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Young Gogol. Nikolai Gogol: myths and reality

Young Gogol. Nikolai Gogol: myths and reality

20.02.2019

7 facts and myths about Gogol

“I am considered a riddle for everyone,
no one can figure me out completely."

N.V. Gogol

The mystery of Gogol's life and death causes numerous disputes among literary critics, historians, psychologists, doctors and scientists. Over time, like many of his characters, he himself became a semi-fantastic figure.

1. Gogol's staircase

As a child, little Gogol listened to his grandmother's stories about the stairs along which the souls of people rise to heaven. This image was deeply deposited in the memory of the boy, Gogol carried it through his whole life. Stairs of various kinds now and then we meet on the pages of Gogol's works. Yes and last words The writer, according to eyewitnesses, was the cry "Ladder, quickly give the ladder!"

2. Love for sweets

Gogol had a sweet tooth. He could, for example, without outside help, eat a jar of jam, a mountain of gingerbread cookies and drink a whole samovar of tea in one sitting ... “He always had a supply of sweets and gingerbread in his trouser pockets, he chewed without stopping, even in classes during classes. He climbed somewhere into a corner, away from everyone, and there he was already eating his delicacy, ”his friend from the gymnasium describes Gogol. This passion for sweets remained until the end of days. In Gogol's pockets one could always find a lot of all sorts of sweets: caramels, pretzels, crackers, half-eaten pies, sugar cubes ...

Another of the curious features was the passion for rolling bread balls. The poet and translator Nikolai Berg recalled: “Gogol either walked around the room, from corner to corner, or sat and wrote, rolling balls of white bread, about which he told his friends that they help to solve the most complex and difficult problems. When he was bored at dinner, he again rolled the balls and imperceptibly tossed them into the kvass or soup of those sitting next to him ... One friend collected a whole heap of these balls and keeps them reverently ... "

3. What else did Gogol burn

The first work that turned into ashes was a poem in the spirit of the German romantic school "Hans Küchelgarten". The pseudonym V. Alov saved Gogol's name from criticism, but the author himself took the failure very hard: he bought up all unsold copies of the book in stores and burned them. Until the end of his life, the writer did not admit to anyone that Alov was his pseudonym.

On the night of February 12, 1852, an event occurred, the circumstances of which are still a mystery to biographers. Nikolai Gogol prayed until three o'clock, after which he took a briefcase, removed several papers from it, and ordered the rest to be thrown into the fire. Crossing himself, he returned to bed and wept uncontrollably. It is believed that it was the second volume of Dead Souls that he burned that night. However, later the manuscript of the second volume was found among his books. And what was burned in the fireplace is still unclear.

4. Is Gogol a homosexual?

The ascetic lifestyle that Gogol led and the writer's excessive religiosity gave rise to many fables. Contemporaries of the writer were surprised and frightened by such behavior. Of the things he had with him only a couple of removable linen and kept it all in one suitcase ... Rather unsociable, he rarely allowed himself to be around unknown women and lived a virgin all his life. Such isolation has given rise to a common myth about the writer's homosexual inclinations. A similar assumption was put forward by an American Slavist, historian of Russian literature, Professor Semyon Karlinsky, who stated in his work “The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol” about the “oppressed homosexuality” of the writer, suggesting “suppression of emotional attraction to members of the same sex” and “aversion to physical or emotional contact with women ".

According to the literary critic I.P. Zolotussky, Gogol was not indifferent to women, including A.M. Villegorskaya, to whom he made an offer in 1840, but was refused. Vladimir Nabokov also objected to the representatives of the psychoanalytic method. In his essay "Nikolai Gogol" he wrote: "The heightened sensation of the nose eventually resulted in the story "The Nose" - truly a hymn to this organ. A Freudian could argue that in the world of Gogol turned inside out, human beings are upside down and therefore another organ obviously plays the role of the nose, and vice versa, but “it’s better to completely forget about any Freudian nonsense” and many others. others

5. Was Gogol buried alive?

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died on February 21, 1852. And on February 24, 1852, he was interred in the cemetery near the Danilov Monastery. According to the will, no monument was erected to him - Golgotha towered over the grave. But 79 years later, the ashes of the writer were removed from the grave: the Danilov Monastery was transformed by the Soviet government into a colony for juvenile delinquents, and the necropolis was subject to liquidation. Only a few graves were decided to be transferred to the old cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. Among these “lucky ones”, along with Yazykov, Aksakovs and Khomyakovs, was Gogol ... The whole color of the Soviet intelligentsia was present at the reburial. Among them was the writer V. Lidin. It is to him that Gogol owes the emergence of numerous legends about himself.

One of the myths concerned the writer's lethargic sleep. According to Lidin, when the coffin was taken out of the ground and opened, those present were bewildered. In the coffin lay a skeleton with a skull turned to one side. No one has found an explanation for this. I recalled the stories that Gogol was afraid of being buried alive in a state of lethargic sleep and seven years before his death he bequeathed: “My body should not be buried until clear signs of decomposition appear. I mention this because even during the illness itself, moments of vital numbness came over me, my heart and pulse stopped beating. What they saw shocked those present. Did Gogol really have to endure the horror of such a death?

It is worth noting that in the future this story was subject to criticism. The sculptor N. Ramazanov, who took off Gogol's death mask, recalled: "I did not suddenly decide to take off the mask, but the prepared coffin ... finally, the incessantly arriving crowd of people who wanted to say goodbye to the dear deceased forced me and my old man, who pointed out the traces of destruction, to hurry ... "Found my own an explanation for the rotation of the skull: the side boards at the coffin were the first to rot, the lid falls under the weight of the soil, presses on the dead man’s head, and it turns to its side on the so-called “Atlantean” vertebra.

6. Was there a skull?

However, Lidin's violent fantasy was not limited to this episode. Followed over scary story- it turns out that when the coffin was opened, the skeleton did not have a skull at all. Where could he go? This new invention of Lidin gave rise to new hypotheses. They remembered that in 1908, when a heavy stone was installed on the grave, a brick crypt had to be erected over the coffin to strengthen the foundation. It was suggested that it was then that the writer's skull could have been stolen. It was suggested that it was stolen at the request of a Russian theater fanatic, merchant Alexei Alexandrovich Bakhrushin. It was rumored that he already had the skull of the great Russian actor Shchepkin ...

7. Gogol's head and ghost train

It is said that Gogol's head was adorned with Bakhrushin's silver laurel crown and placed in a glazed rosewood case lined with black morocco on the inside. According to the same legend, the great-nephew of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol - Yanovsky, a lieutenant of the Russian imperial fleet, having learned about this, threatened Bakhrushin and took his head off. Allegedly, the young officer wanted to take the skull to Italy (to the country that Gogol considered his second homeland), but he could not complete this mission himself and entrusted it to one Italian captain. So the head of the writer ended up in Italy. But this is not the end of this incredible story. Younger brother the captain, a student at the University of Rome, went on a pleasure train trip with a group of friends; deciding to play a prank on his friends by opening the skull box in the Channel Tunnel. They say that at the moment when the lid was opened, the train disappeared ... The legend says that the train - the ghost did not disappear forever. Allegedly, he is sometimes seen somewhere in Italy ... then in Zaporozhye ...

