Russia Never Renounced its rights and the Soviet Government never gave anyone its authorization to dispose of territories discovered by Russian seamen.” These words were uttered during the 1949 meeting of the All-Union Geographic Society of the USSR by its president, L. S. Berg, a prominent geographer and historian of Russian discoveries in the Pacific. He spoke in connection with the extensive claims to the Antarctic which were voiced at that meeting and which were based on the explorations and discoveries of the Russian Bellingshausen expedition of 1819–1821.

It seems to have become the fashion in the USSR to claim for its own citizens of present and bygone days more and more of the inventions and discoveries of Western civilization. Meant chiefly for home consumption, such claims probably are not very important or dangerous to the non-Soviet world, except as they point toward a systematic building up of a national superiority complex and consequent aggressiveness.

At the Close of 1918, after the end of hostilities and the disarmament of the German and Austrian troops, the economic and social conditions of Poland were highly upset. In November, 1918, only the Dąbrowa coal basin employed more workers than before the war. The metal and textile industries sank to a very low level and were almost at a standstill because of lack of raw materials and the removal of machinery to Germany. With the cessation of hostilities many industries were suddenly closed down, throwing huge masses of unemployed and discontented workers on the market. On the other hand, agriculture, although it suffered bitterly both from lack of machinery and fertilizers, was relatively better off and its production did not suffer as much as that of industry. Owing to the favorable prices on one hand, and devaluation of the currency on the other, it was able to reduce its debts and mortgages. The high prices of food products made agriculture a relatively good business. Inflation sent the prices sky-high, especially for food. Profiteering and black market were rampant.

It was my lot to work as a lawyer in the Ukraine in 1943. The year might be characterized as falling within the “second phase” of the war with Germany, for the majority of the population had become bitterly hostile to the occupiers. When the Germans crossed the frontiers, many Ukrainians hoped that the German armies would become “liberators” from the bolshevist system, for the Bolshevik dictatorship's social and economic policy had led many citizens of the Ukraine to adopt a defeatist attitude. The population was quickly disillusioned by German conduct during the first phase of the war. Even the man in the street saw clearly that the occupied provinces were the first to suffer the intolerable exploitation of the German military machine.

In the parish register of one of Moscow's churches the entry was made of the death, on February 21, 1852 (March 4, new style), of retired collegiate assessor Nikolaj Vasiljevič Gogol, aged fortythree.

Collegiate assessor Gogol outranked the hero of “The Overcoat,” Akakij Akakievič Bašmačkin, a mere titular councilor. Titular councilor was a rank of the ninth class; collegiate assessors ranked one class above.

“The Overcoat” is traditionally associated with a story which, according to the reminiscences of Gogol's friend Annenkov, was once told in his presence: the story of a poor government clerk who after months of privation and overtime work, saved enough money on his meager salary to buy a shotgun, which he lost, however, the very first time he went hunting with the weapon. Unlike “The Overcoat,” the story had a happy ending: a new gun was offered by his colleagues to the luckless Nimrod who lay in bed, sick with grief.