The first foreign city Nikolai Gogol saw. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: biography

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most famous classics of Russian literature. His biography is shrouded in secrets and mysteries. Perhaps this affected the work of the poet and prose writer, because his works are also full of mysticism.

The mysterious story of Gogol

Gogol's life was eventful and full of tragic moments. Even during his lifetime, the poet encountered rumors, often embellished. There were many reasons for this: Gogol was known as a closed person, practically isolated from society. And even though more than a century and a half has passed since the writer’s death, to this day practically nothing is known about his life.

Gogol, interesting facts from whose life continue to be revealed to this day, was inclined to mythologize his own biography. So, he deliberately kept silent about his life and even made up stories that never happened to him in reality.

The family of the great writer and playwright

Do you know what Gogol's real name was? Mysteries surrounded him from birth. The poet came from the respected noble family of Gogol-Yankovsky, which dates back to the 17th century. Family legend says that the founder of this Ukrainian Cossack family was Ostap Gogol, the hetman of Right Bank Ukraine.

Gogol's father is Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yankovsky. Vasily Afanasyevich was a writer, poet and playwright. He wrote his works (mostly plays for small theaters) in Ukrainian. This affected the fate of young Nikolai Vasilyevich, who, unfortunately, lost his father quite early - the boy was barely 15 years old at the time of his death.

The mother of the poet and prose writer was She who is considered the “culprit” of her son’s passion for religiosity and mysticism. In addition to Nikolai Vasilyevich, their family had eleven more children. Gogol was the third, and, in fact, the eldest child in the family - the first two babies were stillborn.

Biographical mystery of the great genius: what was Gogol's name

So what was Gogol's name? Despite the fact that this biographical fact is actively discussed by historians and biographers, at birth, as we all know, the poet received the name Nikolai Vasilyevich. But few know that at birth the boy was named Yanovsky. By the way, from the age of 12 the Russian classic was worn by Gogol-Yanovsky. It is believed that the writer, not knowing the history of the origin of this surname, discarded it because he considered it invented by the Poles.

Now that you know what Gogol’s name was at birth, we’ll tell you other interesting facts from Gogol’s life.

Influences of childhood on Gogol's work

The great playwright spent his entire childhood in the village. The boy was constantly immersed in the atmosphere of Ukrainian life. Moreover, he knew no less about the life of peasants and workers than about the life of the nobility. This affected many of Gogol's works. He was also very passionate about history. Even after leaving for St. Petersburg, the young writer did not stop expanding his knowledge base - in his letters he asked his mother to tell more about the life of peasants and gentlemen.

The boy showed interest in literature and art in general quite early - back in his school years. As a student at the gymnasium, he was passionately interested in amateur theater, which he created together with his comrades.

The writer's school years

At the age of ten, young Nikolai’s parents sent him to the Nizhyn gymnasium. Unfortunately for them, the boy did not succeed at all in his studies, although this was largely the fault of the educational institution.

There were also problems with the study of Russian literature. The teacher of the subject in every possible way denied the cultural significance of such modern writers and poets as Pushkin and Zhukovsky. The result of this approach was the introduction of high school students to the romantic literature of the 19th century.

The formation of N.V. Gogol as a writer

Having completed his studies at the gymnasium in 1828, the classicist left for the city of great opportunities - St. Petersburg. This stage of life became one of the most difficult in his life, but at the same time the most productive. The modest funds left for him by his noblewoman mother to live in the big city were barely enough, and Gogol got a job in the civil service, which he soon became bored with.

Then Nikolai Gogol turned to literature. His first works, published under pseudonyms, were criticized by the public, and the desperate writer went abroad in search of a better life. However, he stayed there for only a month, after which he returned to St. Petersburg.

According to the observations of the future genius of Russian literature, the life and culture of the Ukrainian people attracted not only Little Russians, but also Russians. It was then that the plan for the famous “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” began to emerge in his head. The young man persistently asked his mother, who lived in the village, to tell him about Ukrainian traditions and customs unknown to him, about Ukrainian legends, manuscripts and costumes. All this helped him to most fully and accurately depict the Little Russian village and its inhabitants.

In 1830, Gogol’s first successful work, “Evenings on the Eve of Ivan Kupala,” was published, published in “Notes of the Fatherland” in 1830. But “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, “May Night” and “Sorochinskaya Fair” brought real fame and recognition to the young author.

From that moment on, the writer’s life turned upside down.

What influenced Gogol's work?

In the 1830s, Nikolai Vasilyevich met P. A. Pletnev, V. A. Zhukovsky and A. S. Pushkin, who largely influenced Gogol’s literary work.

Everything in the life of the literary classic was reflected in his works. Over time, he plunged more and more into metropolitan life. As a result, “Petersburg Tales” were published, consisting of 5 stories:

• "Nevsky Avenue".
• "Overcoat"
• "Diary of a Madman".
• "Portrait".
• "Nose".

The collection is united not only by a common problem, but also by a common place of action - the city of St. Petersburg, where N.V. Gogol lived.

Few raised the theme of the duality of the capital in their works. People saw in it not only the “Grad of Petrov”, but also a refuge of evil. The greatest poet of the Golden Age, A.S. Pushkin, was one of the first to show all the ambiguity of the “city on the Neva”. He described it as follows: “The city is lush, the city is poor.”

This problem is revealed especially clearly in Nevsky Prospekt. Hidden behind the gloss of the main street are the broken hopes and tragedies of ordinary townspeople. In the story, the city is indifferent to the problems of people - everything is ruled by money and rank. Ideas about good and evil in the capital have long been destroyed. The same idea was revealed by N.V. Gogol. The plot of many works develops in St. Petersburg: this is the controversial “The Nose”, and “Notes of a Madman”, “The Overcoat” and “Nevsky Prospekt”. St. Petersburg in Gogol’s works is a haven for street children and impoverished officials. This image is opposed to the generally accepted image of the capital - luxurious, idle, dazzling with its splendor.

On the other hand, Gogol's capital is a city where mysticism and reality live as one.

Mirgorod in the life and work of Gogol

Although St. Petersburg played a significant role in Gogol’s work, Ukrainian folklore occupied the first place in it. In addition to such wonderful works as “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” and “May Night”, the writer wrote a number of other cult stories, which were combined into the collection “Mirgorod”. It was not without reason that Gogol chose this name for his collection: the city of Mirgorod appears in his work “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.”

This collection also includes other works that are known to us from school:

• "Viy."
• "Taras Bulba".
• "Old World Landowners"

Why exactly Mirgorod? Gogol deliberately chose this locality. It was located near the village of Velikie Sorochintsy, where young Nikolai spent his childhood and youth. The same village appears in his work “Sorochinskaya Fair”.

Throughout Ukraine and, in particular, in the Mirgorod region, the memory of the great countryman is still honored. Everywhere you can find not only monuments dedicated to the writer, but also streets, hotels, sanatoriums, squares, hospitals, libraries named in his honor.

The originality of Gogol's stories

Having analyzed all the works, we can highlight the specific features of Gogol’s work. Some moments from the writer’s life are still the subject of controversy, but in his creations Gogol was unusually accurate and straightforward.

