Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol biography is interesting. Biography of the writer

Gogol Nikolay (03/20/1809 - 02/21/1852) - Russian writer, poet, author of dramatic works, publicist. He is a classic of Russian literature.

Young years

Nikolai Vasilievich was born with the surname Yanovsky, was born in the village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province. Regarding his origin, the opinions of biographers differ, most of them consider him a Little Russian, there are also versions about his Polish roots. Gogol's grandfather received a title of nobility, his father, after public service, devoted a lot of time to the theatrical life, wrote plays and was an excellent storyteller. Perhaps, thanks to his activities, Nikolai formed an early passion for the theater.

Gogol's mother, according to contemporaries, was a rare beauty, half her husband's age. It is believed that she influenced the writer's interest in mysticism. In total, eleven children were born in the family, many of them died in infancy, two were born dead. When Nikolai was ten years old, he was sent to study in Poltava.

From 1821 to 1828 he was educated at the Nizhyn Gymnasium. In his studies, he did not differ in diligence, a good memory helped him to pass each class, thanks to which he could prepare for exams in a short time. Languages ​​were hard for Gogol, he received good grades for literature and fine arts.

In the gymnasium, the students organized a literary circle, where they subscribed to periodicals together, and also organized their own magazine, which was written by hand. Gogol often posted his poems there. In 1825, his father dies, which greatly undermined the spirit of the family, Nikolai, as the eldest son, has to take care of the family and material problems.

Gymnasium student N.V. Gogol, 1820s

Initiation into the literary world

After the gymnasium, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg. He made big plans for his life in the capital, but here he faced many difficulties. There was not enough money, and at first it was not possible to find a worthy occupation. Repeatedly, Nikolai tried to become an actor, but was not accepted; he was completely unsuitable for official service. As a result, Gogol nevertheless found his vocation in literature.

While still in Nizhyn, he wrote the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten", which was published in 1829. The author signed as V. Alov. Having met a wave of negative responses, Nikolai bought up the circulation and burned the books himself. The failure brought new disappointments, after which Gogol made a trip to Germany, then briefly served in the political police, after two years in the department of appanages.

In 1831, Gogol entered the social circle of Zhukovsky, Pushkin, and other literary figures. After the unsuccessful "Gantz" he realizes the need to change the literary style. From the beginning of his stay in St. Petersburg, Nikolai asked his mother to send him stories of Little Russian life, information about customs, and old manuscripts. He collected these data for his new works "Sorochinsky Fair", "The Missing Letter", etc.

Having become close with Zhukovsky and Pletnev, Gogol got a job as a teacher at the Patriotic Institute, he is finally noticed in the literary field. In 1834 he became an assistant at the historical department at the University of St. Petersburg. Nikolai received new extensive knowledge about art, expanded his horizons, while improving his skills.

Literary activity

The first successful brainchild of Nikolai Vasilyevich was "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", consisting of two parts, which in turn include separate stories. These works made a great impression with a unique description of Ukrainian life, combined with a humorous style. The author quickly became famous and strengthened his success in 1835 by publishing "Mirgorod" and "Arabesques", which were also collections of works. At this time, Gogol's greatest activity as a writer fell.

His manuscripts testify to the scrupulousness with which the author approached writing his works. The original essay was gradually overgrown with many details before being presented to the reader. In 1834, Gogol began work on The Inspector General, the idea of ​​which was given to him by Pushkin (later he would also be the source of the idea of ​​Dead Souls). This comedy had a special meaning for the writer, it was evidence of his love for the theater. Especially exciting for him was the challenge to a society that had not seen anything like it before. Opinions about the Inspector General were divided: some greeted him with admiration, others with protest. The reason was in the author's surprisingly accurate transfer of the situation of that time.

Pushkin at Gogol's (M. Klodt)

Gogol decided to interrupt the period of intense creativity with a change of scenery. In 1836 he went abroad. For ten years he managed to live in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. Abroad, he completes his outstanding work "Dead Souls" (volume 1), writes new stories. In 1841 he comes to Russia to publish his main work. Here, again, experiences related to the reaction of the public fall to his lot. With some delays, the first volume of "Dead Souls" nevertheless came out, slightly corrected by the censors. In 1842, the collected works of Gogol were also published for the first time.

After the writer returned abroad, all this time he developed a sense of his high destiny. Religious sentiments were intensified more and more, especially due to the serious illnesses that he had to endure. In 1845, all this resulted in an internal crisis. Having gathered to be tonsured as a monk, Gogol leaves a will and destroys the continuation of Dead Souls. Then, nevertheless, he leaves thoughts about serving in the monastery, striving for worship through literature, the study of church books.

Nikolai Vasilyevich decides to publish a new kind of creativity, putting together his moralizing letters to friends. The book was published in 1847, but was not successful. The failure greatly crippled the mood of the author, made him take a fresh look at his work. In search of spiritual food he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after which he returned to Russia. He lived alternately in his native village, Odessa, Moscow. He worked on the second part of "Dead Souls", as usual, constantly supplementing what was written. Health problems resumed, by 1952 Gogol gave up literary activity, turning to prayers and fasting and foreseeing his imminent death.

Gogol on his deathbed (V. Rachinsky, 02/22/1952)

Death

At the beginning of 1952, the writer had fellowship with Archpriest M. Konstantinovsky, whom he had previously known. It was he who became the only person who read the second part of Dead Souls, and his review of the work was negative. In February, Nikolai Vasilievich did not go anywhere, one night he burned his last manuscripts. Three days before his death, he refused food, brushed aside any attempts to help. As a result, they decided to treat him forcibly, but this worsened the writer's condition. After his death, Gogol left practically no property, except for a gold watch and a library, the books from which, without an inventory, were immediately sold for a penny. He did not consider the funds from the sale of his own books as his own and donated them to charity.

Nikolai Vasilyevich was buried in the church at the university, buried in Moscow at the Danilov Monastery. A black stone and a bronze cross were placed on the grave. After the monastery was closed in 1931, Gogol was reburied at the Novodevichy Cemetery. In 1952, a bust was erected on the grave, and the old tombstone was sent to the workshop. There he was bought by the wife of M. Bulgakov for the grave of her husband. In honor of the bicentennial of the writer, the monument was returned to its original form.

Mysterious personality

Nikolai Vasilyevich surprisingly combined a satirist and a religious thinker, he is one of the most mysterious figures in Russian literature. His work connected Russian and Ukrainian cultures. He was the author of not only works of art, but also numerous articles and even prayers. Both during his lifetime and after his death, there were many rumors and assumptions around Gogol's personality. So, the lonely and closed life of Nikolai Vasilyevich became a source of rumors about his non-traditional orientation. At the same time, there is practically no information about his personal life.

Monument to Gogol (Moscow, Gogolevsky Boulevard)

Many legends are connected with the death of the writer. There is an assumption that before his death he suffered from a mental disorder. Another hypothesis claims that Gogol did not die, but only fell into a lethargic sleep. According to some testimonies, when the grave was opened, his remains were in an unnatural position. In addition, some scholars suggest that the writer starved himself to death. Finally, another version is poisoning with a medicine containing mercury.

