For many years, users of social networks have been shared by a rigid statement about the relations of the Russian state and society made, as claimed, to the Russian classic. We checked whether such an attribution is correct.
The quote attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin is completely: “If the Russians are given to choose the leader for themselves, they choose the most false, vile, cruel, kill, rob, rape, subsequently dumped their guilt on him. After a while, the church proclaims him saints. ” This statement received the main distribution in social networks: Facebook, "Live magazine","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” already dismantled the quotes attributed to him “for our ruble They will give in the face"," They started talking about patriotism, know: Somewhere something was stolen"And" 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: Drink and steal". None of them turned out to be genuine.
"Verified" did not find traces of the quote about the choice of the very vile ruler neither in 10-volume collected works of Saltykov-Shchedrin (1988), nor in 12-volume (1951), nor in 20-volume (1965–1977). It also does not occur in the texts of other authors in the project base "Google Books".
As the search for social networks shows, in Facebook And "Live magazine»Quote began to spread in September 2011, on other platforms - and that Later.
The oldest mention of the phrase on the network, found “verified”, dates back to 2005, this is a transcript on the Radio Liberty website. February 25, 2005 in the Radio Program “Time of Freedom” with the participation of politician Vladimir Kara-Murza and human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva I called The listener, introduced by Peter Dmitrievich from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Speaking about the sacredness of the authorities in Russia, he said: “Here, look-Saltykov-Shchedrin,“ Pompadura and Pompadurshi ”:“ If the Russians are given the opportunity to choose the leader, they choose the most false, vile, cruel, they kill and rape, and later they put their guilt on him. After a time, the church proclaims him saints. ”
"Pompadura and pompadurshi"-a collection of Saltykov-Shchedrin from 12 satirical stories written in 1863–1873 and ridiculed the Russian provincial bureaucracy of those years. There are no quotes that the listener “Radio Liberty” in these texts.
Three years later, June 13, 2008, Pyotr Dmitrievich I got through Already in the program “The City of the Time”, which was conducted by Kara-Murza. This time he recalled the same quote from Mikhail Evgrafovich, arguing that the Russian people have a relatively large number of traitors, but not calling a specific source of the statement.
It is not known for certain whether the permanent listener of Radio Liberty was the first to mention the phrase in public space, which later became popular. However, it can be assumed that the transcript of gears with his participation played a certain role in the distribution of this quote, falsely attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that Saltykov-Shchedrin is the author of jokes about how “they will give in the face for the ruble”?
- Did Saltykov-Shchedrin: “When they begin to talk about patriotism in Russia, know: somewhere they stole something”?
- Is the phrase that they “drink and steal” in Russia, said Saltykov-Shchedrin?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
