About the book: year / "...Pavel Ivanovich carefully studied the city map to see how best to get to the city hall, but, oddly enough, he took the district way. On the way, he noted with satisfaction what he expected to see: on the side, “not the main” streets, the asphalt was all broken, full of holes and potholes, the lamps were skewed, and in some there were no lamps, new cottages behind three-meter fences were adjacent to the old ones shacks, and it was clear that the owners did not have money to patch up the roof. “Eh, Mother Rus',” Chichikov sighed somehow habitually, and abruptly, with style, slowed down near the city hall building...»