No more Kafka: Russian bureaucrats now offer service with a smile
The portrait of the average Russian with a bureaucratic boot on his throat is a theme as old as Russian literature.
From youth, Russians learn to kowtow before – and often bribe – petty clerks who enjoy the power to grant or withhold vital documents. They endure endless lineups, rude treatment, and, all too often, rejection because their papers are not complete or haven’t been submitted in the proper order. Many of Russia’s greatest writers, from Gogol to Chekhov to Bulgakov, have turned their talents to skewering the Kafkaesque bureaucracy.
This has been a verifiable, everyday truth. At least, until recently. And now Russians are rubbing their eyes in amazement at a wave of transformations that seems to have
“The state exists for the people”Why now?No more bribes neededYou’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
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