Yanina Korotkova

The life of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is so vast and multifaceted that historians are still researching the biography and epistolary materials of the great writer, and documentary filmmakers are making films that tell about the secrets of the mysterious genius of literature. Interest in the playwright has not faded for two hundred years, not only because of his lyrical-epic works, but also because Gogol is one of the most mystical figures in Russian literature of the 19th century.

Childhood and youth

To this day, it is not known when Nikolai Vasilyevich was born. Some chroniclers believe that Gogol was born on March 20, while others are sure that the true date of birth of the writer is April 1, 1809.

The childhood of the master of phantasmagoria passed in Ukraine, in the picturesque village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province. He grew up in a large family - in addition to him, 5 more boys and 6 girls were brought up in the house (some of them died in infancy).

The great writer has an interesting pedigree dating back to the Cossack noble dynasty of Gogol-Yanovsky. According to family legend, the grandfather of the playwright Afanasy Demyanovich Yanovsky added a second part to his surname to prove blood ties with the Cossack hetman Ostap Gogol, who lived in the 17th century.

The writer's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, worked in the Little Russian province in the post office, from where he retired in 1805 with the rank of collegiate assessor. Later, Gogol-Yanovsky retired to the Vasilievka estate (Yanovshchina) and began to farm. Vasily Afanasyevich was known as a poet, writer and playwright: he owned the home theater of his friend Troshchinsky, and also acted on the stage as an actor.

For productions, he wrote comedy plays based on Ukrainian folk ballads and legends. But before contemporary readers Only one work of Gogol Sr. came down - "The Simpleton, or the Cunning of a Woman Outwitted by a Soldier." It was from his father that Nikolai Vasilievich took over his love for literary art and creative talent: it is known that Gogol Jr. from childhood began to compose poetry. Vasily Afanasyevich died when Nikolai was 15 years old.

The writer's mother, Maria Ivanovna, nee Kosyarovskaya, according to contemporaries, was pretty and was considered the first beauty in the village. Everyone who knew her said that she was a religious person and was engaged in the spiritual education of children. However, the teachings of Gogol-Yanovskaya were not reduced to Christian rites and prayers, but to prophecies about the Last Judgment.

It is known that a woman married Gogol-Yanovsky when she was 14 years old. Nikolai Vasilyevich was close to his mother and even asked for advice on his manuscripts. Some writers believe that thanks to Maria Ivanovna, Gogol's work is endowed with fantasy and mysticism.

The childhood and youth of Nikolai Vasilievich passed in the midst of peasant and squire life and were endowed with those petty-bourgeois features that the playwright scrupulously described in his works.

When Nikolai was ten years old, he was sent to Poltava, where he studied science at the school, and then studied literacy with a local teacher Gabriel Sorochinsky. After classical training A 16-year-old boy became a student at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv region. In addition to the fact that the future classic of literature was in poor health, he was also not strong in his studies, although he had an exceptional memory. Nicholas did not get on well with the exact sciences, but he excelled in Russian literature and literature.

Some biographers argue that the gymnasium itself is to blame for such an inferior education, rather than the young writer. The fact is that in those years, weak teachers worked in the Nizhyn gymnasium, who could not organize decent education for students. For example, knowledge in the lessons of moral education was presented not through the teachings of eminent philosophers, but with the help of corporal punishment with a rod, a literature teacher did not keep pace with the times, preferring the classics of the 18th century.

During his studies, Gogol gravitated towards creativity and zealously participated in theatrical productions and impromptu skits. Among his comrades, Nikolai Vasilyevich was known as a comedian and a perky person. The writer talked with Nikolai Prokopovich, Alexander Danilevsky, Nestor Kukolnik and others.

Literature

Gogol began to take an interest in writing as early as student years. He admired A.S. Pushkin, although his first creations were far from the style of the great poet, but were more like the works of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky.

He composed elegies, feuilletons, poems, tried himself in prose and other literary genres. During his studies, he wrote a satire "Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written for fools", which has not survived to this day. It is noteworthy that the young man initially regarded the craving for creativity more as a hobby, and not a matter of his whole life.

Writing was for Gogol "a ray of light in dark kingdom” and helped to distract from mental anguish. Then the plans of Nikolai Vasilyevich were not clear, but he wanted to serve the Motherland and be useful to the people, believing that a great future awaited him.

In the winter of 1828, Gogol went to the cultural capital - Petersburg. In the cold and gloomy city of Nikolai Vasilyevich, disappointment awaited. He tried to become an official, and also tried to enter the service in the theater, but all his attempts were defeated. Only in literature could he find opportunities for earning money and self-expression.

But failure awaited Nikolai Vasilyevich in writing, since only two works by Gogol were published by magazines - the poem "Italy" and romantic poem"Ganz Kühelgarten", published under the pseudonym V. Alov. "Idyll in Pictures" received a number of negative and sarcastic reviews from critics. After the creative defeat, Gogol bought up all the editions of the poem and burned them in his room. Nikolai Vasilievich did not abandon literature even after a resounding failure; the failure with "Hanz Kuchelgarten" gave him the opportunity to change the genre.

In 1830, Gogol's mystical story "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" was published in the eminent journal Otechestvennye Zapiski.

Later, the writer meets Baron Delvig and begins to publish in his publications Literaturnaya Gazeta and Northern Flowers.

After his creative success, Gogol was warmly received in the literary circle. He began to communicate with Pushkin and. The works "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", "The Night Before Christmas", "The Enchanted Place", seasoned with a mixture of Ukrainian epic and worldly humor, made an impression on the Russian poet.

Rumor has it that it was Alexander Sergeevich who gave Nikolai Vasilyevich the background for new works. He suggested the ideas of the plots of the poem " Dead Souls"(1842) and the comedy" The Inspector General "(1836). However, P.V. Annenkov believes that Pushkin "not quite willingly gave him his property."

Fascinated by the history of Little Russia, Nikolai Vasilyevich becomes the author of the Mirgorod collection, which includes several works, including Taras Bulba. Gogol in letters to his mother Maria Ivanovna asked her to tell in more detail about the life of the people in the outback.

Frame from the film "Viy", 2014

In 1835, Gogol's story "Viy" (included in "Mirgorod") about the demonic character of the Russian epic was published. According to the story, three bursaks lost their way and came across a mysterious farm, the owner of which turned out to be a real witch. The main character Homa will have to face unprecedented creatures, church rites and a witch flying in a coffin.

