{"html":"\t\n\t\u003C!-- Advertisement Script --\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022postid-381553 scrolltrace textContainer_Truncate\u0022 articlelisttitle=\u0022Gogol\u0027s Bullshit Jobs\u0022 articlelistlinks=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/culture\/gogol-nose-other-stories\/\u0022 article-post-id=\u0022381553\u0022 article-keyword=\u0022\u0027russia\u0027, \u0027ukraine\u0027\u0022 article-subject=\u0022\u0027fiction\u0027, \u0027history\u0027\u0022 article-authors=\u0022\u0027jennifer-w\u0027\u0022\u003E\n\t\n\t\t\u003Carticle id=\u0022url-title\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv id=\u0022tn_pixel_381553_1\u0022 style=\u0027height:0px; width:0px;\u0027\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv id=\u0022tn_pixel_381553_2\u0022 style=\u0027height:0px; width:0px;\u0027\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\u003Cheader class=\u0022article-header\u0022\u003E\t\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022article-header-content\u0022\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cul 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class=\u0022article_title hide\u0022\u003EGogol’s Bullshit Jobs\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Ch1 class=\u0022title\u0022\u003EAmong the Rank and File\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Ch2 class=\u0027subtitle\u0027\u003ENikolai Gogol in the twilight of empire.\u003C\/h2\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022byline\u0022 data-nosnippet\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Ch2 class=\u0022author_name\u0022\u003EBy \u003Ca class=\u0022author\u0022 href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/jennifer-wilson\/\u0022\u003EJennifer Wilson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ch4 class=\u0022time is_date article_pub_time\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\tApril 5, 2021\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/h4\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003C!--\u003Cul class=\u0022article-share\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022social-share fb\u0022 href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EFacebook\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca 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sms\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Esms\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022 class=\u0022social-share bookmark tn-sfg-add-to-list hide\u0022 onclick=\u0022tnAddToReadingList(this, 381553)\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EBookmark\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E \t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/ul\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/header\u003E\n\n\u003Csection class=\u0022tnpaywallcontent article-body  abody-381553 keep-reading \u0022\u003E\n\t\u003Ctime class=\u0022tn_publish_date hide\u0022\u003EApril 5, 2021\u003C\/time\u003E\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022article-body-inner\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Ciardiello-Gogol-illo_img.jpg\u0022 class=\u0022\u0022 title=\u0022Illustration by Joe Ciardiello. \u0022 alt=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Ciardiello-Gogol-illo_img.jpg\u0022 alt=\u0022Gogol by Ciardiello\u0022 title=\u0022Ciardiello-Gogol-illo_img\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022caption inline_caption\u0022\u003EIllustration by Joe Ciardiello. \u003Cspan class=\u0022credits\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t \u003Cp\u003EThe thing about big plans is that they require people to carry them out. The problem of personnel particularly plagued Peter the Great. Convinced by his European advisers that his country was backward and stuck in a medieval mindset, he spent much of his reign on a series of modernizing initiatives intended to get Russia \u201ccaught up\u201d with the West. To implement his reforms\u2014which included establishing a navy, imposing a tax on beards, and eventually drafting half a million serfs to build a city (named after himself) on nothing but marshland\u2014he needed a robust bureaucracy and a standing military that could manage the demands of his new, spruced-up empire. Peter thus made service\u2014civil or military\u2014compulsory for the Russian nobility, and he implemented a new class system, the Table of Ranks, under which one could be promoted according to how long and how well one served.\t\t\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022ad right most-popular-plus-ad grey_back\u0022\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022 id=\u0022thenation_right_rail_381553\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t  \u003Cscript data-cfasync=\u0022false\u0022 type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\tfreestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tplacementName: \u0022thenation_right_rail\u0022, \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslotId: \u0022thenation_right_rail_381553\u0022,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttargeting:{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_author: [\u0027jennifer-w\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_articleid: [381553],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_ptype: \u0027article\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_keyword: [\u0027russia\u0027, \u0027ukraine\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_subject: [\u0027fiction\u0027, \u0027history\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_pos: \u0027rectangle_1\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_loc:\u0027atf\u0027\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t});\n\t\t\t\t\t  \u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents related-newarticle author-modules book-module\u0022 data-nosnippet\u003E\t\n\t\t\u003Ch4\u003EBooks in Review\u003C\/h4\u003E\t\t\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022newrelated-blocks\u0022\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\u003Ch5\u003EThe Nose and Other Stories\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022author\u0022\u003EBy Nikolai Gogol; Susanne Fusso, trans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022author\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/15865\/9780231190695\u0022\u003EBuy this book\u003C\/a\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/p\u003E\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Table of Ranks included 14 classes, from collegiate registrars (which included lowly copy clerks) at the very bottom to the top civil rank of chancellor. While it was pitched as the introduction of a modern meritocratic system in Russia, in practice the table produced sharp class divisions, prevented people from working in fields that did not correspond to their rank, and tied social status to the name and nature of one\u2019s profession. A version of this system continued in Russia all the way up to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and yet, in much of the literature of the 19th century, the civil service\u2014which structured almost every aspect of life, particularly in the capital of St. Petersburg\u2014feels weirdly merged into the background, more a fact of life than a facet of literary fiction, save for in the work of one writer: Nikolai Gogol.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn a new collection of Gogol\u2019s short stories, translated by Susanne Fusso, a professor of Russian studies at Wesleyan University, readers are reintroduced to the familiar cast of characters\u2014identified by their rank, of course\u2014that populate many of the Ukrainian author\u2019s most celebrated works, including \u201cThe Nose\u201d and \u201cThe Overcoat.\u201d There are the titular councillors, the collegiate assessors, the section heads of unnamed departments, the recently promoted (and thus insufferable). In short, the book\u2019s stories cover nearly all manner of pompous, status-obsessed, careerist bureaucrats. It could be said that the Table of Ranks defined Gogol\u2019s narrative landscape, but what is also true is that Gogol in turn redefined the Table of Ranks for his readers, then and now. As the scholar Irina Reyfman notes, \u201cTo a large degree, the way people now think of the world of state service is determined by Gogol\u2019s portrayal of it in his fiction.\u201d\u003Cdiv id=\u0022ConnatixPlaceholder\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022wpsdc-drop-cap\u0022\u003EW\u003C\/span\u003Ehen it came time to join the civil service himself, Gogol had little interest in or patience for the entire endeavor. His middling grades at his lyceum in Kiev meant that, upon graduation, he had to enter the service at the 14th rank\u2014the lowest.\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 1828, Gogol moved from Ukraine to St. Petersburg to find work, landing first at the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings and then at the Department of Domains. Shortly after starting, he was diagnosed with hemorrhoids\u2014which turned out to be a blessing in his eyes since it gave him an excuse to quit the post, which involved long hours sitting at a desk. \u201cI am very glad this happened,\u201d he wrote to a friend.\u003Caside class=\u0022right hidden-on-mobile most-popular-plus-ad\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022most-popular hover_b_remove thenation-single-article-most-popular\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThroughout his tenure in the civil service, Gogol more than once failed to return on time from a leave of absence, though this does not seem to have had much of an effect on his career (in fact, he was promoted after one of these delinquencies). He frequently wrote his mother letters to register his misery and frustration with the entire system and its effect on the residents of St. Petersburg: \u201cNo spirit sparkles in the people, everyone here is a clerk or official, everyone talks of their departments or ministries, everything is suppressed, everything is steeped in the trivial, insignificant labor in which their lives are pointlessly wasted.\u201d\u003Cdiv class=\u0022inline-counter\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt is tempting to see in Gogol\u2019s satirical tales a kind of precursor to David Graeber\u2019s \u003Cem\u003EBullshit Jobs: A Theory\u003C\/em\u003E, his study of corporate bloat and capitalist inefficiency. Indeed, Graeber\u2019s taxonomy of meaningless jobs and the people who hold them\u2014flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, task makers, and bean counters\u2014reads similarly to Gogol\u2019s characterizations of the mind-numbing civil service positions open to him. Yet Gogol was ultimately less interested in the drudgery of office work than in the kind of people who built their lives around titles, prestige, and arbitrary notions of superiority. He drew on the grotesque and perfected the absurd in depicting their shallow worries and pointless cruelty. He also revealed the arbitrariness underpinning Peter\u2019s supposedly meritocratic system: Mislabeling the ranks and ascribing the wrong kinds of jobs to certain titles, Gogol created his own world of random hierarchies, and in turn revealed the randomness of the real one.