The author's creative style is very recognizable. It was the uniqueness of his writing that allowed Gogol to become one of the greatest writers of the Golden Age. His first poem, Hanz Küchelgarten, which he published under a pseudonym, failed miserably. The reason for this was an attempt to write a poem in the manner of the romantic Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky.

His subsequent stories were also written in a romantic manner, but in them the unique Gogolian character of writing begins to appear. A little later, the writer, under the influence of Pushkin, took a course towards critical realism. And although Gogol saw him as his mentor, he never tried to create according to the model of Pushkin’s creations.

The writer's later works had an obvious social orientation. Gogol was one of the first to accurately depict the essence of the problem of the “little man” in corrupt Russia. He skillfully ridiculed the vulgarity and laziness of modern man and exposed the social contradictions of that time.

The early works of Nikolai Vasilyevich are also worth special attention. These works have common recognizable features. For example, mystery and romance, an expressive and “live” description of Ukrainian life, references to Ukrainian folklore.

This passion is quite natural: the writer spent his childhood in Ukraine. For many years his life was closely connected with Ukrainian customs and culture. In these works, mysticism takes place to a greater extent - they are very similar to dark fairy tales. In his works, Gogol skillfully combined reality and mysterious otherworldly forces - witches, mermaids, and even devils lived next to the ordinary Ukrainian people.

Death of a Genius

Many questions about the life of the great and mysterious writer excite people's minds. What was Gogol's name? Was he married? Does he have any descendants? But the most important question, still unresolved and causing a lot of controversy, is the reason

To this day, no one can say for sure how this genius of literary thought left the world. Many historians, biographers and literary scholars put forward their versions of his death. One of the most widespread, but still unconfirmed versions is that the writer was buried alive.

This truly horrific variation of the classic death was put forward in 1931. Since the cemetery where he was buried was liquidated, it was decided to rebury him. Many eminent writers were present at the ceremony, and when the coffin was opened, eyewitnesses were horrified to discover that Gogol's skeleton was lying with his head turned to the side.

This news caused a real flurry of discussions not only in the literary and historical community, but also among ordinary people. As it turned out, there is a completely logical explanation for this phenomenon: the side boards of the coffin are the first to undergo rotting processes, and the lid of the coffin, which does not have strong support, begins to put pressure on the head of the deceased, causing it to rotate on the “Atlas” vertebra. According to burial experts, this is a normal practice, and Gogol is far from the first person to be found in such a position after burial.

The situation was complicated by the fact that Nikolai Vasilyevich’s greatest fear was being buried alive. Even during his lifetime, he noticed that he was subject to a state of so-called “lethargic sleep”, when there is no reaction to the outside world, the heartbeat slows down significantly, and the pulse ceases to be palpable. For this reason, he made a will in which he ordered that he be buried only when signs of cadaveric decomposition became obvious. This gave the legend of the writer’s burial alive even greater mystery.

Another, less frightening version of the classic’s death is poisoning with calomel (a mercury-containing drug used in the 19th century). The writer himself was susceptible to many diseases, and therefore was treated by various doctors. It was a medical error that could have caused Gogol’s premature death.

The latest version has become the most widespread, but it is still not recognized as official.

Thus, it is believed that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died due to exhaustion caused by hunger. The classic's contemporaries admitted that he was prone to depression and was overly passionate about religion, which pushed him to maintain an ascetic lifestyle and renounce carnal pleasures.

In pursuit of the triumph of the spirit over the body, Gogol exhausted himself by stubbornly refusing food. A week before the start of Lent, he decided to give up creativity, food and limit contact with people as much as possible.

Before his death, he burns his belongings, as he himself explains, “under the influence of an evil spirit.” Two days before his death, the writer’s condition deteriorated significantly - he went to bed and stubbornly refused any help, mentally preparing for death. Doctors did not stop trying to cure the writer, but on February 21, 1852, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died.

Now Gogol is buried at the Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery. The writer left this world in the prime of his life, but, as literary critic V.A. Voropaev, this is “a death filled with spiritual meaning,” which is what the writer wanted.

Gogol's childhood and youth

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - the great Russian writer, one of the creators of 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 .

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s belonging to the Little Russian nationality and the time of his birth from childhood had a significant influence on his worldview and writing activity. The psychological characteristics of 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 unique artistic style of his speech. The time of the formation of Gogol’s worldview and creative techniques—his childhood and youth—falls during the significant era of the revival of Little Russian literature and nationality (the time shortly after I. P. Kotlyarevsky). The situation 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 young Gogol takes place in the south of Russia under the cross-influence of the home environment and the Little Russian environment, on the one hand, and all-Russian literature, known even in remote provinces far from the centers, on the other. The reviving Little Russian literature bears a clearly expressed interest in nationality, 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 and tendentiously from all-Russian literature) formed local centers, where it achieved special revival. One of its prominent figures was D.P. Troshchinsky, a former Minister of Justice, a typical Little Russian in his views. In his village of Kibintsy there was a huge library that contained almost everything published in the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th in Russian and Little Russian; In this circle, V. A. Gogol-Yanovsky, the father of the young writer, himself a writer in the field of Little Russian folk drama (“The Simpleton” and “The Vivtsa Dog”, 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 the son, studying in Nezhin, constantly takes advantage of this connection in his youth, receiving books and new literature from the rich Kibinets library.

In childhood, before the start of school, Nikolai Gogol lives with his parents that rural folk life of a medium-sized landowner, which in general differs little from the peasant life. Even the spoken language in the family remains Little Russian; Therefore, Gogol in childhood and youth (and even later) had to learn the Great Russian language and develop it. 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 povet school, where the head was I.P. Kotlyarevsky himself, and in May 1821 he entered the newly opened Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nezhin. Beardless. This gymnasium (representing a combination of secondary and partly higher school) was opened on the model of those new educational institutions that were founded in the “days of Alexander’s happy beginning” (these included the Alexander (Pushkin) Lyceum, Demidovsky Lyceum, etc.). But despite the same programs, the Nizhyn gymnasium was lower than the capital ones both in terms of the composition of teachers and in the course of educational work, so that young Gogol, who stayed there until June 1828, could not endure much in the sense of general development and scientific development (in which he he confessed himself). The stronger the effect on the gifted young man of the influences of the environment and trends, albeit belatedly, coming from the cultural centers of Russia. These trends and influences from the environment and family clarify individual features of the writing activity and spiritual appearance of the future great writer, which are then reflected in the writer’s works, in individual moments of his mood in adulthood. Gogol in his youth was characterized by great observation, interest in folk life and history of Little Russia(although not strictly scientific, but rather poetic-ethnographic), literary inclinations (discovered back in Nizhyn), dramatic talent and interest in the stage (prominent participation in school plays), inclinations of an everyday satirist (a play from the school era that has not reached us: “Something” about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools"), as well as sincere religiosity, attachment to the family and a desire for painting (even at school, Nikolai Gogol, judging by the surviving drawings, was not without success in drawing).

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

The beginning of Gogol's work

With such a vague mood, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol ends up in St. Petersburg, where he strives to “fulfill his purpose” (late 1828), and primarily through service, for which, due to his purely creative inclinations, he is least capable.