In 1967, directors Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachev staged the first soviet film horror stories based on Gogol's story "Viy". The main roles were played by and.

Leonid Kuravlev and Natalya Varley in the film "Viy", 1967

In 1841, Gogol wrote the immortal story "The Overcoat". In the work, Nikolai Vasilievich talks about the "little man" Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, who is getting poorer to such an extent that the most ordinary thing becomes a source of joy and inspiration for him.

Personal life

Speaking about the personality of the author of The Inspector General, it is worth noting that from Vasily Afanasyevich, in addition to his craving for literature, he also inherited a fatal fate - psychological illness and the fear of early death, which began to manifest itself in the playwright from his youth. Publicist V.G. wrote about this. Korolenko and Dr. Bazhenov, based on Gogol's autobiographical materials and epistolary heritage.

If at times Soviet Union it was customary to keep silent about the mental disorders of Nikolai Vasilyevich, then such details are very interesting to the current erudite reader. It is believed that Gogol suffered from manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar affective personality disorder) since childhood: the young writer's cheerful and perky mood was replaced by severe depression, hypochondria and despair.

This disturbed his mind until his death. He also admitted in letters that he often heard "gloomy" voices calling him into the distance. Because of life in eternal fear, Gogol became a religious person and led a more reclusive ascetic life. He loved women, but only at a distance: he often told Maria Ivanovna that he was going abroad to live with a certain lady.

He corresponded with charming girls of different classes (with Maria Balabina, Countess Anna Vielgorskaya and others), courting them romantically and timidly. The writer did not like to advertise his personal life, especially amorous affairs. It is known that Nikolai Vasilyevich has no children. Due to the fact that the writer was not married, there is a theory about his homosexuality. Others believe that he never had a relationship that went beyond the platonic.

Death

The early death of Nikolai Vasilievich at the age of 42 still haunts the minds of scientists, historians and biographers. They compose about Gogol mystical legends, but about true reason The death of the visionary is still disputed to this day.

IN last years life of Nikolai Vasilyevich took possession creative crisis. It was associated with the early departure from the life of Khomyakov's wife and the condemnation of his stories by Archpriest Matthew Konstantinovsky, who sharply criticized Gogol's works and also believed that the writer was not pious enough. Gloomy thoughts took possession of the playwright's mind; from February 5, he refused food. On February 10, Nikolai Vasilievich "under the influence of an evil spirit" burned the manuscripts, and on the 18th, while continuing to observe Great Lent, he went to bed with sharp deterioration health.

The master of the pen refused medical care waiting for death. The doctors, who diagnosed him with inflammatory bowel disease, probable typhus and indigestion, eventually diagnosed the writer with meningitis and prescribed forced bloodletting, dangerous to his health, which only worsened Nikolai Vasilyevich's mental and physical condition. On the morning of February 21, 1852, Gogol died in the count's mansion in Moscow.

Memory

The writer's works are obligatory for studying at schools and higher educational institutions. In memory of Nikolai Vasilievich in the USSR and other countries were issued stamps. Streets named after Gogol Theatre of Drama, pedagogical institute and even a crater on the planet Mercury.

According to the creations of the master of hyperbole and the grotesque, theatrical performances are still being created and works of cinematographic art are being filmed. So, in 2017, the premiere of the gothic detective series “Gogol. Beginning" with and starring.

The biography of the enigmatic playwright contains Interesting Facts, all of them cannot be described even in a whole book.

According to rumors, Gogol was afraid of thunderstorms, since a natural phenomenon affected his psyche.
The writer lived in poverty, walked in old clothes. The only expensive item in his wardrobe is a gold watch donated by Zhukovsky in memory of Pushkin.
The mother of Nikolai Vasilyevich was known as a strange woman. She was superstitious, believed in the supernatural, and constantly told amazing stories embellished with fiction.
According to rumors, Gogol's last words were: "How sweet it is to die."

Monument to Nikolai Gogol and his troika bird in Odessa

Gogol's work inspired.
Nikolai Vasilyevich adored sweets, so sweets and pieces of sugar were constantly in his pocket. Also, the Russian prose writer liked to roll bread crumbs in his hands - it helped to concentrate on thoughts.
The writer was painfully concerned with appearance, mainly his own nose irritated him.
Gogol was afraid that he would be buried, being in a lethargic dream. The literary genius asked that in the future his body be buried only after the appearance of cadaveric spots. According to legend, Gogol woke up in a coffin. When the body of the writer was reburied, those present, surprised, saw that the head of the deceased was turned to one side.

Bibliography

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" (1831-1832)
"The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" (1834)
"Viy" (1835)
"Old World Landowners" (1835)
"Taras Bulba" (1835)
"Nevsky Prospekt" (1835)
"Inspector" (1836)
"The Nose" (1836)
"Notes of a Madman" (1835)
"Portrait" (1835)
"Carriage" (1836)
"Marriage" (1842)
"Dead Souls" (1842)
"Overcoat" (1843)

“I am considered a riddle for everyone, no one will solve me completely” - N.V. Gogol

Gogol's staircase

As a child, little Gogol listened to his grandmother's stories about the stairs along which the souls of people rise to heaven. This image was deeply deposited in the memory of the boy, Gogol carried it through his whole life. Stairs of various kinds now and then we meet on the pages of Gogol's works. Yes, and the last words of the writer, according to eyewitnesses, was the cry “Ladder, quickly give the ladder!”

Love for sweet

G naked had a sweet tooth. He could, for example, without outside help, eat a jar of jam, a mountain of gingerbread cookies and drink a whole samovar of tea in one sitting ... "He always had a supply of sweets and gingerbread in his pants pockets, he chewed without ceasing, even in classes during classes. He climbed where somewhere in a corner, away from everyone, and there he was already eating his delicacy, ”his friend from the gymnasium describes Gogol. This passion for sweets remained until the end of days. In Gogol's pockets one could always find a lot of all sorts of sweets: caramels, pretzels, crackers, half-eaten pies, sugar cubes ...

What else did Gogol burn?

On the night of February 12, 1852, an event occurred, the circumstances of which are still a mystery to biographers. Nikolai Gogol prayed until three o'clock, after which he took a briefcase, removed several papers from it, and ordered the rest to be thrown into the fire. Crossing himself, he returned to bed and wept uncontrollably. It is believed that on that night he burned the second volume of Dead Souls. However, later the manuscript of the second volume was found among his books. And what was burned in the fireplace is still unclear.

Gogol is a homosexual?

