Kisa Vorobyaninov's mustache. The image of Kitty Vorobyaninov, created by Ilf and Petrov, and the realities of life in the Russian Empire
Kisa, Father of Russian Democracy, Leader of the Nobility (albeit a former one) - all kinds of nicknames Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov gave their hero. By the way, when the writers were just planning the book “12 Chairs,” Ippolit Vorobyaninov was supposed to become its main character, and the son of a Turkish citizen, Ostap-Suleiman-Berta-Maria Bender Bey, was to be a secondary one. But the original idea had to be changed. In any case, the bright figure of Vorobyaninov arouses the same interest in the reader as the image of his fellow concessionaire Ostap. So it would be unfair not to find the prototype of Ippolit Matveevich.
Deprived of the position of leader of the local nobility by the 1917 revolution, Ippolit Matveevich moved to the district town of N, where he worked as a registrar in the registry office. He lived with his mother-in-law, who, as we remember, on her deathbed admitted that she had hidden her family jewels in one of the chairs made by Master Gumbs. Thus began an adventurous novel about adventurers. From the book we know that Ippolit Matveevich is a tall (185 cm) gray-haired old man who wears a well-groomed mustache and dyes his hair “radical black.” And now even closer to the text:
“Ippolit Matveyevich woke up at half past seven and immediately stuck his nose into an old-fashioned pince-nez with a gold bow. He didn't wear glasses. One day, having decided that wearing pince-nez was not hygienic, Ippolit Matveevich went to the optician and bought rimless glasses with gold-plated shafts. He liked the glasses the first time, but his wife found that with glasses he looked just like Miliukov, and he gave the glasses to the janitor.”
It was precisely because of the similarity indicated by the authors with the famous historian and politician Pavel Miliukov that many readers decided that Vorobyaninov’s prototype was Nobel laureate in literature, the famous Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich really looked a little like the democrat Miliukov. However, in the weak-willed Kis there is quite a bit common features with the literary genius of Bunin. Maybe that’s why some readers saw a clear similarity between Vorobyaninov and another Russian writer, Alexei Tolstoy.
But the residents of Vyatka are sure that the prototype of Kisa Vorobyaninov was their fellow countryman, Nikolai Dmitrievich Stakheev. This was one of the brightest representatives of the famous dynasty of Elabuga merchants, the Stakheevs. Nikolai had extraordinary commercial abilities. At the beginning of the 20th century, the annual turnover of his trading company was 80 million rubles. Before the First World War, Stakheev left with his family for France, but in Europe he met October Revolution- this news, of course, did not please the merchant, since all his capital was nationalized. A dangerous, but only true plan matured in Stakheev’s head. In 1918, Stakheev secretly returned to Moscow to pick up silver and jewelry from the cache of his house on Basmannaya Street. However, upon leaving the estate, the merchant, along with the entire treasure, was detained by GPU officers. During interrogation, Stakheev offered Felix Dzerzhinsky a deal: he says where the valuables are hidden in the house, and he is given a pension or given the opportunity to leave. Dzerzhinsky allegedly accepted the conditions of the former industrialist. They said that Stakheev received a pension until the end of his days, and with part of the “found” treasures, the House of Culture for Railway Workers was built on modern Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow.
But the version that seems most plausible to us is that the prototype of the “leader of the nobility” was Evgeniy Petrovich Ganko, the head of the Poltava Zemstvo Council. There is very little information left about him - only the memories of his nephews, the Kataev brothers, and one of the authors of “12 Chairs,” Evgeniy Petrov.
Evgeny Ganko was a widower and lived with the sister of his late wife. She managed his household, as Evgeniy often went on trips to exotic countries: China, Japan, India. Valentin Kataev recalled that very often, returning from another trip, Ganko came to visit them and brought gifts: Japanese lacquered pencil cases, ostrich eggs, cigarette cases with the image of a scarab beetle, and so on. Eugene wore a gold penny, which looked especially impressive on him. In his old age, Ganko settled in Poltava, entertaining himself by looking through old French magazines or packaging his stamps. By the way, he was a big collector.
Evgeny Petrov said that his uncle (Evgeny Ganko) loved to show off in front of young ladies and show off dust in their eyes. His image lay like “a piece of paper in a pile.” Based on all this, we can safely say that it was Evgeny Ganko who became the prototype for Kisa Vorobyaninov.
