𝓝𝓲𝓴𝓸𝓵𝓪𝓲 𝓥𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓵𝔂𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓬𝓱 𝓖𝓸𝓰𝓸𝓵~

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (April 1, 1809 – March 4, 1852) was a classic of Russian literature, writer, playwright, publicist, and critic. Gogol's most famous works are the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and the poem Dead Souls.

He was born in the village of Sorochintsy (Ukraine) into a landowner's family. He studied at the Poltava School, and in 1821 he entered the Higher Sciences Gymnasium, where he studied justice. Even in his school years, the future writer fell in love with the theater: he played in almost every theatrical production at the school.

In 1828, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg. There he worked as an official, played in the theater, and began to engage in literature. Nikolai Vasilyevich's first published story, "Bisavryuk," was later reworked into "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala." It was this story that brought fame to the writer.

"Fear is more persistent than the plague."

"By teaching others, you also learn."

"The source of poetry is beauty."

"There are no bonds more sacred than camaraderie."

"Be patient, Cossack, and you will become an ataman."

"The mayor is as stupid as a grey gelding."

"You have to be honest with your words."

"Never brag about the future."

"Damn you, steppes, how good you are."

"And what Russian doesn't like driving fast?"

"He who is already a fist cannot straighten into a palm."

"Youth is happy because it has a future."

"Even he who fears nothing fears ridicule."

"A writer has only one teacher: the readers themselves."

Nikolai Gogol was born in the village of Sorochintsy in the Poltava Governorate, which was then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, was a collegiate assessor and worked at the post office, but in 1805 he retired, married, and began to run a household. Soon he became friends with former minister Dmitry Troshchinsky, who lived in a neighboring village. Together they created a home theater. Gogol-Yanovsky himself wrote comedies for performances in the Ukrainian language, and took the plots from folk tales. Maria Kosyarovskaya married him at the age of 14 and devoted herself to her family. She recalled: “I did not go to any gatherings or balls, finding all the happiness in my family; we could not be separated from each other for a single day, and when he went to the field in a small droshky to do his farm work, he always took me with him.” Nikolai Gogol was the third child in the family; his first two sons were stillborn. The future writer was named after Saint Nicholas: shortly before giving birth, his mother prayed to him. Later, eight more children were born into the family, but only his daughters Maria, Anna, Elizaveta, and Olga survived. Gogol spent a lot of time with his sisters and even did needlework with them: he cut curtains and dresses, embroidered, and knitted scarves. Olga recalled: "He went to grandma and asked for wool, like garus, to weave a belt: he wove belts on a comb." He became interested in writing early on. His father took him to the fields and gave him themes for poetic improvisations along the way: "steppe," "sun," "heaven." At the age of five, Gogol began to write down his own works. His mother was superstitious and in the evenings often told the children stories about wood goblins, house spirits, and evil spirits. When Gogol was ten years old, his parents brought him to Poltava, to one of the teachers at the local gymnasium. The future writer lived in the teacher's house and prepared for entering the boarding school: he studied arithmetic, read history books, and worked with maps.

In 1821, Nikolai Gogol entered the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences. He was not diligent: he was often distracted during lessons and studied only before exams. His Latin teacher Ivan Kulzhinsky recalled: "He studied with me for three years and learned nothing... During lectures, Gogol would always keep a book under the bench and read." The future writer's favorite subjects were drawing and Russian literature. He admired Alexander Pushkin. When the first chapters of Eugene Onegin were published in 1825, Gogol reread them so many times that he learned them by heart. He also composed his own works. He published his works - the poem "The Robbers" and the story "The Tverdislavichi Brothers" - in his own handwritten magazine "Zvezda". Nikolai Gogol created a theater in the gymnasium. He chose the plays, assigned roles and painted the scenery. The students became actors, and they brought whatever they could to the "theater wardrobe". One of the most popular plays was "The Minor" by Fonvizin - Gogol played Mrs. Prostakova. The writer's fellow student Timofey Pashchenko recalled: "We all thought then that Gogol would go on stage, because he had enormous talent and all the data for acting on stage." In 1825, Gogol's father died. The high school student took the loss very hard. His mother recalled: "I could not write to the children about our misfortune and asked the director in Nizhyn in writing to prepare my son for such a blow; he was in such grief that he wanted to throw himself out of the window from the top floor." After his father's death, problems with money began: his mother did not know how to manage the household. Then Gogol first offered to sell the forest, which belonged to him according to the will, and then completely refused the inheritance in favor of his sisters. In 1827, Gogol wrote the poem "Ganz Küchelgarten" about a young man who rejected love for the sake of his dream of Greece. A year later, the writer graduated from the Nizhyn gymnasium and decided to go to St. Petersburg.