\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022left indent indents current-issue\u0022 data-nosnippet\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Ch4\u003ECurrent Issue\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022current-blocks\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/april-19-26-2021-issue\/\u0022 class=\u0022no-target-blank\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cover0419.jpg\u0022 alt=\u0022\u0022\/\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/a\u003E\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022current-blocks\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/april-19-26-2021-issue\/\u0022 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btn_ffcf0d\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Donate\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_url_381553 = \u0027https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/email-signup-module-donate\/\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#ffcf0d\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}else{\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Cp\u003ESubscribe today and Save up to $129.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_d41d00\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Subscribe\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_url_381553 = \u0027https:\/\/subscribe.thenation.com\/flex\/NA\/key\/G0EECAT\/\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmagazine_button_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#dd3333\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_text_381553\u0022).html(magazine_text_381553);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_381553\u0022).html(magazine_button_text_381553);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_url_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_381553 a\u0022).attr(\u0022href\u0022,magazine_button_url_381553);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( magazine_button_bg_color_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#magazine_button_381553 a input\u0022).css(\u0022background\u0022,magazine_button_bg_color_381553);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022wpsdc-drop-cap\u0022\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003Ehough he wrote in Russian, Gogol was born in a small village in the district of Poltava, in what is now central Ukraine. His mother was descended from Polish-Ukrainian nobility, and his father wrote plays, in Ukrainian, for the local theater. The household was trilingual; his father subscribed to both Polish and Ukrainian newspapers, and family letters show they communicated with one another in a kind of Ukrainianized Russian.\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGogol\u2019s language is indeed distinctive,\u201d Fusso writes in her introduction, \u201cwhether because of his Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism or his eccentric personality or some combination of factors.\u201d It is why he is \u201caccordingly known as one of the most untranslatable of Russian writers.\u201d In a move that preserves a sense of foreignness in the English translation, Fusso employs something closer to a literal translation than the more idiomatic one used by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in their 2011 rendering of Gogol\u2019s stories.\n\u003Cp\u003EFusso maintains the pacing and eeriness of Gogol\u2019s narrative flow while also stretching out some of the language so that an English reader, particularly an American one, might stumble a little on the prose, as Gogol\u2019s readers would have. She achieves this through little things, like translating \u003Cem\u003Enizen\u2019kogo rosta\u003C\/em\u003E as \u201cshort stature\u201d instead of simply \u201cshort,\u201d or writing out \u201cthe boots she had cleaned\u201d instead of just \u201cpolished boots\u201d (the latter choices are Pevear and Volokhonsky\u2019s). These examples might seem small on their own, but at scale, such choices in translation create a subtle nod to the linguistic distance Russian readers would have experienced reading Gogol\u2019s prose.\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile the specificities of Ukrainian culture and identity animated Gogol\u2019s early work, it was his arrival in St. Petersburg in the winter of 1828 that introduced him to his most enduring subject: the Russian civil service. It would take Gogol nearly a year of job hunting\u2014which largely amounted to seeking out help from family friends and various contacts\u2014before he landed a post. 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He started writing his mother tortured letters about how lonely he felt in the capital and how soulless he found the bureaucrats he met there: \u201cTo fritter away one\u2019s entire existence in a place where absolutely nothing looms ahead, where years and years are spent in petty occupations, this would resound in one\u2019s soul as a heavy indictment\u2014this would be death\u201d (translation by Vladimir Nabokov).