Is the phrase that they “drink and steal” in Russia, said Saltykov-Shchedrin?

The famous phrase “If I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years and they will ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer: they drink and steal” is often attributed to the Russian writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. We checked whether he really said her.

“Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin in Russian literature has a special place, because not a single writer in his works criticizes, does not ridicule and does not expose the Russian reality so accurately and mercilessly,- quotes Adme portal in its blogs Radio "Echo of Moscow". - Despite the fact that he wrote almost two centuries ago, his plots are very similar to what is happening in Russia now. Heroes are so accurately characterized by the modern world that, it seems, the writer simply looked into the future and wrote about us. ”

The first quote that the authors of the text recall is coming “If I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years and they will ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer: they drink and steal.”

This quote Saltykov-Shchedrin attributed massive. But he is not the only writer who was honored with such an honor. Sometimes as its author Offer Even Leo Tolstoy (however, in the comments they immediately write that this is Saltykov-Shchedrin). 

Another version - historian Nikolai Karamzin said the phrase. He is a phrase attributed The writer Mikhail Zoshchenko in his Blue Book: “At one time, the famous writer Karamzin said:“ If you want to express what is being done in Russia in one word, then they should say: they steal. ”

But there is a problem. In none of the written sources, neither Saltykov-Shchedrin, nor in Tolstoy, or in Karamzin in the recorded form, this quote is not found.

In 2012, the user of the Living Journal Polesh_chuk I turned it Attention and tracked the path of phrases. Apparently, in the Russian-speaking Internet, expression as a quote from Saltykov-Shchedrin began to exist after interview Alexander Rosenbaum magazine "Interlocutor" in 2000. In it, the famous singer attributed the phrase immediately to both, Saltykov-Shchedrin and Karamzin:

“Either Karamzin, or Saltykov-Shchedrin said:“ What will be two hundred years later? They will drink and steal! ””

However, apparently, confusion occurred. The original phrase could really belong to Karamzin, but it sounded a little differently. So, succeeded Find a similar phrase in the testimonies of Prince Peter Vyazemsky, who Karamzin knew personally and really could record the phrase from his words. That's what he is He wrote In their notebooks:

“Karamzin said that if you answer in one word to the question:“ What is being done in Russia? ”, He would have to say:“ They steal. ”

Most likely, the phrase of Karamzin first modified Zoshchenko, changing the “steal” to “steal”, and later joined “drinking”. Nevertheless, this expression has nothing to do with Saltykov-Shchedrin and is attributed to him by mistake.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Who has launched the “quote” by Saltykov-Shchedrin that Russians drink and steal?
2. “Drink and steal” and other quotes of famous people whom they did not say
3. Winged phrases of famous people that they never pronounced