The ascetic lifestyle that Gogol led and the writer's excessive religiosity gave rise to many fables. Contemporaries of the writer were surprised and frightened by such behavior. Of the things he had with him only a couple of removable underwear and kept it all in one suitcase ... Rather unsociable, he rarely allowed himself the company of unfamiliar women, and lived a virgin all his life. Such isolation has given rise to a common myth about the writer's homosexual inclinations. A similar assumption was put forward by an American Slavist, historian of Russian literature, Professor Semyon Karlinsky, who stated in his work “The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol” about the “oppressed homosexuality” of the writer, suggesting “suppression of emotional attraction to members of the same sex” and “aversion to physical or emotional contact with women ".

According to the literary critic I.P. Zolotussky, Gogol was not indifferent to women, including A.M. Villegorskaya, to whom he made an offer in 1840, but was refused. Vladimir Nabokov also objected to the representatives of the psychoanalytic method. In his essay "Nikolai Gogol" he wrote: "A heightened sense of the nose eventually resulted in the story 'The Nose' - truly a hymn to this organ. A Freudian could argue that in the world of Gogol turned inside out, human beings are upside down and therefore another organ obviously plays the role of the nose, and vice versa, but “it’s better to completely forget about any Freudian nonsense” and many others. others

Was Gogol buried alive?

Was there a skull?

However, Lidin's violent fantasy was not limited to this episode. A more terrible story followed - it turns out that when the coffin was opened, the skeleton did not have a skull at all. Where could he go? This new invention of Lidin gave rise to new hypotheses. They remembered that in 1908, when a heavy stone was installed on the grave, a brick crypt had to be erected over the coffin to strengthen the foundation. It was suggested that it was then that the writer's skull could have been stolen. It was suggested that it was stolen at the request of a Russian theater fanatic, merchant Alexei Alexandrovich Bakhrushin. It was rumored that he already had the skull of the great Russian actor Shchepkin ...

Gogol's head and ghost train

It is said that Gogol's head was adorned with Bakhrushin's silver laurel crown and placed in a glazed rosewood case lined with black morocco on the inside. According to the same legend, the great-nephew of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol - Yanovsky, a lieutenant of the Russian imperial fleet, having learned about this, threatened Bakhrushin and took his head off. Allegedly, the young officer wanted to take the skull to Italy (to the country that Gogol considered his second homeland), but he could not complete this mission himself and entrusted it to one Italian captain. So the head of the writer ended up in Italy. But this is not the end of this incredible story. The captain's younger brother, a student at the University of Rome, went with a company of friends on a pleasure railway trip; deciding to play a prank on his friends by opening the skull box in the Channel Tunnel. They say that at the moment when the lid was opened, the train disappeared ... The legend says that the train - the ghost did not disappear forever. Allegedly, he is sometimes seen somewhere in Italy ... then in Zaporozhye ...

October 13, 2014, 13:31

It would seem that almost everything is known about Gogol. But again and again new ones pop up and sometimes completely unexpected facts. The whole life of Gogol still remains an unsolved mystery. He was haunted by mysticism, and his death left more questions than answers. And how many versions exist that refute the myths about Gogol! But I think these versions will appear in the comments, but I present to you data.

♦ Nikolai Gogol was named after miraculous icon St. Nicholas, kept in the church of Bolshie Sorochintsy, where the writer's parents lived.

♦ Gogol had a passion for needlework. He knitted scarves on knitting needles, cut dresses for his sisters, wove belts, sewed neckerchiefs for the summer.

♦ The writer loved miniature editions. Not loving and not knowing mathematics, he wrote out a mathematical encyclopedia only because it was published in the sixteenth part of a sheet (10.5 × 7.5 cm).
Surely, he would be delighted with such an edition of his book:

♦ Gogol wrote very mediocre compositions at school, he was very weak in languages and made progress only in drawing and Russian literature.

♦ Gogol liked to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings.

♦ One of his favorite drinks is goat's milk, which he cooked in a special way, adding rum. He called this concoction mogul-mogul and often, laughing, said: "Gogol loves eggnog!" A recipe for a modern mogul-mogul, for those who are interested: beat the yolks with sugar until white foam. Continuing to beat, slowly pour in the whiskey, rum, milk and a little cream. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites into a stiff foam and add a mixture of yolks + a little more cream, powdered sugar and beat the mass until thick. Ready!

♦ The writer walked along the streets and alleys, usually on the left side, so he constantly collided with passers-by.

♦ Gogol was very afraid of thunderstorms. According to contemporaries, bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.

♦ He was extremely shy. As soon as a stranger appeared in the company, Gogol disappeared from the room. And they say that he never met anyone. Some believe that Gogol died a virgin, these statements appeared, because. it is unknown about his connections with women in general. True, in the spring of 1850, N.V. Gogol made an offer (first and last) to A.M. Vielgorskaya, but was refused. There is also a version of gay Gogol, even whole articles are devoted to this and guess who)))

♦ Gogol often, when writing, rolled white cotton balls :). He told his friends that this helped him in solving the most difficult problems.

♦ Gogol always had sweets in his pockets. Living in a hotel, he never allowed the servants to take away the sugar served for tea, he collected it, hid it, and then ate the pieces while working or talking.

♦ Gogol was very attached to his dog Josie of the pug breed, presented to him by Pushkin. When she died (Gogol did not feed the animal for weeks), Nikolai Vasilyevich was attacked by mortal anguish and despondency.

♦ The source of the plot for Gogol's play "The Inspector General" was a real incident in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province, and Pushkin told the author about this case. It was Pushkin who advised Gogol to continue writing the work, when he more than once wanted to quit this business.

By the way, on the delightful monument of the 1000th anniversary of Russia in Veliky Novgorod in the group "Writers and Artists"Pushkin stands next to Gogol, whose image was placed only under public pressure.
And next to it is our beloved Lermontov, saddened)))

♦ The history of his native Ukraine was one of his favorite studies and hobbies. It was these studies that inspired him to write the epic story "Taras Bulba". It was first published in the Mirgorod collection, and in 1835 Gogol personally handed one copy of this magazine into the hands of the Minister of Public Education Uvarov, so that he presented it to Emperor Nicholas I.

♦ Gogol was ashamed of his nose. In all the portraits of Gogol, his nose looks different - so, with the help of artists, the writer tried to confuse future biographers.

♦ It is known that Nikolai Vasilyevich died at the age of 42 from constant depression and gloomy thoughts, but modern experts in the field of psychiatry have analyzed thousands of documents and have come to a very definite conclusion that Gogol did not have any mental disorder at all. Perhaps he suffered from depression, and if the right treatment had been applied to him, the great writer would have lived much longer.

♦ Neither contemporaries nor descendants can explain what happened to Gogol in the last years of his life. At the age of 30, while in Rome, Gogol fell ill with malaria, and judging by the consequences, as well as the symptoms proposed by modern pathologists, the disease struck the writer's brain. At regular intervals, he began to have seizures and fainting, which, according to modern diagnostics, is characteristic of malarial encephalitis. Every year, seizures and fainting with side effects became more frequent. In 1845 Gogol wrote to his sister Lisa: “My body reached terrible cooling: neither day nor night I could warm myself with anything. My face turned yellow, and my hands were swollen and blackened and were like ice, it frightened me myself.”

