Everyone always lies to everyone

where MOSCOW, STATE TAX SERVICE OF THE RF
to whom FEDOROV
BORIS GRIGORIEVICH
from KABAKOV
ALEXANDER ABRAMOVICH

Dear Boris Grigorievich!
I apologize in advance for my frankness, which is not at all accepted here (and, in general, anywhere) when it comes to taxes. This is such a topic - like diseases transmitted in a known way: both embarrassing and a dangerous subject.
A thousand of the richest, ten thousand, as you already promised, then a hundred thousand... I don’t understand anything. How do you know that they are the richest? From their own declarations? So maybe they are not the richest, but the most honest? Or do you know for sure that the declarations are fake? Who doesn't have fake ones? Who will be the "beacon" in this campaign? Believe me, I worked in the Soviet press for many years, I know how struggle campaigns are organized. The first step is to find (or come up with) a positive example. The leader must declare: I was a drinker, six times taken to the sobering-up station in a year, now I quit myself and challenge others to a competition to see who can throw the hardest with a decent snack... Where is your Stakhanov, where is Gaganova, who paid her taxes and taxes for a comrade? Why has not a single person been named yet (and it is not necessary to name his income; the bandits have long since found out at the State Statistics Committee) who paid everything down to the last penny? Let him not be the richest, but he really is the most honest, which you will certify with the full authority of the tax service.
And it would be nice, by the way, for it to be some kind of statesman, or at least one of your fellow ministers. Moreover, they are generally obliged to make their declarations public. So you can confirm: such and such a declaration has been verified by us and corresponds to reality down to a single denominated ruble. Just choose carefully so that he won’t be arrested in a week. Because, you see, you don’t want to pay taxes on the maintenance of people who, during a search, find one and a half million American money. And even if I myself am dishonest, why would I give my money to others, the same, only in office?
Our individuals, according to my observations, have three main expressions.
Some, who have earned decently for an apartment with a dacha and an almost new 300, but not enough to qualify for the Security Council or the State Council, already pay taxes. They feel calmer this way, because with their capabilities they will not be able to avoid future troubles.
Others, who have not earned even that much, do not pay taxes because they believe - and rightly, in my opinion - that they have nothing to do with it. The Soviet government gave them an apartment, with which they paid off at the same time, they have a car, a “kopeck” from 1981, even if they take it away for taxes, they won’t be able to have one, and a garden plot of six acres with a utility block is so far away that no inspection will arrive. They don’t pay well with theirs, if it’s only about a month, which is just enough to buy a newspaper and read about the formation of the middle class. And they won’t pay - no one knows their names anyway and won’t include them in any thousand.
Still others don’t pay either, because they have nothing. A dozen hectares of forest along Rublyovka with a palace in the middle belong to the bank, and he lives there temporarily, since there is no apartment, and the police are chasing him from the train stations. The “600th”, a replacement “Jaguar” and three security jeeps belong to a subsidiary company, these are official vehicles, all expenses for gasoline are documented. There is no account in Switzerland, and the one in the Cayman Islands is nothing more than a rumor, an unprovable slander. What is there? Well, the gold Breguet, which was a gift from a colleague, can be paid for... That's all, actually.
These last ones, by the way, are not only known by the whole country, but you also know most of them personally, but what can you take from them, from the poor?
Yes, there is still one category of people, although quite physical, but quite attractive: pop stars. They don’t have banks or companies to list their property; their money is all in plain sight—in limousines and sofas for posing on television; You can take it from them. Your predecessor was about to get ready, but then he learned so much about “black cash” for clips and TV shows that he seemed to be somewhat taken aback. And then: it is not clear who to imprison, either the star with a personalized plane, or all state television channels.
So it turns out that, as you know, only one out of five submits declarations.
And one thing remains: to create a Cheka, a special department, SMERSH and just start taking money. So, they say, and so, the country is in disaster, citizens, hand over your currency. Your predecessors on the emergency commissions did just that, quite frankly. Perhaps it makes sense for you to think about this if you really want to replenish your budget and not play with the legality. Gather our unfortunate oligarchs, if we manage to find out who they are, and say frankly: brothers, we need money. Like, I won’t understand your real income, since it’s impossible, and there’s no time to prove that the holding’s reception house and the CJSC’s recreation area are nothing more than the palace and villa of the owner, but chip in a million for the state’s gaps and go in peace; Otherwise I’ll publish the addresses in Kemerovo and Rostov newspapers... Lawless, of course, but fair.
Everyone lies to everyone. The agitated president either promises to tear off some heads, or asks tearfully: good physical people, give it to poverty, have pity on state employees... Our crisis itself is not local, but Asian, give it to the government and the prime minister... Everyone answers with lies. Yes, we understand why the state is getting rich, and why it doesn’t need a damn thing when it gets its own from individuals, say those same individuals who could close the budget with five or seven of them. But believe me, they continue to have nothing, we can barely make ends meet ourselves, we had nothing to wear to the last stock auction... And you, Boris Grigorievich, stand your ground - stop just dragging on with legal issues, let’s do it like everyone else in the world , collect from citizens. It's like we're all over the world. It’s as if we have already abolished benefits for all raw material exporters, and bribes have ceased to be the main source of income for those to whom they are given.
Everyone lies to everyone all the time. Remember how they used to joke in the old days? They pretend that they pay us, we pretend that we work for them. Now everything is the same, only in reverse: we pretend that we are paying you, you pretend that you are working on it.
Sorry that it had that effect.

Alexander Kabakov

Magazine "Kommersant Vlast" No. 22 dated June 16, 1998, p. 37

Authors:

Alexander Kabakov