Мёртвые души (Scripted, Russian)
Genres: Drama, Comedy, History
Status: Ended
Premiered: 1984-11-19
Ended: 1984-11-23
Network: ЦТ СССР
Country: RU
Runtime: 78 minutes
In the Russian Empire, before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, 
landowners were entitled to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for
 most purposes considered the property of the landowner, and could be 
bought, sold or mortgaged, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and 
people in general), the measure word "soul" was used: e.g., "six souls 
of serfs". The plot of the novel relies on "dead souls" (i.e., "dead 
serfs") which are still accounted for in property registers. On another 
level, the title refers to the "dead souls" of Gogol's characters, all 
of which visualise different aspects of poshlost (an untranslatable 
Russian word which is perhaps best rendered as "self-satisfied 
inferiority", moral and spiritual, with overtones of middle-class 
pretentiousness, fake significance and philistinism).