Monument to Gogol in Rome in the Roman "Garden of Poets" (Zurab Tsereteli, 2002)Here is what Gogol says about Italy: “Here is my opinion! Who was in Italy, say "forgive" to other lands. Whoever was in heaven will not want to land. In a word, Europe compared to Italy is like a cloudy day compared to a sunny day!”
N.V. Gogol with Russian artists in Rome. 1845

There were many rumors, however, not without foundation, about his "religious insanity", although in the generally accepted sense he was not a deeply religious person. And he was not an ascetic. The illness, and with it the general "headache", prompted the writer to "non-programmable" religious reflections. And the new environment in which he found himself strengthened and supported them ( we are talking that Gogol fell under the influence of the "Martyrs of Hell" sect).

True, there was one family circumstance - under the influence of his mother, Gogol's fear of hell was rooted in his mind from childhood and doomsday, before " afterlife"(it is enough to recall the mysticism of his story" Viy "). Historiographers and biographers of Gogol confirm that his mother, Maria Ivanovna, because of her difficult fate, was a pious woman prone to mysticism. She was from impoverished local nobles and was left an orphan early, as a result, she married (most likely, she was extradited) at the age of 14 to 27-year-old Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky. Of their six sons, only Nikolai survived. He was the first-born and the only surviving guardian of the family, and his mother adored her Nikosha, named by her in honor of St. Nicholas Dikansky. Based on the circumstances, as a pious person, she tried to give him a religious education, although the writer himself did not consider his religiosity to be true. Gogol himself later wrote about his attitude to religion: "... I was baptized because I saw that everyone was being baptized."
Nevertheless, despite signs of depression and insanity, he found the strength to go in February 1848 to Jerusalem to the Holy Sepulcher. However, the trip did not bring spiritual relief. He becomes withdrawn, strange in communication, capricious and untidy in clothes. Gogol writes even to his beloved mother less and less and, in contrast to previous years, more and more dryly. And when he came to visit his home in 1848, he treated the sisters, whom he loved terribly, coldly and indifferently, although earlier he had tenderly patronized them and helped with advice and money. When his middle sister Maria died, instead of words of reassurance, Gogol even wrote such lines, unusual for his mother: "Happy is the one to whom God will send some terrible misfortune and misfortune will force him to wake up and look back at himself."

♦ In the autumn of 1850, while in Odessa, Nikolai Vasilyevich felt relieved. Contemporaries recall that his usual vivacity and cheerfulness returned to him. He returned to Moscow and seemed perfectly healthy and cheerful. Gogol read to friends separate fragments from the second volume of "Dead Souls" and rejoiced like a child, seeing the delight and hearing the laughter of the audience. But as soon as he put an end to the second volume, it seemed to him that emptiness and doom fell upon him. He felt the fear of death, such as his father had once suffered.

♦ What happened on the night of February 12, 1852, no one knows for sure. Biographers, with a joint titanic effort, tried literally minute by minute to restore the events of that night, but it is only known for certain that Gogol prayed earnestly until three o'clock in the morning. Then he took his briefcase, took out some sheets of paper from it, and ordered everything that was left in it to be burned immediately. Then he crossed himself and, returning to bed, sobbed uncontrollably until the morning. It is traditionally believed that on that night Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls, but some biographers and historians are sure that this is far from the truth, which is unlikely to be known to anyone. There is a version that Gogol first burned the manuscript of several chapters of the second volume of "Dead Souls" back in 1845 because of his mental disorder due to malaria caught in Rome. But he burns the main part of the first three chapters of the second volume of "Dead Souls", since the continuation of this work at times seems to him not a divine revelation, but a devilish obsession. Fear of hell, afterlife torment and a terrible judgment hastened his death, for which, in fact, he was preparing in the last weeks of his life.

♦ The writer in his will 7 years before his death warned that his body would be buried only in case obvious signs decomposition. This then became the reason for numerous mystical assumptions that in reality the writer was buried in a state of lethargic sleep. Rumor has it that during the reburial, in 1931, a skeleton with a skull turned to one side was found in his coffin. (According to other data, the skull was absent altogether)

P.S.There is a very interesting documentary about Gogol by Leonid Parfyonov, as well as many detailed articles devoted to one aspect of his biography or work.

Gogol's childhood and youth

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - the great Russian writer, one of the founders of the Russian artistic realism, was born on March 20, 1809 in the town of Sorochintsy (Poltava province, Mirgorod district) in the family of local poor Little Russian nobles who owned the village of Vasilyevka, Vasily Afanasyevich and Maria Ivanovna Gogol-Yanovsky.

The belonging of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol to the Little Russian people and the time of birth from childhood had a significant impact on his worldview and writing activity. Psychological features the Little Russian people found in him, although he wrote his works in the Great Russian language, a vivid expression, especially in the early period of his activity; they were reflected in the content of his early works of the first period and in the peculiar art style his speeches. The time of the formation of Gogol's worldview and creative methods - his childhood and youth - falls on a significant era of the revival of Little Russian literature and nationality (the time shortly after I. P. Kotlyarevsky). The atmosphere created by this revival had a rather strong influence on Gogol, both in his early works and later.

Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky, father of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

The upbringing of the young Gogol takes place in the south of Russia under the cross influence home furnishings and the Little Russian environment, on the one hand, and all-Russian literature, known even in the deaf, far from the centers of the province, on the other. The resurgent Little Russian literature bears a clearly expressed interest in the people, cultivates a living folk language, introduces folk life, folk poetic antiquity into literary circulation in the form of legends, songs, thoughts, descriptions of folk rituals, etc.

In the second and third decades of the 19th century, this literature (not yet separating itself consciously, tendentiously, from all-Russian literature) forms local centers, where it reaches a special revival. One of its prominent figures was D. P. Troshchinsky, the former Minister of Justice, a typical Little Russian in his views. In his village Kibintsakh there was a huge library containing almost everything printed in the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century in Russian and in Little Russian; V. A. Gogol-Yanovsky, the father of the young writer, acted in this circle, himself a writer in the field of Little Russian folk drama (“The Simpleton” and “The Dog-Vivtsya” c. 1825), a masterful narrator of scenes from folk life, an actor in dramatic folk -Little Russian plays (Troshchinsky had a separate theater building in Kibintsy) and a close relative of Troshchinsky. Gogol-son, studying in Nizhyn, constantly uses this connection in his youth, receiving books and novelties of literature from the rich Kibinets library.

