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Dead Souls: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
| title = Dead Souls
| original title = Мёртвые души
| image =
| caption =
| author = Nikolai Gogol
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre =
| publication date = 1842
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
'''[[Dead Souls]]''' is the most famous novel by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. It tells the story of the ambitious guy Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who had the idea for a great scam. Background explanation: In feudal Russia, the great landowners had to pay a tax according to the number of serfs ("souls") they owned. Said serfs were counted in special revisions, which happened not that often - less than once per decade, even. If during the time between two revisions some of these souls happened to die, bad luck, their owners'd still have to pay the tax as if they were alive. OTOH, they could mortgage the estate, with souls included, to the Russian state. Now Chichikov adds two and two and gets the idea: If he buys up a lot of dead souls - which the squires probably want to get rid off - and mortgages them to the state, he'll acquire a big fortune without hard work or risk. Well, that's the theory. In practice, the buying part alone becomes pretty hard due to the eccentricness of said squires.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Dead Souls]]
[[Category:Russian Literature]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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