The Hero, Two Generals, The Wild Landowner, The Wise Gudgeon

Almost 170 years ago, from Vyatka to St. Petersburg set out a titular counselor. His name was Mikhail Saltykov. The pen name Shchedrin he would take a year later, when he writes his first hit—"Provincial Sketches".

A censorship committee sent him into exile in Vyatka for freethinking expressed in literature. Those who banished him to a backwater might have been pleased—Saltykov truly «got his head on straight».

Here is his official evaluation: “Knowledgeable, active, selfless; demanding toward colleagues, strict toward subordinates.” In other words, a seasoned administrator returned to St. Petersburg with an iron grip. And besides, he was a ruthless and biting satirist—ingenious and always relevant.

“Many tend to confuse the concepts of ‘Fatherland’ and ‘Your Excellency.’ ‘No task is more worthy of a true liberal than to trust in expecting further clarification.’ ‘Respectability is a stigma—one needs to do some little nastiness to acquire it.’ ‘The system is very simple: never allow anything directly, and never forbid anything directly.’ Classic…