Gogol’s “St. Petersburg” period (December 1828 – June 1836) is a period of searching and finding his purpose (towards 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 the period of entering the real path of a writer with great social significance. The search for a “life task”, which is still depicted in the form of service, the struggle with material need goes interspersed, intertwined with broad literary plans, realized now or later, with the strengthening of the writer’s position 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, he is appointed by an official to the department, but also unsuccessfully, soon becoming convinced that “service,” unlike creativity, does not give him either satisfaction or security. He is trying to use his literary experience in a Nezhin 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. At this time, Gogol made other attempts to use the stock of knowledge acquired in Nizhyn: he tried to enter the Academy of Arts, attended drawing classes. An unsuccessful professorship in St. Petersburg (1835) finally forced Gogol to recognize as unsuccessful all attempts to define himself differently than his literary talent indicated to him. Everything that was inherent in Gogol’s very nature uncontrollably pushes him onto the true path - the path of the beginning of literary creativity. In this direction, Gogol progresses quickly and persistently. The beginning of literary creativity, so far solely for the purpose of material support, can be seen in Gogol already in 1829, soon after his arrival in St. Petersburg. Motivating that “everything Little Russian occupies everyone here,” Gogol strenuously asks Little Russian household and poetic folk materials from his 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 turns to the nationality, an artistic and realistic image of his native country, illuminating all this with a bright ray of his humor and romanticism, no longer dreamy, but healthy, folk.

The acquaintance Gogol simultaneously acquired with the literary circles of St. Petersburg completed his entry onto a new path. The sensitive Pushkin guesses the reason for the initial failures and the purpose of Gogol, forcing him to correctly develop his literary education through reading, which he himself leads. Zhukovsky, Pletnev not only support him with their connections, providing him with income, but also introduce Gogol to the top of the literary movement of that time (for example, into 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 drawn into literary studies, makes up for his shortcomings in the provincial school and provincial literary education.

The results of these influences are felt quickly: Gogol’s talent made its way into the contradictory soul of its bearer: 1829 - 1830 were the years of his lively domestic literary work, still little noticeable to outsiders and society. Hard work on self-education, an ardent love for art become for Gogol a high and strict moral duty, which he wishes to fulfill sacredly, reverently, slowly bringing his creations to the “pearl”, constantly reworking the material and the first sketches of his works - a feature characteristic of Gogol’s creative manner and at all other times.

After several excerpts and editions of stories in “Notes of the Fatherland” (Svinin), in “Literary Newspaper” (Delviga), Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol releases his “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” (1831 - 1832). “Evenings,” which became the true beginning of Gogol’s writing, clearly defined his future purpose for himself. Gogol’s role became even clearer for society (cf. the review of Pushkin’s “Evenings”), but it was not understood from the side from which Gogol soon became visible. In “Evenings” we saw never-before-seen pictures of Little Russian life, shining with nationalism, gaiety, subtle humor, poetic mood - and nothing more. “Evenings” is followed by “Arabesques” (1835, which includes articles published in 1830 - 1834 and written during this time). From then on, Gogol's fame as a writer was firmly established: society sensed in him a great power that was destined to open a new era of our literature.

Gogol, apparently, is now convinced himself of what that “great field of his” should be, about which he has not ceased to dream since Nizhyn times. This can be concluded from the fact that already in 1832 Gogol began a new step forward in his soul. He is not satisfied with “Evenings”, not considering them a real expression of his mood, and is already planning (1832) “Vladimir of the 3rd degree” (from which later came: “Litigation”, “Lackey”, “Morning of a Business Man”), “ Grooms" (1833, later - "Marriage"), "The Inspector General" (1834). Next to them are his so-called “St. Petersburg” stories (“Old World Landowners” (1832), “Nevsky Prospect” (1834), “Taras Bulba” (1st edition - 1834), “Notes of a Madman” (1834), beginning “Overcoats”, “Nose”, as well as stories included in Mirgorod, published in 1835). In the same year, 1835, “Dead Souls” was started, “The Stroller” 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 and became a facet in his work and life.

Among the external events of life that influenced the further evolution of Gogol’s mood, one should note Gogol’s mysterious trip for a month in 1829 abroad (to Lübeck), probably the result of a restless search for “real” business at the beginning of the St. Petersburg period, a trip in 1832. to their homeland, so beloved by them and poetically immortalized in “Evenings.” However, this time, along with the bright memories of childhood, with the comfort of the home family circle, the homeland rewarded the writer with severe disappointments: household affairs were going badly, the romantic enthusiasm of Gogol the young man was erased by St. Petersburg life, behind the caressing charm of nature and the Little Russian everyday environment, Gogol already felt sadness , melancholy and even tragedy. It was not for nothing that, upon returning to St. Petersburg, he began to disavow “Evenings” and how his mood was determined by them in society. Gogol matured and entered a mature period of life and creativity. This trip also had another meaning: the path to Vasilyevka lay through Moscow, where Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol first entered the circle of the Moscow intelligentsia, establishing relations with his fellow 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 writer’s mood 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 painful condition of the writer, who was naturally weak (news of his illness have been going on since he entered the Nizhyn gymnasium), moreover who had greatly shaken his nerves in that everyday and spiritual struggle that led him to the real path. He was also drawn abroad by the need to give himself an account of his strengths, of the impression that “The Inspector General” made on society, which caused a storm of indignation and stirred up the entire bureaucratic and official Russia against the writer, but which, on the other hand, gave Gogol another new circle of admirers in the advanced part of Russian society. Finally, a trip abroad was necessary to continue that “life work” that was started in St. Petersburg, but required, in the words of Gogol himself, a look at Russian life from the outside - “from a beautiful distance”: to continue “Dead Souls” and new, more reworkings of what had begun corresponded to the mood of the writer renewed in spirit. Gogol, on the one hand, imagined himself completely crushed by the impression that ended the appearance of The Inspector General. He blamed himself for the fatal mistake of taking up satire. On the other hand, Gogol energetically continues to develop his thoughts about the great importance of theater and artistic truth, continues to rework “The Inspector General”, writes “Theatrical Travel” and works hard on “Dead Souls”, prints some of his previous sketches (Morning of a Business Man, 1836), reworks “Portrait” (1837 – 1838), “Taras Bulba” (1838 – 1839), finishes “The Overcoat” (1841).

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

During his first trip abroad, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lives in Germany, Switzerland, and Paris (with his schoolmate and friend A. Danilevsky), where he partly receives treatment and partly spends time among Russian circles. In March 1837, he ends up in Rome, to which he sincerely becomes attached, enchanted by Italian nature and monuments of art. Gogol remains here for a long time and at the same time works intensively, mainly on “Dead Souls”, finishes “The Overcoat”, writes the story “Annunziata” (later “Rome”). In the fall of 1839, 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 fall, Gogol sent it from abroad to print in Russia: the book, after a number of difficulties (Moscow censorship did not let it through, St. Petersburg censorship hesitated greatly, but, thanks to the assistance of influential persons, the book was finally allowed through), was published in Moscow in 1842. 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 he finished Dead Souls, 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 “turning point” in his spiritual mood had already begun, which marked the end of his life. Living either in Rome, or in Germany or France, he moved among people who more or less approached him in their conservative mood (Zhukovsky, A. O. Smirnova, Vielgorsky, Tolstoy). Constantly suffering physically, Gogol develops more and more in the direction of pietism, the beginnings 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 was preparing a collection of his works (published in 1842), and continued to rework, introducing into them new features of the mood of that time, his previous works: “Taras Bulba”, “Marriage”, “Players”, etc., writes “ Theatrical Travel", the famous "Pre-Notice" to "The Inspector General", where he tries to give the interpretation of his comedy that was suggested by his new mood. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is also working on the second volume of Dead Souls.