Nikolai Vasilyevich had a huge impact on Russian culture, he became the author of more than a dozen of the most interesting works. In Russia, his name is known to everyone, individual works are mandatory for the school curriculum. They were filmed more than once, performances, opera and ballet performances were staged on them. Many streets and educational institutions bear the name of the writer. More than 15 monuments to Gogol have been installed in the world.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (surname at birth Yanovsky, since 1821 - Gogol-Yanovsky). Born March 20 (April 1), 1809 in Sorochintsy, Poltava province - died February 21 (March 4), 1852 in Moscow. Russian prose writer, playwright, poet, critic, publicist, recognized as one of the classics of Russian literature. He came from an old noble family Gogol-Yanovsky.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on March 20 (April 1), 1809 in Sorochintsy near the Psel River, on the border of Poltava and Mirgorod districts (Poltava province). Nicholas was named in honor of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas.

According to family tradition, he came from an old Cossack family and was supposedly a descendant of Ostap Gogol, the hetman of the Right-Bank Army of the Zaporozhian Commonwealth. Some of his ancestors also molested the nobility, and even Gogol's grandfather, Afanasy Demyanovich Gogol-Yanovsky (1738-1805), wrote in an official paper that "his ancestors, with the surname Gogol, of the Polish nation", although most biographers tend to believe that he yet he was a "Little Russian".

A number of researchers, whose opinion was formulated by V.V. Veresaev, believe that the descent from Ostap Gogol could be falsified by Afanasy Demyanovich in order to obtain the nobility, since the priestly pedigree was an insurmountable obstacle to acquiring a noble title.

Great-great-grandfather Jan (Ivan) Yakovlevich, a graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy, “having gone to the Russian side”, settled in the Poltava region, and the nickname “Yanovsky” came from him. (According to another version, they were Yanovskaya, as they lived in the area of ​​Yanov). Having received a letter of nobility in 1792, Afanasy Demyanovich changed his surname "Yanovsky" to "Gogol-Yanovsky". Gogol himself, being baptized "Yanovsky", apparently did not know about the real origin of the surname and subsequently discarded it, saying that the Poles invented it.

Gogol's father, Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky (1777-1825), died when his son was 15 years old. It is believed that the stage activity of his father, who was a wonderful storyteller and wrote plays for the home theater, determined the interests of the future writer - Gogol showed an early interest in the theater.

Gogol's mother, Maria Ivanovna (1791-1868), born. Kosyarovskaya, was married off at the age of fourteen in 1805. According to contemporaries, she was exceptionally pretty. The groom was twice her age.

In addition to Nicholas, the family had eleven more children. There were six boys and six girls in total. The first two boys were born dead. Gogol was the third child. The fourth son was Ivan (1810-1819), who died early. Then a daughter, Maria (1811-1844), was born. All middle children also died in infancy. The last daughters born were Anna (1821-1893), Elizabeth (1823-1864) and Olga (1825-1907).

Life in the village before school and after, during the holidays, went on in the fullest atmosphere of the Little Russian life, both pan and peasant. Subsequently, these impressions formed the basis of Gogol's Little Russian stories, served as the reason for his historical and ethnographic interests; later, from St. Petersburg, Gogol constantly turned to his mother when he needed new everyday details for his stories. The influence of the mother is attributed to the inclinations of religiosity and mysticism, which by the end of his life took possession of Gogol's entire being.

At the age of ten, Gogol was taken to Poltava to one of the local teachers to prepare for the gymnasium; then he entered the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn (from May 1821 to June 1828). Gogol was not a diligent student, but he had an excellent memory, he prepared for exams in a few days and moved from class to class; he was very weak in languages ​​and made progress only in drawing and Russian literature.

The high school of higher sciences itself, in the first years of its existence, was not very well organized, apparently, was partly to blame for the poor teaching; for example, history was taught by cramming, the literature teacher Nikolsky extolled the importance of Russian literature of the 18th century and did not approve of the contemporary poetry of Pushkin and Zhukovsky, which, however, only increased the interest of high school students in romantic literature. The lessons of moral education were supplemented by a rod. Got it and Gogol.

The shortcomings of the school were made up for by self-education in a circle of comrades, where there were people who shared literary interests with Gogol (Gerasim Vysotsky, who apparently had a considerable influence on him then; Alexander Danilevsky, who remained his friend for life, like Nikolai Prokopovich; Nestor Kukolnik, with whom, however, Gogol never got along).

The comrades subscribed to magazines; started their own handwritten journal, where Gogol wrote a lot in verse. At that time, he wrote elegiac poems, tragedies, a historical poem and a story, as well as a satire "Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written for fools." With literary interests, a love for the theater also developed, where Gogol, already distinguished by unusual comedy, was the most zealous participant (from the second year of his stay in Nizhyn). Gogol's youthful experiences developed in the style of romantic rhetoric - not in the taste of Pushkin, whom Gogol already admired then, but rather in the taste of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky.

The death of his father was a heavy blow to the entire family. Worries about affairs also fall on Gogol; he gives advice, reassures his mother, must think about the future organization of his own affairs. The mother idolizes her son Nikolai, considers him a genius, she gives him the last of her meager means to ensure his life in Nizhyn, and later in St. Petersburg. Nikolai also paid her all his life with ardent filial love, but there was no complete understanding and trusting relationship between them. Later, he will give up his share in the common family inheritance in favor of the sisters in order to devote himself entirely to literature.

By the end of his stay at the gymnasium, he dreams of a wide social activity, which, however, he does not see at all in the literary field; no doubt under the influence of everything around him, he thinks to come forward and benefit society in a service for which he was in fact incapable. Thus plans for the future were unclear; but Gogol was sure that a wide field lay ahead of him; he is already talking about the indications of providence and cannot be satisfied with what simple townsfolk are content with, as he puts it, as most of his Nizhyn comrades were.

In December 1828 Gogol moved to St. Petersburg. Here, for the first time, a cruel disappointment awaited him: modest means turned out to be quite insignificant in a big city, and brilliant hopes were not realized as soon as he expected. His letters home from that time are a mixture of this disappointment and a hazy hope for a better future. In reserve he had a lot of character and practical enterprise: he tried to enter the stage, become an official, surrender to literature.

He was not accepted as an actor; the service was so empty of content that he became weary of it; the more attracted his literary field. In Petersburg, for the first time, he kept to the society of fellow countrymen, which consisted partly of former comrades. He found that Little Russia arouses keen interest in St. Petersburg society; experienced failures turned his poetic dreams to his native land, and from here arose the first plans for a work that was supposed to give an outcome to the need for artistic creativity, as well as bring practical benefits: these were the plans for Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.

But before that, under the pseudonym of V. Alov, he published the romantic idyll “Hanz Küchelgarten” (1829), which was written back in Nizhyn (he himself marked it in 1827) and the hero of which was given those ideal dreams and aspirations that he had been fulfilled in recent years. years of Nizhyn life. Soon after the book was published, he himself destroyed its circulation, when criticism was unfavorable to his work.

In a restless search for life's work, Gogol at that time went abroad, by sea to Lübeck, but a month later he returned again to St. Petersburg (September 1829) - and after that he explained his act by the fact that God showed him the way to a foreign land, or referred to hopeless love . In reality, he fled from himself, from the discord of his lofty and arrogant dreams with practical life. "He was drawn to some fantastic land of happiness and reasonable productive labor," says his biographer; America seemed to him to be such a country. In fact, instead of America, he ended up in the service of the III Division thanks to the patronage of Faddey Bulgarin. However, his stay there was short-lived. Ahead of him was a service in the department of appanages (April 1830), where he remained until 1832.

