Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (surname at birth Yanovsky, from 1821 - Gogol-Yanovsky; March 20 (April 1) 1809, Sorochintsy, Mirgorodsky district, Poltava province - February 21 (March 4) 1852, Moscow) - Russian prose writer, playwright, poet, critic, publicist, recognized as one of the classics of Russian literature. Descended from the old noble family of Gogolei-Yanovsky.
Biography:
Born in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorodsky district, Poltava province, in the family of a landowner. Gogol spent his childhood in the estate of his parents in Vasilyevka (another name is Yanovshchina). The cultural center of the region was the Kibintsy, the estate of DP Troshchinsky, their distant relative, Gogol's father acted as his secretary.
In Kibintsy there was a large library, there was a home theater, for which Gogol's father wrote comedies, being also his actor and conductor.
In May 1821 he entered the gymnasium of higher sciences in Nizhyn. Here he is engaged in painting, participates in performances. He also tries himself in various literary genres (he writes elegiac poems, tragedies, a historical poem, a story). At the same time he writes the satire "Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written to Fools" (not preserved). However, he dreams of a legal career.
After graduating from high school in 1828, Gogol in December, together with another graduate A.S. Danilevsky goes to St. Petersburg, where he makes the first literary tests: at the beginning of 1829 the poem "Italy" appears, publishes "Ganz Kuchelgarten" (under the pseudonym "V. Alov").
At the end of 1829 he managed to find a job in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. During this period, "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", "Nos", "Taras Bulba" were published.
In the fall of 1835 he started writing The Inspector General, the plot of which was suggested by Pushkin; the work progressed so successfully that the premiere of the play took place in the spring of 1836 at the Alexandria Theater.
In June 1836, Gogol left St. Petersburg for Germany (in total, he lived abroad for about 12 years). He spends the end of summer and autumn in Switzerland, where he is taken for the continuation of Dead Souls. The plot was also suggested by Pushkin.
In November 1836, Gogol met A. Mitskevich in Paris.
In Rome, he receives the shocking news of the death of Pushkin.
In May 1842, "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls" was published. The three-year period (1842-1845) that followed the writer's departure abroad was a period of intense and difficult work on the second volume of Dead Souls.
At the beginning of 1845, Gogol showed signs of a mental crisis, and in a state of a sharp aggravation of his illness, he burns the manuscript of the second volume, on which he will continue to work after some time.
In April 1848, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Gogol finally returned to Russia, where he spends most of his time in Moscow, visits St. Petersburg, and also in his native places - in Little Russia. In the spring of 1850, Gogol makes the first and last attempt to arrange his family life - makes an offer
A.M. Vielgorskaya, but is refused.
On January 1, 1852, Gogol informs Arnoldi that the second volume is "completely finished." But in the last days of the month, signs of a new crisis were revealed, the impetus for which was the death of E.M. Khomyakova, sister
N. M. Yazykov, a man spiritually close to Gogol.
On February 7, Gogol confesses and takes communion, and on the night of February 11-12, he burns the white manuscript of the second volume (only five chapters have survived in incomplete form).
On the morning of February 21, Gogol died in his last apartment in Talyzin's house in Moscow. The writer's funeral took place with a huge crowd of people at the cemetery of St. Danilov Monastery, and in 1931 Gogol's remains were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery.
We bring to your attention films based on the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol:
1. Viy
2. May night, or drowned woman
3. Auditor
4. How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich
5. Dead Souls (1 - 5 episodes)
6. Nose
7. Evenings on a farm near Dikanka
8. Marriage
9. Taras Bulba
April 1 - 210 years since the birth of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. There are many great people in our literature, but not all of them can be considered so modern. Any reader will find around him quite advanced, dressed in the latest fashion, Khlestak and Chichikovs. Majors Kovalev's virtual noses are now legally registered on the worldwide Internet.
The series "Gogol" has become the most successful film in recent years. In the role of the classic Alexander Petrov. Photo: Karoprokat
Let's talk about this with Gogol himself. The conversation, of course, will be "spiritualistic", but this is forgivable, since April 1st. Questions from the present, and Nikolai Vasilyevich from the past will answer with precise quotes from his preface to "Dead Souls", "Theatrical Travel", "Author's Confession", "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends", as well as from letters from 1832-52.
