Many Internet users attribute the phrase to the writer: “It’s nothing that in Europe they give fifty dollars for a ruble; it will be worse if they start punching us in the face for our ruble.” We checked whether this attribution is correct.
A joke about Europeans’ dislike for the Russian currency, indicating the authorship of the satirical writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, can be found on the Internet on many sites with collections aphorisms And jokes. They love to remember her and journalists, especially when the ruble exchange rate begins to fall noticeably. In some sources you can find details the appearance of the phrase: allegedly in 1881, Saltykov-Shchedrin responded to the complaints of the publicist Stasyulevich that in Paris they gave him only 213 francs for 100 rubles, saying that “that’s nothing, soon they will punch you in the face for 100 rubles.”
Most complete set of works The writer was published in the USSR in 1965–1977 in 20 volumes. A search on it shows that in the works and letters of Saltykov-Shchedrin there are no jokes about the ruble in the form in which it became famous. The closest are two fragments from the series of essays “Abroad”, which was first published in 1880-1881 in the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” based on impressions from a trip to Europe in the summer-autumn of 1880. In a comic miniature "A boy in pants and a boy without pants“The boy without pants (an allegory of the Russian in Europe) says to the boy in pants, symbolizing the European: “And I invented such a sign (note - editor's note): the bearer is given from the change box ... a splash! So you understand me!” IN another essay from the same series, Saltykov-Shchedrin recalls previous visits to Europe: “I remember when the doors were opened for us abroad for the first time, I thought: it was in vain that they began to let us Russians abroad - we would probably get infected... Oh, and we cursed during this fun time! Funny jokes flowed like a river from the lips of the cultured sons of Russia. "La Russie (Russia. - Editor's note)... xa-xa!" "le peuple russe (Russian people)… xa-xa!" "les boyards russes... (Russian boyars) xa-xa!" “Do you know that our ruble is worth fifty dollars... ha ha!” But many years have passed since then, and much has changed during this time. <...> ...jokes have become disgusting, although the supply of materials for them has not been depleted at all. And most importantly, the involuntary replacement of rubles with fifty kopecks turned out to be far from being as funny as it was thought in the heat of the moment.”
Thus, both parts of the joke - that they give fifty dollars for a ruble and that instead of giving out money in another currency they will beat you - are present in the series “Abroad”, but they are not connected with each other. At the same time, in the comments to the collection of essays, literary critic Sergei Makashin asserts: “After the Russian-Turkish War (1877–1878 - Ed.), the exchange rate of the Russian ruble abroad was very low. The words “a boy without pants” are connected with a pun by Saltykov, who said in response to a message that in Germany they only give fifty dollars for a ruble: “Wait, soon they will only punch you in the face for it.” The researcher refers to a certain “message from K. M. Saltykov to Ivanov-Razumnik.”
Makashin most likely had in mind the comments of the literary critic Ivanov-Razumnik to the six-volume “Works” of Saltykov-Shchedrin, published by the Soviet State Publishing House in 1926–1928, where Shchedrin’s pun is actually given in the same form (vol. 4, p. 646). However, the reliability of the message of Konstantin Mikhailovich Saltykov (1872–1932), the only son of the writer, does not seem indisputable, because by the time “after the Russian-Turkish war” he was six or seven years old, therefore, he almost certainly heard the joke later and not necessarily from his father himself. Let us note that in our own small book “Intimate Shchedrin"(1923) Saltykov Jr. does not mention a pun about the ruble.
The earliest source discovered by “Verified”, where a joke about the ruble is found in Europe, is the book “Our Comedians for 100 Years: in Caricatures, Prose and Poems: A Review of Russian Humorous Literature and Journalism”, published in 1904. The edition (pp. 112–113) contains the miniature “From the Past.” Here is its full text.
When a Russian person goes abroad, he often and completely unfairly finds that there are many things better there than in our homeland. Especially the Russian people, and quite unfairly, cannot come to terms with the decline of our monetary exchange rate. So, one completely unfair Russian man was once very ashamed of Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin. During the days of the extreme decline of our money, a completely unfair Russian man met with Saltykov in Paris and bitterly complained to him about the low exchange rate.
“I don’t find this,” Mikhail Evgrafovich noted patriotically, “the exchange rate of our money is excellent.”
- Have mercy! - the interlocutor exclaimed, - after all, they only give us fifty dollars per ruble.
“But after all, they give you fifty dollars, that’s excellent!” When they punch us in the face for our ruble, then the exchange rate will be bad.
The completely unfair Russian man was embarrassed, and the most absurd thought came to his mind: how did he prophesy this?
