I worked somehow in the Russian State Historical Archive with documents of the Third Branch of the time of Nicholas I. This most secret police prepared for the Emperor a summary of events every week. I must say that crimes in the Russian Empire were fewer than in one day in any provincial Russian city today. There was a lot of fun. Some places the Highest Hand has placed untrustworthy notes "Is it true?"... I was most impressed by one message. Somehow it characterizes both the era and the country... The date is 1846. The text is this:
Chernigov County landlord Komar a hundred and twenty-year-old peasant
Astapov, bored with life, drowned"