In 1830, the first literary acquaintances were made: Orest Somov, Baron Delvig, Pyotr Pletnev. In 1831, there was a rapprochement with the circle of Zhukovsky and Pushkin, which had a decisive influence on his future fate and on his literary activity.

The failure of the Hanz Küchelgarten was a tangible indication of the need for another literary path; but even earlier, from the first months of 1829, Gogol besieged his mother with requests to send him information about Little Russian customs, traditions, costumes, as well as to send “notes kept by the ancestors of some ancient family, ancient manuscripts”, etc. All this was material for future stories from Little Russian life and legends, which became the beginning of his literary fame. He already took some part in the publications of that time: at the beginning of 1830, Svinin’s “Notes of the Fatherland” published (with editorial changes) “Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala”; at the same time (1829) "Sorochinsky Fair" and "May Night" were started or written.

Gogol published other works then in the publications of Baron Delvig "Literary Gazette" and "Northern Flowers", where a chapter from the historical novel "Hetman" was placed. Perhaps Delvig recommended him to Zhukovsky, who received Gogol with great cordiality: apparently, the mutual sympathy of people who were kindred in love for art, in religiosity, prone to mysticism, affected from the first time - after they became very close.

Zhukovsky handed over the young man to Pletnev with a request to attach him, and indeed, in February 1831, Pletnev recommended Gogol to the post of teacher at the Patriotic Institute, where he himself was an inspector. Having got to know Gogol better, Pletnev was waiting for an opportunity to “bring him under the blessing of Pushkin”: this happened in May of that year. Gogol's entry into this circle, which soon appreciated the great nascent talent in him, had a huge impact on Gogol's fate. Before him opened, finally, the prospect of broad activities, which he dreamed of - but in the field not official, but literary.

In material terms, Gogol could be helped by the fact that, in addition to a place at the institute, Pletnev gave him the opportunity to conduct private classes with the Longinovs, Balabins, Vasilchikovs; but the main thing was the moral influence that this new environment had on Gogol. In 1834 he was appointed to the post of adjunct in the department of history at St. Petersburg University. He entered the circle of people who stood at the head of Russian fiction: his long-standing poetic aspirations could develop in all breadth, an instinctive understanding of art could become a deep consciousness; Pushkin's personality made an extraordinary impression on him and forever remained an object of worship for him. Service to art became for him a high and strict moral duty, the requirements of which he tried to fulfill sacredly.

Hence, by the way, his slow manner of work, the long definition and development of the plan and all the details. The company of people with a broad literary education was generally useful for a young man with meager knowledge taken out of school: his observation becomes deeper, and with each new work his creative level reaches new heights.

At Zhukovsky's, Gogol met a select circle, partly literary, partly aristocratic; in the latter, he soon began a relationship that played a significant role in his future life, for example, with the Vielgorskys; at the Balabins he met the brilliant lady-in-waiting Alexandra Rosetti (later Smirnova). The horizon of his life observations expanded, long-standing aspirations gained ground, and Gogol's high concept of his destiny became the ultimate conceit: on the one hand, his mood became sublimely idealistic, on the other, the prerequisites for religious quests arose, which marked the last years of his life.

This time was the most active era of his work. After small works, partly named above, his first major literary work, which laid the foundation for his fame, was "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". The stories published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank, published in St. Petersburg in 1831 and 1832, in two parts (the first included Sorochinskaya Fair, Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala, May Night, or the Drowned Woman, The Lost Letter; in the second - "The Night Before Christmas", "A Terrible Revenge, an Old True Story", "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt", "The Enchanted Place").

These stories, depicting pictures of Ukrainian life in an unprecedented way, shining with cheerfulness and subtle humor, made a great impression on. The next collections were first "Arabesques", then "Mirgorod", both published in 1835 and compiled partly from articles published in 1830-1834, and partly from new works published for the first time. That's when Gogol's literary glory became indisputable.

He grew up in the eyes of both his inner circle and the younger literary generation in general. In the meantime, events were taking place in Gogol's personal life that influenced in various ways the internal warehouse of his thoughts and fantasies and his external affairs. In 1832, he was at home for the first time after completing a course in Nizhyn. The path lay through Moscow, where he met people who later became his more or less close friends: Mikhail Pogodin, Mikhail Maksimovich, Mikhail Shchepkin, Sergei Aksakov.

At first, staying at home surrounded him with impressions of his beloved environment, memories of the past, but then with severe disappointments. Household affairs were upset; Gogol himself was no longer the enthusiastic young man he left his homeland: life experience taught him to look deeper into reality and see its often sad, even tragic basis behind its outer shell. Soon his "Evenings" began to seem to him a superficial youthful experience, the fruit of that "youth during which no questions come to mind."

Ukrainian life even at that time provided material for his imagination, but the mood was different: in the stories of Mirgorod this sad note constantly sounds, reaching high pathos. Returning to St. Petersburg, Gogol worked hard on his works: this was generally the most active time of his creative activity; he continued, at the same time, to build life plans.

From the end of 1833, he was carried away by an idea as unrealizable as his previous plans for service were unrealizable: it seemed to him that he could act in the academic field. At that time, the opening of Kyiv University was being prepared, and he dreamed of taking the department of history there, which he taught to girls at the Patriot Institute. Maksimovich was invited to Kyiv; Gogol dreamed of starting studies in Kyiv with him, he wanted to invite Pogodin there as well; in Kyiv, Russian Athens appeared to his imagination, where he himself thought of writing something unprecedented in world history.

However, it turned out that the chair of history was given to another person; but soon, thanks to the influence of his high literary friends, he was offered the same department at St. Petersburg University. He really took this pulpit; several times he managed to give a spectacular lecture, but then the task proved beyond his strength, and he himself abandoned the professorship in 1835. In 1834 he wrote several articles on the history of the Western and Eastern Middle Ages.

In 1832, his work was somewhat suspended due to domestic and personal troubles. But already in 1833 he again worked hard, and the result of these years were the two collections mentioned. First, “Arabesques” (two parts, St. Petersburg, 1835) were published, where several articles of popular scientific content on history and art were published (“Sculpture, Painting and Music”; “A Few Words about Pushkin”; “On Architecture”; “ On the Teaching of World History"; "A Look at the Compilation of Little Russia"; "On Little Russian Songs", etc.), but at the same time also new stories "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Notes of a Madman".

Then in the same year “Mirgorod. Tales that serve as a continuation of Evenings on a farm near Dikanka ”(two parts, St. Petersburg, 1835). A number of works were placed here, in which new striking features of Gogol's talent were revealed. In the first part of "Mirgorod" appeared "Old World Landowners" and "Taras Bulba"; in the second - "Viy" and "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."

Subsequently (1842) "Taras Bulba" was completely revised by Gogol. Being a professional historian, Gogol used factual materials to build the plot and develop the characteristic characters of the novel. The events that formed the basis of the novel are the peasant-Cossack uprisings of 1637-1638, led by Gunya and Ostryanin. Apparently, the writer used the diaries of a Polish eyewitness to these events - military chaplain Simon Okolsky.