Gogol's new look at the writer's tasks

Questions of creativity, talent, and the tasks of a writer continue to occupy him, but now they are resolved differently: the high idea of ​​talent as a gift of God, in particular of his own talent, imposes on Gogol high responsibilities that are depicted to him in some providential sense. In order to correct human vices by exposing them (which Gogol now considers his duty as a writer gifted by God, the meaning of his “messengership”), the writer himself must strive for inner perfection. It, according to Gogol, is accessible only through thinking about God, deepening into the religious understanding of life, Christianity, and 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 previous path. This new mood forces Gogol to change his assessment of his previous writing activity. He is now ready to reject any significance of everything that he wrote before, believing that these works do not lead to the high goal of improving oneself and people, to the knowledge of God - and are unworthy of his “messengership.” He apparently already considers the just published first volume of “Dead Souls”, if not a mistake, then only the threshold to a “real”, worthy work - the second volume, which should justify the author, atone for his sin - an attitude towards his neighbor that is inconsistent with the spirit of a Christian in the form of satire, to give positive instruction to a person, to show him the direct path to perfection.

N.V. Gogol. Artist F. Muller, 1840

But such a task turns out to be very difficult. The emotional drama, complicated by a painful nervous illness, progressively and quickly directed the writer towards a denouement: Gogol’s literary productivity is weakening; he manages to work only in the intervals between mental and physical torment. 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 burned the second volume of Dead Souls. He “brought, burning his work, a sacrifice to God,” hoping to give a new book of “Dead Souls” with content that was enlightened and cleansed of all sinful things. She, according to Gogol, was supposed to “direct the whole society towards the beautiful”, in a straight and right way. In the last years of his life, Gogol is burning with the desire to quickly give society what seems to him the most important for life; and this important thing was expressed by him, in his opinion, not in works of art, but in letters of that time to friends, acquaintances and relatives.

The decision to collect and 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. Published in 1847, “Selected Places” caused whistles and hooting from avid liberals. V. Belinsky burst out with a famous letter in response to a touchy letter from Gogol, who was offended by Belinsky’s negative review of the book (Sovremennik, 1847, No. 2). Left radicals argued that this book by Gogol is filled with the tone of prophecy, authoritative teaching, and preaching external humility, which is in fact “more than pride.” They did not like the writer’s negative attitude towards certain features of his previous “critical-satirical” activity expressed in it. Westerners loudly shouted that Gogol in “Selected Places” allegedly abandoned his previous view of the tasks of the writer as a citizen.

Sincerely not understanding the reasons for such a sharp rebuke from the “liberals,” Gogol tried to justify his action, saying that he was not understood, etc., but did not deviate from the views he expressed 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 hesitations caused by liberal persecution strengthened Gogol’s need to preserve and support his faith, which, after the suffering he suffered, seemed to him not deep enough.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, Gogol's resumed work on the second volume of Dead Souls is going even worse. He strives to calm his soul in religious feat and in 1848 he 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 for the rest of his life. Since the autumn of 1851, he settled in Moscow with A.P. Tolstoy, his friend, who shared his religious-conservative views, tried again to work on the second volume of Dead Souls, even read excerpts from his friends (for example, the Aksakovs). But painful 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, ascetic Rzhev priest, wavers even more. The writer's state of mind reaches the point of pathology. During one of his fits of mental anguish, Gogol burns his papers at night. The next morning he comes to his senses and explains this act as the tricks of an evil spirit, from which he cannot get rid of even by intense religious feats. This was at the beginning of January 1852, and on February 21, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was no longer alive.

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

The significance of Gogol's work

A careful study of the activities and life of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, expressed in the extensive literature dedicated to the writer, showed the great importance of this activity for Russian literature and society. The influence of Gogol and the trends in 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 “educational” period, the time of its full blossoming, its full independence, social and national self-awareness comes; it acquires international, global significance. Modern literature owes all this to the foundations of its development that were developed by the middle of the 19th century; these are: national self-awareness, artistic realism and awareness of its inextricable connection with the life of society. The development of these foundations in the consciousness of society and literature was accomplished through 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 of the mid-19th century Gogolian. The subsequent era, marked by the names of Turgenev, Goncharov, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, is closely connected with the tasks posed to literature by Gogol. All of the listed writers are either his immediate followers (for example, Dostoevsky in “Poor People”), or the ideological successors of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (for example, Turgenev in “Notes of a Hunter”).

Artistic realism, ethical aspirations, a view of the writer as a public figure, the need for nationality, psychological analysis of life phenomena, the breadth of this analysis - everything that is strong in Russian literature of subsequent times, all of this was strongly developed by Gogol, outlined by him so definitely that his successors could only 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 impeccably truthful. The images created by Gogol amaze with their extraordinary thoughtfulness, originality of intuition, and depth of contemplation: these are the traits of a brilliant writer. Gogol’s spiritual depth found expression in the properties of his talent: these are “tears invisible to the world through the laughter visible to him” - in satire and humor.

The national characteristics of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (his connection with Little Russian history and culture), introduced by him into Russian literature, provided a tremendous service to the latter, accelerating and consolidating the national self-awareness that had begun to awaken in Russian literature. The beginning of this awakening, very hesitant, dates back to the second half of the 18th century. It is visible in the activities of Russian satirical literature of the 18th century, in the activities of N. I. Novikov and others. It found a strong impetus in the events of the early 19th century (the Patriotic War of 1812), and was further developed in the activities of Pushkin and his school; but this awakening culminated only in Gogol, who closely merged the idea of ​​artistic realism and the idea of ​​nationality. The great significance of Gogol’s work, in the social sense, lies in the fact that he directed his brilliant creativity not on abstract themes of art, but on direct everyday reality and put into his work all the passion for seeking the truth, love for man, protecting his rights and dignity, denunciation of all 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. Interest in depicting the internal movements of personal life and in depicting social phenomena precisely from the angle of condemning social untruths, searching for a moral ideal - this was given to our subsequent literature by Gogol, and goes back to him. Subsequent public satire (for example, Saltykov-Shchedrin), “accusatory literature” of 1860 - 1870. without Gogol would have been unthinkable. All this testifies to the great moral significance of Gogol’s work for Russian literature and his great civic service to society. This significance of Gogol was clearly felt by his closest contemporaries.

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

Literature about Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

Kulish,"Notes on the life of Gogol."

Shenrok,“Materials for the biography of Gogol” (M. 1897, 3 vols.).