\t\t\u003Caside id=\u0022inline_cta_1_module_381553\u0022 class=\u0022inline-cta-1\u0022 data-nosnippet\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022inline-cta-blocks\u0022 id=\u0022inline_cta_381553\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022cta\u0022 id=\u0022inline_cta_btn_381553\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cscript \u003E\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_text_381553            = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_button_text_381553     = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_url_381553             = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_bg_color_381553        = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar inline_cta_font_color_381553      = \u0027\u0027;\n\t\t\tvar cta_1_check_381553  = false;  \n\t\t\tvar is_user_logged_in = getCookie(\u0027SESSname\u0027);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tif( is_user_logged_in != null ){\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESupport Progressive Journalism\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you like this article, please give today to help fund \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_font_color_381553 = \u0027#000000\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_button_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_ffcf0d\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Donate\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_url_381553 = \u0027https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/donate-website\/?sourceid=1020084\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#ffcf0d\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}else{\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESupport Progressive Journalism\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you like this article, please give today to help fund \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_font_color_381553 = \u0027#000000\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_button_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ca href=\u0022javascript:void(0)\u0022\u003E\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Donate\u0022\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_url_381553 = \u0027https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/donate-website\/?sourceid=1020084\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#ffcf0d\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_381553\u0022).html(inline_cta_text_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_1_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_button_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_btn_381553\u0022).html(inline_cta_button_text_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_1_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_url_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_btn_381553 a\u0022).attr(\u0022href\u0022,inline_cta_url_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_1_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_bg_color_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_btn_381553 a input\u0022).css(\u0022background\u0022,inline_cta_bg_color_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_1_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta_font_color_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_btn_381553 a input\u0022).css(\u0022color\u0022,inline_cta_font_color_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_1_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\tif( cta_1_check_381553 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta_1_module_381553\u0022).addClass(\u0022tn-inline-cta-module\u0022);\n\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\n\u003Cp\u003EGogol soon began to fritter away his time as deputy desk chief for the Department of Domains until, in 1831, he found work as a teacher of history at the Patriotic Institute, a school for the daughters of fallen military officers, which he hoped might be more fulfilling (though his arrival at work three months late suggests otherwise). By this time, he was already writing short stories, though to little fanfare. His early foray into German Romanticism, the self-published poem \u201cHans K\u00fcchelgarten,\u201d was so eviscerated by critics that Gogol burned any remaining copies he could find. That all changed in 1830, when an uprising against the Russian capital in partitioned Poland created an air of suspicion around the Poles living in St. Petersburg. Gogol, worried for his own safety and position, told his mother to stop including their Polish surname (the full form was Gogol-Janowski) when addressing letters to him.\n\u003Cp\u003EHowever, while the political circumstances worried Gogol in light of his Polish heritage, they created an opening for him as a Ukrainian. With his countrymen eager to \u201caffirm their happy belonging to the fraternal East Slavic, Orthodox Russian empire,\u201d as the scholar Edyta Bojanowska notes, a sudden vogue for all things Ukrainian and upbeat, including literature, took over the Russian Empire. \u201cTsarist authorities,\u201d Bojanowska explains, began to encourage \u201climited Ukrainian particularism as a way to counter irredentist Polish nationalism\u201d\u2014and Gogol, a bridge incarnate between Ukrainian and Russian culture, was there to oblige.