if by surprise. Gogol wrote about his work: “I decided to collect all the bad things that I knew, and at one time laugh at him - this is the origin of the “Inspector General”.
The author paints us an unsightly picture of the county town and its "fathers" - bribe-takers and loafers, busy only satisfying their desires and whims.
The mayor does not care about the townspeople subordinate to his authority, robs merchants, spends state money for 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 way, hoping that he will remain in his position. Other officials behave in the same way: judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable establishments Strawberry, postmaster Shpekin. These officials are unaware 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 the words.
The revealed deception with a false auditor and the arrival of a genuine official from St. Petersburg confuse them. And most likely not for long.
The author makes it clear that everything will be repeated anew with several nuances. Maybe there will be more bribes, they will suffer 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 Government Inspector" has been topical for more than 150 years. Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, democratic Russia .. But people do not change, the old orders are preserved, relations between superiors and subordinates, city and countryside, so when we read The Inspector General today, we recognize a modern provincial town and its inhabitants. Gogol wrote a comedy in which he ridiculed the ignorance of the provincials, for example, Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin read five or six books and is therefore free-thinking, he attaches great weight to his words, his speech, like many other officials, is incoherent and abrupt. The trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, treats his wards, understanding nothing in 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 faces that others are simply horrified, and his colleague explains with such fervor that he breaks chairs. It is unlikely that after such upbringing, students receive proper knowledge. When the pupils grow up, they go to the state. service. And here - everything is the same: drunkenness, bribery, abuse of one's position, servility. It suffices to recall only some of the heroes of the comedy and their habits: the assessor, who is always drunk; Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who is sure that if he takes bribes with greyhound puppies, then this is not a crime; money appropriated by officials for the construction of a church that allegedly burned down; merchants' complaints that the mayor could take any fabric or other goods from them; Dobchinsky's phrase that "when a nobleman speaks, you feel fear." The wives of these inhabitants of the province were brought up on magazines ordered 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 bottom - the provincial suitors were on the list, and the young gallant man managed to look after both the wife and the daughter of the mayor. However, Khlestakov embodied the ideal of life not only in the eyes of the ladies, but also of all the other inhabitants of the county town. His fantastic tales were believed 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 Antonovna. When other inhabitants of the county town found out about this, their envy of former friends. 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 county town, of which there were hundreds in Russia. This is hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, bribery, ignorance. And yet I want to believe that reading, staging the Inspector today will help change the moral image of Russia, and its inhabitants - to realize their own vices.
In his works, A. N. Ostrovsky revealed various topics: the merchant class, bureaucracy, the nobility, and so on. 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 on more big cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg.
"Thunderstorm", written in 1859, is a work of the pre-reform era. The fate of the heroes reflected the "pre-stormy" state of Russian society. Indeed, two years after the release of the drama, serfdom was abolished, which radically changed the fate of people.
The structure of the life of the city in some respects coincides with the device modern society. For example, some mothers often ruin their children with their care. These children grow up as dependent and unprepared for life people, just like Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov.
Returning to the city of Kalinov, it must be said about the unspoken laws, full of injustice. Life is built according to Domostroy, "he who has money - he has power" ...
These laws were established by the "dark kingdom", namely the Wild and Boar. Enemies of everything new, she personifies oppressive, unjust power.
Wild, Savel Prokofich - a merchant, a significant person in the city. Wild appears as an arrogant, domineering and vile person. He spoils people's lives not only with his speech, which is impossible to imagine without swearing, but also with his desire to find material benefits in everything, without thinking about the lives of other people.
Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, Kabanikha - a rich merchant's wife, widow. Spoils the life of his son, indicating how to act and live in general. Hype for the bride. Unlike Wild, Boar does not express his thoughts and feelings in front of all people.
All other heroes are victims of the "dark kingdom". People are oppressed, without the right to a free life.
Tikhon Ivanych Kabanov, son of Kabanikhi. Guided, accommodating. He obeys his mother in everything.
Boris Grigorievich, Diky's nephew. He ended up in the city because of the 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, Dikoy's clerk, are people who have adapted to city life. “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s covered and covered,” says Varvara.
But not all the heroes finally "dropped their hands" and succumbed to the flow of city life. One Kuligin, a tradesman, a watchmaker - self-taught is trying to fix, 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, he tries to enslave the poor, that he can make even more money on his gratuitous labors."
And, perhaps, the most controversial and peculiar hero of the drama is Katerina. "Ray of light" or "defeat of darkness"? It is worth noting that feelings arose between Boris and Katerina. But one thing prevented the development of their relationship - Katerina was married to Tikhon. They met only once, but the morality of the heroine haunted her. She found no other way out but to throw herself into the Volga. In no case can Katerina 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 the drama of Ostrovsky, 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 unfair laws hometown or obey every word of the mother.
City N and its inhabitants.
One of the most expressive, impressive images of Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" is, of course, 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, a local postmaster, who, without much remorse, opens someone else's correspondence 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 sectors of society: the people, the merchants, the bureaucracy. The "Inspector" 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 city streets for many years. Particular attention is paid to a huge puddle in the central square, through which it is impossible to pass in bad weather. However, the Governor is convinced that he is not to blame for the deplorable state of the city, but the same townspeople are to blame. “What a nasty city this is! just put some kind of monument somewhere or just a fence - the devil knows where they come from and they will inflict all sorts of rubbish!
It turns out that officials had identified these shortcomings before, 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, make the life of the citizens more of a survival.
The reader is horrified to learn about the order in the local hospital. Here, patients walk in terrible gray caps, and few people actually think about curing them. In the words of Strawberry, “... the closer to nature, the better - we do not use expensive medicines. A simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he recovers, then he will recover.”
The "flight of the imagination" and teaching are striking. One of the teachers “makes scary faces”, the other talks about the affairs of “bygone days” with such inspiration, that the students are simply afraid of him: “He is a learned head - this can be seen, and he picked up the darkness, but only explains with such fervor that he doesn’t remembers himself. I once listened to him: well, for the time being he was talking about the Assyrians and Babylonians - still nothing, but how I got to Alexander the Great, I cannot tell you what happened to him. I thought it was a fire, by golly! He ran away from the pulpit and that there is strength to grab the chair on the floor. Of course, Alexander the Great is a hero, but why break the chairs? from this loss to the treasury.
And what is justice? This is where law and order reigns! However, from the wishes expressed by Gorodnichiy, the reader can learn that here, too, there is far from being best picture. Bribery, indulgence in illegal actions - all this does not decorate the city of N.
I even feel sorry for the inhabitants of this proud city, but, in my opinion, they are so accustomed to such a way of life that they cannot imagine their existence without such wonderful “trifles” as bribery, flattery, laziness, stupidity of the ruling bureaucracy ...
Gogol wrote this work in the first half of the 19th century, but how recognizable are some of his scenes now! Russia is certainly changing for the better, but some features of urban life, it seems to me, are far from being corrected...