The past of the registry office registrar
Ron Moody
Sergey Filippov
Anatoly Papanov
Gennady Skarga
Ilya Oleynikov
Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov(, Stargorod district - after), nicknamed Kisa- a character in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” () by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov.
Image
On the second day after the meeting with Ostap Bender, Vorobyaninov received from him the trade union book of “a member of the union of Soviet trade employees.” From now on, formally, he acts in the novel, according to Ostap’s certification, as “Konrad Karlovich Mikhelson, forty-eight years old, single, member of the union since nineteen twenty-one, a highly moral person, my good friend, it seems a friend of the children...”. Sometimes his companion calls him “Lieber Vater Konrad Karlovich”, “Citizen Mikhelson”.
After the concessionaires moved to Moscow, a conversation took place between them:
Listen,” the great schemer suddenly said, “what was your name as a child?”
- What for do you need it?
- Yes, yes! Don't know; what to call you. I'm tired of calling you Vorobyaninov, and Ippolit Matveevich is too sour. What was your name? Ipa?
“Kisa,” answered Ippolit Matveevich, grinning.
- Congenial!
Ostap Bender really liked Ippolit's childhood nickname, Kisa. His companion often called him that, although he did not skimp on other nicknames, such as “Field Marshal”, “Comanche Leader” and the like.
There is no information about the fate of Ippolit Matveyevich after the events of the novel “12 Chairs” (). He is mentioned only once briefly by Ostap Bender in the novel “The Golden Calf”.
There was such an eccentric old man, from a good family, a former leader of the nobility, who was also a registry office registrar, Kisa Vorobyaninov. Together we were looking for happiness in the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand rubles.
Appearance and habits
Going on a treasure hunt, Ippolit Matveevich dyes his hair “radical black,” but after washing his face the next day, his hair turns green and he has to shave his head and shave off his mustache.
It was pleasant to dry off, but, taking the towel away from his face, Ippolit Matveyevich saw that it was stained with the radical black color that had been dyeing his horizontal mustache since the day before yesterday. Ippolit Matveevich’s heart sank. He rushed to his pocket mirror. The mirror reflected a large nose and a green, like young grass, left mustache. Ippolit Matveyevich hastily moved the mirror to the right. The right mustache was the same disgusting color. Bending his head, as if wanting to gore the mirror, the unfortunate man saw that the radical black color still dominated in the center of the square, but along the edges it was surrounded by the same grassy border.
From the habits of Ippolit Matveyevich we know his habit of saying “bonjour” in the morning (that is, French. bonjour) if he “woke up in a good mood”, or “gut morgen” (German. guten Morgen) if “the liver is playing tricks, 52 years is no joke and the weather is damp today.”
Past life
The story "The Past of the Registrar's Office", published a year () after the publication of the original version of the novel The Twelve Chairs, details from past life Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov. This story is a separate narrative, with a completely different image of Ippolit Matveyevich. Here the hero is presented as a reveler-adventurer. If we consider the information from this story to be consistent, then “Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov was born in 1875 in Stargorod district on the estate of his father Matvey Alexandrovich, a passionate pigeon lover.” That is, at the time of the main action of the novel he was 52 years old.
A striking event from Ippolit Matveyevich’s past was a scandalous affair with the wife of the district prosecutor, Elena Stanislavovna Bour, which ended with both leaving for Paris.
The continuation of this story was described by the science fiction writer Sergei Sinyakin: “Even in the midst of the war, A. Hitler did not give up trying to take possession of the famous Stargorod stamp collection. Having captured the son of the Soviet leader, Yakov Dzhugashvili, Hitler, through intelligence, offered to exchange him for two stamps from the collection of I.M. Vorobyaninov. Stalin thought for a long time, pacing around his office and smoking his pipe. Stopping in front of G. Zhukov, who was awaiting an answer, he pulled the pipe out of his mouth and said dully: “I don’t exchange lieutenants for field marshals.”
Key phrases
- - I think bargaining is inappropriate here.
- - Gentlemen! Are you really going to beat us?
- - Je ne mange pas sis jur.
- - Yeah, really!
- - Let's go to the rooms!
- - Haammy!!!
- - However!
Film adaptations and roles
- Teleplay "The twelve Chairs ". Dir. Alexander Belinsky.