\t\t\u003Caside class=\u0022ad-300\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022 id=\u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t  \u003Cscript data-cfasync=\u0022false\u0022 type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t  freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ \n\t\t\t\t\tplacementName: \u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022, \n\t\t\t\t\tslotId: \u0022thenation_article_indent\u0022,\n\t\t\t\t\ttargeting:{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_author: [\u0027jennifer-w\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_articleid: [381553],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_ptype: \u0027article\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_keyword: [\u0027russia\u0027, \u0027ukraine\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_subject: [\u0027fiction\u0027, \u0027history\u0027],\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_pos: \u0027rectangle_4\u0027,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttn_loc:\u0027atf\u0027\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t  });\n\t\t\t  \u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\t\n\t\t\u003C\/aside\u003E\n\t\t\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022wpsdc-drop-cap\u0022\u003ET\u003C\/span\u003Ehe burst of enthusiasm for anything from or about Ukraine provided fertile ground for the publication of his first major prose collection, \u003Cem\u003EEvenings on a Farm Near Dikanka\u003C\/em\u003E (1831), a series of short stories narrated by a folksy beekeeper. Sometimes called Gogol\u2019s \u201cUkrainian tales,\u201d the collection was an instant success, in large part because, as Fusso writes, the stories \u201cadhere to a stereotyped image of the happy, dancing, laughing people of what was then known as Little Russia.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003EFusso includes one story from \u003Cem\u003EDikanka\u003C\/em\u003E in the new collection. \u201cLost Letter,\u201d about a Ukrainian Cossack who gets drunk, has his cap stolen by the devil, and then must win it back in a game of cards, is a somehow jolly tale of dark forests and shape-shifting demons, and it does indeed end with someone having a dancing fit. The story, and those that appeared in a subsequent volume, \u003Cem\u003EMirgorod\u003C\/em\u003E (1835), appealed greatly to the tastes of the condescending Russian elite of the early 19th century, confirming national biases about their Ukrainian neighbors living on the periphery of the empire.\n\u003Cp\u003ELater critics were less enthralled. Nabokov, in his 1944 biography of Gogol, observed, \u201cWe must thank fate (and the author\u2019s thirst for universal fame) for his not having turned to the Ukrainian dialect as a medium of expression, because then he would be lost. When I want a good nightmare, I imagine Gogol penning in Little Russian dialect volume after volume of \u003Cem\u003EDikanka\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003EMirgorod\u003C\/em\u003E stuff about ghosts haunting the banks of the Dnieper, burlesque Jews and dashing Cossacks.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003ENabokov, who emigrated to the United States in 1940, knew all too well the pressures to perform one\u2019s native identity for publishers and the reading public, and it could be that he was merely projecting his own anxieties here. But it is true that Gogol quite dramatically pivoted away from the style of \u003Cem\u003EDikanka\u003C\/em\u003E in his later fiction. Just as Nabokov would later eviscerate American culture in \u003Cem\u003ELolita\u003C\/em\u003E, Gogol too became a master of uncovering the sins of his adopted nation. Soon, his use of the supernatural in his fiction became less a folkloric motif and more a means to enhance his depictions of evil in the everyday brutalities of poverty and social isolation as they unfolded in the Russian capital.\n\u003Cp\u003EFusso includes three stories from Gogol\u2019s second 1835 collection, \u003Cem\u003EArabesques\u003C\/em\u003E, mid-era works that show him in transition from the overtly gothic to the mildly haunted social satires of his high period: \u201cNevsky Avenue,\u201d \u201cThe Portrait,\u201d and \u201cDiary of a Madman.\u201d Along with two of his later works, \u201cThe Nose\u201d and \u201cThe Overcoat,\u201d these stories are often classed as his \u201cPetersburg tales.\u201d Filled with characters obsessed with rank and status, they demonstrate Gogol\u2019s belief that St. Petersburg was a city cursed by artifice and superficiality, as vainglorious as the czar who gave it his name.\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNevsky Avenue\u201d depicts a pompous lieutenant named Pirogov who believes that his recent promotion in the Table of Ranks should grant him access to whatever woman he wants. When the wife of his shoemaker rebuffs his advances, Pirogov \u201ccould not understand how it was possible to resist him, all the more since his amiability and brilliant rank gave him full rights to her attention.\u201d When her husband intervenes and kicks him out, Pirogov sets off to the authorities to have the insubordinate merchant sent to Siberia (but gets distracted by a puff pastry and forgets the whole thing).