In December 1828, Nikolai Gogol came to St. Petersburg to get a job. He recalled: “St. Petersburg seemed completely different to me than I thought, I imagined it much more beautiful, more magnificent. <…> Living here is not quite like a pig, that is, having cabbage soup and porridge once a day is incomparably more expensive than we thought. <…> This makes me live as if in a desert. I am forced to give up my best pleasure - to see the theater.” The writer could not find work: either they did not want to accept a graduate of the Nezhin Gymnasium, or they offered too small a salary. In 1829, Gogol wrote the poem "Italy" and sent it to the magazine "Son of the Fatherland" without a signature. The work was published, and this gave the writer confidence. He decided to print his school poem "Ganz Kuchelgarten" under the pseudonym V. Alov. However, this time the book did not sell: the work was criticized for its naivety and lack of composition. Then Nikolai Gogol bought the entire print run from booksellers and burned it. After the failure, he tried to become an actor and auditioned for the director of the Imperial Theaters, Sergei Gagarin. But the writer was not hired. Gogol recalled: "Thoughts pile up like clouds, one on top of the other, not giving each other room. <…> I met nothing but failures everywhere, and - what is strangest of all - where they were completely unexpected. <…> What a terrible punishment! There was nothing in the world more poisonous and cruel to me." In the summer of 1829, he went on a trip to Germany. In the fall of 1829, Nikolai Gogol returned to St. Petersburg. He was short of money, and he got a job as an assistant to the head of the department of appanages. The writer was a collegiate assessor - the most junior rank in the Table of Ranks. Gogol wrote to his mother: "After endless searches, I finally managed to find a place, however, a very unenviable one. But what can I do?" The writer received complaints, stitched documents and carried out minor assignments for his superiors, and in his free time he wrote stories about Ukrainian life.

Gogol turned to his mother for help: "Please describe to me the morals, customs, beliefs... what kind of dresses the centurions, their wives, the thousanders, and they themselves wore in their time, what materials were known in their time, and everything in the most detailed detail." In 1830, the writer published the story "Bisavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" in the journal "Otechestvennye Zapiski." The text was very different from the original: the publisher Pavel Svinyin edited the work to his taste. Gradually, Gogol wrote more and more for magazines. In 1831, the Literary Gazette published the articles "A Few Thoughts on Teaching Geography to Children" and "Woman", and the almanac "Northern Flowers" published chapters of the historical novel "Hetman". The owner of both publications was Anton Delvig. The poet introduced the young author to literary circles and introduced him to Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnev. The writers helped Nikolai Gogol find a new job: he became a teacher at the Women's Patriotic Institute, and on weekends he gave private lessons to the children of noblemen. At the same time, the writer worked on a series of stories about Ukraine.

In 1831, Gogol's book "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" was published, which included four stories: "Sorochintsy Fair", the previously published "Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala", "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden" and "The Lost Letter". The action of the book took place in the author's homeland, in the Mirgorod district of the Poltava province. The heroes were residents of a Ukrainian village, and the plot mixed everyday life with mystical motifs that were popular among the villagers. The collection immediately became popular and received good reviews from readers: the author was praised by poets Alexander Pushkin, Yevgeny Baratynsky, Ivan Kireevsky and many others. Baratynsky wrote: "We have never had an author with such cheerfulness, in our north it is a great rarity ... <...> His style is lively, original, full of colors and often taste." Already in 1832, Gogol published the second volume of Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. It included four more stories: The Night Before Christmas, Terrible Vengeance, Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt, and The Enchanted Place. The new book repeated its success. Gogol was invited to all literary evenings, and he often saw Alexander Pushkin. In the summer of 1832, the writer decided to visit his relatives and on the way he visited Moscow for the first time, where he met publicists Sergei Aksakov and Mikhail Pogodin, and actor Mikhail Shchepkin. From home, Gogol wrote: “I arrived at the estate in complete disarray. There were many unpaid debts. They pester from all sides, and now it is completely impossible to pay." In 1834, the writer was offered a position as an adjunct professor at the Department of General History at St. Petersburg University. Nikolai Gogol agreed. During the day, he lectured on the Middle Ages and the period of the Great Migration of Peoples, and in the evening, he studied the history of Ukrainian peasant-Cossack uprisings. He wrote all his free time. In 1835, another collection of Gogol's works was published under the title "Arabesques", which united works of different genres.