Nikolai Vasilievich, winter is boring. I really want warmth. Spring, April is on the nose. How are you?
Nikolay Gogol:Believe that often comes a frantic desire to turn into one nose, so that there is nothing else - no eyes, no hands, no legs, except for only one huge nose, which has nostrils the size of good buckets, so that you can draw in yourself like you can have more incense and spring.
But then you would have nothing to answer the questions. And we would like to hear from you ...
Nikolay Gogol:And by the way, I'm no smarter than anyone. I know people who are several times smarter and more educated than me and could give advice several times the most useful of mine; but they don't, and they don't even know how to do it.
We will not even ask them. We will ask you all the same. How do you manage to make others laugh and remain such a gloomy person?
Nikolay Gogol:I never thought that I would have to be a satirical writer and make my readers laugh. It is true that, while still at school, I at times felt a disposition for gaiety and annoyed my comrades with inappropriate jokes. But these were temporary seizures; in general, I was rather melancholic and inclined to think. Subsequently, illness and blues joined this.
Would you like to say that your completely not harmless, but terribly funny "Inspector General" was the result of illness and blues?
Nikolay Gogol:My laugh was good-natured at first; I did not think at all to ridicule anything for any purpose ... I decided to collect all the bad things that I knew and laugh at him at once - this is the origin of the "Inspector General"! This was my first work, intended to make a good influence on society, which, however, did not succeed: in comedy they began to see a desire to ridicule the legalized order of things and government forms, while I had the intention to ridicule only the arbitrary deviation of some persons from the uniform and legalized order. The presentation of "The Inspector General" made a painful impression on me.
Around us there are a lot of advanced Khlestakov and Chichikovs dressed in the latest fashion. Majors Kovalev's virtual noses have been registered on the Internet
A comedy for all ages, does not leave the stage - what are you talking about?
Nikolay Gogol:There is nothing to worry about the syllable or the beauty of the expressions; the point is in the deed and the truth of the deed, and not in the syllable.
Does it bother you that Khlestakovism can easily be called a disease of the 21st century?
Nikolay Gogol:Anyone, even for a minute, if not for a few minutes, has been or is being done by Khlestakov, but, naturally, he does not just want to admit this; he even likes to laugh at this fact, but only, of course, in the skin of another, and not in his own. And a clever guard officer will sometimes turn out to be Khlestakov, and the statesman will sometimes turn out to be Khlestakov, and our brother, a sinful writer, will sometimes turn out to be Khlestakov. In a word, rarely will anyone not be with them at least once in their life - the only thing is that after that they will turn very deftly, and as if it were not him.
About those who "cleverly turned", we have almost every day in the news. The governors are being removed, cases are being started.
Nikolay Gogol:A state husband of ours defined this position as follows: "The Governor-General is the Minister of Internal Affairs who stops on the road." This position is more temporary than permanent.
What would you say to those governors who are now sitting on bunks?
Nikolay Gogol:It was not about that you should have taken care that everything would be good only with you, but precisely with the fact that after you everything would be good.
Now the whole world is a solid fake news. We saw Premier Theresa May dancing in Africa. Trump turns off the lights to Venezuela. Didn't you read tweets to the envy of Khlestakov?
Nikolay Gogol:Khlestakov is not lying at all coldly or theatrically in fanfare; he lies with feeling, his eyes express the pleasure he gets from it. This is generally the best and most poetic moment in his life - almost a kind of inspiration.
By the way, you love the songs of Little Russia - "this blooming part of Russia." Haven't you heard news from there for a long time? You wrote down different things in your notebooks - maybe something from the latter?
Nikolay Gogol:"- Yes, what are you, matchmaker, to us that ... - I was that, my wife is tayo, I'm so well."
Russia is under sanctions: after America, Europe, as if "in defense" of the Ukrainians, threatens with anathemas and cannot calm down. What's next?
Nikolay Gogol:A decade will pass, and you will see that Europe will come to us not to buy hemp and lard, but to buy wisdom that is no longer sold in European markets.
"To think" in our time means to get into some kind of Facebook and Telegram channel and drown yourself in a lot of crazy "likes" and "comments". What remains after that in a person's head?