Skabichevsky, "Works" vol. II.

Biographical sketch of Gogol, ed. Pavlenkova.

April 1 (March 20, old style) 1809 in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province (now a village in the Poltava region of Ukraine) and came from an old Little Russian family.
Gogol spent his childhood years on his parents' estate Vasilievka (another name is Yanovshchina; now the village of Gogolevo).

In 1818-1819 he studied at the Poltava district school, in 1820-1821 he took lessons from the Poltava teacher Gabriel Sorochinsky, living in his apartment. In May 1821 he entered the gymnasium of higher sciences in Nizhyn, graduating in 1828. At the gymnasium, Nikolai Gogol studied painting, participated in performances (as a set designer and as an actor), tried himself in various literary genres - then the poem “Housewarming Party”, the lost tragedy “Robbers”, the story “The Tverdislavich Brothers”, and satire were written. Something about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools,” etc.

From his youth, Nikolai Gogol dreamed of a legal career. In December 1828 he moved to St. Petersburg. Experiencing financial difficulties, worrying about a place, he made his first literary attempts: at the beginning of 1829 the poem “Italy” appeared, and in the spring of the same year, under the pseudonym “V. Alov”, Gogol published the “idyll in pictures” “Ganz Küchelgarten”. The poem received harsh and mocking reviews from critics. In July 1829, Gogol burned unsold copies of the book and left to travel to Germany.

At the end of 1829, he joined the department of state economy and public buildings of the Ministry of the Interior. From April 1830 to March 1831, the aspiring writer served in the department of appanages as a scribe and assistant to the chief clerk under the leadership of the famous idyllic poet Vladimir Panaev. By this time, Gogol devoted more time to literary work. Following the first story “Bisavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” (1830), he published a number of works of art and articles: “Chapter from a historical novel” (1831), “Chapter from a Little Russian story: “The Scary Boar” (1831). Tale " Woman" (1831) became the first work signed with the author's real name.

In 1830, the writer met the poets Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnev, who introduced Gogol to Alexander Pushkin at his home in May 1831. By the summer of 1831, his relations with Pushkin’s circle had become quite close: while living in Pavlovsk, Gogol often visited Pushkin and Zhukovsky in Tsarskoe Selo; carried out instructions for the publication of Belkin's Tales. Pushkin valued Gogol as a writer and “gave” the plots of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls.”

“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka,” published in 1831-1832, brought literary fame to the young writer.

In the early 1830s, Gogol was engaged in teaching, giving private lessons, and later taught history at the St. Petersburg Patriotic Institute. In 1834, he was appointed associate professor in the department of general history at St. Petersburg University.

In 1835, the collections “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod” were published. "Arabesques" contained several articles of popular scientific content on history and art and the stories "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospect" and "Notes of a Madman". In the first part of "Mirgorod" "Old World Landowners" and "Taras Bulba" appeared, in the second - "Viy" and "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."

The pinnacle of Gogol's work as a playwright was The Inspector General, published and simultaneously staged in 1836. In January of this year, the comedy was read for the first time by the author at an evening at Zhukovsky’s in the presence of Alexander Pushkin and Pyotr Vyazemsky. The play premiered in April on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and in May on the stage of the Maly Theater in Moscow.

In 1836-1848, Gogol lived abroad and came to Russia only twice.

In 1842, “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” was published with a significant circulation for that time of 2.5 thousand copies. Work on the book began back in 1835, the first volume of the poem was completed in August 1841 in Rome.

In 1842, the first collected works of Gogol, where the story “The Overcoat” was published, was published under the editorship of the writer.

In 1842-1845, Gogol worked on the second volume of Dead Souls, but in July 1845 the writer burned the manuscript.

At the beginning of 1847, Gogol’s book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was published, which was perceived extremely negatively by many, including the writer’s close friends.

Gogol spent the winter of 1847-1848 in Naples, intensively reading Russian periodicals, new fiction, historical and folklore books. In April 1848, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Gogol finally returned to Russia, where he spent most of his time in Moscow, visiting St. Petersburg, as well as in his native places - Little Russia.

By the beginning of 1852, the edition of the second volume of Dead Souls was re-created, chapters from which Gogol read to close friends. However, the feeling of creative dissatisfaction did not leave the writer; on the night of February 24 (February 12, old style) 1852, he burned the manuscript of the second volume of the novel. Only five chapters have survived in incomplete form, relating to various draft editions that were published in 1855.

On March 4 (February 21, old style), 1852, Nikolai Gogol died in Moscow. He was buried in the Danilov Monastery. In 1931, Gogol's remains were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery.

In April 1909, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth, a monument to Nikolai Gogol by Nikolai Andreev was unveiled on Arbat Square in Moscow. In 1951, the monument was moved to the Donskoy Monastery, to the Museum of Memorial Sculpture. In 1959, on the 150th anniversary of Gogol’s birth, it was installed in the courtyard of the house on Nikitsky Boulevard where the writer died. In 1974, a memorial museum to N.V. was opened in this building. Gogol.

In 1952, on the 100th anniversary of Gogol’s death, a new one was erected in place of the old monument, the work of Nikolai Tomsky, with the inscription on the pedestal: “To the great Russian artist, words to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol from the government of the Soviet Union.”

In St. Petersburg there are two monuments to the writer. In 1896, a bronze bust of Gogol by sculptor Vasily Kreitan was installed in the Admiralty Garden.

In December 1997, a monument to the writer by sculptor Mikhail Belov was unveiled on Malaya Konyushennaya Street, next to Nevsky Prospekt.

One of the oldest monuments to Gogol in Russia is located in Volgograd. A bronze bust of the writer by sculptor Ivan Tavbiy was installed on Alexander Square in 1910.

In the writer’s homeland, in the village of Velikie Sorochintsy, a monument to the writer was unveiled in 1911. In 1929, in honor of the 120th anniversary of the writer’s birth, the Velikosorochynsky Literary and Memorial Museum of N.V. was founded. Gogol.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

For many, it may be surprising that Gogol used pseudonyms in his work, which were deciphered in sufficient detail by the literary historian and critic V. Gaevsky shortly after the writer’s death. Today, all comprehensive material on the topic “Pseudonyms of Gogol” can be found in the complete collected works of the writer for 2003-2009. However, some explanations will not be superfluous in this article. Gogol was not only a great mystic, but also an intriguer. His entire life and work are permeated with secrets, and no one has been able to fully understand his personality.

Gogol's pseudonyms: list

Let's return to the given topic. The writer’s use of pseudonyms can be roughly divided into four stages. At first he signed himself like this: oooo, G. Yanov, P. Glechik, N. Gogol (under these pseudonyms he wrote his early works), then he used the pseudonym V. Alov (the work “Ganz Küchelgarten”), then Rudy Panko (in the collection " Evenings on a farm near Dikanka"), in later works - ***, N.N.N. - meaning in Latin “a certain person, I don’t know the name.”

Disclosure

Almost all of Gogol's pseudonyms can be deciphered - Alov remains the only snag. Researcher I. Zolotussky once noted the romantic beginning in the name - dawn, scarlet morning, dawn.

