“Who are the judges?”

And who are the judges? - For the antiquity of years

To a free life their enmity is irreconcilable,

Judgments draw from forgotten newspapers

The times of the Ochakovskys and the conquest of the Crimea;

Always ready to churn

They all sing the same song

Without noticing about yourself:

What is older is worse.

Where, show us, fathers of the fatherland,

Which should we take as samples?

Are not these rich in robbery?

They found protection from court in friends, in kinship,

Magnificent building chambers,

Where they overflow in feasts and extravagance,

And where foreign clients will not resurrect

The meanest traits of a past life

A. Griboyedov, "Woe from Wit", 1824