Who coined the expression about Russia's two woes – fools and roads?

"The roads were crawling in all directions, like caught crayfish when they're emptied from a sack," one of Nikolai Gogol’s characters wryly observes in ‘Dead Souls’. In the same novel, he also took a dig at fools: "Man is generous with the word 'fool' and ready to serve his neighbor 20 times a day with it." Other Russian classics also spoke of these two eternal woes. "Now, our roads are bad, our forgotten bridges are rotting," lamented Alexander Pushkin in ‘Eugene Onegin’. Nikolai Nekrasov, meanwhile, was indignant: "We won't reduce the number of fools in Russia, but we'll bring melancholy upon the intelligent." Even Nicholas I, who preferred fast travel on leisurely journeys, said something similar: "Distance is the scourge of Russia!" Alexander I, who called himself a "carriage dweller", also lamented the roads: "Russia is already too vast: the great distances between provinces slow down communication. These conditions hinder the strengthening of the general order, which suffers greatly from them."

But, none of them combined the two woes into a single phrase. The problem is that it was first uttered only in the late 1980s. Researchers believe it was coined by satirical writer Mikhail Zadornov. "Gogol wrote: 'In Russia, there are two troubles: roads and fools.' This is the enviable consistency we maintain to this day," he noted in one of his monologues. Zadornov apparently used the reference to the author of ‘Dead Souls’ and ‘The Government Inspector’ to avoid censorship. Surprisingly, no one bothered to verify the quote's authenticity. The phrase itself immediately became popular and is still used today to highlight these issues.