For many years, users of social networks have been sharing harsh statements about the relationship between the Russian state and society, allegedly made by a Russian classic. We checked whether this attribution is correct.
The full quotation attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin reads as follows: “If the Russians are allowed to choose a leader, they choose the most deceitful, vile, cruel, together with him they kill, rob, rape, and subsequently blame him. After a while, the church proclaims him a saint.” This statement was widely spread on social networks: Facebook, "LiveJournal", "VKontakte", X And Telegram.
Critical statements about the past, present and future of Russia are often associated with the work of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. “Verified” has already analyzed the quotes attributed to him “for our ruble they will punch you in the face", "we started talking about patriotism, know: something was stolen somewhere" and "if I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years and they ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer: drink and steal" None of them turned out to be genuine.
“Checked” found no traces of a quote about choosing the most vile ruler in any 10-volume collected works of Saltykov-Shchedrin (1988), nor in 12-volume (1951), nor in 20-volume (1965–1977). It also does not appear in the texts of other authors in the project database “Google Books"
As a search on social networks shows, in Facebook And "LiveJournal"The quote began to spread in September 2011, on other platforms - and that Later.
The oldest mention of the phrase on the Internet, found by Verified, dates back to 2005, this is a transcript on the Radio Liberty website. February 25, 2005 on the radio program “Time of Freedom” with the participation of politician Vladimir Kara-Murza and human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva called listener who introduced himself as Pyotr Dmitrievich from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Speaking about the sacredness of power in Russia, he said: “Look, Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Pompadours and Pompadours”: “If the Russians are given the opportunity to choose a leader, they choose the most deceitful, vile, cruel, together with him they kill and rape, subsequently blame him. After a while, the church proclaims him a saint.”
"Pompadours and pompadours"is a collection by Saltykov-Shchedrin of 12 satirical stories written in 1863–1873 and ridiculing the Russian provincial bureaucracy of those years. The quote cited by the Radio Liberty listener is not in these texts.
Three years later, June 13, 2008, Pyotr Dmitrievich got through on the phone already in the “Edges of Time” program, which was hosted by Kara-Murza. This time he remembered the same quote from Mikhail Evgrafovich, claiming that there are a relatively large number of traitors among the Russian people, but without naming the specific original source of the statement.
It is not known for certain whether a regular listener of Radio Liberty was the first to mention in public the phrase that later became popular. However, it can be assumed that the transcript of the programs with his participation played some role in the dissemination of this quote, falsely attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
Read on topic:
- Is it true that Saltykov-Shchedrin is the author of the joke about how “for a ruble they will punch you in the face”?
- Did Saltykov-Shchedrin say: “When they start talking about patriotism in Russia, you know: something was stolen somewhere”?
- Is it true that Saltykov-Shchedrin said that in Russia they “drink and steal”?
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