Chichikov’s father’s precepts

Chichikov’s father’s precepts are the formative code behind Chichikov’s adult habits of diligence, economy, and calculated self-interest. Delivered when the boy is left to attend school in a county town, the instructions join obedience to teachers with a stark lesson in social calculation: avoid spending on others, cultivate useful connections, and save every kopeck. Chichikov remembers the words long after he has forgotten much of his childhood; their enduring force lies in how he turns them into a disciplined means of pursuing comfort and wealth.

The lesson at parting

Chichikov’s father brings his son from home to stay with an elderly relative while attending a local school. Their journey lasts a day and a half in a four-wheeled carriage drawn by a sorrel horse. The streets of the county town astonish the boy, but the departure itself is emotionally restrained: his father gives him a few coppers, embraces him, and leaves without tears from either of them. The small sum is overshadowed by the advice that follows, which supplies the governing principles of the boy’s education outside the classroom.

The first principle is submission to authority. The father tells him to study well, avoid idleness, and, above all, please his teachers. He presents good conduct as a route to advancement even if the boy lacks intelligence or fails in his lessons: diligence and deference can help him surpass his fellows. The advice is practical rather than intellectual, training Chichikov to attend to the people who control opportunities and to shape his conduct accordingly.

The second principle concerns companionship. Chichikov is told not to associate too much with his schoolfellows because they will do him no good. If he does make friends, he should choose the richer boys, who may prove useful later. Friendship is framed not as reciprocal affection but as an investment in future advantage. The father also forbids the boy to treat or entertain anyone, insisting instead that others should treat him. Together these instructions teach him to conserve resources while assessing relationships for what they may yield.

The kopeck as security

The father gives thrift the strongest emphasis: Chichikov must keep and save every kopeck. Friends and comrades, he warns, can fail or desert a person in adversity, whereas money remains dependable. His sweeping conclusion is that money can accomplish anything. The maxim makes cash more than a possession: it is presented as the one reliable protection against the uncertainty of human ties and circumstance.

After the father returns home, Chichikov never sees him again. Nevertheless, the instructions sink deeply into the boy’s mind. Their lasting influence is sharpened by the contrast between the brief farewell and the father’s continuing presence as a voice in Chichikov’s decisions. The story later links the son’s restraint to the injunction to guard every kopeck, showing that the childhood advice has become a firm rule rather than a passing admonition.

From saving to ambition

Chichikov’s economy is not described as love of money for its own sake, nor as a natural delight in hoarding. He imagines what money could buy: carriages, an elegantly furnished house, and refined dinners. The dream of comfort gives the father’s injunction its purpose. Saving becomes a method of acquiring a life of visible abundance, even though Chichikov meanwhile deprives himself and others.

His response to wealth confirms the force of this aspiration. When a prosperous man passes in a splendid carriage drawn by swift, well-equipped horses, Chichikov stops to contemplate him and imagines that such a gentleman must be a financier. Wealth and plenty leave an indelible impression. The boy who has been told that a kopeck never fails him learns to read material display as evidence of success and as a model for his own future.

The precepts in adult life

The adult Chichikov’s capacity for compassion does not erase the grip of his father’s rule. When his former teacher is in need, Chichikov would be glad to help if the sum were small or if he did not have to touch the money he has decided to keep intact. The obstacle is not that he feels nothing; it is that saving has hardened into a principle that can overrule sympathy. This episode exposes the moral cost of converting prudent advice into an absolute rule.

The precepts also help explain Chichikov’s disciplined entrance into government service. After leaving school, he takes no holiday and is eager to begin work, though he has difficulty securing a government appointment and eventually obtains a minor post paying thirty or forty roubles a year. He responds with patience and economy, copying official documents from early morning until late at night, sleeping on tables in the building when necessary and eating with the watchman. The small salary and drudgery do not displace the aim: they become conditions to endure on the way toward the amenities he has imagined.

As a portrait of formation, the episode makes Chichikov’s adult acquisitiveness neither inexplicable nor merely innate. It grows from a specific paternal lesson that treats obedience as advancement, social ties as potential utility, and money as more dependable than people. The advice gives him a code of self-command, but that discipline serves private material ambition; its sharpest consequence appears when the kopeck he preserves proves more compelling than the person he might help.