In childhood, before the beginning of the school period, Nikolai Gogol lives with the parents of that village folk life medium-sized landowner, which differs little in general from the peasant. Even spoken language Little Russian remains in the family; therefore, in childhood and youth (and even later) Gogol had to learn the Great Russian language and work it out. Gogol's early letters clearly show this process of gradual Russification of Gogol's language, which was then still very incorrect.

ten years old young Nikolai Gogol studied for some time in Poltava at the district school, where I.P. Kotlyarevsky himself was the head, and in May 1821 he entered the newly opened Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in the city of Nizhyn. Beardless. This gymnasium (representing a combination of secondary and partly higher education) was opened on the model of those new educational institutions that were founded in the "Alexander's Happy Beginning" days (these included the Alexander (Pushkin) Lyceum, the Demidov Lyceum, etc.). But with the same programs, the Nizhyn gymnasium was lower than the metropolitan ones both in terms of the composition of teachers and in the course of the educational process, so the young Gogol, who stayed there until June 1828, is much in the sense general development and scientific development could not bear (which he himself confessed). The stronger the impact on the gifted young man was the influence of the environment and the trends, albeit belatedly, reaching from cultural centers Russia. These trends and influences of the environment and family clarify certain features of the writer's activity and the spiritual image of the future great writer, then finding reflection in the writer's works, in certain moments of his mood. middle age. Gogol in his youth was very characteristic of great observation, interest in folk life And history of Little Russia(although not strictly scientific, but rather poetic and ethnographic), literary inclinations (discovered back in Nizhyn), dramatic talent and interest in the stage (prominent participation in school performances), inclinations of an everyday satirist (a school play that has not come down to us: “Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written for fools"), as well as sincere religiosity, attachment to the family and craving for painting (even at school, Nikolai Gogol, judging by the surviving drawings, was drawing with some success).

A careful study of Gogol's biography for the childhood and youth period, speaking only of the beginnings of the future Gogol, however, does not give a clear idea and indication of the magnitude and grandiosity of the writer's talent, of the wholeness of the worldview and the inner struggle that he subsequently experienced. However, biographical information of this time, which have come down from contemporaries and comrades of the young Gogol, are rather scarce. The result of the school period ended in 1828 was a weak scientific stock of knowledge, insufficient literary development, but at the same time already a rich supply of observations, a desire for literature and nationality, an unclear consciousness of his strengths and his destiny (the goal of life for Gogol of this time is to benefit the fatherland, the confidence that he must do something unusual, extraordinary ; but in concrete form it is a bureaucratic "service"), next to observation, a sense of life - a tendency to assimilate romantic trends (the youthful poem "Hans Küchelgarten" 1827), although partly balanced by the influence of more realistic direction literature (Zhukovsky, Yazykov, Pushkin - the subject of reading and hobbies of the young Gogol at school).

The beginning of Gogol's work

With such a vague mood, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol ends up in St. Petersburg, where he seeks to “fulfill his appointment” (end of 1828), and above all through service, for which he is least capable of doing it due to his purely creative inclinations.

Gogol's "Petersburg" period (December 1828 - June 1836) - a period of searching and finding his destination (by the end of the period), but at the same time, a period of his self-education and further development of the creative inclinations of youth, a period of great (and vague) unfulfilled and unrealizable hopes and bitter disappointments from life; but at the same time, this is a period of access to real way a writer of great public importance. The search for "life's work", which is still depicted in the form of service, the struggle with material need are interspersed, intertwined with broad literary plans that were carried out now or later, with the strengthening of the position of the writer in society and literary circles, with the continuation of self-education. Gogol tries, but unsuccessfully, to get a job as an artist in the theater, is determined by an official in the department, but also unsuccessfully, soon making sure that "service", in contrast to creativity, does not give him either satisfaction or security. He tries to use his literary experience in the Nizhyn direction; but the poem "Hans Küchelgarten", the first printed work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1829), has to be destroyed as completely outdated for modern literature. Gogol made other attempts at this time to use the stock of knowledge acquired in Nizhyn: he tries to enter the Academy of Arts, attends drawing classes. An unsuccessful professorship in St. Petersburg (1835) finally forced Gogol to admit everything failed attempts decide otherwise than indicated to him literary talent. Everything that was inherent in Gogol's very nature pushes him irresistibly onto the true path - the path of the beginning. writing creativity. In this direction, Gogol is progressing rapidly and stubbornly. Start literary creativity, for the sole purpose of material support, can be seen in Gogol already in 1829, shortly after his arrival in St. Petersburg. Motivating by the fact that “everything Little Russian here is so occupied by everyone”, Gogol strenuously asks for Little Russian everyday and poetic folk materials from mother and relatives. He already lives in poetic thoughts reflected in his "Evenings", which soon appear: for "Evenings" he needed this material. At the beginning of his work, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol refers to the nationality, the artistic and real image home country, illuminating all this with a bright beam of his humor and romanticism, no longer dreamy, but healthy, folk.

Acquired by Gogol at the same time acquaintances with the literary circles of St. Petersburg complete his entry into a new path. The sensitive Pushkin guesses the cause of the initial failures and Gogol's appointment, forcing him to develop his literary education by reading, which he himself directs. Zhukovsky, Pletnev not only support him with their connections, delivering earnings, but also introduce Gogol to the top of the then literary movement(for example, in the circle of A. O. Rosset, later Smirnova, who was destined to play such a prominent role in Gogol's life). Here, too, Gogol, becoming more and more involved in literature, replenishes his shortcomings of the provincial school, provincial literary education.

The results of these influences are felt quickly: Gogol's talent made its way into conflicted soul its owner himself: 1829 - 1830 - the years of his lively home literary work, still little noticeable to outsiders and society. Hard work on self-education, ardent love for art become for Gogol a high and strict moral duty, which he wishes to sacredly, reverently fulfill, slowly bringing his creations to the "pearl", constantly processing the material and the first drafts of his works - a feature characteristic of Gogol's creative style and at all other times.

After several excerpts and editions of the stories in " Domestic notes"(Svinina), in the Literary Gazette (Delviga), Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol releases his Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" (1831 - 1832). Evenings, which became the true beginning of Gogol's literary work, clearly determined his future destination for him. The role of Gogol became even clearer for society (cf. the review of Pushkin's Evenings), but it was understood from a different side than Gogol soon became visible. In "Evenings" they saw hitherto unseen pictures of Little Russian life, sparkling with nationality, gaiety, subtle humor, poetic mood - and nothing more. After "Evenings" come "Arabesques" (1835, which included articles published in 1830 - 1834 and written during this time). Since then, Gogol's fame as a writer has been firmly established: society sensed in him great power destined to open new era our literature.