By the beginning of the thirties, the plans of some other works of Gogol, such as the famous "Overcoat", "Carriage", perhaps "Portrait" in its reworked version, date back; these works appeared in Pushkin's Sovremennik (1836) and Pletnev (1842) and in the first collected works (1842); a later sojourn in Italy includes "Rome" in Pogodin's "Moskvityanin" (1842).

By 1834, the first concept of the "Inspector General" is attributed. The surviving manuscripts of Gogol indicate that he worked extremely carefully on his works: from what has survived from these manuscripts, it is clear how the work in its finished form known to us grew gradually from the original sketch, becoming more and more complicated with details and finally reaching that amazing artistic fullness and vitality, with which we know them at the end of a process that sometimes dragged on for years.

The main plot of The Inspector General, as well as the plot of Dead Souls, was communicated to Gogol by Pushkin. The entire creation, from the plan to the last details, was the fruit of Gogol's own creativity: an anecdote that could be told in a few lines turned into a rich work of art.

The "Auditor" caused an endless work of determining the plan and execution details; there are a number of sketches, in whole and in parts, and the first printed form of the comedy appeared in 1836. The old passion for the theater took possession of Gogol to an extraordinary degree: the comedy never left his head; he was tormented by the thought of being face to face with society; he took care with the greatest care that the play be performed in accordance with his own idea of ​​character and action; the production met various obstacles, including censorship, and finally could be realized only at the behest of Emperor Nicholas.

The Inspector General had an extraordinary effect: the Russian stage had never seen anything like it; the reality of Russian life was conveyed with such force and truth that although, as Gogol himself said, it was only about six provincial officials who turned out to be rogues, the whole society rebelled against him, which felt that it was about a whole principle, about a whole order life, in which it itself abides.

But, on the other hand, the comedy was greeted with the greatest enthusiasm by those elements of society who were aware of the existence of these shortcomings and the need to overcome them, and especially by the young literary generation, who saw here once again, as in the previous works of their beloved writer, a whole revelation, a new, emerging period of Russian art and Russian society. Thus, The Inspector General split public opinion. If for the conservative-bureaucratic part of society the play seemed like a demarche, then for the seeking and free-thinking admirers of Gogol it was a definite manifesto.

Gogol himself was interested, first of all, in the literary aspect; in public terms, he was completely on the point of view of his friends in the Pushkin circle, he only wanted more honesty and truth in the given order of things, and therefore he was especially struck by the discordant noise of misunderstanding that arose around his play. Subsequently, in the "Theatrical tour after the presentation of a new comedy", on the one hand, he conveyed the impression that the "Inspector General" made in various sectors of society, and on the other hand, he expressed his own thoughts about the great significance of theater and artistic truth.

The first dramatic plans appeared to Gogol even earlier than The Inspector General. In 1833 he was absorbed by the comedy "Vladimir of the 3rd degree"; she was not finished by him, but her material served for several dramatic episodes, such as "Morning of a Businessman", "Litigation", "Lakey's" and "Fragment". The first of these plays appeared in Pushkin's Sovremennik (1836), the rest in his first collected works (1842).

In the same meeting appeared for the first time "Marriage", the outlines of which date back to the same year 1833, and "Players", conceived in the mid-1830s. Tired of the creative tension of recent years and the moral anxieties that The Inspector General cost him, Gogol decided to take a break from work, having gone on a trip abroad.

In June 1836, Nikolai Vasilyevich went abroad, where he stayed intermittently for about ten years. At first, life abroad seemed to strengthen and reassure him, gave him the opportunity to complete his greatest work - Dead Souls, but became the embryo of deeply fatal phenomena. The experience of working with this book, the contradictory reaction of contemporaries to it, just as in the case of The Inspector General, convinced him of the enormous influence and ambiguous power of his talent over the minds of his contemporaries. This idea gradually began to take shape in the idea of ​​his prophetic destiny, and, accordingly, about the use of his prophetic gift by the power of his talent for the benefit of society, and not to its detriment.

Abroad, he lived in Germany, Switzerland, spent the winter with A. Danilevsky in Paris, where he met and especially became close to Smirnova and where he was caught by the news of Pushkin's death, which struck him terribly.

In March 1837, he was in Rome, which he fell extremely fond of and became for him, as it were, a second home. European political and social life has always remained alien and completely unfamiliar to Gogol; he was attracted by nature and works of art, and Rome at that time represented precisely these interests. Gogol studied antiquities, art galleries, visited the workshops of artists, admired the life of the people and liked to show Rome, "treat" them to visiting Russian acquaintances and friends.

But in Rome he worked hard: the main subject of this work was "Dead Souls", conceived back in St. Petersburg in 1835; here, in Rome, he finished The Overcoat, wrote the story Anunziata, later remade into Rome, wrote a tragedy from the life of the Cossacks, which, however, he destroyed after several alterations.

In the autumn of 1839, together with Pogodin, he went to Russia, to Moscow, where he was met by the Aksakovs, who were enthusiastic about the writer's talent. Then he went to Petersburg, where he had to take the sisters from the institute; then he returned to Moscow again; in St. Petersburg and Moscow, he read the completed chapters of Dead Souls to his closest friends.

Having arranged his affairs, Gogol again went abroad, to his beloved Rome; he promised his friends to return in a year and bring the finished first volume of Dead Souls. By the summer of 1841, the first volume was ready. In September of this year, Gogol went to Russia to print his book.

He again had to go through severe anxieties, which he once experienced when staging The Inspector General on stage. The book was first submitted to the Moscow censorship, which was going to completely ban it; then the book was given to the censorship of St. Petersburg and, thanks to the participation of influential friends of Gogol, was, with some exceptions, allowed. She was published in Moscow (“The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls, a poem by N. Gogol”, M., 1842).

In June Gogol went abroad again. This last stay abroad was the final turning point in Gogol's state of mind. He lived first in Rome, then in Germany, in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, then in Nice, then in Paris, then in Ostend, often in the circle of his closest friends - Zhukovsky, Smirnova, Vielgorsky, Tolstoy, and in him religious - the prophetic direction mentioned above.

A high idea of ​​​​his talent and the duty that lay on him led him to the conviction that he was doing something providential: in order to expose human vices and look at life broadly, one must strive for inner perfection, which is given only by divine thinking. Several times he had to endure serious illnesses, which further increased his religious mood; in his circle he found a favorable ground for the development of religious exaltation - he adopted a prophetic tone, self-confidently instructed his friends, and finally came to the conclusion that what he had done so far was unworthy of the lofty goal to which he considered himself called. If before he said that the first volume of his poem is nothing more than a porch to the palace that is being built in it, then at that time he was ready to reject everything he wrote as sinful and unworthy of his high mission.

Nikolai Gogol from childhood did not differ in good health. The death in adolescence of his younger brother Ivan, the untimely death of his father left an imprint on his state of mind. Work on the continuation of "Dead Souls" did not stick, and the writer experienced painful doubts that he would be able to bring the planned work to the end.

In the summer of 1845, he was overtaken by a painful spiritual crisis. He writes a will, burns the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls.

