By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
According to historical records, the first states emerged in Mesopotamia, around the area of modern-day Iraq, approximately 6,000 years ago, developing complex societies and political structures that marked the beginning of statehood.
An emergence of a State, as a complex institution, refers to the government of a nation viewed as a multifaceted system made up of interconnected parts like the legal system, bureaucracy, military, and various administrative bodies; all working together to govern a population within a defined territory, requiring intricate coordination and interaction to function effectively. In short, it’s a web of institutions with overlapping functions and power dynamics.
With the emergence of a State, government corruption, embezzlement, frauds and other human violations also appeared. Unfortunately, mischievous evils, grid, corruption, deception and other human folie are an integral part of human nature and vice behavior.
Today in our country, the Trump administration already has uncovered a massive corruption buried in the Federal Government institutions. These revelations reverberate corruptions of the past masterfully described by a prominent Russian writer Nikolay Gogol (1809-52) in his novels Dead Souls and The Inspector General.
In this essay, I would treat the two literary works as part of the author’s overall critique of Russian society at that time, then show how corruption is endemic in human society by comparing Gogol’s descriptions to what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has uncovered in an advanced modern society, the U.S.A.
Dead Souls is a classic novel by Nikolay Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature.
The novel chronicles the travels and adventures of medium-size landlord Pavel Chichikov (a main character of the novel) and the people whom he encounters. These people typify the Russian middle aristocracy of the time. Gogol intended the novel to be the first part of a three-volume work but burned the manuscript of the second part shortly before his death.
In the Russian Empire, before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, landowners had the right to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for most purposes considered the property of the landowner, who could buy, sell or mortgage them, as any other chattel. To count serfs, the classifier “soul” was used: e.g., “six souls of serfs.”
The plot of the novel relies on “dead souls” (i.e., “dead serfs”) which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the “dead souls” of Gogol’s characters, all of which represent different aspects of vulgar morality and spirituality, with overtones of middle-class pretentiousness, fake significance and philistinism.
In short, Dead Souls is a novel about corrupt Russian Imperial society. Through the devices of absurdity and satire, Gogol aimed to critique the anxieties and inefficiencies of tsarist Russia—a courageous endeavor at that time in Russia. Also, through deliberately absurd and sometimes surreal scenarios, Gogol tackle morality, spirituality and social problem of corruption and rot.
In Gogol’s Dead Souls, Chichikov buys “dead souls” (i.e., the legal rights to deceased serfs) from the owners of the provincial villages, because he plans to use them as a collateral to secure large loans from the government, essentially creating wealth by exploiting a loophole in the system where the state still considers deceased serfs as part of a landowner’s taxable property, therefore, allowing him to appear significantly wealthier than he actually is.
In retrospect, there is a remarkable reverberation applicable to today’s discoveries by newly created the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within American Federal Government; so far including Social Security Administration and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It remains to be seen what and how many “dead souls” will be uncovered in the coming weeks or months in the dark burrows of the Medicare, Medicaid (health care for low-income individuals), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, FBI, CIA, IRS and other Federal Institutions; and thousands of nonpartisan government institutions and nonprofit 501(c)(3) entities.
The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General (Russian Revisor, in English literally— “Inspector”), is a satirical play by Gogol. Originally published in 1836, and later the play was revised for an 1842 edition.
In his comedy The Government Inspector, Gogol brought Russian characters to the stage and exposed public vices and social ulcers: bribery, embezzlement, bureaucracy, corruption, and human folly of 19th century Russia.
The Government Inspector play begins with the mayor of a small Russian town urgently gathering local officials in his home. The mayor announces that an inspector from St. Petersburg is coming to investigate the officials—as today’s DOGE is designated to investigate government officials in our country.
The mayor tells the officials that the inspector is coming with secret instructions; he warns the officials to hide evidence of corruption. Subsequently, in panicking, the judge worries that the inspector’s visit means Russia is going to war. The postmaster hysterically exclaims that Russia must be going to war. The mayor instructs the “Warden of Charities” to make the charity hospital look presentable. The mayor orders the chief of police to station constables around town, and so on.
Gogol’s two novels are a remarkable resemblance and reverberation of today’s America. Certainly, the far-left federal government bureaucrats are in a panic mode now; and they should be.