All other pseudonyms for Gogol were created based on the writer's name. The pseudonym G. Yanov indicates that the mystic used the surname of his father - Vasily Afanasyevich Yanovsky, who wrote poetry and was a romantic person.

This fact may indicate that Gogol used sketches of his father from his papers in some of his works. More transparent in this regard was the way the writer signed the articles; here he put it clearly - N.V. Gogol. In this way the author hoped to attract attention to himself. However, he signed his works of art in a very sophisticated way.

Original pseudonyms of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

It seems a little strange that the writer, practically abandoning the family surname Yanovsky, still uses it in his pseudonyms. In “Northern Flowers for 1831” he uses the full version of his first and last name: oooo - Nikolai GOGOL-YANOVSKY. Yes, that’s how Gogol’s pseudonyms were cleverly created...

In “Literary Newspaper” No. 1 of January 1, 1831, he signs his article, almost completely voicing his last name - G. Yanov.

In the story “The Scary Boar” in the first chapter, Gogol signs P. Glechik. Of course, this name has nothing to do with his last name: here a relationship is found only with the name of his character. And he leaves the second chapter of this work without a signature at all.

Experiments with names

In order to grasp the concept of how Gogol's pseudonyms were formed, it is necessary to understand that literature was for him a means of attracting the attention of the people he needed. All these experiments with pseudonyms were part of the very process of forming one’s name and establishing oneself as a writer’s brand “Gogol”.

In Pushkin's circle, the writer becomes known under the name Gogol-Yanovsky. It is believed that the article entitled “Woman” was first signed as N. Gogol. This decision may have been influenced by government regulations not to use pseudonyms in magazines and newspapers. But maybe this is not true at all, because at the time of publication of the article, Nikolai was not known as Gogol either to his friends or relatives.

Perhaps these were the first steps towards giving the name wide publicity and putting it into circulation. However, it was still considered a pseudonym; it could be called by name with appropriate reservations.

Meeting Pushkin

Gogol always dreamed of meeting Pushkin. The article “A few thoughts on teaching geography to children” was aimed precisely at getting “our everything” to notice him. Literary critic P. A. Pletnev contributed to this in 1831 and introduced the writer to the poet as Gogol-Yanovsky. Pushkin had no time for that at that time: he was preparing for his wedding to Natalya Goncharova. However, he will write a response letter to Pletnev, where he will reproduce the full name of the still unknown writer and indicate that he has not read Gogol yet, but will do so in Tsarskoe Selo.

Now the writer will put N. Gogol’s signature under his next article, which will be called “Woman,” and this will give him what he was counting on. Pushkin will notice her - just as the writer wanted.

Unnamed author

It was also obvious that Gogol did not sign a single work of art with his name. He wanted only a few people to know about his authorship.

There is a misconception that the fame of the name Gogol was ensured by “Evenings on a Farm...”, but they were published under the literary mask of Pasichnik Ruda Panko. And this name, most likely, was invented by Gogol because his hair was actually red. But his grandfather Afanasy Demyanovich bore the surname Panko.

In general, all these encryptions lasted for the time being, until Gogol suddenly began to replicate his name and everywhere reveal his involvement in works of art written by him. His behavior in this regard has changed dramatically. And this was not due to his confidence in his own creative powers, and it was not a matter of the author’s pride that arose. This behavior was associated with a change in his life plans. N.V. Gogol was no longer interested in pseudonyms. He achieved what he wanted...

Gogol is the most mysterious and mystical figure in the pantheon of Russian classics.

Woven from contradictions, he amazed everyone with his genius in the field of literature and oddities in everyday life. The classic of Russian literature Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a difficult to understand person.

For example, he slept only while sitting, fearing that he would not be mistaken for dead. He took long walks around... the house, drinking a glass of water in each room. Periodically fell into a state of prolonged stupor. And the death of the great writer was mysterious: either he died from poisoning, or from cancer, or from mental illness.

Doctors have been trying unsuccessfully to make an accurate diagnosis for more than a century and a half.

Strange child

The future author of “Dead Souls” was born into a family that was disadvantaged in terms of heredity. His grandfather and grandmother on his mother’s side were superstitious, religious, and believed in omens and predictions. One of the aunts was completely “weak in the head”: she could grease her head with a tallow candle for weeks to prevent graying of her hair, made faces while sitting at the dinner table, and hid pieces of bread under the mattress.

When a baby was born into this family in 1809, everyone decided that the boy would not last long - he was so weak. But the child survived.

He grew up, however, thin, frail and sickly - in a word, one of those “lucky ones” to whom all the sores stick. First came scrofula, then scarlet fever, followed by purulent otitis media. All this against the backdrop of persistent colds.

But Gogol’s main illness, which troubled him almost all his life, was manic-depressive psychosis.

It is not surprising that the boy grew up withdrawn and uncommunicative. According to the recollections of his classmates at the Nezhin Lyceum, he was a gloomy, stubborn and very secretive teenager. And only a brilliant performance in the Lyceum Theater indicated that this man had remarkable acting talent.

In 1828, Gogol came to St. Petersburg with the goal of making a career. Not wanting to work as a petty official, he decides to enter the stage. But unsuccessfully. I had to get a job as a clerk. However, Gogol did not stay in one place for a long time - he flew from department to department.

People with whom he was in close contact at that time complained about his capriciousness, insincerity, coldness, inattention to his owners and difficult to explain oddities.

Despite the hardships of work, this period of life was the happiest for the writer. He is young, full of ambitious plans, his first book, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” is being published. Gogol meets Pushkin, of which he is terribly proud. Moves in secular circles. But already at this time in St. Petersburg salons they began to notice some oddities in the behavior of the young man.

Where should I put myself?

Throughout his life, Gogol complained of stomach pain. However, this did not stop him from eating lunch for four in one sitting, “polishing” it all with a jar of jam and a basket of biscuits.

It is no wonder that from the age of 22 the writer suffered from chronic hemorrhoids with severe exacerbations. For this reason, he never worked while sitting. He wrote exclusively while standing, spending 10-12 hours a day on his feet.

As for relationships with the opposite sex, this is a sealed secret.

Back in 1829, he sent his mother a letter in which he spoke of his terrible love for some lady. But in the next message there is not a word about the girl, only a boring description of a certain rash, which, according to him, is nothing more than a consequence of childhood scrofula. Having associated the girl with the disease, the mother concluded that her son had contracted the shameful disease from some metropolitan spinster.

In fact, Gogol invented both love and malaise in order to extort a certain amount of money from his parent.

Whether the writer had carnal contacts with women is a big question. According to the doctor who observed Gogol, there were none. This is due to a certain castration complex - in other words, weak attraction. And this despite the fact that Nikolai Vasilyevich loved obscene jokes and knew how to tell them, completely without omitting obscene words.

While attacks of mental illness were undoubtedly evident.

The first clinically defined attack of depression, which took the writer “almost a year of his life,” was noted in 1834.