To commemorate the deliverance from death, Gogol decides to enter a monastery and become a monk, but monasticism did not take place. But his mind presented the new content of the book, enlightened and purified; it seemed to him that he understood how to write in order to "direct the whole society towards the beautiful." He decides to serve God in the field of literature. A new work began, and in the meantime another thought occupied him: he rather wanted to tell society what he considered useful to him, and he decides to collect in one book everything he had written in recent years to friends in the spirit of his new mood and instructed to publish this Pletnev's book. These were "Selected passages from correspondence with friends" (St. Petersburg, 1847).

Most of the letters that make up this book date from 1845 and 1846, the time when Gogol's religious mood reached its highest development. The 1840s is the time of the formation and demarcation of two different ideologies in the contemporary Russian educated society. Gogol remained a stranger to this demarcation, despite the fact that each of the two warring parties - the Westernizers and the Slavophiles, laid claim to Gogol's legal rights. The book made a heavy impression on both of them, since Gogol thought in completely different categories. Even his Aksakov friends turned their backs on him.

Gogol with his tone of prophecy and edification, his preaching of humility, which, however, showed his own conceit; condemnation of previous works, the complete approval of the existing social order, clearly dissonant with those ideologists who relied only on the social reorganization of society. Gogol, without rejecting the expediency of social restructuring, saw the main goal in spiritual self-improvement. Therefore, for many years, the works of the Fathers of the Church became the subject of his study. But, without joining either the Westernizers or the Slavophiles, Gogol stopped halfway, without fully joining the spiritual literature - Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), and others.

The impression of the book on Gogol's literary admirers, who wished to see in him only the leader of the "natural school", was depressing. The highest degree of indignation aroused by the "Selected Places" was expressed in a famous letter from Salzbrunn.

Gogol painfully experienced the failure of his book. Only A. O. Smirnova and P. A. Pletnev were able to support him at that moment, but those were only private epistolary opinions. He explained the attacks on her in part both by his own mistake, by exaggerating the didactic tone, and by the fact that the censors did not miss several important letters in the book; but he could explain the attacks of former literary adherents only by the calculations of parties and vanities. The public meaning of this controversy was alien to him.

In a similar sense, he then wrote the "Preface to the second edition of Dead Souls"; "Decoupling of the Inspector", where he wanted to give a free artistic creation the character of a moralizing allegory, and "Forewarning", where it was announced that the fourth and fifth editions of the "Inspector" would be sold in favor of the poor ... The failure of the book had an overwhelming effect on Gogol. He had to confess that a mistake had been made; even friends, like S. T. Aksakov, told him that the mistake was gross and pitiful; he himself confessed to Zhukovsky: “I swung in my book with such Khlestakov that I don’t have the spirit to look into it.”

In his letters from 1847 there is no longer the former haughty tone of preaching and edification; he saw that it is possible to describe Russian life only in the midst of it and by studying it. Religious feeling remained his refuge: he decided that he could not continue his work without fulfilling his long-standing intention to bow to the Holy Sepulcher. At the end of 1847 he moved to Naples and at the beginning of 1848 sailed to Palestine, from where he finally returned to Russia via Constantinople and Odessa.

The stay in Jerusalem did not produce the effect he expected. “Never before have I been so little satisfied with the state of my heart as in Jerusalem and after Jerusalem,” he says. “It was as if I was at the Holy Sepulcher in order to feel there on the spot how much coldness of the heart is in me, how much selfishness and pride.”

He continued to work on the second volume of "Dead Souls" and read excerpts from it from the Aksakovs, but it continued the same painful struggle between the artist and the Christian that had been going on in him since the early forties. As was his wont, he redid what he had written many times, probably succumbing to one or another mood. Meanwhile, his health was getting weaker and weaker; in January 1852, he was struck by the death of A. S. Khomyakov's wife, Ekaterina Mikhailovna, who was the sister of his friend N. M. Yazykov; he was seized by the fear of death; he gave up literary studies, began to fast at Shrove Tuesday; One day, when he was spending the night in prayer, he heard voices saying that he would soon die.

From the end of January 1852, the Rzhev archpriest Matthew Konstantinovsky, whom Gogol met in 1849, and before that he had known by correspondence, visited the house of Count Alexander Tolstoy. Between them there were complex, sometimes harsh conversations, the main content of which was Gogol's insufficient humility and piety, for example, the demand of Fr. Matthew: "Renounce Pushkin." Gogol invited him to read the white version of the second part of "Dead Souls" for review, in order to listen to his opinion, but was refused by the priest. Gogol insisted on his point until he took the notebooks with the manuscript to read. Archpriest Matthew became the only lifetime reader of the manuscript of the 2nd part. Returning it to the author, he spoke out against the publication of a number of chapters, "even asked to destroy" them (earlier, he also gave a negative review to "Selected places ...", calling the book "harmful").

The death of Khomyakova, the condemnation of Konstantinovsky, and, perhaps, other reasons convinced Gogol to abandon creativity and start fasting a week before Lent. On February 5, he sees off Konstantinovsky and from that day on he has hardly eaten anything. On February 10, he handed over to Count A. Tolstoy a briefcase with manuscripts for transfer to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, but the count refused this order so as not to aggravate Gogol in gloomy thoughts.

Gogol stops leaving the house. At 3 o'clock in the morning from Monday to Tuesday 11-12 (23-24) February 1852, that is, on Great Compline on Monday of the first week of Great Lent, Gogol woke Semyon's servant, ordered him to open the oven valves and bring a briefcase from the closet. Taking a bunch of notebooks out of it, Gogol put them in the fireplace and burned them. The next morning, he told Count Tolstoy that he wanted to burn only some things that had been prepared in advance for that, but he burned everything under the influence of an evil spirit. Gogol, despite the exhortations of his friends, continued to strictly observe the fast; On February 18, he went to bed and stopped eating altogether. All this time, friends and doctors are trying to help the writer, but he refuses help, internally preparing for death.

On February 20, a medical consultation (Professor A.E. Evenius, Professor S.I. Klimenkov, Doctor K.I. Sokologorsky, Doctor A.T. Tarasenkov, Professor I.V. Varvinsky, Professor A.A. Alfonsky, Professor A. I. Over) decides on compulsory treatment of Gogol, which resulted in final exhaustion and loss of strength, in the evening he fell into unconsciousness, and died on the morning of February 21 on Thursday.

The inventory of Gogol's property showed that after him there were personal belongings worth 43 rubles 88 kopecks. The items included in the inventory were complete cast-offs and spoke of the writer's complete indifference to his appearance in the last months of his life. At the same time, S.P. Shevyryov had more than two thousand rubles in his hands, donated by Gogol for charitable purposes to needy students of Moscow University. Gogol did not consider this money his own, and Shevyryov did not return it to the writer's heirs.

At the initiative of Moscow State University Professor Timofey Granovsky, the funeral was held as a public one; contrary to the initial wishes of Gogol's friends, at the insistence of his superiors, the writer was buried in the university church of the martyr Tatiana. The funeral took place on Sunday afternoon February 24 (March 7), 1852 at the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. A bronze cross was installed on the grave, which stood on a black tombstone (“Golgotha”), and the inscription was carved on it: “I will laugh at my bitter word” (quote from the book of the prophet Jeremiah, 20, 8). According to legend, I. S. Aksakov himself chose the stone for Gogol's grave somewhere in the Crimea (cutters called it "Black Sea granite").

In 1930, the Danilov Monastery was finally closed, the necropolis was soon liquidated. On May 31, 1931, Gogol's grave was opened and his remains were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery. Golgotha ​​was also transferred there.

