Dead Souls is a novel which explored the flaws and faults of Russian character and exposed the political corruption in Russian empire of 18th century. It is one of the masterpieces of Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol, who was exiled after publishing this novel.

Serfs are a kind of labors working with landlords. Government would impose tax for the serfs a landlord owns based on the infrequent census, which might lead to tax burden for serf who no longer lives, called dead souls. Paul Ivanovitch Chichikov would persuade the landlords and buy the dead souls from them by paying money. He accumulates such dead souls and takes huge loans from the government against the serf, as the death status is not known to legal officials. He went on to accumulate huge wealth by this get rich quick scheme until Prince ordered his arrest.

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