- Movie "The twelve Chairs ". Dir. Mel Brooks. Cast: Frank Langella - Ostap Bender, Ron Moody - Kisa Vorobyaninov.
- Movie "The twelve Chairs ". Dir. Leonid Gaidai. Cast: Archil Gomiashvili - Ostap Bender, Sergey Filippov - Kisa Vorobyaninov.
- Musical film "The twelve Chairs ". Dir. Mark Zakharov. Cast: Andrei Mironov - Ostap Bender, Anatoly Papanov - Kisa Vorobyaninov.
- Musical film "The twelve Chairs ". Dir. Maxim Papernik. Cast: Fomenko, Nikolai Vladimirovich - Ostap Bender, Oleynikov, Ilya Lvovich - Kisa Vorobyaninov.
- The musical "The Twelve Chairs" (musical performance, 2003). Director - Tigran Keosayan, composer - I. Zubkov, libretto author - A. Vulykh. Cast: Dzhemal Tetruashvili - Ostap Bender, Balalaev Igor Vladimirovich - Ippolit Matveevich.
see also
- Monuments to the heroes of the works of Ilf and Petrov in Kharkov
Portal "Literature" Portal "Humor" Kisa Vorobyaninov in Wikiquote Project "Movie" Notes
Links
He came from the Stargorod nobles, after the revolution of 1917 he moved to the district town N (that is, a small provincial town) and worked in the registry office, where he managed the desk for registering deaths and marriages. He lived with his mother-in-law, Claudia Ivanovna Petukhova.
Before her death, the mother-in-law confessed to Ippolit Matveyevich that she had hidden her pre-revolutionary family jewelry in one of the twelve chairs of the set made by the master Gambs. The search for treasure is the plot of the novel “12 Chairs”.
Ippolit’s childhood nickname, Kisa, really pleased his companion, Ostap Bender, and he often called him that, although he did not skimp on other nicknames, like “field marshal”, “leader of the Comanches” and the like.
Listen,” the great schemer suddenly said, “what was your name as a child?”
- What for do you need it?
- Yes, yes! Don't know; what to call you. I'm tired of calling you Vorobyaninov, and Ippolit Matveevich is too sour. What was your name? Ipa?
“Kisa,” answered Ippolit Matveevich, grinning.
- Congenial!
There is no information about the fate of Ippolit Matveyevich after the events of the novel “12 Chairs”. He is mentioned only once briefly by Ostap Bender in the novel “The Golden Calf”.
There was such an eccentric old man, from a good family, a former leader of the nobility, who was also a registry office registrar, Kisa Vorobyaninov. Together we were looking for happiness in the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand rubles.
Appearance and habits
Going on a treasure hunt, Ippolit Matveevich dyes his hair “radical black,” but after washing his face the next day, his hair turns green and he has to shave his head and shave off his mustache.
It was pleasant to dry off, but, taking the towel away from his face, Ippolit Matveyevich saw that it was stained with the radical black color that had been dyeing his horizontal mustache since the day before yesterday. Ippolit Matveevich’s heart sank. He rushed to his pocket mirror. The mirror reflected a large nose and a green, like young grass, left mustache. Ippolit Matveyevich hastily moved the mirror to the right. The right mustache was the same disgusting color. Bending his head, as if wanting to gore the mirror, the unfortunate man saw that the radical black color still dominated in the center of the square, but along the edges it was surrounded by the same grassy border.
From the habits of Ippolit Matveyevich we know his habit of saying “bonjour” in the morning (that is, French. bonjour) if he “woke up in a good mood”, or “gut morgen” (German. guten Morgen) if “the liver is playing tricks, 52 years is no joke and the weather is damp today.”
Past life
In the original full version novel The Twelve Chairs (1928), details from past life Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov. This completely removed chapter represents a separate narrative, with a completely different image of Ippolit Matveyevich. Here the hero is presented as a romantic adventurer. If we consider the information from this chapter to be consistent, then “Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov was born in 1875 in Stargorod district on the estate of his father Matvey Alexandrovich, a passionate pigeon lover.” That is, at the time of the main action of the novel he was just over 50.
A striking event from Ippolit Matveyevich’s past was a scandalous affair with the wife of the district prosecutor, Elena Stanislavovna Bour, which ended with both leaving for Paris.