The official report of the examination, drawn up by the NKVD and now stored in the RGALI (f. 139, No. 61), disputes the unreliable and mutually exclusive recollections of the participant and witness of the exhumation of the writer Vladimir Lidin. According to one of his memoirs (“Transferring the ashes of N.V. Gogol”), written fifteen years after the event and published posthumously in 1991 in the Russian Archive, the writer’s skull was missing from Gogol’s grave. According to his other memoirs, transmitted in the form of oral stories to students of the Literary Institute when Lidin was a professor at this institute in the 1970s, Gogol's skull was turned on its side. This, in particular, is evidenced by a former student V. G. Lidina, and later a senior researcher at the State Literary Museum Yu. V. Alekhin. Both of these versions are apocryphal in nature, and they gave rise to many legends, including the burial of Gogol in a state of lethargic sleep and the abduction of Gogol's skull for the collection of the famous Moscow collector of theatrical antiquities A. A. Bakhrushin. Of the same contradictory nature are numerous memories of the desecration of Gogol's grave by Soviet writers (and Lidin himself) during the exhumation of Gogol's burial, published by the media according to V. G. Lidin.

In 1952, instead of Calvary, a new monument was erected on the grave in the form of a pedestal with a bust of Gogol by the sculptor Tomsky, on which is inscribed: "To the great Russian artist, words to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol from the government of the Soviet Union."

Golgotha, as unnecessary, was for some time in the workshops of the Novodevichy cemetery, where E. S. Bulgakova, who was looking for a suitable tombstone for the grave of her late husband, discovered it with an already scraped inscription. Elena Sergeevna bought the tombstone, after which it was installed over the grave of Mikhail Afanasyevich. Thus, the writer's dream came true: "Teacher, cover me with your cast-iron overcoat."

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth, at the initiative of the members of the organizing committee of the anniversary, the grave was given almost its original appearance: a bronze cross on a black stone.

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 playwright's grandfather 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 only one work of Gogol Sr. has reached modern readers - "The Simpleton, or the Cunning of a Woman Outwitted by a Soldier." It was from his father that Nikolai Vasilyevich adopted his love for literary art and creative talent: it is known that Gogol Jr. began writing poetry from childhood. 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 a 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, the 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 be interested in writing as a student. He admired A.S. Pushkin, although his first creations were far from the style of the great poet, but 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 the dark realm" and helped to escape 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, as only two of Gogol's works were published by magazines - the poem "Italy" and the romantic poem "Hanz 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 Literary Gazette 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 plot ideas for 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 horror film 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 a craving for literature, he also inherited a fatal fate - psychological illness and fear of early death, which began to manifest themselves 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 in the days of the 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. Mystical legends are composed about Gogol, and to this day they argue about the true cause of the death of the visionary.

In the last years of his life, Nikolai Vasilyevich was seized by a 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 a sharp deterioration in health.

The master of the pen refused medical attention, expecting 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 Vasilyevich, postage stamps were issued in the USSR and other countries. Streets, a drama theater, a pedagogical institute and even a crater on the planet Mercury are named after Gogol.

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.

There are interesting facts in the biography of the mysterious playwright, all of which cannot be described even in a whole book.

• According to rumors, Gogol was afraid of thunderstorms, as 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)

This article will discuss the life of Gogol. This writer created many immortal works that rightfully occupy a worthy place in the annals of world literature. Many rumors and legends are associated with his name, some of which Nikolai Vasilievich spread about himself. He was a great inventor and hoaxer, which, of course, was reflected in his work.

Parents

Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich, whose biography is discussed in this article, was born in 1809, on March 20, in the settlement of Velikie Sorochintsy in the Poltava province. On the paternal side, the family of the future writer included church ministers, but the boy's grandfather, Afanasy Demyanovich, left his spiritual career and began working in the hetman's office. It was he who subsequently added to the surname Yanovsky received at birth another, more famous - Gogol. So the ancestor of Nikolai Vasilyevich sought to emphasize his kinship with Colonel Ostap Gogol, well-known in Ukrainian history, who lived in the 17th century.

The father of the future writer - Gogol-Yanovsky Vasily Afanasyevich - was an exalted and dreamy man. This can be judged from the history of his marriage to the daughter of a local landowner, Kosyarovskaya Maria Ivanovna. As a thirteen-year-old teenager, Vasily Afanasyevich saw in a dream the Mother of God, pointing out to him a little unfamiliar girl as a future wife. After some time, the boy recognized the heroine of his dream in the seven-month-old daughter of the Kosyarovsky neighbors. From an early age, he anxiously looked after his chosen one and married Maria Ivanovna, as soon as she was 14 years old. Gogol's family lived in great love and harmony. The biography of the writer began in 1809, when the couple finally had their first child, Nikolai. Parents were kind to the baby, tried their best to protect him from any troubles and upheavals.

Childhood

Gogol's biography, a summary of which will be useful for everyone to know, began in truly greenhouse conditions. Dad and mom adored the baby and did not refuse him anything. In addition to him, the family had eleven more children, but most of them died in middle age. However, Nikolai, of course, enjoyed the greatest love.

The writer spent his childhood years in Vasilievka, the parental estate. The town of Kibintsy was considered the cultural center of this region. It was the fiefdom of D.T. Troshchinsky, a former minister and a distant relative of the Yanovsky-Gogols. He held the post of district marshal (that is, he was the district marshal of the nobility), and Vasily Afanasyevich was listed as his secretary. Theatrical performances were often held in Kibitsy, in which the father of the future writer took an active part. Nikolai often attended rehearsals, was very proud of it, and at home, inspired by the work of the pope, he wrote good poetry. However, Gogol's first literary experiments have not been preserved. And as a child, he drew well and even organized an exhibition of his paintings in his parental estate.

Education

Together with his younger brother Ivan in 1818 he was sent to the Poltava district school and Nikolai Gogol. The biography of a home boy, accustomed to greenhouse conditions, went according to a completely different scenario. His cozy childhood was rapidly coming to an end. At the school, he was taught a very strict discipline, but Nikolai did not show much zeal for the sciences. The very first holidays ended in a terrible tragedy - brother Ivan died of an unknown illness. After his death, all the hopes of the parents were placed on Nikolai. He needed to get a better education, for which he was sent to study at the Nizhyn Classical Gymnasium. The conditions here were very harsh: children were raised daily at 5.30 am, and classes lasted from 9.00 to 17.00. In the remaining time, the students were supposed to study their lessons and pray diligently.

However, the future writer managed to get used to the local order. Soon he made friends, well-known and respected people in the future: Nestor Kukolnik, Nikolai Prokopovich, Konstantin Bazili, Alexander Danilevsky. All of them, having matured, became famous writers. And this is not surprising! While still high school students, they founded several handwritten magazines: "Meteor of Literature", "Dawn of the North", "Star" and others. In addition, teenagers were passionately fond of the theater. Moreover, Gogol's creative biography could well have been different - many predicted for him the fate of a famous actor. However, the young man dreamed of public service and, after graduating from high school, resolutely went to St. Petersburg to make a career.

