MOSCOW -- With varying degrees of enthusiasm - and, often, no enthusiasm at all - Russia has long wrestled with the business of bribery, in which citizens are compelled to fork over payments for everything from admission to "free" public universities to lucrative commercial contracts.
In Peter the Great's day, the harshest penalty for pocketing money was death. The czar might give a corrupt bureaucrat a second chance but certainly not a third - ordering him hanged for the transgression instead.
The newest tool in the fight against corruption: a 16-page booklet called "If You're Asked For A Bribe."
The booklet is designed to help Russians know what to do the next time an official demands a bribe, which, surveys say and practice shows, will probably be soon enough.
The culture of bribery here is so entrenched and widely accepted that many believe there is only one thing to do: pay it. It is not uncommon to keep a few hundred rubles tucked in the back of one's billfold for that purpose.
Bribes are paid for medical care, to get out of military service, to obtain a driver's license, to win a favorable court decision, to fast-track a business license, to secure a seat in government, to shuttle items through customs - in short, for most everything.
"By giving bribes, we support corruption and it should be stopped," said Andrei Przhezdomsky, a member of the Public Chamber, the government advisory group that unveiled the booklet recently. "This vicious circle should be broken somehow."
President Vladimir V. Putin has repeatedly declared the same thing, in stronger terms. But even as he has vowed to make the fight against corruption an administration priority, surveys have found that graft has worsened on his watch.
According to a report by the Indem Foundation, a nongovernment group that fights corruption, individuals and businesses spent $319 billion on bribes last year, 10 times more than four years earlier; the average business bribe, the study said, has jumped to $135,800 from $10,200 in 2001.
In June, Sen. Levon Chakhmakhchyan was expelled from the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, after federal security agents said they caught him with $300,000 in marked bills from an airline company executive, a down payment in what was reported to be a $1.5 million bribe.
The new booklet starts with the basics. The section called "What is a Bribe?" notes that while bribes often come in the form of a demand for cash, they don't always: They can include payment such as cars or summer cottages.