Gogol, apparently, has now convinced himself of what that “great field of his” should consist of, about which he has not ceased to dream since the Nizhyn times. This can be concluded from the fact that already in 1832 Gogol begins a new step forward in his soul. He is not satisfied with "Evenings", not considering them a real expression of his mood, and already conceives (1832) "Vladimir of the 3rd degree" (from it later came out: "Tyazhba", "Lakeiskaya", "Morning business man”), “Grooms” (1833, later - “Marriage”), “Inspector” (1834). Next to them are his so-called "Petersburg" stories ("Old World Landowners" (1832), "Nevsky Prospekt" (1834), "Taras Bulba" (1st edition - 1834), "Notes of a Madman" (1834), the beginning "Overcoat", "Nose", as well as stories included in Mirgorod, published in 1835). In the same 1835, "Dead Souls" were started, "Carriage" and "Portrait" (1st edition) were written. The initial period of Gogol's work ended in April 1836 with the publication and production of The Inspector General. The “Inspector General” finally opened the eyes of society to Gogol and to himself to himself and became a facet in his work and life.

Of the external events of life that influenced the further evolution of Gogol's mood, it should be noted Gogol's mysterious trip for a month in 1829 abroad (to Lübeck), probably the result of a restless search for a "real" business at the beginning of the St. Petersburg period, a trip in 1832. home, so beloved to him and poetically immortalized in "Evenings". However, this time, next to the bright memories of childhood, with the comfort of a home family circle, the homeland rewarded the writer with severe disappointments: household chores were going badly, the romantic enthusiasm of Gogol the young man was erased by St. , melancholy and even tragedy. Not without reason, having returned to St. Petersburg, he began to disown the "Evenings" and the definition of his mood in society by them. Gogol matured, entered a mature period of life and creativity. This trip also had another meaning: the way to Vasilievka lay through Moscow, where Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol first entered the circle of the Moscow intelligentsia, establishing relations with his countrymen who lived in Moscow (M. A. Maksimovich, M. S. Shchepkin), and with people who soon became his lifelong friends. These Moscow friends did not remain without influence on Gogol in the last period of his life due to the fact that there were points of contact between the mood of the writer and them on the basis of religious, patriotic and ethical ideas (Pogodin, Aksakovs, perhaps Shevyrev).

Gogol abroad

In the summer of 1836, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol went on his first long trip abroad, where he stayed until October 1841. The reason for the trip was the ill state of the writer, who was naturally weak (the news of his ill health has been coming since he entered the Nizhyn gymnasium), moreover greatly shattered his nerves in that worldly and spiritual struggle that led him to the real path. He was also attracted abroad by the need to give himself an account of his strength, of the impression that the “Inspector General” made on society, which caused a storm of indignation and stirred up all bureaucratic and bureaucratic Russia against the writer, but, on the other hand, gave Gogol a new circle of admirers. in the advanced part of Russian society. Finally, a trip abroad was necessary in order to continue that “life business” that had been started in St. corresponding to the mood of the writer renewed by the spirit of the revisions begun. Gogol, on the one hand, imagined himself completely crushed by the impression that ended the appearance of The Government Inspector. He accused himself of fatal mistake taking up satire. On the other hand, Gogol vigorously continues to develop his thoughts on the great significance of the theater and artistic truth, continues to rework The Inspector General, writes The Theater Departure and works hard on Dead Souls, prints some of the previous sketches (Morning of a Businessman, 1836), reworks "Portrait" (1837 - 1838), "Taras Bulba" (1838 - 1839), finishes "Overcoat" (1841).

N. V. Gogol. Portrait by F. Müller, 1841

During the first trip abroad, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol lives in Germany, Switzerland, in Paris (with his school friend and friend A. Danilevsky), where he is partly treated, partly spends time among Russian circles. In March 1837, he ended up in Rome, to which he sincerely attached himself, fascinated by Italian nature and monuments of art. Gogol stays here for a long time and at the same time works hard, mainly on "Dead Souls", finishes "The Overcoat", writes the story "Annunziata" (later - "Rome"). In 1839, in the autumn, he came to Russia on family business, but soon returned to Rome, where in the summer of 1841 he finished the first volume of Dead Souls. In the autumn, Gogol sends it from abroad to print in Russia: the book, after a series of difficulties (the Moscow censorship did not let it pass, the St. Around Dead Souls, a literary noise of criticism “for” and “against” arose, as with the appearance of The Inspector General, but Gogol already reacted differently to this noise. By the time Dead Souls was finished, he had taken a further step in the direction of ethical-religious thinking; he was already presented with the second part, which was supposed to express a different understanding of the life and tasks of the writer.

In June 1842, Gogol was again abroad, where, apparently, that "break" in his spiritual mood had already begun, which marked the end of his life. Living now in Rome, now in Germany or France, he revolves around people who more or less approached him in a conservative mood (Zhukovsky, A. O. Smirnova, Vielgorsky, Tolstoy). Constantly suffering bodily, Gogol develops more and more strongly in the direction of pietism, the rudiments of which he already had in childhood and youth. His thoughts about art and morality are increasingly colored by Christian Orthodox religiosity. "Dead Souls" becomes Gogol's last work of art in the same direction. At this time, he is preparing a collection of his works (published in 1842), continues to process, introducing into them new features of the mood of that time, his previous works: “Taras Bulba”, “Marriage”, “Gamblers”, etc., writes “ Theatrical tour”, the well-known “Forewarning” to the “Inspector General”, where he tries to give the interpretation of his comedy, which was prompted by his new mood. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is also working on the second volume of Dead Souls.

Gogol's new look at the tasks of the writer

Questions of creativity, talent, and the writer's tasks continue to preoccupy him, but now they are solved in a different way: a lofty idea of talent as a gift from God, in particular, of one's own talent, imposes on Gogol high duties, which are drawn to him in some kind of providential sense. To rebuke and correct human vices(which Gogol now considers his duty, as a writer endowed by God with the meaning of his "message"), the writer himself must strive for inner perfection. It, according to Gogol, is available only with contemplation of God, deepening into the religious understanding of life, Christianity, oneself. Religious exaltation visits him more and more often. Gogol becomes in his own eyes a called teacher of life, in the eyes of his contemporaries and admirers - one of the world's greatest ethicists. New ideas increasingly deviate him from his former path. This new mood makes Gogol change his assessment of his former writing activity. He is now ready to reject any meaning of everything that he has written before, believing that these works do not lead to high purpose perfection of oneself and people, to the knowledge of God - and are unworthy of his "message". He apparently already considers the just-released first volume of "Dead Souls", if not a mistake, then only the threshold for a "real", worthy work - the second volume, which should justify the author, atone for his sin - an attitude towards one's neighbor that is inconsistent with the spirit of a Christian in the form of satire, give a positive instruction to a person, show him a direct path to perfection.

N. V. Gogol. Artist F. Müller, 1840

But such a task turns out to be very difficult. Soul Drama, complicated by excruciating nervous malaise, progressively and quickly directed the writer to a denouement: Gogol's literary productivity is weakening; he manages to work only in the intervals between mental and physical anguish. Gogol's letters of this period are preaching, teaching, self-flagellation with rare glimpses of the former humorous mood.

