According to common opinion, it was the author of the Dead Souls who introduced the winged thesis about the causes of all Russian misfortunes. We checked if it was true.

The fact that it is Nikolai Vasilievich - the author of aphorism, can be read on sites of such media "Russian newspaper", Radio "Freedom", "News", RIA "News" And "Gazeta.ru". Famous Russian journalist Yuri Gayko made a phrase epigraph to his book "Fools, roads and other features of national driving"at the same time indicating the year of the appearance of the quote-the 1840th. With a reference to Gogol, the statement also appears in the book of the economist and politician Mikhail Delyagin "Fools, roads and other troubles of Russia". Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Solovyov included a phrase in his encyclopedia "History of the Fatherland." But on the website of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation on the development of civil society and human rights Approvedthat the quote belongs to Nikolai Karamzin. Sometimes her Bind And with Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Despite the rather frequent attribution of Gogol of this winged phrase, it will not be possible to find something similar in his work, diaries or letters-the Russian classic did not write this. The theme of unimportant roads is one way or another in a number of Gogol's works. For example, in the description of one of Chichikov’s trips in “Dead Souls” It is saidthat "the roads spread in all directions, like caught crayfish, when they are spilled out of the bag." In another episode of the immortal poem Gogol Notesthat “a man is generous with the word“ fool ”and is ready to serve them twenty times a day to his neighbor” (according to the coincidence, the author used this word in the poem 24 times). However, none of these “troubles” by Gogol is called such - neither individually nor together.

It is useless to look for this quote from other classics-from Karamzin to Saltykov-Shchedrin. Yes, Pushkin in "Evgenia Onegin" complains: “Now our roads are bad, // The forgotten bridges rot”, and Nekrasov in one of the poems complains: “We will not decrease fools in Russia, // We will bring to smart longing” (reference to the unfinished poem Fonvizin). But these quotes are not even similar to the rudiments of the future winged phrase.

Structurally similar ones can be considered the famous “two misfortunes in Russia: // Below - the power of darkness, // And upstairs - the darkness of power”, attributed Gilyarovsky. Two troubles rhyme and with slogan “I am hit by off -road and sluggishness” from the novel by Ilf and Petrov “Golden Calf”. However, for the first time, fools with roads in Russian literature will converge only at the end of the 20th century. Around 1987, Satyric Mikhail Zadornov wrote A monologue called the “Country of Heroes”, which not only himself was read from the stage from the stage, but also Evgeny Petrosyan (1989 entry). I entered the monologue replica "N. V. Gogol wrote: "There are two troubles in Russia: roads and fools." Here is such an enviable constancy, we retain to this day. Have you noticed that every watchman, watching the pool we have, feels like a border guard? ” In the same 1989, the monologue reached printed publicationand then the “phrase of Gogol” was first quoted outside the stage - on Second congress of people's deputies of the USSRas well as in digest "Satellite". The quote went to the people - soon a politician was repeated Nikolai Ryzhkov, journalist Andrey Karaulov and writers Vyacheslav Barkovsky and Andrey Izmailov in his film -filmed trilogy "Russian transit". Moreover, they all used the Zadornovo order - at first they mentioned the “roads”, and then “fools”. Over time, these words are in the quote changed places.

So, it turns out that Mikhail Zadornov came up with a winged phrase about two Russian troubles. But why then did a rather popular author of the conversational genre attribute it to Gogol? How He thinks Quotation researcher Konstantin Dushenko, “the link to the classic was to serve as a protested letter of the superconscious Soviet satirist and give his thoughts great authority. This goal was brilliantly achieved: the version of Gogol's authorship became the main one. "