By Nikilai Gogal
I picked up this book because I understand that it is highly
recommended by Putin. It’s not that I am
a Putin fan, but rather I wanted to understand the personality of Russia’s
leader. Apparently Dead Souls could be
considered a Russian classic of the 19th Century. The work itself is actually incomplete and
therefore needs an introduction to explain how a reader should grapple with incompleteness. Later works by Gogal, separate from the book,
present different endings. In reality
the original seems to draw a conclusion sufficient to claim an ending and so
you have to wonder why the drama around incompleteness. Ironically a German mathematician named Kurt
Godel explored and wrote a theorem that nothing is complete. And
tragically ironic, few people know of Godel’s work and so they possess the anxiety of
leaving any work undone. I do muse at
the similarity of the names born in succeeding centuries. The best I can conclude on this question is
that the various endings would change the moral message of an otherwise bland
though bizarre adventure through rural Russian villages of the mid 1800’s. Thus
society is unnecessarily and therefore ironically appeased.
The story line begins with a middle aged member of the
gentry class, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, venturing through rural Russia with
two serfs to manage the carriage and his belongings. The scene setting is soaked in color and
humor. The reader cannot avoid appreciating
the manor of dress that each character would wear. AT books end one couldn’t help but go out
and purchase a ‘frock coat’. It’s as though color of scene helped the
author make humorous quips about the character conflict with himself in the mirror
and the interplay with other characters.
Irony places the book on par with Greek Tragedy. So in that a theme of bizarre quest becomes
the center of discussion for the author who tells the story in third person.
Chichikov is a charismatic man who rides in his carriage
into any town and instantly charms the people he meats. Well aware of his skill to charm, Chichikov
targets first city officials and then land owners. If you owned a serf, you were a target. The reader, becomes familiar with the
cultural landscape of 19th century Russia in terms of how towns a
seem to thrive at the will of one land owner of upper aristocratic class of men
with title, through the gentry to the, peasants and then serfs. Chechikov’s quest is to purchase Dead
Souls. So this idea on its own is
bizarre. As the story unfolds understanding
what exactly a dead soul is and where its usefulness only makes things slightly
less bizarre. Or you might look at it as
bizarre from a bureaucratic perspective.
Amidst this drama, the reader first becomes attuned to
Chichikov’s scheme. His targeting
methods include charm. His negotiating methods were brutal. He would know by title those that would own
serfs and so they are primary targets.
However, he is no stranger to pursue word-of-mouth references of which
he wastes no time going from one home to another. He negotiates first as though
he is helping out a lifelong friend, of whom he just met. The conversation is logical until the target
seller asks difficult questions. As the
layers of questions stack up, Chichikov will finally find himself red in the
face demanding the conveyance of deeds
to souls of serfs who have died.
Over time the town folks evolve from first a unanimous opinion that this new-comer
to town is to be revered as a person of nobility to a person of scandalous corruption. The gossip begins with the women who then
convince their husbands, who then convince each other that something must be
done. This is all done in a tornado of
gossip that springs to a climax while Chichikov is nursing a cold. By the time he is recuperated enough to come
out on the town he learns he is being brought to trial. His only saving grace is the town folks catch
themselves being caught up in the folly of escalating gossip and nothing of
fact to convict Chichikov.
None the less Chichikov realizes it’s time to move on as he
has exacted all he can from the town. In
his ride to the next town, the author takes time to circle back on Chichikov’s
past where the reader learns what formulated Chichikov’s motives and
methods. He was a man made by Russia and
his methods were formulated by the bureaucracy of Royal Russia. Ironically as history has it the 20th
century Communist Russia changed nothing
to improve the life of a rural Russian. So
far in to the 21st century, it would be public opinion that corrupt bureaucracy
is still at the core of Russian society.
And it seems they embrace it as a part of their heritage. I would suggest that Putin as well as most
Russian are charmed by the book because they have lifelong first and experience
with a society that does not hold justice out as a centerpiece of their core
values. They are who they are. Not being Russian I could be their accuser and
public defender at the same time and say there is a sense of justice stemming
from their Christian values, however it is covered with a heavy blanket of civil
corruption.