On Maslenitsa 1913 in Stargorod, an event occurred that outraged the leading strata of local society... At the moment of the highest joy, loud voices were heard... The famous spendthrift and bon vivant, the district leader of the nobility Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov, entered the hall, leading two completely naked ladies by the arms. Behind him walked a police officer in an overcoat and white gloves, holding under his arm multi-colored bebekhs, which apparently made up the outfits of Ippolit Matveyevich’s unmasked companions.
It was 1913. The twentieth century flourished...
Ippolit Matveyevich, sitting on the balcony, saw in his imagination the fine ripples of the Ostend seaside, the graphite roofs of Paris, the dark varnish and shine of the copper buttons of international carriages, but Ippolit Matveyevich did not imagine (and even if he had imagined, he still would not have understood) grain queues, a frozen bed, oily kagan, typhus delirium and the slogan “You’ve done your job - and leave” in the registry office of the district town of N.
Ippolit Matveyevich did not know... and that after fourteen years, still a strong man, he would return back to Stargorod and again enter the very gates over which he is now sitting, enter as a stranger to look for the treasure of his mother-in-law, which she foolishly hid in Gambs’s chair , on which it is so convenient for him to sit now...Being deprived of all means, Ippolit Matveevich accepted his fate with humble dignity. When the chance to return to his former luxurious life suddenly loomed before him in 1927, he rushed headlong into the search for his treasures, being completely unsuited to this.
The described image of a rake does not fit in any way with the faded, law-abiding man in the street that Ippolit Matveyevich turned into after the revolution. In the novel, the “leader of the nobility” is presented as a pathetic figure from the past who has no place in the new life. He suffers (according to Ostap) "organizational impotence", is subjected to humiliation, descends to begging, theft, and in the end he becomes a murderer.
Kisa Vorobyaninov is a character from the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” published in 1928. This is also found in another work by Ilf and Petrov - “The Past of the Civil Registry Office Registrar.” This story features more full biography Kitties Vorobyaninov.
basic information
The full name of the hero is Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov. At the beginning of the story he was 52 years old. The former leader of the nobility began to lead a completely unusual lifestyle for himself after meeting the adventurer Ostap Bender. Kisa Vorobyaninov received from him a trade union book, which read: “member of the union of Soviet trade employees.” From now on, Vorobyaninov introduces himself as Konrad Michelson. According to forged documents, he is 48 years old, single, and has been a member of the union since 1921.
What is known about the life of the former registry office employee? After the revolution, Vorobyaninov was deprived of the position of leader of the nobility. He moved to a county town, the name of which is not mentioned by the authors of the famous book. Here he worked in the registry office, in the department of registration of marriages and deaths. Vorobyaninov lived with his mother-in-law Claudia Ivanovna - a woman who, as it turned out, was quite secretive and mysterious.
Chasing treasure
Kisa Vorobyaninov's life changed completely after the death of his late wife's mother. In the last minutes of her life, his mother-in-law admitted to him that she owned pre-revolutionary books. True, they were kept far away, in one of the 12 chairs. Treasure Hunt - Basic story line the famous novel by Ilf and Petrov.
In 1918, Ippolit Matveevich’s idle life came to an end. He was expelled from his own home and deprived of his property. Over time, he turned into a pathetic philistine. And suddenly - news about jewelry. She gave her a chance to return to her former life, full of luxury and idleness. Ippolit Matveyevich rushed in search of jewelry, being completely unsuited to this type of activity.
Kisa Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender
Where did such a strange nickname come from, inappropriate for a mature man? Of course, Ostap Bender came up with it. In relation to his assistant, he also used words such as “field marshal”, “leader of the Comanches.”
Almost nothing is known about the fate of Vorobyaninov after the events described in the novel “The Twelve Chairs”. He is mentioned only once in another book - “The Golden Calf”. In this work, Ippolit Matveyevich is described as “an eccentric old man, a former leader of the nobility,” with whom Ostap Bender once sought happiness for the sum of 150 thousand rubles.
Appearance
What did Kisa Vorobyaninov look like? The actor who played this character in the 1971 film lives up to the famous image. Ippolit Matveevich was tall and gray-haired. He wore a mustache. He preferred pince-nez to glasses in order to avoid resemblance to Pavel Miliukov - politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Provisional Government.