Beginning in 1837, attacks of varying duration and severity began to be observed regularly. Gogol complained of melancholy, “which has no description” and from which he did not know “what to do with himself.” He complained that his “soul... is languishing from a terrible melancholy” and is “in some kind of insensitive sleepy position.” Because of this, Gogol could not only create, but also think. Hence the complaints about “eclipse of memory” and “strange inaction of the mind.”

Bouts of religious enlightenment gave way to fear and despair. They encouraged Gogol to perform Christian deeds. One of them - exhaustion of the body - led the writer to death.

Subtleties of soul and body

Gogol died at the age of 43. The doctors who treated him in recent years were completely perplexed about his illness. A version of depression was put forward.

It began with the fact that at the beginning of 1852, the sister of one of Gogol’s close friends, Ekaterina Khomyakova, died, whom the writer respected to the depths of his soul. Her death provoked severe depression, resulting in religious ecstasy. Gogol began to fast. His daily diet consisted of 1-2 tablespoons of cabbage brine and oatmeal broth, and occasionally prunes. Considering that Nikolai Vasilyevich’s body was weakened after illness - in 1839 he suffered from malarial encephalitis, and in 1842 he suffered from cholera and miraculously survived - fasting was mortally dangerous for him.

Gogol then lived in Moscow, on the first floor of the house of Count Tolstoy, his friend.

On the night of February 24, he burned the second volume of Dead Souls. After 4 days, Gogol was visited by a young doctor, Alexei Terentyev. He described the writer’s state as follows: “He looked like a man for whom all tasks were resolved, every feeling was silent, every word was in vain... His whole body became extremely thin; the eyes became dull and sunken, the face became completely haggard, the cheeks sunken, the voice weakened..."

The house on Nikitsky Boulevard where the second volume of Dead Souls was burned. It was here that Gogol died. Doctors invited to see the dying Gogol found he had severe gastrointestinal disorders. They talked about “intestinal catarrh,” which turned into “typhoid fever,” and about unfavorable gastroenteritis. And finally, about “indigestion,” complicated by “inflammation.”

As a result, the doctors diagnosed him with meningitis and prescribed bloodletting, hot baths and douses, which were deadly in such a condition.

The writer's pitiful withered body was immersed in a bath, and cold water was poured over his head. They put leeches on him, and with a weak hand he frantically tried to brush away the clusters of black worms that had attached themselves to his nostrils. Was it possible to imagine a worse torture for a person who had spent his whole life disgusted with everything creeping and slimy? “Remove the leeches, lift the leeches from your mouth,” Gogol moaned and begged. In vain. He was not allowed to do this.

A few days later the writer passed away.

Gogol's ashes were buried at noon on February 24, 1852 by parish priest Alexei Sokolov and deacon John Pushkin. And after 79 years, he was secretly, thieves removed from the grave: the Danilov Monastery was transformed into a colony for juvenile delinquents, and therefore its necropolis was subject to liquidation. It was decided to move only a few of the graves dearest to the Russian heart to the old cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. Among these lucky ones, along with Yazykov, Aksakov and Khomyakov, was Gogol...

On May 31, 1931, twenty to thirty people gathered at Gogol’s grave, among whom were: historian M. Baranovskaya, writers Vs. Ivanov, V. Lugovskoy, Y. Olesha, M. Svetlov, V. Lidin and others. It was Lidin who became perhaps the only source of information about the reburial of Gogol. With his light hand, terrible legends about Gogol began to walk around Moscow.

The coffin was not found right away, he told the students of the Literary Institute; for some reason it turned out to be not where they were digging, but somewhat further away, to the side. And when they pulled it out of the ground - covered in lime, seemingly strong, from oak boards - and opened it, then bewilderment was mixed with the heartfelt trembling of those present. In the coffin lay a skeleton with its skull turned to one side. No one found an explanation for this. Someone superstitious probably thought then: “This is a publican - he seems not to be alive during life, and not dead after death - this strange great man.”

Lidin's stories stirred up old rumors 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 obvious 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 the exhumers saw in 1931 seemed to indicate that Gogol’s behest was not fulfilled, that he was buried in a lethargic state, he woke up in a coffin and experienced nightmarish minutes of dying again...

To be fair, it must be said that Lida’s version did not inspire confidence. The sculptor N. Ramazanov, who removed Gogol’s death mask, recalled: “I did not suddenly decide to take off the mask, but the prepared coffin... finally, the constantly 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...” explanation for the rotation of the skull: the side boards of the coffin were the first to rot, the lid lowers under the weight of the soil, presses on the dead man’s head, and it turns to one side on the so-called “Atlas vertebra.”

Then Lidin launched a new version. In his written memoirs of the exhumation, he told a new story, even more terrible and mysterious than his oral stories. “This is what Gogol’s ashes were,” he wrote, “there was no skull in the coffin, and Gogol’s remains began with the cervical vertebrae; the entire skeleton of the skeleton was enclosed in a well-preserved tobacco-colored frock coat... When and under what circumstances Gogol’s skull disappeared remains a mystery. When the opening of the grave began, a skull was discovered at a shallow depth, much higher than the crypt with a walled coffin, but archaeologists recognized it as belonging to a young man.”

This new invention of Lidin required new hypotheses. When could Gogol's skull disappear from the coffin? Who could need it? And what kind of fuss is being raised around the remains of the great writer?

They remembered that in 1908, when a heavy stone was installed on the grave, it was necessary to build a brick crypt over the coffin to strengthen the base. It was then that mysterious attackers could steal the writer’s skull. As for the interested parties, it was not without reason that rumors circulated around Moscow that the unique collection of A. A. Bakhrushin, a passionate collector of theatrical memorabilia, secretly contained the skulls of Shchepkin and Gogol...

And Lidin, inexhaustible in inventions, amazed listeners with new sensational details: they say, when the writer’s ashes were taken from the Danilov Monastery to Novodevichy, some of those present at the reburial could not resist and grabbed some relics for themselves as souvenirs. One allegedly stole Gogol's rib, another - a shin bone, a third - a boot. Lidin himself even showed the guests a volume of the lifetime edition of Gogol’s works, in the binding of which he had inserted a piece of fabric that he had torn from the frock coat lying in Gogol’s coffin.

In his will, Gogol shamed those who “would be attracted by any attention to rotting dust that is no longer mine.” But the flighty descendants were not ashamed, they violated the writer’s will, and with unclean hands they began to stir up the “rotting dust” for fun. They also did not respect his covenant not to erect any monument on his grave.

The Aksakovs brought to Moscow from the Black Sea coast a stone shaped like Golgotha, the hill on which Jesus Christ was crucified. This stone became the basis for the cross on Gogol's grave. Next to him on the grave was a black stone in the shape of a truncated pyramid with inscriptions on the edges.

These stones and the cross were taken somewhere the day before the opening of Gogol’s burial and sunk into oblivion. Only in the early 50s, the widow of Mikhail Bulgakov accidentally discovered Gogol's Calvary stone in the lapidary barn and managed to install it on the grave of her husband, the creator of The Master and Margarita.