\n\u003Cp\u003EIn \u201cDiary of a Madman,\u201d we get the story of a petty civil servant named Poprishchin, a titular councillor who works in an unnamed department (so anonymous and interchangeable were these offices in Gogol\u2019s imagination). Poprishchin\u2019s entire vocation consists of sharpening quill pens for his director\u2014an actual job, Fusso informs us in the notes: \u201cThe low-level clerks who performed this task sometimes made a specialty of sharpening quills to the particular taste of their superiors.\u201d The story follows Poprishchin\u2019s descent into madness shortly after he becomes enamored with the director\u2019s daughter, a woman well beyond his reach as a mere titular councillor. When the head of his section castigates him for \u201cdangling after the director\u2019s daughter,\u201d Poprishchin says to himself, \u201cWhat am I, a commoner, a tailor, or a non-commissioned officer\u2019s child? I am a nobleman. I can earn a good rank myself. I\u2019m only forty-two years old\u2014that\u2019s the time when your career gets going in earnest. Just you wait, my friend! 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 \n\t\t\tvar is_user_logged_in = getCookie(\u0027SESSname\u0027);\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tif( is_user_logged_in != null ){\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003EJoin \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s Books & the Arts newsletter\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlease enter your email below and subscribe to our bi-weekly collection of the best of the Books & the Arts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_font_color_381553 = \u0027#ffffff\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_button_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn inline_cta_signup\u0022 class=\u0022btn\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Subscribe\u0022\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#5000b2\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_thanks_381553 = \u0027\u003Cp\u003EThank you for subscribing to our Books & the Arts newsletter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_slist_381553 = \u0027ad_book_offers,books_and_the_arts_inline_cta_signup,master\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t}else{\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Ch4\u003EJoin \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s Books & the Arts newsletter\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlease enter your email below and subscribe to our bi-weekly collection of the best of the Books & the Arts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_font_color_381553 = \u0027#ffffff\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_button_text_381553 = \u0027\u003Cinput type=\u0022button\u0022 class=\u0022btn inline_cta_signup\u0022 class=\u0022btn btn_ffcf0d\u0022 name=\u0022submit_sailthru\u0022 value=\u0022Subscribe\u0022\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_bg_color_381553 = \u0027#5000b2\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_thanks_381553 = \u0027\u003Cp\u003EThank you for subscribing to our Books & the Arts newsletter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinline_cta__form_slist_381553 = \u0027ad_book_offers,books_and_the_arts_inline_cta_signup,master\u0027;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t} \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta__form_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_381553\u0022).html(inline_cta__form_text_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_form_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta__form_button_text_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_btn_381553\u0022).html(inline_cta__form_button_text_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_form_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta__form_bg_color_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_btn_381553 input.inline_cta_signup\u0022).css(\u0022background\u0022,inline_cta__form_bg_color_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_form_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( inline_cta__form_font_color_381553 !=\u0027\u0027 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_btn_381553 input.inline_cta_signup \u0022).css(\u0022color\u0022,inline_cta__form_font_color_381553);\n\t\t\t\tcta_form_check_381553 = true;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tif( cta_form_check_381553 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_module_381553\u0022).addClass(\u0022tn-inline-cta-module\u0022);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\tif( cta_form_check_381553 ){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_module_381553\u0022).addClass(\u0022tn-inline-cta-module\u0022);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\tif(inline_cta__form_slist_381553){\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__sail_list_381553\u0022).val(inline_cta__form_slist_381553);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\tif(inline_cta__form_thanks_381553){\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\u0022#inline_cta__form_thanks381553\u0022).html(inline_cta__form_thanks_381553);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\u003C\/script\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\n\u003Cp\u003ETo a modern audience accustomed to hidden hierarchies and the unwritten rules of elite spaces, the Table of Ranks seems almost refreshingly transparent. But as Gogol reminds us, transparency itself can be something of a mask. Meritocracies are always loudly announcing themselves; this is precisely how they drown out the voices of their victims. On the surface, Peter\u2019s system seems fair\u2014everyone has a chance to work their way up through service. But this only tends to make those inclined to be cruel to people on the bottom feel justified, righteous even, in their actions and attitudes.