The last years of Gogol's life

This period ends with two major disasters: in June 1845, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol burns the second volume of Dead Souls. He “offered, burning his work, a sacrifice to God”, hoped to give a new book of “Dead Souls” already with content, enlightened and cleansed of everything sinful. She, according to Gogol, was supposed to "direct the whole society towards the beautiful", in a direct and right way. In the last years of his life, Gogol is burning with a desire to quickly give society what he considers most important for life; and this important thing was expressed by him, in his opinion, not in works of art, but in letters of this time to friends, acquaintances and relatives.

The decision to collect, systematize his thoughts from letters led him (1846) to the publication of Selected passages from correspondence with friends. This was the second catastrophe in the history of the writer's relationship with the liberal-Western society. Selected Places, published in 1847, evoked whistling and hooting from the side of noteworthy liberals. V. Belinsky broke out famous letter in response to a touchy letter from Gogol, hurt by Belinsky's negative review of the book (Sovremennik, 1847, No. 2). Left radicals argued that this book by Gogol is filled with a tone of prophecy, imperious teaching, preaching external humility, which in fact is "more than pride." They did not like what was expressed in it negative attitude writer to some features of his former "critical satirical" activity. Westerners loudly shouted that Gogol in Selected Places allegedly renounced his former view of the tasks of a writer as a citizen.

Sincerely not understanding the reasons for such a sharp rebuff from the "liberals", Gogol tried to justify his act, saying that he was not understood, etc., but he did not deviate from the views expressed by him in his last book. His religious and ethical mood remained the same throughout the last years of his life, but was painted in painful tones. The hesitation caused by liberal persecution strengthened Gogol's need to preserve and support his faith, which, after the suffering he had endured, seemed to him insufficiently deep.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, Gogol's resumed work on the second volume of Dead Souls goes even worse. He seeks to calm his soul in a religious feat and in 1848 travels from Naples to Jerusalem, hoping there, at the source of Christianity, to draw a new supply of faith and vigor. Through Odessa, Nikolai Vasilyevich returns to Russia, so as not to be absent from it again until the end of his life. From the autumn of 1851, he settled in Moscow with A.P. Tolstoy, his friend, who shared his religious and conservative views, tries again to work on the second volume of Dead Souls, even reads excerpts from his friends (for example, from Aksakovs). But tormenting doubts do not leave Gogol: he constantly reworks this book and does not find satisfaction. Religious thought, further strengthened by the influence of Father Matvey Konstantinovsky, a stern, straightforward, Rzhev ascetic priest, wavers even more. The state of mind of the writer reaches pathology. In one of his fits of mental anguish, Gogol burns his papers at night. The next morning, he catches himself, and explains this act by the tricks of an evil spirit, from which he cannot get rid of even an intensified religious feat. It was at the beginning of January 1852, and on February 21, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was no more.

House of Talyzin (Nikitsky Boulevard, Moscow). N. V. Gogol lived and died here in recent years, and here he burned the second volume of "Dead Souls"

The value of Gogol's work

A careful study of the activities and life of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, expressed in the extensive literature devoted to the writer, showed the great significance of this activity for Russian literature and society. The influence of Gogol and the directions of Russian literary and social thought he created has not ceased to this day. After Gogol, Russian literature finally breaks its connection with "imitation" of Western models, ends its "learning" period, the time comes for its full flowering, its complete independence, social and popular self-consciousness; it acquires an international, world significance. All this modern literature owes to the foundations of its development, which were worked out by the middle 19th century; these are: people's self-consciousness, artistic realism and the consciousness of their inseparable connection with the life of society. The development of these foundations in the consciousness of society and literature was accomplished by the works and talents of writers of the first half of the century - Pushkin, Griboyedov, Lermontov. And Gogol among these writers is of the utmost importance. Even the radical Chernyshevsky called the entire period of Russian literature mid-nineteenth century Gogol. The subsequent era, marked by the names of Turgenev, Goncharov, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, is closely connected with the tasks set for literature by Gogol. All of these writers are either his immediate followers (for example, Dostoevsky in Poor People), or the ideological successors of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (for example, Turgenev in Notes of a Hunter).

Artistic realism, ethical aspirations, a view of the writer as public figure, the need of the people, psychological analysis life phenomena, the breadth of this analysis - everything that Russian literature of the subsequent time is strong with, all this is strongly developed by Gogol, outlined by him so definitely that the successors had only to go further in breadth and depth. Gogol is the largest representative realism: he accurately and subtly observed life, capturing its typical features, embodied them in artistic images, deeply psychological, truthful; even in his hyperbolism he is irreproachably truthful. The images created by Gogol amaze with extraordinary thoughtfulness, originality of intuitions, depth of contemplation: these are the features brilliant writer. The spiritual depth of Gogol found expression in the properties of his talent: these are “tears invisible to the world through laughter visible to him” - in satire and humor.

The national characteristics of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (his connection with Little Russian history and culture), which he introduced into Russian literature, rendered an enormous service to the latter, accelerating and consolidating the national self-consciousness that had begun to awaken in Russian literature. The beginning of this awakening, very indecisive, dates back to the second half of the 18th century. It can be seen in the activities of the Russian satirical literature XVIII century, in the activities of N. I. Novikov and others. It found a strong impetus for itself in the events of the early 19th century (the Patriotic War of 1812), further development in the activities of Pushkin and his school; but this awakening was completed only in Gogol, who closely merged the idea of artistic realism and the idea of nationality. The great significance of Gogol's activity, in the social sense, lies in the fact that he directed his brilliant creativity not to abstract themes of art, but to direct everyday, everyday reality and put into his work all the passion for searching for truth, love for a person, protecting his rights and dignity, denunciation of any moral evil. He became a poet of reality, whose works immediately received high social significance. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, as a moralist writer, is the direct predecessor of Leo Tolstoy. The interest in depicting the internal movements of personal life and in depicting social phenomena precisely from the angle of condemning social untruth, the search for a moral ideal - this was given to our subsequent literature by Gogol, goes back to him. Subsequent public satire (for example, Saltykov-Shchedrin), "accusatory literature" 1860 - 1870. without Gogol would have been unthinkable. All this testifies to the great moral significance Gogol's work for Russian literature and his great civic service to society. This meaning of Gogol was clearly felt by his closest contemporaries.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol took a prominent place in the creation of the world position of Russian literature: from him ( before Turgenev) Western literature began to know Russian, to be seriously interested in and reckon with it. It was Gogol who “discovered” Russian literature for the West.

Literature about Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

Kulish,"Notes on the life of Gogol".

Shenrock,"Materials for the biography of Gogol" (M. 1897, 3 volumes).

Skabichevsky, "Works" vol. II.

Biographical sketch of Gogol ed. Pavlenkova.