concept
Forgery and embezzlement (podlog i rastrata)
forgery and embezzlement
also: подлог и растрата, podlog, rastrata
The paired charges -- forgery (falsification of financial documents or accounts) and embezzlement (misappropriation of entrusted funds) -- of which the narrator, a former bank bookkeeper, was convicted, the white-collar offense underlying his sentence of administrative exile to Siberia.
Reading notes
- Whining (A Letter from Far Away) §3 convicted of forgery and embezzlement
Podlog (forgery, here of financial documents or accounts) and rastrata (embezzlement of entrusted funds) were the standard paired charges against a bank or estate bookkeeper who falsified records to conceal theft -- white-collar crimes distinct from violent or property offenses, and punished under the Russian Empire's penal code typically with loss of rights and administrative exile rather than the heaviest katorga terms.