No less mysterious and mystical is the fate of the Moscow monuments to Gogol. The idea of ​​the need for such a monument was born in 1880 during the celebrations of the opening of the monument to Pushkin on Tverskoy Boulevard. And 29 years later, on the centenary of the birth of Nikolai Vasilyevich on April 26, 1909, a monument created by the sculptor N. Andreev was unveiled on Prechistensky Boulevard. This sculpture, depicting a deeply dejected Gogol at the moment of his deep thoughts, caused mixed reviews. Some enthusiastically praised her, others fiercely condemned her. But everyone agreed: Andreev managed to create a work of the highest artistic merit.

The controversy surrounding the original author's interpretation of the image of Gogol did not continue to subside in Soviet times, which did not tolerate the spirit of decline and despondency even among the great writers of the past. Socialist Moscow needed a different Gogol - clear, bright, calm. Not the Gogol of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” but the Gogol of “Taras Bulba,” “The Inspector General,” and “Dead Souls.”

In 1935, the All-Union Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR announced a competition for a new monument to Gogol in Moscow, which marked the beginning of developments interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. She slowed down, but did not stop these works, in which the greatest masters of sculpture participated - M. Manizer, S. Merkurov, E. Vuchetich, N. Tomsky.

In 1952, on the centenary of Gogol’s death, a new monument was erected on the site of the St. Andrew’s monument, created by the sculptor N. Tomsky and the architect S. Golubovsky. St. Andrew's monument was moved to the territory of the Donskoy Monastery, where it stood until 1959, when, at the request of the USSR Ministry of Culture, it was installed in front of Tolstoy's house on Nikitsky Boulevard, where Nikolai Vasilyevich lived and died. It took Andreev’s creation seven years to cross Arbat Square!

Disputes around Moscow monuments to Gogol continue even now. Some Muscovites tend to see the removal of monuments as a manifestation of Soviet totalitarianism and party dictatorship. But everything that is done is done for the better, and Moscow today has not one, but two monuments to Gogol, equally precious for Russia in moments of both decline and enlightenment of the spirit.

IT LOOKS LIKE GOGOL WAS ACCIDENTALLY POISONED BY DOCTORS!

Although the dark mystical aura around Gogol’s personality was largely generated by the blasphemous destruction of his grave and the absurd inventions of the irresponsible Lidin, much in the circumstances of his illness and death continues to remain mysterious.

In fact, what could a relatively young 42-year-old writer die from?

Khomyakov put forward the first version, according to which the root cause of death was the severe mental shock experienced by Gogol due to the sudden death of Khomyakov’s wife Ekaterina Mikhailovna. “From then on, he was in some kind of nervous disorder, which took on the character of religious insanity,” recalled Khomyakov. “He fasted and began to starve himself, reproaching himself for gluttony.”

This version seems to be confirmed by the testimony of people who saw the effect that the accusatory conversations of Father Matthew Konstantinovsky had on Gogol. It was he who demanded that Nikolai Vasilyevich observe a strict fast, demanded from him special zeal in fulfilling the harsh instructions of the church, and reproached both Gogol himself and Pushkin, whom Gogol revered, for their sinfulness and paganism. The denunciations of the eloquent priest so shocked Nikolai Vasilyevich that one day, interrupting Father Matthew, he literally groaned: “Enough! Leave me alone, I can’t listen any longer, it’s too scary!” Terty Filippov, a witness to these conversations, was convinced that the sermons of Father Matthew set Gogol in a pessimistic mood and convinced him of the inevitability of his imminent death.

And yet there is no reason to believe that Gogol has gone mad. An involuntary witness to the last hours of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s life was a servant of a Simbirsk landowner, paramedic Zaitsev, who noted in his memoirs that a day before his death Gogol was in clear memory and of sound mind. Having calmed down after the “therapeutic” torture, he had a friendly conversation with Zaitsev, asked about his life, and even made amendments to the poems written by Zaitsev on the death of his mother.

The version that Gogol died of starvation is also not confirmed. A healthy adult can go completely without food for 30-40 days. Gogol fasted for only 17 days, and even then he did not completely refuse food...

But if not from madness and hunger, then could some infectious disease have caused death? In Moscow in the winter of 1852, an epidemic of typhoid fever raged, from which, by the way, Khomyakova died. That is why Inozemtsev, at the first examination, suspected that the writer had typhus. But a week later, a council of doctors convened by Count Tolstoy announced that Gogol had not typhus, but meningitis, and prescribed that strange course of treatment, which cannot be called anything other than “torture”...

In 1902, Dr. N. Bazhenov published a small work, “The Illness and Death of Gogol.” Having carefully analyzed the symptoms described in the memoirs of the writer’s acquaintances and the doctors who treated him, Bazhenov came to the conclusion that it was precisely this incorrect, debilitating treatment for meningitis, which in fact did not exist, that killed the writer.

It seems that Bazhenov is only partly right. The treatment prescribed by the council, applied when Gogol was already hopeless, aggravated his suffering, but was not the cause of the disease itself, which began much earlier. In his notes, Doctor Tarasenkov, who examined Gogol for the first time on February 16, described the symptoms of the disease as follows: “... the pulse was weak, the tongue was clean but dry; the skin had a natural warmth. By all accounts, it was clear that he did not have a fever... once he had a slight nosebleed, complained that his hands were cold, his urine was thick, dark-colored...”

One can only regret that Bazhenov did not think to consult a toxicologist when writing his work. After all, the symptoms of Gogol’s disease described by him are practically indistinguishable from the symptoms of chronic mercury poisoning - the main component of the same calomel that every doctor who began treatment fed Gogol with. In fact, with chronic calomel poisoning, thick dark urine and various types of bleeding are possible, most often gastric, but sometimes nasal. A weak pulse could be a consequence of both the weakening of the body from polishing and the result of the action of calomel. Many noted that throughout his illness Gogol often asked to drink: thirst is one of the characteristics and signs of chronic poisoning.

In all likelihood, the beginning of the fatal chain of events was laid by an upset stomach and the “too strong effect of the medicine,” about which Gogol complained to Shevyrev on February 5. Since gastric disorders were then treated with calomel, it is possible that the medicine prescribed to him was calomel and was prescribed by Inozemtsev, who a few days later fell ill himself and stopped seeing the patient. The writer passed into the hands of Tarasenkov, who, not knowing that Gogol had already taken a dangerous medicine, could once again prescribe calomel to him. For the third time, Gogol received calomel from Klimenkov.

The peculiarity of calomel is that it does not cause harm only if it is relatively quickly eliminated from the body through the intestines. If it lingers in the stomach, then after a while it begins to act as the strongest mercury poison, sublimate. This is exactly what apparently happened to Gogol: significant doses of calomel he took were not excreted from the stomach, since the writer was fasting at that time and there was simply no food in his stomach. The gradually increasing amount of calomel in his stomach caused chronic poisoning, and the weakening of the body from malnutrition, loss of spirit and Klimenkov’s barbaric treatment only accelerated death...

It would not be difficult to test this hypothesis by examining the mercury content of the remains using modern analytical tools. But let us not become like the blasphemous exhumers of the year thirty-one and, for the sake of idle curiosity, let us not disturb the ashes of the great writer a second time, let us not again throw down the tombstones from his grave and move his monuments from place to place. Let everything connected with the memory of Gogol be preserved forever and stand in one place!

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