In the book, the miniature is printed among materials taken from the weekly sheet “Slovtso”, which was published by members of the St. Petersburg literary circle from December 1899 to April 1900.Friday", which gathered at the apartment of the poet Konstantin Sluchevsky. “Slovtso” is a bibliographic rarity, so it was not possible to directly examine the “Verified” sheet, but other materials published in the book “Our Humorists for 100 Years” are correctly attributed there, so in this case there is no particular doubt. The editor of “Slovets” was the translator and poet Vladimir Likhachev, but other regulars of “Friday” also took part in its creation, including Fyodor Sologub, Konstantin Balmont, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius and other famous writers. It is impossible to identify the author of the miniature “From the Past”. It cannot be ruled out that it retells the actual wit of Saltykov-Shchedrin (he died in 1889, ten years before the publication of “Slovets”), which circulated in the St. Petersburg literary community in oral form. But it is just as likely that this is a literary joke invented by someone based on two different jokes from the series “Abroad” by the same Shchedrin.
The next mention of a joke occurs in a July 1929 letter historian Evgeniy Tarle to writer Korney Chukovsky. Answering a question from a writer about the exchange rate of the ruble to the franc in the 19th century, Tarle gave the following example: “In 1881, Stasyulevich told Shchedrin: “The trouble is, for 100 rubles they gave me only 213 francs in Paris.” And Shchedrin: “That’s nothing, but soon they’ll punch you in the face for 100 rubles.” It is this version on the Internet that is sometimes cited as a real quote from Shchedrin, but its reliability is highly doubtful, because in the same letter Tarle admits that he does not have books at hand and is forced to rely only on his memory. It seems likely that he could have read the joke attributed to Shchedrin in the comments of Ivanov-Razumnik, published shortly before, and simply made up additional details, since even in his own books the historian not always strictly adhered to the sources.
Almost simultaneously with the academician, emigrant writer Mark Aldanov recalled a joke about the ruble in the essay “In England,” included in the book “Lands, people"(published in Berlin in 1932). Discussing the economic program of the British politician Lord Beaverbrook, Aldanov remembered the Russian satirist: “Shchedrin said at the time of the fall of the ruble: “It’s nothing when they give fifty dollars for a ruble. But what if they punch you in the face for a ruble!..”” (p. 210). Later Aldanov again used this joke in the historical novel “Origins” (originally published in the New York “New Journal” in 1943–1946, full book publication took place in 1947): “Almost exclusively rich people traveled abroad in 1879: after the Russian-Turkish war, the ruble exchange rate fell. Saltykov’s words were repeated in society: “It’s okay if they give half the price for a ruble in Europe. But what if they give you a punch in the face for a ruble in Europe?” For some reason, everyone repeated the word with pleasure.” As you can see, Aldanov brought the joke with minor changes and this time tied it to a specific time - 1879.
In the USSR, Istoki was officially published only in 1990, but the novel had been read before. In particular, known, that it was used by the writer Yuri Trifonov while working on the book “Impatience” - a fictionalized story of Andrei Zhelyabov and his comrades in Narodnaya Volya, published in 1973 in the series “Fiery Revolutionaries”. That's how Trifonov describes there during the last years of the reign of Alexander II: “The ruble exchange rate in Europe continued to fall. It began during the war and continued, despite all efforts, inevitably. The angry words of Saltykov, which flew around St. Petersburg, were conveyed: “It’s okay if they give half the price for a ruble in Europe. But what if they punch you in the face for a ruble in Europe?” As you can see, the wording coincides verbatim with the version from “Origins”.
However, the joke about the ruble most likely gained its greatest popularity in the USSR thanks to another writer - Valentin Pikul, who was extremely prolific and popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It appears in his work three times in different versions. In the novel about Grigory Rasputin “At the Last Line” (published in 1979 in a censored version, the full author’s version was published under the title “Evil Spirit” in 1989) Pikul wrote: “The war bled the Russian ruble - it fell, struck by the Japanese shimosa. Smart people remembered what Saltykov-Shchedrin prophesied: “It’s still good if they give us fifty dollars for a ruble. It’s worse if they punch us in the face for a ruble!” Later, with minor variations, Pikul inserted a joke into the novel “Cruisers"(1985) about the Russian-Japanese War and the story "Being the Chief at the Fair" from the series "Historical miniatures"(1987) about the police official Baranov. It is most likely that Pikul borrowed the joke from Trifonov’s book, although he could have read Aldanov.
Since the late 1980s, the joke has become widespread in the press and in public life, since it seemed very relevant against the backdrop of the economic crisis that struck the late USSR. For example, actor Rolan Bykov remembered her when speaking on June 9, 1989 at meeting of the Congress of People's Deputies.
So, we can confidently say: the joke that someday in Europe they will punch you in the face for a ruble is not found in the corpus of published works by Saltykov-Shchedrin, although in the series “Abroad” there are two phrases vaguely reminiscent of it. Definitely, this wit was attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin in the humorous sheet “Slovtso”, published in St. Petersburg in 1899–1900. If you believe the later testimony of the writer’s son, the author of “Slovets” wrote down an anecdote that circulated orally, which was based on a real Shchedrin pun. However, this evidence cannot be considered completely reliable: Konstantin Mikhailovich Saltykov could know the miniature from “Slovets” and pass it off as a genuine joke from his father. In any case, she gained fame in the twentieth century thanks to fiction: novels by Mark Aldanov, Yuri Trifonov and Valentin Pikul.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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