Historically, there have never been entirely crime-free and corrupt-free societies in the world. Also, it is naïve to believe in the absolute perfection of human nature; a mischievous evil exists and hides in all of us; but it is suppressed by good intentions and Judeo-Christian moral values.
Indeed, a constructive and nonpartisan government mechanism must be established in our constitutional republic with a monumental task for uncovering and preventing government corruption and inefficiencies at all levels and in all institutions. Today, it is a newly created DOGE that fulfills its purpose.
Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, and Clipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.
Another fantastic historical and political piece by Alexander.??
What is remarkable is not the morbid corruption that was systemic in the inbred, royal class system of absolute rulers (like Tsars and Kings), but the morbidly corrupt state of the unique American revolutionary concept of a federal Republic governed by sovereign citizens.
Distributing the salaries paid through US tax payor monies to high ranking officers in the Kiev regime’s proxy army, for dead conscript and kidnapped civilians they term as “soldiers” is rampant. Recruits die in their thousands on a daily basis, yet officially the total is 45,000. Meaning the salaries for about a million are being paid by our government each and every month.
A repeat, on steroids, of the previous scam claiming there was a large, well American trained, Afghan Army defending our installed regime in Kabul.
The same, completely dependent on American foreign aid Kabul regime whose American installed presidents’ brother was in control and received a commission of the entire nation’s opium exports.
While not yet dead, another popular scam in project Ukraine, is due to the massive number of poor quality “recruits” shanghaid into service. These include the mentally retarded, old age, psychological isses, ect.
They are simply locked up and the battalion commanders collect their salaries.
The scale of corruption in our country dwarfs that of any empire in history. We replaced the Imperial British Empire at the conclusion of WWII and have taken corruption to a level never seen previously in history.
Now Alaska must do the same., The states licensing program is a business killer. Example; Alaska’s LLC program has not once given any advantage in court and is not recognized by the judges which shows that the LLC program is a fraud.
Summarize; The state is not open for business for the private sector who has no free healthcare or retirement program like state employees enjoy.
Russian novels are always very profound, and very self-critical, but I had never heard of these. Thanks, Alex!
I believe that we need to examine the true antidote, which Alex identifies in the closing paragraphs: RELIGION. That Man has an eternal destiny, that we will all face not only a General Judgment at the end of the Age (“Christ will come again”), but also a particular or individual Judgment. Alex correctly debunks the philosophies of Marxists, Greenies and other utopian Leftists, that a perfect world is possible. Every attempt to try their ideas leads us not to a better world, but to a monstrous, mass-murdering tyranny.
Unless religion resumes its proper role, and along with it the Natural Law, whatever Trump can accomplish will be either shallow or short-lived. The High Middle Ages of the 1200s, with its de-centralized governments, unsurpassed cathedral architecture, religious and moral consensus, great universities, and more than a few humble and saintly monarchs, was not perfect. But it may provide us with a template to imitate.
Insightful observation, Brian. Here is a link to my presentation at the World Affairs Council in 2014 on Russian-Ukrainian Relations: Looking Back and Looking Forward.
https://youtu.be/r4LW-rTLP9E?si=of6jm6JrGSbHFvIA
Thankyou for posting the link. Very interesting to hear your, as an assimilated immigrant who has become an American, analysis and perspective from 11 years ago, at the start of the hot Civil War in your region of birth.
With the advantage of hindsight, and the now undeniable revelations that fake front NGOs, like USAID, control and pay the entire so called “Ukraine” media (and most of our MSM) to create narratives unconnected to reality, would you now amend any of your analysis and perspectives?
It is encouraging that what amounts to our revolutionary regime change of governance in Washington, is now openly re establishing diplomatic relations and seeking a comprehensive security arrangement for Europe, with the Russian Federation. Stepping back from delusional insanity just in time. The yapping failed states in the EU can bark and bite ankels, but be ignored.
Useful joint energy projects in the Arctic, lifting of the failed sanctions (which may save the US Dollar as a viable international currency), and overall economic interaction are essential for peaceful and productive relations between the 2 largest nuclear armed states.
The freed regions of Ukraine in the east will be rebuilt and re populated. The future of the western regions under EU/NATO control is bleak. Once the extortionable slush funds dry up, those people will be more impoverished than ever.
Agree!
Alaskans will soon find out the financial mess that DOGE is creating. Walmart has predicted a stale economy as a result
Frank, what are you saying? Corrupt Federal Programs are good for the economy?
Honestly?
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