Before going in search of treasure, Vorobyaninov has to change his appearance. He dyes his hair black. However, the procedure turns out to be unsuccessful. Hair turns green. There is nothing left to do but shave your head.
Habits
Kisa Vorobyaninov, like any other representative of the nobility, speaks French. In the morning he usually says bonjour. But only if you woke up in a good mood. If Vorobyaninov’s liver is acting up in the morning, he tends to say hello in German.
Past life
What Kisa Vorobyaninov’s life was like before meeting Ostap Bender is described in the story “The Past of the Civil Registry Office Registrar.” The work was published in 1929. Here the image of Vorobyaninov is quite unexpected. The character appears to readers as a kind of reveler and adventurer.
From the story it becomes known that the former registry office registrar was born in 1875. His hometown is located in Stargorod district. Ippolit Matveyevich’s father was a passionate lover of pigeons - this is all the information about the relatives of the “giant of thought.” There are no significant events in Vorobyaninov’s biography, with the exception of a few scandalous cases.
Collector
In 1911, the “father of Russian democracy” married the daughter of the neighboring landowner Petukhov. Change Family status he decided due to the shaky affairs in the estate. While Vorobyaninov was known as a passionate philatelist. He dreamed of surpassing the legendary Mr. Enfield in collecting stamps.
One day, a famous English philatelist approached him with a request to sell one of the stamps. Vorobyaninov refused, and in a rather peculiar form. The leader of the nobility sent a laconic answer to Enfield: “Bite the marrow!” A short and comprehensive refusal was written in Latin letters. After all, it was addressed to a foreigner.
Scandalous case
In 1913, an event occurred that outraged the advanced strata of secular society. The leader of the nobility appeared in a public place, accompanied by two completely naked ladies. The policeman walked behind him in confusion, holding clothes in his hands that apparently belonged to Vorobyaninov’s unmasked companions.
1971 film
The director of the film is Leonid Gaidai. The film became the box office leader in 1971. Main role performed by Archil Gomiashvili. Kitty Vorobyaninov was played by Sergei Filippov. He was an actor with multifaceted talent. However, in films he appeared mainly in a satirical image. Before the release of The Twelve Chairs, he played more than 50 roles in films. In 1980, the film “The Comedy of Bygone Days” was released, in which Filippov again played Kisa Vorobyaninov.
Movies of 1976
This picture was shot by an equally famous Soviet and Russian director. Namely Mark Zakharov. Ostap Bender was played by the outstanding actor Andrei Mironov. Ippolit Matveevich - Anatoly Papanov. The actor has several dozen roles to his name, including tragic and comic ones. He first appeared on screen in 1939, playing a cameo role in the film Foundling.
Films with Papanov’s participation: “Children of Don Quixote”, “Beware of the Car”, “The Diamond Arm”, “Cold Summer of '53” and many others. The voice of the most famous cartoon character of the Soviet period is the Wolf from “Well, Just Wait!”
Plays and musicals
Who played Kisa Vorobyaninov besides Filippov and Papanov? In the early 70s, a British film starring Ron Moody was released. In the 1966 performance, the role of “a person close to the emperor” was played by Alexander Belinsky. In the 2005 musical - Ilya Oleynik.
Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov was the district leader of the nobility (leader of the Comanches, as Bender puts it). He is portrayed in the novel not just as a rich man in tsarist times. Vorobyaninov was a man of outstanding wealth.
His income is described by the authors clearly and in detail: from his father he inherited a stable income of 20,000 rubles a year. Meeting his future lover Elena Bour at a charity ball, Vorobyaninov gives 100 rubles for a glass of champagne. When he breaks up with the same Elena Bour, he begins to pay her a maintenance of 3,600 rubles a year, and he perceives this financial burden painlessly.
Vorobyaninov does not fit into the rent he receives and begins to live off real estate and productive assets; in 1911 he was forced to marry an ugly (180, 90-60-90 - for that time it was just an ugly, lanky skeleton, as they say in the novel) girl with a large dowry. If we assume that by this time Vorobyaninov had lived for 18 years (from the moment he received the inheritance from his father) at least a third of his original wealth - and the landowner’s wealth was traditionally defined as 16 of his annual income - then he actually spent 26-27,000 rubles per year .