One of the most popular articles in the book was "A Few Words about Pushkin." In it, Gogol analyzed his work and called Pushkin the first Russian national poet. Gogol's first St. Petersburg stories were also published in "Arabesques": "The Portrait," "Notes of a Madman," and "Nevsky Prospect." The collection also included articles on historical topics: "A View of the Formation of Little Russia," "On the Teaching of General History," "Al Mamun," and others. A month after the collection "Arabesques", Gogol published another book - "Mirgorod". It was a continuation of "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka": the writer used elements of Ukrainian folklore, and the action itself took place in Zaporozhye. "Mirgorod" included the stories "Old-World Landowners", "Taras Bulba", "Viy" and "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich". While working on his works, Gogol used his scientific developments. Thus, "Taras Bulba" was based on material about the peasant uprising of 1637-1638, and the prototype of the main character was the ataman Okhrim Makukha. The entire print run of the collections "Arabesques" and "Mirgorod" was quickly sold out. Critic Vissarion Belinsky wrote: “His talent is not declining, but gradually rising. <…> The new works of Mr. Gogol’s playful and original fantasy are among the most extraordinary phenomena in our literature and fully deserve the praise that the delighted public heaps on them.” In 1835, Nikolai Gogol began writing Dead Souls. The plot of the work was suggested by Pushkin: during his exile in Kishinev, he was told about a landowner who passed off the dead as fugitives. A few months later, Gogol was already reading the first chapters of the work to the poet. From the book Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends: “Pushkin, who always laughed when I read (he was a lover of laughter), gradually began to become gloomier and gloomier, and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over, he said in a voice of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is!”

In the autumn of 1835, Nikolai Gogol left the university. He decided to take up literature professionally and try to write a play. The writer wrote to Pushkin: “Please, give me some kind of plot, at least some funny or not funny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand trembles to write a comedy… My spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear, much funnier than the devil! For God's sake, my mind and stomach are both starving.” The poet told Gogol a story about a gentleman who pretended to be a high-ranking official. It formed the basis for the comedy “The Government Inspector”. According to the plot, the collegiate registrar Khlestakov lost money at cards and accidentally ended up in a district town. The mayor, the superintendent of schools, the postmaster, the judge and many other employees mistook him for an inspector. They tried to hide the real state of affairs and gave Khlestakov bribes. In 1836, Gogol finished the comedy and read it at Vasily Zhukovsky’s. Among the audience were Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Ivan Turgenev and others. The writer was advised to definitely stage the play at the theater. However, it was only with Zhukovsky’s patronage that he was able to obtain permission to perform: the comedy did not pass censorship, and the poet had to personally persuade the emperor. A few months later, Gogol began rehearsals at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. He drew diagrams of the actors’ placement on stage, gave recommendations to the director and costume designers. Emperor Nicholas I came to the premiere of the comedy in May 1836 with his heir Alexander. The sovereign liked the production so much that he ordered that the ministers attend it without fail. The Government Inspector caused a mixed reaction from the audience. Gogol recalled: “Everyone is against me. The elderly and respectable officials shout that nothing is sacred to me when I dared to speak thus about the civil servants; the police are against me; the merchants are against me; the writers are against me. They scold and go to the play; for the fourth performance it is impossible to get tickets.

At the same time, the first issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published by Pushkin. The issue featured Nikolai Gogol's story "The Nose" about an official who lost his nose one morning, and with it the chance to get promoted. The work "The Carriage" was also published here. According to the plot, in the evening, the landowner Chertokutsky praised the carriage and promised to sell it to the general, and in the morning he hid from the buyer out of shame: the carriage turned out to be "the most unsightly".

