A summary of "The Little Things in Life" by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin Automatic translate

This book is a satirical series of essays created in 1886 and 1887. The writer addresses the era of the 1880s, exploring the power of mundane, debilitating worries over the destinies of people of all classes. The author’s emotional pain is caused by the collapse of social hopes. High ideals are replaced by the triumph of greed and bureaucratic routine.

The author begins his narrative with a description of his trip to Finland for medical treatment. He observes local Finns and Russian dacha dwellers, reflecting on the nature of the fears and trivialities that paralyze modern society. Public thought is stifled by fears of the future and political squabbles, such as the European intrigues surrounding Alexander Battenberg or the memory of Napoleon III. Endless political meetings distract people from pressing issues. The old feudal order is being replaced by a bourgeois dictatorship. The countryside is impoverished, the peasantry falls into economic bondage, and the intelligentsia loses its former bearings and perishes in a flood of trivialities. Education kills individuality.

In the bosom of nature and agricultural tricks

Peasant life is full of backbreaking labor. The thrifty peasant devotes all his energy to accumulating wealth and creating a "full cup." Denying himself and his family soft bread and meat, he turns his household into silent laborers. The peasant calculates his daughter’s dowry in advance and arranges for his son to marry profitably. Having achieved prosperity, the old man climbs onto the stove and dies quietly, constantly worried about his accumulated wealth.

Rural priest Father Nikolai shares the plight of the peasants. His impoverished parish forces him to plow the land himself. His life is spent worrying about bread, firewood, and paying for his children’s education. He is forced to collect donations in the form of chicken eggs. His three sons disperse throughout the country, neglecting their elders. In his old age, this honest worker finds himself out of the country, living out his days in poverty.

The landowners are represented by three types. The indifferent landowner simply abandons his estate and lives in St. Petersburg on a modest rent. The staunch landowner sincerely believes in agricultural labor, tries to manage his business rationally, builds cowsheds, and institutes double-entry bookkeeping. He suffers losses, sends his wife and son to St. Petersburg, and soon flees to government service. Konon Lukich Lobkov successfully grows rich thanks to a system of fines and harassment. He entangles the peasants in debt, rents out barren wastelands for labor, and profits from human misery.

Bloodsuckers establish a brutal rule in the village, exploiting the taverns for their own gain. Local kulak Pyotr Matveich gets his fellow villagers drunk, buys their hay and belongings for next to nothing, and constantly keeps his neighbors in debt. A visiting bloodsucker, Ivan Fomich, a former lord’s lackey, acts even more brazenly. Having opened an inn, he rapaciously cuts down the leased forests and mercilessly ravages the peasants’ lands.

Young people

Seryozha Rostokin spends his days in idleness, wandering from one expensive restaurant to another, waited on by his French footman, Charles. He pretends to be preoccupied with state affairs and awaits the opportune moment for reform. Eventually, he makes a profitable marriage to the daughter of the wealthy businessman Grifkov, secures a lucrative position, and finally settles down in his luxurious nest.

Evgeny Lyubertsev, the son of a minor official, has been distinguished by extreme prudence since his youth. Listening to his father’s advice, he quickly abandons his youthful ideals and becomes a calculating bureaucrat. He drafts plans to restore barriers to tame the passions of the common people and confidently builds a career. Avoiding any risks, he rejects old friends.

Semyon and Nadezhda Cherezov live in constant fear of losing their meager earnings. They work from morning until night in offices and private tutoring, scrimping for every penny and terrified of having a child. A sudden cold leads to Semyon developing a severe fever. He dies, leaving his wife and young son Grisha destitute.

Nikolai Chudinov comes from the remote provinces to St. Petersburg to study at university. Unable to find private tutoring and having squandered his father’s modest savings, he falls ill with a severe case of tuberculosis. Living in cheap rooms with the kindly Anna Ivanovna, the emaciated young man dreams of doing good for the people, but dies.

