In 1917 the Russian revolution was unleashed violence engulfed mother Russia and stained the rest of the continent red. But whatever changes it wrought it changed little in the Russian soul itself. the people under the Russian Tsar were very like the people today. As Gogol himself said, "all the civil servants can talk about is their government office." Everything seems to have been crushed under a great weight. Everyone is drowned by the trivial meaningless labours at which he must spend his useless life. This is a story of that old Russia.