Official

Together with his friend from the gymnasium Danilevsky in 1828, Gogol went to the capital. Petersburg met young people unfriendly, they were constantly in need of money and unsuccessfully tried to find a decent job. At this time, Nikolai Vasilyevich was trying to earn a living through literary experiments. However, his first poem "Hanz Kühelgarten" was not successful. In 1829, the writer began to serve in the department of state economy and public buildings of the Ministry of the Interior, then worked for almost a year in the department of appanages under the supervision of the famous poet V.I. Panaev. Staying in the offices of various departments helped Nikolai Vasilyevich to collect the richest material for future works. However, the public service forever disappointed the writer. Fortunately, he was soon in for a truly dizzying success in the literary field.

Fame

In 1831 Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka were published. "Here is real gaiety, sincere, unconstrained ..." - Pushkin said about this work. Now the personality and biography of Gogol have become interesting to the most famous people in Russia. His talent was readily recognized by all. Nikolai Vasilyevich was beside himself with joy and constantly wrote letters to his mother and sisters asking them to send him more material about Little Russian folk customs.

In 1836, the famous "Petersburg story" of the writer - "The Nose" - was published. In this extremely daring work for its time, worship of rank is ridiculed in its smallest and sometimes disgusting manifestations. At the same time, Gogol created the work "Taras Bulba". The biography and work of the writer are inextricably linked with his dear homeland - Ukraine. In "Taras Bulba" Nikolai Vasilyevich tells about the heroic past of his country, about how the representatives of the people (Cossacks) fearlessly defended their independence from the Polish invaders.

"Inspector"

How much trouble this play gave the author! Being a brilliant writer and playwright who far anticipated his time, Nikolai Vasilievich was never able to convey to his contemporaries the meaning of his immortal work. The plot of The Inspector General was presented to Gogol by Pushkin. Inspired by the great poet, the author wrote it in just a few months. In the autumn of 1835, the first drafts appeared, and in 1836, on January 18, the first hearing of the play took place at the evening at Zhukovsky's. On April 19, the premiere of The Government Inspector took place on the stage of the Alexandria Theatre. Nicholas the First himself came to it together with the heir. They say that after watching the emperor said: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, but I - more than anyone! However, Nikolai Vasilievich was not laughing. He, a convinced monarchist, was accused of revolutionary sentiments, undermining the foundations of society, and God knows what else. But he was simply trying to ridicule the abuse of local officials, his goal was morality, and not politics at all. The upset writer left the country and went on a long trip abroad.

Abroad

An interesting biography of Gogol abroad deserves special attention. In total, the writer spent twelve years on "saving" journeys. In 1936, Nikolai Vasilievich did not limit himself to anything: at the beginning of the summer he settled in Germany, spent the autumn in Switzerland, and came to Paris for the winter. During this time, he made great progress in writing the novel Dead Souls. The plot of the work was suggested to the author by the same Pushkin. He highly appreciated the first chapters of the novel, recognizing that Russia, in essence, is a very sad country.

In February 1837, Gogol, whose biography is interesting and instructive, moved to Rome. Here he learned about the death of Alexander Sergeevich. In desperation, Nikolai Vasilyevich decided that "Dead Souls" was the poet's "sacred testament", which must necessarily see the light of day. Zhukovsky arrived in Rome in 1838. Gogol enjoyed walking along the streets of the city with the poet, painting local landscapes with him.

Return to Russia

In 1839, in September, the writer returned to Moscow. Now Gogol's creative biography is devoted to the publication of "Dead Souls". The summary of the work is already known to many friends of Nikolai Vasilyevich. He read individual chapters of the novel at the Aksakovs' house, at Prokopovich's and Zhukovsky's. His closest circle of friends became his listeners. All of them were delighted with the creation of Gogol. In 1842, in May, the first publication of "Dead Souls" was published. At first, the reviews about the work were mostly positive, then the ill-wishers of Nikolai Vasilyevich seized the initiative. They accused the writer of slander, caricature, farce. A truly devastating article was written by N. A. Polevoy. However, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol did not take part in all this controversy. The biography of the writer continued abroad again.

Affairs of the Heart

Gogol never married. Very little is known about his serious relationships with women. His longtime and devoted friend was Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova. When she came to Rome, Nikolai Vasilyevich became her guide in the ancient city. In addition, a very lively correspondence was conducted between friends. However, the woman was married, so the relationship between her and the writer was only platonic. Gogol's biography is adorned with another heartfelt passion. A brief history of his personal relationships with women says: one day the writer nevertheless decided to marry. He became interested in the young Countess Anna Villegorskaya and proposed to her in the late 1940s. The girl's parents were against this marriage, and the writer was refused. Nikolai Vasilievich was greatly depressed by this story, and since then he has not tried to arrange his personal life.

Work on the second volume

Before leaving, the author of "Dead Souls" decided to publish the first collection of his own works. He, as always, needed money. However, he himself did not want to deal with this troublesome business and entrusted this matter to his friend - Prokopovich. In the summer of 1842, the writer was in Germany, and in the fall he moved to Rome. Here he worked on the second volume of Dead Souls. Almost the entire creative biography of Gogol is devoted to writing this novel. The most important thing he wanted to do at that moment was to show the image of an ideal Russian citizen: smart, strong and principled. However, the work is progressing with great difficulty, and at the beginning of 1845 the writer had the first signs of a large-scale mental crisis.

Last years

The writer continued to write his novel, but was increasingly distracted by other things. For example, he composed The Examiner's Denouement, which radically changed the entire previous interpretation of the play. Then, in 1847, "Selected passages from correspondence with friends" were printed in St. Petersburg. In this book, Nikolai Vasilievich tried to explain why the second volume of "Dead Souls" had not yet been written, and expressed doubts about the educational role of fiction.

A whole storm of public indignation fell upon the writer. "Selected Places ..." is the most controversial moment that marked Gogol's creative biography. A brief history of the creation of this work suggests that it was written in a moment of spiritual confusion of the writer, his desire to move away from his former positions and start a new life.

Manuscript burning

In general, the writer burned his writings more than once. This, one might say, was his bad habit. In 1829, he did this with his poem Hans Küchelgarten, and in 1840 with the Little Russian tragedy Shaved Mustache, which Zhukovsky could not impress. At the beginning of 1845, the writer's health deteriorated sharply, he constantly consulted with various medical celebrities and went to water resorts for treatment. He visited Dresden, Berlin, Halle, but could not improve his health. The religious exaltation of the writer gradually increased. He often communicated with his confessor, Father Matthew. He believed that literary creativity distracts from inner life and demanded from the writer that he renounce his divine gift. As a result, on February 11, 1852, Gogol's biography was marked by a fateful event. The most important creation of his life - the second volume of "Dead Souls" - was ruthlessly burned by him.

Death

In April 1848 Gogol returned to Russia. He spent most of his time in Moscow, sometimes he came to St. Petersburg and to his homeland, to Ukraine. The writer read individual chapters from the second volume of "Dead Souls" to his friends, again bathed in the rays of universal love and worship. Nikolai Vasilyevich came to the production of "The Inspector General" at the Maly Theater and is satisfied with the performance. In January 1852, it became known that the novel was "completely finished." However, Gogol's biography was soon marked by a new mental crisis. The main business of his life - literary creativity - seemed to him useless. He burned the second volume of "Dead Souls" and a few days later (February 21, 1852) died in Moscow. He was buried in the cemetery of the St. Danilov Monastery, and in 1931 he was transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery.