Nikolay Gogol:An auditor is sitting in the head of everyone. Everyone is busy with the auditor. The fears and hopes of all the actors are circling around the auditor. Some have the hope of getting rid of bad mayors and all kinds of grabbers. Others have a panic fear at the sight of the most important dignitaries and leading people of society in fear. Others, who look at all the affairs of the world calmly, brushing their noses, have curiosity ...
Again you are talking about the nose. What does a nose have to do with an auditor?
Nikolay Gogol:I am tired in body and soul. I swear no one knows or hears my suffering. God is with them all. I got sick of my play. I would like to run away now God knows where ...
But don't run far from yourself. Not Khlestakovs - so Chichikovs. Do you think there are fewer of these? Or have you not heard how in our time they commit machinations with "dead souls"?
Drawing: Igor Virabov
Nikolay Gogol:In this book, much is described incorrectly, not as it is and how it really happens in the Russian land ... At every step I was stopped by the questions: why? what is it for? what should such and such a character say? what should such and such a phenomenon express? The question is: what should be done when such questions come? Drive them away? I tried, but compelling questions stood before me ... Everything came out tensely, forcibly, and even what I laughed at became sad.
Why is it sad? What did you see wrong and wrong?
Nikolay Gogol:Russia had to develop from its origins. One had to look at Europe without becoming related, not exhausted. If the house has already been built according to one plan, you cannot break it. You can remove the decorations, perfectly decorate every corner in a European way. But breaking down the main walls of a building is absurd, it's almost the same as correcting the work of God's hands. From this it happened that the Russian proper in Russia made little progress, despite 100 years of incessant corrections, alterations, troubles and fuss.
Are you, apparently, frightened by today's Europe, in which the majority is subordinated to minorities out of political correctness and, in order not to offend refugees from the East, are afraid to decorate Christmas trees?
Nikolay Gogol: Such confusion is now brewing everywhere in Europe that no human remedy will help when they open up, and the fears that you now see in Russia will be an insignificant thing in front of them. In Russia, the light is still dawning, there are still ways and roads to salvation, and thank God that these fears came now and not later. "
And the "yellow vests"? Many people sleep and see how to dump some "Maidan" on our heads?
Nikolay Gogol:Russia is not France; the elements are French - not Russian. You have forgotten even the originality of each nation ... The same hammer, when it falls on the glass, shatters it to smithereens, and when it falls on the iron, forges it.
But we, economists say, are sitting on a dollar needle. Global finance, "swifts", something will be turned off, arrested, blocked - and everything will collapse at once?
Nikolay Gogol:Your thoughts about finances are based on reading foreign books and English magazines, and therefore are dead thoughts. It is a shame for you, being an intelligent person, not to enter your own mind so far, which could develop in its own way, but litter it with foreign dung.
Recently we published a comic book about the siege of Leningrad. Judging by this book, it is not clear what to save, why then they saved their world, their city. Or I’ll ask this: why would Bagration die for Borodino, if the whole Petersburg sighs about its idol Napoleon and explains himself more willingly in French? How to fix this when we go in circles all the time?
Nikolay Gogol:Some think that transformations and reforms, conversion in this and in another way, can correct the world; others think that through some special, rather mediocre literature, which you call fiction, you can influence the education of society. But the well-being of society will not be improved by riots or fervent heads. Fermentation within cannot be corrected by any constitutions.
Here are encouraged, thanks!
Nikolay Gogol: The Russian man has an enemy, an irreconcilable, dangerous enemy, without which, he would be a giant. This enemy is laziness, or, better to say, a painful lulling to sleep that overcomes the Russian. Many thoughts, not accompanied by incarnation, have already perished fruitlessly with us.
What can cure us of sleeping sickness?
Nikolay Gogol:How clever Pushkin was in everything he said lately in his life! "Why is it necessary," he said, "for one of us to become above all ... A state without a full-power monarch is an automaton: many, many, if it reaches what the United States has reached. And what is the United States? Dead meat; man. in them weathered to the point that it's not worth a damn ... "
You spoke about our common "spiritual city", about the fact that "our spiritual covetous people" interfere with us. That is, everything is low and vulgar that sits inside. How to get rid of them - tell me?
