In Russian, шигалевщина (shigalyovshchina), "Shigalyovism" (our translation), is the name Pyotr gives to Shigalyov's system, with the suffix -щина, which turns a surname into a doctrine and, in passing, belittles it. In Virginsky's room he calls it a novel, a provincial pastime; in the street he praises the system as a work of genius and sums it up: Cicero has his tongue cut out, Copernicus has his eyes put out, Shakespeare is stoned.
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