\n\u003Cp\u003EThat comes through especially in what is perhaps Gogol\u2019s most famous short story, \u201cThe Overcoat,\u201d a sad, masterfully written tale about a copyist named Akaky Akakievich, whose coat is stolen in the middle of the freezing St. Petersburg winter. Attempting to seek aid in recovering it, he solicits a high-ranking and well-connected official, but the man brushes him off, offended that someone of Akaky\u2019s rank would appeal to him for help. \u201cDo you know who you are talking to?\u201d he scolds the hapless copyist. \u201cDo you understand who is standing in front of you?\u201d In the logic of the Table of Ranks, the official\u2019s language is not condescension; it is a respect for procedure. Akaky is the one at fault for failing to follow protocol, to work through proper channels, to recognize the order of things. Akaky eventually dies after catching cold, but he gets his revenge in the afterlife: Soon after he passes away, rumors begin circulating around the capital about a ghost who wanders the city pulling coats off people\u2019s backs \u201cwithout distinguishing rank and title.\u201d\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022wpsdc-drop-cap\u0022\u003ED\u003C\/span\u003Espite the importance of the Table of Ranks to his stories, Gogol\u2019s use of the system has always been odd and inconsistent. He offers such acute and exacting renderings of how obsessed his characters are with where they fall in the system, yet he plays fast and loose when it comes to depicting the ranks themselves accurately. As Reyfman notes, the title of titular councillor would have been unlikely for someone like Akaky Akakievich to hold: \u201cAkaky\u2019s service abilities are so obviously deficient that his having this rank is simply not plausible.\u201d She identifies a similar issue in \u201cThe Nose,\u201d the story of a vainglorious collegiate assessor named Kovalev who wakes up one morning to discover that his nose has disappeared. Kovalev watches in shock as his nose steps out of a carriage wearing \u201ca uniform with gold embroidery and with a large stand-up collar,\u201d as well as a plumed hat that suggests to Kovalev the rank of state councillor. But Reyfman says this makes no sense: The uniforms of state councillors did not have plumes. This error may seem like minutia to us, considering the greater strangeness of the story, but as Reyfman notes, it would have been instantly identifiable to Gogol\u2019s contemporaries.\n\u003Cp\u003EGogol\u2019s precise motivation for creating this messiness is impossible to know, but one recalls how his earlier works, saturated with humorously overblown stereotypes about Ukrainian life, were perceived by his readers as faithful representations. It must have been intoxicating on some level to know how easily reality could be supplanted by a fictional account of it, especially for a writer like Gogol, who felt so at odds with the world around him. Perhaps this is why he chose to do the same when it came to the bureaucratic elites in Russia. Through his tiny mistakes\u2014misplaced plumes and miscategorized clerks\u2014Gogol not only created a fictional world of his own but also mapped the unstable hierarchy and shaky ground of the actual one.\n\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/section\u003E\n\n\u003Csection class=\u0022aside-wrap\u0022\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\n\u003Cfooter class=\u0022article-footer narrow new-article-footer\u0022 id=\u0022article-footer-381553\u0022 data-nosnippet\u003E\n\n\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022footer-module narrow author-bio\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\n\t\t\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/jennifer-wilson\/\u0022\u003E Jennifer Wilson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003EJennifer Wilson is a contributing writer for \u003Cem\u003EThe Nation\u003C\/em\u003E. Her work has also appeared in \u003Cem\u003EThe New York Times\u003C\/em\u003E, \u003Cem\u003EThe New Republic\u003C\/em\u003E, \u003Cem\u003EThe New Yorker\u003C\/em\u003E, and elsewhere.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\t\t\n\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022footer-module narrow contact-us\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cp\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo submit a correction for our consideration, click \u003Ca target=\u0022_blank\u0022 href=\u0022\/corrections?title=Gogol%26%238217%3Bs+Bullshit+Jobs&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenation.com%2Farticle%2Fculture%2Fgogol-nose-other-stories%2F\u0022\u003Ehere.\u003C\/a\u003E\t\t\t\t\t\u003C\/p\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cp\u003EFor Reprints and Permissions, click \u003Ca target=\u0022_blank\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/www.thenationreprints.com\/services\/reprints\/\u0022\u003Ehere.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003C\/div\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003Cdiv class=\u0022footer-module comments\u0022\u003E\n\t\t\t\t\u003Ca 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