Nikolay Gogol:There is a remedy, there is a scourge that can drive them out. Laughter, my noble compatriots! Laughter, which all our low passions are so afraid of! Laughter, which was created to laugh at everything that dishonors the true beauty of a person. Let's return laughter to its true meaning! Let us take it away from those who turned it into a frivolous secular blasphemy over everything, without considering either good or bad!
Well, now - you are back to laughing again. And love? Many swear in love - how to discern who really loves Russia, who is her friend, who is her foe?
Nikolay Gogol:If only he loves Russian Russia, loves everything that is in Russia ... Without the diseases and sufferings that have accumulated in so many inside her and which are our own fault, none of us would feel compassion for her. And compassion is already the beginning of love.
The State Public Historical Library has opened the exhibition "Gogol Pearls from the State Library Library Collection: Autographs, Rare Lifetime and Illustrated Editions". You can visit the free exhibition until April 4. Learning about books that cannot be borrowed from the library, about the rarest facts of Nikolai Gogol's creative life will be useful for schoolchildren, teachers, students, as well as bibliophiles.
April 1 is the birthday of the Russian writer, playwright, author of the famous poem "Dead Souls". This year marks the 210th anniversary.
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born in 1809. Taras Shevchenko once spoke of him as “the true guide of the human heart.
Biography of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
N.V. Gogol is a classic of Russian literature, perhaps the most mysterious writer in our history.
His works became the basis of ballets and theatrical performances. "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" and "Nos" brought him fame. And the pinnacle of his creativity are such works as The Inspector General, Dead Souls and The Overcoat.
The process of working on the famous poem "Dead Souls" and "The Inspector General", as well as the public resonance after their publication, testified to the controversial effect of Nikolai Gogol's literary talent on the minds of his contemporaries. This thought marked the beginning of his reflections on the prophetic purpose and the need to apply it for the common good. He was afraid to harm society with his works.
By the end of the 40s of the XIX century, the writer turned to searches in the field of religion, because of which his work acquired an edifying character. His later works reflected the search for positive principles.
He was fond of mystical and religious practices. Perhaps his most mysterious work is Viy, written based on an old Ukrainian legend. But literary scholars specializing in Gogol's heritage have not yet found convincing evidence pointing to its authorship.
The personality of the writer and playwright attracts the attention of many scientists and cultural figures. Already during his lifetime, numerous rumors appeared, which appeared due to his closed nature, a tendency to mythologize biography. And his mysterious death gave rise to various legends.
Today is celebrated as a holiday of world culture. Numerous commemorative events will take place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as in Ukraine and other countries.
"My thoughts, my name, my works will belong to Russia" - these words of Nikolai Gogol are especially relevant today in our homeland, when the anniversary of the great writer is celebrated. By the decision of UNESCO, 2009 was declared all over the world as the "Year of Gogol", before which, according to Taras Shevchenko, "one should revere, as before a person gifted with the deepest mind and the most love for people." At the same time, the great Ukrainian poet emphasized that Nikolai Vasilievich was "the true leader of the human heart." This is how Gogol and his descendants perceive, whose thoughts today are turned to the immortal name.
The main events on the anniversary day will begin in Moscow in the morning. At the Novodevichy cemetery, a wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the grave of Gogol by cultural and art workers, headed by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Alexander Avdeev. Metropolitan of Krutitsky and Kolomna Yuvenaly is also here. While on the grave there is a bust by the Soviet sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. It was installed in 1952, after the coffin with Gogol's body was moved from the original burial in the St. Daniel Monastery. During the transfer, the granite golgotha, a tombstone with a bronze cross, which was located at the site of the first burial, was lost. Gogol himself bequeathed "not to erect any monument and not to think about such a trifle, an unworthy Christian." Now his posthumous will will be fulfilled - in the fall, the original tombstone will be restored at the writer's grave. In addition to the Novodevichy cemetery, the funeral service will be performed in the Holy Danilov Monastery.
On the same day, Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov and a group of parliamentarians will lay flowers at the Gogol monument in the courtyard of the house on Nikitsky Boulevard, where Gogol lived the last four years of his life and died on February 21, 1852. Last Friday, the first museum of the writer in Russia was opened here. It is adjacent to the city library number 2, where the Gogol Readings will open on the day of the anniversary.