Reader types

The author divides the reading public into several distinct categories. The hater reader constantly searches for sedition in literature, writes denunciations, and sincerely rejoices in the persecution of free thought. The respectable reader blindly follows the bureaucratic crowd and the opinions of those in power, changing his views depending on the political climate. The simple reader greedily devours newspaper gossip, remaining completely indifferent to lofty social ideals. Occasionally, a reader-friend appears, but he is extremely timid and quickly becomes lost in the aggressive crowd.

Girls

Sofia Mikhailovna Bratseva raises her daughter Verochka like a delicate hothouse plant. The girl receives a superficial education from foreign governesses and at Mademoiselle Turbot’s expensive boarding school, where she writes empty essays about the color blue. At 17, the "little angel" is hastily married off to the elderly Prince Sampantreu, who has a funny nose.

Olga Ladogina gives up her cheerful social life to care for her ailing father, Vasily Fyodorovich. In the remote village, she falls in love with her neighbor, Semigorov. He initially reciprocates her feelings, but the next day, he cowardly runs away, sending a cold letter. After her father’s death, Olga moves in with her aunt in the capital and devotes herself to work on charitable committees.

Orphan Anna Petrovna Gubina arrives in a remote village to work as a teacher. A local wealthy man, Drozd, unsuccessfully attempts to bribe her. Aigin, the frivolous school trustee who arrives at the estate, seduces Anna and promptly abandons her. Finding herself pregnant and disgraced, fleeing the harassment of her fellow villagers, the teacher throws herself into a raging river.

Lidochka Varnavintseva, the daughter of a colonel killed in the war, is educated for free at a closed institute. Protected from life’s storms by a tight corset, she remains forever childish. Upon graduation, Lidochka, in a polka-green silk dress, becomes class mistress, finding her greatest happiness in strictly adhering to the school rules.

In the sphere of sowing

Publisher Ivan Nepomnyashchy publishes the newspaper solely for profit. He readily publishes sensational scandals and skillfully panders to the public’s most base tastes. Having grown rich from small ads, he furnishes his spacious office with antiques and throws lavish dinners, pining for the peasant woman from the Moscow tavern. Journalist Akhbedny, on the other hand, is honest, but lives in constant fear of censorship, cowardly cutting every controversial article.

Lawyer Pereboyev begins his practice with a passionate defense of universal truth, but quickly becomes disillusioned with his youthful ideals. Seeking higher fees, he eagerly shifts to defending wealthy embezzlers. He indifferently dismisses clients with petty claims, dreaming of earning hundreds of thousands of rubles.

Nobleman Nikolai Krasnov is elected chairman of the provincial zemstvo council and faces off against his longtime rival, Zhivoglotov. Initially, he delivers bold, liberal speeches, but quickly gives in under the governor’s harsh pressure. Yielding to his superiors, he meekly fires the best teachers and female doctors.

Afanasy Arkadyevich Bodretsov serves as a tireless purveyor of the capital’s gossip. He spends his days running through the streets, eating free lunches, and enthusiastically whispering breaking news about European political crises or high-ranking official appointments to his acquaintances.

Tailor Grishka and the Lucky Man

Grishka, a former tailor, drags out his days in constant humiliation. In his youth, he was brutally beaten by his German masters, and now the local merchants Povalyaev and Barkhatnikov beat him with impunity. His wife, Feklinya, openly cheats on him. Grishka agrees to entertain the townspeople for small handouts, completely losing his humanity. An attempt to escape to Moscow using someone else’s passport, which he found, ends in prison. Returning home, broken, Grishka climbs the cathedral bell tower and throws himself to the ground.

Valerian Krutitsyn spends his entire life blissfully enjoying a comfortable life. He carefully avoids conflict, lives peacefully on his family estate, and is genuinely proud of his title as a gentleman. In his old age, he becomes deeply immersed in religious pursuits. This happy world suddenly collapses when his youngest son commits suicide.

Name

On his deathbed, the writer Imeniaryok painfully reflects on his life. He recalls in detail his youthful ideals, his long bureaucratic service in the provinces, and his subsequent literary work. The past seems to him an unbroken chain of trivial worries, petty compromises, and dashed hopes. Realizing that true freedom and justice are impossible without selfless love, he dies in an empty office, surrounded by the frightening indifference of his contemporaries.