How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826–1889) Born into a noble but rigidly controlled family, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin spent his early years under the shadow of strict discipline. His path led him through the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, the same institution that had once shaped Pushkin. But instead of poetry, Saltykov's pen turned to sharp-edged satire. A bureaucrat by trade, he spent years serving in various provincial offices, witnessing firsthand the inefficiency, corruption, and absurdity of the Russian administrative machine. These experiences fueled his literary career, transforming him into one of Russia's most unrelenting critics of autocracy and social hypocrisy. His works—filled with grotesque allegory and biting irony—painted a system where incompetence thrived and the oppressed bore the weight of the privileged. His appointment as the editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski brought him to the forefront of Russian literature, but also under constant scrutiny. Censorship, exile, and official pressure followed him throughout his life. Yet, his stories—whether it was a muzhik feeding parasitic officials or a provincial town drowning in its own bureaucracy—remained as unsettlingly relevant as ever. By the time of his death in 1889, Saltykov-Shchedrin had become a literary institution in his own right, his name synonymous with satire that cut too close to the bone.