The main event associated with the name of the writer will take place in the evening at the Maly Academic Theater, which is rightfully considered his home. The theater's artistic director Yuri Solomin recalled in an interview with ITAR-TASS that on May 25, in the 1836-1837 season, the performance "The Inspector General" appeared for the first time on the stage of the Maly Theater. As Solomin said, his story is as follows: "Nikolai Vasilyevich wrote a letter to his friend, theater artist Mikhail Schepkin, where he asked him not only to take part in the play, but also to become a stage director." "Since then," The Inspector General "has not left the stage of our theater, during this time 12 performances of the immortal comedy have been performed here," Solomin added. The third act from the last production, which, incidentally, was also performed by Solomin, will be shown today on the famous stage. In addition, the program of the evening includes a performance by the biographer of Gogol - literary critic Igor Zolotussky and theater groups who will perform excerpts from the writer's works.
The long-awaited Moscow director Vladimir Bortko will also take place today. The title role in the film with a stellar Russian-Ukrainian cast was played by People's Artist of the USSR, in the recent past, Minister of Culture of Ukraine Bogdan Stupka.
On the same day, cultural events on many other stages and stages will be dedicated to Gogol. Thus, maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater directed by him prepared new productions of operas based on the works of the classics for the "round" date: "Lawsuit", "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka", "Carriage". They were written by young Russian composers. Also on the stage of the Mariinsky will be shown the operas "May Night" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "Sorochinskaya Fair" and "Marriage" by Mussorgsky, as well as "Dead Souls" by Rodion Shchedrin. And the Moscow Philharmonic will dedicate to Nikolai Vasilyevich the musical and literary composition "They will laugh at my bitter word." It will be presented by soloists of the Blagovest Moscow Choir Ensemble, who will perform Russian folk spiritual poems, Ukrainian carols and psalms. In addition, the Philharmonic has timed an internet screening of Mussorgsky's Sorochinskaya Yarmarka performed by the State Academic Capella of Russia under the direction of Valery Polyansky to coincide with the writer's 200th anniversary.
Gogol's jubilee was marked by many other cultural events: the opening of exhibitions, the publication of new books dedicated to his work, the screening of documentaries and retrospectives of paintings based on the works of the classics.
“The one who was created to create in the depths of the soul,
live and breathe your creations,
he must be strange in many ways. "
N.V. Gogol
Nikolai Gogol is the most mystical writer, the brilliant creator of the encyclopedia of Ukrainian life. There is no other writer in Russia whose death would be surrounded by so many legends, in the complete absence of legends about life. In his world, there is no borderline between reality and fantasy. Remember how Nose ends? “No matter what you say, but similar incidents happen in the world - rarely, but they do happen” ... And this is about the fact that the nose escaped from a person and led an independent life, and even serving in a high rank. That's how it was with Gogol himself - something unbelievable always happened ...
Gogol sincerely considered himself a genius, talked and wrote a lot about his greatness, which greatly irritated the people around him. But he really was a genius. At the age of 22, Gogol composed Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The writer has been listed in Russian literature for quite a long time as a satirist, at first even as a humorist. He considered the highest compliment (and Pushkin congratulated him on this) that the typesetters laughed while reading "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka." But Gogol, at the same time, is a tragic and profound writer. And this is undoubtedly one of the most profound Russian thinkers.
The future writer was born in 1809 in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorodsky district, Poltava province, into a landowner's family. They named him Nicholas in honor of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas, which was kept in the church of the village of Dikanka.
The Gogols had over a thousand acres of land and about 400 serfs. The writer's ancestors from his father's side were hereditary priests, but already grandfather Afanasy Demyanovich left the spiritual field and entered the hetman's office. It was he who added to his surname Yanovsky another - Gogol, which was supposed to demonstrate the origin of the family from Colonel Eustathius (Ostap) Gogol, known in the Ukrainian history of the XYII century, this fact, however, does not find sufficient confirmation.
