Мёртвые души: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

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).

Series details

• Title: Мёртвые души
• Format: Scripted
• Language: Russian
• Genres: Drama, Comedy, History
• Premiere date: 1984-11-19
• Final broadcast date listed: 1984-11-23
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ЦТ СССР
• Network country: Russian Federation
• Typical episode runtime: 78 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 40082
• IMDb ID: tt0168084
• TVDB ID: 260997

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1984-11-19; final listed air date 1984-11-23.

Source and licence

Adapted from Мёртвые души on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.