Soon after the premiere of The Government Inspector, Gogol urgently left for Germany. He explained his trip this way: “After various worries, annoyances and other things, my thoughts are so scattered that I am unable to collect them into order and harmony. <…> I go abroad, there I unwind the melancholy that my compatriots inflict on me every day. <…> Bring two or three rogues onto the stage - a thousand honest people get angry, say: “We are not rogues.” He visited Switzerland, then moved to Paris. There Gogol continued writing the novel Dead Souls, for which the author did not have enough time in St. Petersburg. Pushkin died in February 1837. The writer took the poet’s death very hard. Colonel Andrei Karamzin wrote: “It is touching and sad to see how the news of Pushkin’s death affected this man. He has not been himself at all since then. He abandoned what he was writing and thought longingly about returning to Petersburg, which had become empty for him." However, instead of Russia, Gogol went to Italy. There, in 1841, he finished the first volume of the novel Dead Souls and, in order to publish the work, returned to Moscow a few months later. The writer settled in the house of the historian Mikhail Pogodin. The censorship allowed Dead Souls to be published in the spring of 1842. Gogol designed the cover for the publication himself. The story of Chichikov, who traveled around Russia and bought papers from landowners on deceased peasants, evoked different responses from readers. Nikolai Gogol's friend Sergei Aksakov recalled: "All the listeners were completely delighted, but there were people who hated Gogol ... For example, I myself heard the famous Count Tolstoy the American say ... that he was "an enemy of Russia and that he should be sent in chains to Siberia." In total, Gogol planned to write three volumes of Dead Souls. The writer was guided by Dante Alighieri's idea: Chichikov, like the hero of the Divine Comedy, had to change during his travels and reconsider his concepts of morality.

In 1842, another work by Gogol was published – the story “The Overcoat”. The action took place in St. Petersburg. A minor official, Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, spent all day rewriting papers for a small salary. One day, his overcoat was torn, and the employee began to save up for a new one: he stopped drinking tea, and wore a dressing gown at home so as not to wear out his other clothes. However, when he finally saved up and bought a new overcoat, “some people with moustaches” took it away on the street. In June 1842, Gogol went abroad again. Rome, Dusseldorf, Nice, Paris – the writer moved often. At this time, he was working on the second volume of Dead Souls. Gogol wrote: “Criticism itself must now repay me for everything that I have lost through it. And I have lost a great deal; for the liveliness and lively fire that were in me before I knew a single rule of art have not come to me for several years.” In 1845, Gogol had a spiritual crisis. In a fit of rage, he burned the second volume of Dead Souls and all his manuscripts. He practically stopped writing to his friends, and in 1848 he went to Jerusalem. Gogol recalled: “Never before have I been so dissatisfied with the state of my heart as in Jerusalem and after Jerusalem. It was as if I was at the Holy Sepulcher in order to feel there on the spot how much coldness of heart there is in me, how much self-love and vanity.” In 1849, the writer returned to Russia and began to restore the lost volume of Dead Souls from memory. However, he soon began to complain of fits of melancholy. In January 1852, Gogol's old acquaintance, Ekaterina Khomyakova, died. The writer stopped eating, confessed to his confessor that he was "seized by the fear of death," and stopped writing. On the night of February 11-12 of that year, Nikolai Gogol burned all of his manuscripts, including the almost restored version of Dead Souls. He did not leave his house for the last few days. On February 21, 1852, the writer died. He was buried at the Danilovskoye Cemetery in Moscow. In 1931, Gogol's grave was opened and his remains were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery.

1. The writer's real surname was Gogol-Yanovsky. However, the writer did not like that it was long, so he dropped the second part and asked to be called only Gogol. The poet Nestor Kukolnik recalled: "Once, already in St. Petersburg, one of my comrades asked Gogol in my presence: "Why did you change your surname?" - "I never thought about it." - "But you're Yanovsky." - "And Gogol too." - "What does Gogol mean?" - "Drake," Gogol answered dryly and turned the conversation to another subject."
2. Gogol's mother considered her son a genius and attributed to him the invention of the steam engine, the railway and other technical innovations of that time.
3. Students considered Nikolai Gogol a lousy history teacher. He often missed classes or could only cover the material for half an hour instead of two. Writer Nikolai Ivanitsky recalled: "Gogol's lectures were very dry and boring: not a single event prompted him to have a lively and animated conversation. He looked at past centuries and obsolete tribes with some kind of sleepy eyes."
4. Nikolai Gogol was always in debt. Despite the success of his works, the writer did not receive large royalties. He wrote to Pushkin: "Booksellers are such people that you can hang them from the first tree without any conscience."
5. The writer carried the Gospel with him everywhere. Gogol wrote: “You can’t think of anything higher than what is already in the Gospel. How many times has humanity already recoiled from it and how many times has it turned to it.” In addition, he read a chapter from the Old Testament every day.