Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich
"Die Abenteuer Tschitschikows oder Die toten Seelen II" by Gogol is a novel published in 1842. The protagonist, Tschitschikow, devises a cunning scheme to acquire wealth by purchasing "dead souls"—deceased serfs still listed on official registers. He travels through provincial Russia, negotiating with various eccentric landowners to buy these phantom peasants, planning to use them as collateral for state loans. Gogol's satirical masterwork exposes the corruption and absurdities of Russian aristocratic society through Tschitschikow's morally dubious adventures. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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