The phrase about patriotism and theft in many variations is attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin. We checked whether these words belong to him.
Quotes of classics often become arguments in political debate. The phrase on patriotism attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin mentioned the former Minister of Economy of the Russian Federation Andrey Nechaev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation Alfred Koch, State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, politicians Ilya Yashin And Boris Nemtsov, journalist George Bowas well as writers Leo Rubinstein, Boris Akunin And Mikhail Weller. The phrase is also popular among users social networks And Media.
A quote from Saltykov-Shchedrin about patriotism can be found in various variations: “They began to press patriotism. Apparently, they stood out, ”“ they started talking about patriotism. As you can see, they want to steal something ”,“ if they started talking about patriotism, then they either stole or are going to steal ”,“ something painfully pushes for patriotism. Probably streamed ”, etc.
Such a lot of options with the same general meaning suggests that the authors do not quote the original, but express the idea in their own words. It is also suspicious that the exact source of the quote is not indicated in any of the publications. IN Collected works Saltykova-Shchedrin none of the phrases is found. Search for the only common keyword present in all variations-“patriotism”-showed that this word is used in 44 works by Saltykov-Shchedrin, but not one of the references is close in meaning to the phrase under consideration.
One of the most detailed reasoning of Saltykov-Shchedrin about patriotism- Essay "The power of events." He is in him Determines False patriotism as a cover for the shameless operation of the masses and all kinds of robberies of the Fatherland. Although this thought is a little similar in meaning to the quote of interest to us, the tone of the narrative, vocabulary and the style of two statements have nothing to do.
The earliest mention of pseudocits Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to find Igor Petrov V article Politics of Konstantin Borovoy “Personality and the state: who for whom?”, Published in 1995 in the collection “Myths and Facts. The 50th anniversary of Victory. Human values and patriotism ”:“ There is in such state patriotism, preached by the current officials, former and future, one feature that is noticed by Saltykov-Shchedrin: they began to say something about patriotism, which means they steal strongly. ” In 2017, Borova again Used This quote in an interview with Radio Liberty - however, in a slightly changed form.
Some Internet users The quote reminded Lines, written by a contemporary of Saltykov-Shchedrin, poet Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov:
"Having done a trip to nihilism
And look at not without gloating,
They went into patriotism
And they set about embezzlement. ”
("In the album of modern portraits", 1890)
“How did you come up once
So, apparently, it will be forward:
At least not everyone robs a patriot,
But no matter what a thief is a patriot. ”
("The Tale of the Stupid demon and the wise patriot", 1883)
Many Authors And Analysts They reasoned that calls for patriotism begin to sound when the authorities are trying to cover their own miscalculations and crimes. Perhaps at some point, a phrase in the style of the satire of Saltykov-Shchedrin, which was then attributed to him, was crystallized from these popular reasoning.
Image: N.A. Yaroshenko, "Portrait of Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin." 1886. Source: Arthiv
Most of the untruth
Read on the topic:
- M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Signs of time. The power of events
- Is the phrase that they “drink and steal” in Russia, said Saltykov-Shchedrin?
- Is it true that Lev Tolstoy is the author of aphorism “Patriotism is the last refuge of a villain”?
- https://labas.livejournal.com/1192237.html
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