It was a lot of money. An income survey carried out in 1910 by the Ministry of Finance in preparation for the introduction of an income tax showed that there were only 12,100 households in the country with an income of over 20,000 rubles per year. Thus, Vorobyaninov was one of approximately one two thousandth (or rather, 1/2300) of the richest people in Russia.
If we assume that Vorobyaninov’s prototype was the Poltava cousin of the authors, then in the populous and fairly wealthy Poltava province there were only 211 people with an income of over 20,000 rubles a year.
To receive such an income, the landowner had to have at least 2,800-3,000 dessiatines (a dessiatine - 1.08 hectares) of convenient land, that is, to have an estate of 3,500-4,500 thousand dessiatines (in any estate there are various kinds of inconvenient, unprofitable lands). Thus, Ippolit Matveevich owned a plot of approximately 6x6 km - and this was subject to high efficiency of land use. To cultivate such a plot, if Vorobyaninov managed the farm himself, it would have been necessary to hire about 150 people and maintain about 150 horses.
By noble standards, this was a very large property - the average size of a noble landholding in 1905 was 488 acres. In European Russia in 1905 there were only 2,594 noble land holdings of 3,000 or more acres. In the Poltava province there were 34 such estates - 2-3 per county. It is not surprising that Vorobyaninov, who had no personal merits, continued to remain a star of district magnitude and was easily elected district leader of the nobility.
What did 20,000 rubles a year mean in that scale of income? The governor received 10,000, the vice-governor 6,000, the university professor 3,000 (they complained bitterly about such a salary), the judge of the district court 4,200, the zemstvo doctor - 1,200-1,800, the gymnasium teacher 1,200-2,000 (depending on income). Income ordinary people were completely different: the average salary of a worker in 1913 was 264 rubles, a qualified machine operator in the capitals received 500-700 rubles, a weaver 180-200 rubles, a watchman or laborer 120-180 rubles. A clerk or clerk in a store received 600-900 rubles, a teacher primary school- 300-400 rubles.
In general, maintaining a typical middle-class lifestyle for a family man in the capitals required at least 3,000 rubles a year. What exactly was included in this concept? Rented apartment with central heating and electricity, with bedroom, children's room, living room, dining room, kitchen and maid's room, with bathroom and toilet; cook, maid and nanny; meals according to the lordly type, that is, lunch with 2-3 hot dishes; new, well-groomed clothes, decent furniture in the house; moving around the city in a cab; dacha in the suburbs, rented for the summer. With 3,000 rubles, the family could barely stay at this level, and only if there were 1-2 children: the apartment was on a non-prestigious street, on a high floor or with windows facing the courtyard, you had to save money to buy clothes or furniture, sometimes you had to travel without by cab, and by tram, etc. But an income of 5,000-6,000 thousand rubles a year already ensured a completely comfortable life (regardless of the number of children) and allowed me to sometimes go on vacation abroad.
From all of the above, it is clear that Vorobyaninov lost a lot, a lot, in 1917. If for Bender the treasures hidden in the chair are the path to unprecedented prosperity, then even their discovery will not be able to return Ippolit Matveyevich to his previous standard of living.
Second interesting topic— Vorobyaninov’s activities as leader of the nobility. The district leaders of the nobility are unique position. Leading the district nobility took almost no time from them, since the district nobility had very few common affairs.
But the elected (for 3 years) leader of the nobility was an unpaid volunteer official who performed the duties of the de facto head of the county administration free of charge (legally, county institutions did not constitute a single whole and did not have a chief). The leader presided over the district zemstvo assembly (this duty took up one or two weeks a year) and at the district congress (this was a commission that examined complaints against judicial and administrative decisions of zemstvo leaders), which met one week a month. The leader also supervised the activities of the county conscription presence, which carried out the annual conscription into the army, the county land management commission (oversaw the implementation of agrarian reform), and the county assessment commission (examined complaints about the valuation of property for taxation). The leader was also the organizer of elections to the State Duma, heading the election meetings.
All this suggests that a completely empty, idle and stupid person could not cope with this work. No matter how carelessly the leader treated his duties, they were in any case troublesome and required good knowledge of numerous laws and procedures, the ability to manage processes and establish relationships with many people. Thus, Vorobyaninov’s timidity and dullness are explained only by the somewhat libelous nature of the famous novel. The real leaders of the nobility were efficient and intelligent people.