Posthumous will

Such is the biography of Gogol. Interesting facts from his life are largely related to his posthumous will. It is well known that he asked not to erect a monument over his grave and not to bury him for several weeks, since sometimes the writer fell into a kind of lethargic sleep. Both wishes of the writer were violated. Gogol was buried a few days after his death, and in 1957 a marble bust of the work of Nikolai Tomsky was installed at the burial site of Nikolai Vasilyevich.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol is a classic of world literature, the author of immortal works filled with an exciting atmosphere of the presence of otherworldly forces (“Viy”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”), striking with a peculiar vision of the world around and fantasy (“Petersburg Tales”), causing a sad smile ( "Dead Souls", "Inspector General"), captivating with the depth and colorfulness of the epic story ("Taras Bulba").

His person is surrounded by a halo of secrets and mysticism. He noted: “I am considered a riddle for everyone ...”. But no matter how unsolved the life and creative path of the writer may seem, only one thing is indisputable - an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian literature.

Childhood

The future writer, whose greatness is not subject to time, was born on April 1, 1809 in the Poltava region, in the family of the landowner Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky. His ancestors were hereditary priests, belonged to an old Cossack family. Grandfather Afanasy Yanovsky, who spoke five languages, himself achieved the gift of a family noble status. My father served at the post office, was engaged in dramaturgy, was familiar with the poets Kotlyarevsky, Gnedich, Kapnist, was the secretary and director of the home theater of ex-senator Dmitry Troshchinsky, his relative, descendant of Ivan Mazepa and Pavel Polubotko.

Mother Maria Ivanovna (nee Kosyarovskaya) lived in the Troshchinskys' house until she was married at the age of 14 to 28-year-old Vasily Afanasyevich. Together with her husband, she participated in performances in the house of her uncle, a senator, and was known as a beauty and a talented person. The future writer became the third child of the couple's twelve children and the oldest of six survivors. He received his name in honor of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas, which was in the church of the village of Dikanka, located fifty kilometers from their town.

A number of biographers have noted that:

Interest in art in the future classic was largely determined by the activities of the head of the family;

Religiosity, creative imagination, and mysticism were influenced by a deeply pious, impressionable, and superstitious mother;

Early acquaintance with samples of Ukrainian folklore, songs, legends, carols, customs affected the themes of the works.

In 1818, the parents sent their 9-year-old son to the Poltava district school. In 1821, with the assistance of Troshchinsky, who loved his mother like his own daughter, and him like a grandson, he became a student at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences (now the Gogol State University), where he showed his creative talent, playing in performances and trying the pen. Among classmates, he was known as a tireless joker, he did not think about writing as a matter of his life, dreaming of doing something significant for the benefit of the whole country. In 1825 his father died. This was a big blow to the young man and his entire family.

In the city on the Neva

After graduating from high school at the age of 19, the young genius from Ukraine moved to the capital of the Russian Empire, making big plans for the future. However, in a foreign city, many problems awaited him - lack of funds, unsuccessful attempts in search of a worthy occupation.

The literary debut - the publication in 1829 of the work "Hanz Kühelgarten" under the pseudonym V. Akulov - brought a lot of critical reviews and new disappointments. In a depressed mood, having weak nerves from birth, he bought up its circulation and burned it, after which he left for Germany for a month.

By the end of the year, he nevertheless managed to get a job in the civil service in one of the departments of the Ministry of the Interior, where he subsequently collected valuable material for his St. Petersburg stories.

In 1830, Gogol published a number of successful literary works (“Woman”, “Thoughts on Teaching Geography”, “Teacher”) and soon became one of the elite word artists (Delvig, Pushkin, Pletnev, Zhukovsky, began teaching at an educational institution for children - orphans of officers of the "Patriotic Institute" to give private lessons In the period 1831-1832 "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" appeared, which received recognition due to its humor and masterful retelling of the mystical Ukrainian epic.

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" - an excerpt from the film

In 1834, he moved to the department of history at St. Petersburg University. On the wave of success, he created and published the essay “Mirgorod”, which included the historical story “Taras Bulba” and the mystical “Viy”, the book “Arabesques”, where he outlined his views on art, wrote the comedy “The Government Inspector”, the idea of ​​which was suggested to him by Pushkin.

Emperor Nicholas I attended the premiere of The Inspector General in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, presenting the author with a diamond ring as a compliment. Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky were in complete admiration for the satirical work, but unlike most critics. In connection with their negative reviews, the writer became depressed and decided to change the situation by going on a trip to Western Europe.

Development of creative activity

The Great Russian writer spent more than ten years abroad - he lived in different countries and cities, in particular, in Vevey, Geneva (Switzerland), Berlin, Baden-Baden, Dresden, Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Rome , Naples (Italy).

The news of the death of Alexander Pushkin in 1837 left him in a state of deepest grief. He took his begun work on "Dead Souls" as a "sacred testament" (the idea of ​​the poem was given to him by the poet).

In March, he arrived in Rome, where he met Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya. In her house, Gogol organized public readings of The Inspector General in support of Ukrainian painters who worked in Italy. In 1839, he suffered a serious illness - malarial encephalitis - and miraculously survived, a year later he went to his homeland for a short time, read excerpts from Dead Souls to his friends. Enthusiasm and approval were universal.

In 1841, he again visited Russia, where he busied himself with the publication of the poem and his "Works" in 4 volumes. From the summer of 1842 abroad, he continued to work on the 2nd volume of the story, conceived as a three-volume work.

Living History - "The Mystery of Gogol's Death"

By 1845, the writer's strength was undermined by intense literary activity. He had deep syncope with numbness of the body and slowing of the pulse rate. He consulted with doctors, followed their recommendations, but there was no improvement in his condition. High demands on himself, dissatisfaction with the level of creative achievements and a critical public reaction to "Selected passages from correspondence with friends" exacerbated the artistic crisis and the author's health problems.

Winter 1847-1848. he spent in Naples, studying historical works, Russian periodicals. In an effort for spiritual renewal, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after which he finally returned home from abroad - he lived with relatives and friends in Little Russia, in Moscow, in Northern Palmyra.

Personal life of Nikolai Gogol

An outstanding writer did not create a family. He has been in love several times. In 1850, he proposed to Countess Anna Villegorskaya, but was refused due to inequality of social status.

He loved sweets, cooking and treating friends to Ukrainian dumplings and dumplings, he was embarrassed by his big nose, he was very attached to the pug Josie, presented by Pushkin, he liked to knit and sew.

There were rumors about his homosexual inclinations, as well as that he was allegedly an agent of the tsarist secret police.

However, having finished work on the 2nd volume of the poem in January 1852, he felt overworked. He was tormented by doubts about success, health problems, a premonition of an imminent death. In February, he fell ill and burned all the last manuscripts on the night of the 11th to the 12th. On the morning of February 21, the outstanding master of the pen was gone.

The exact cause of Gogol's death is still a matter of debate. The version of a lethargic dream and being buried alive was refuted after the dying cast of the writer's face. It is widely believed that Nikolai Vasilyevich suffered from a mental disorder (the psychiatrist V.F. Chizh became the founder of the theory) and, therefore, could not serve himself in everyday life and died of exhaustion. A version was also put forward that the writer was poisoned by a medicine for a gastric disorder with a high content of mercury.