Parents N.V. Gogol
In 1818-1819, Gogol, together with his brother Ivan, studied at the Poltava district school, and then, 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. A frail, nervous boy who looked younger than his years, his ears were always flowing (a consequence of scrofula suffered in early childhood) - so he entered an independent life. In the gymnasium, Gogol was not particularly diligent, according to the certification of teachers he was "dumb, weak, cut." However, in the classroom he enjoyed the glory of a great wit. Here he is engaged in painting, participates in performances - as an artist-decorator and as an actor, and with particular success he plays comic roles. He tries himself in various literary genres, writes elegiac poems, tragedies, a historical poem, a story. At the same time he writes a satire "Something about Nizhyn, or the Law is not Written to Fools" which, unfortunately, has not survived.
However, the thought of writing has not yet occurred to Gogol, all his aspirations are connected with the state service, he dreams of a legal career. Gogol's adoption of this decision was greatly influenced by Professor N.G. Belousov, who taught a course in natural law, as well as the general strengthening of freedom-loving moods in the gymnasium.
After graduating from high school in 1828, Gogol went to St. Petersburg. Experiencing financial difficulties, unsuccessfully fussing about a place, he makes the first literary tests: at the beginning of 1829 the poem "Italy" appears, and in the spring of the same year under the pseudonym "V. Alov ”Gogol prints an idyll in the paintings“ Ganz Kuchelgarten ”. The poem was unsuccessful, completely childish, and poetry was not his, the great master of prose, the element. But that would be half the trouble, you never know bad poems. It's bad that he also wrote the foreword himself. The inability to distinguish reality from fantasy once again played a cruel joke with him: on behalf of fictional publishers, Nikolai sang a bunch of praises for himself. Magazine criticism, spreading the poem to smithereens, mocked the preface separately. Self-confidence blew off him like a wind. Gogol fell into a real panic and ran through the bookstores until he bought up all six hundred copies of the ill-fated poem. For three days the would-be poet stoked the stove in a rented apartment with books.
At the end of 1829, he managed to find a job in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From April 1830 to March 1831 he served in the department of estates, first as a scribe, then as an assistant to the clerk, under the leadership of the famous idyllic poet V.I. Panaev. Staying in the offices caused Gogol to be deeply disappointed in the state service, but it provided him with rich material for future works that depicted the life of bureaucrats and the functioning of the state machine. 
During this period, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka were published. The audience was captivated by Gogol once and for all.
The pinnacle of Gogol's fiction is the Petersburg story The Nose, an extremely bold grotesque that anticipated some of the tendencies of 20th century art. The story "Taras Bulba", which captures that moment of the national past when the people, defending their sovereignty, acted as a whole, together, and, moreover, as a force that determines the nature of European history, acted as a contrast to both the provincial and the capital world.
In the fall of 1835, he started writing The Inspector General, the plot of which was suggested by Pushkin. the work progressed so successfully that on January 18, 1836, he reads a comedy at an evening with Zhukovsky in the presence of Pushkin, Vyazemsky and others, and in February-March he was already busy staging it on the stage of the Alexandria Theater. The play premiered on 19 April. May 25 - premiere in Moscow, at the Maly Theater.
In June 1836, Gogol left St. Petersburg for Germany; in total, he lived abroad for about 12 years. He spends the end of summer and autumn in Switzerland, where he is taken for the continuation of Dead Souls. The plot was also suggested by Pushkin. The work began in 1835, before the writing of The Inspector General, and immediately gained wide scope. In St. Petersburg, several chapters were read to Pushkin, arousing both his approval and at the same time a depressing feeling.
In November 1836, Gogol moved to Paris, where he met Adam Mickiewicz. Then he moved to Rome. Here in February 1837, in the midst of his work on Dead Souls, he received the shocking news of the death of Pushkin. In a fit of "inexpressible melancholy" and bitterness, Gogol perceives the "present work" as the poet's "sacred testament".
In December 1838, V. Zhukovsky arrived in Rome, accompanying the heir to Alexander II. Gogol was extremely happy with the poet's arrival, showed him Rome, drew views of the city with him.
In September 1839, Gogol arrived in Moscow and began reading the chapters of Dead Souls in the presence of his old friends. A total of 6 chapters have been read. The delight was universal.
In May 1842, "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls" was published. After the first, brief, but very commendable reviews, the initiative was intercepted by Gogol's enemies, who accused him of caricature, farce and slander of reality.
All this controversy took place in the absence of Gogol, who went abroad in June 1842. Before leaving, he entrusted Nikolai Yakovlevich Prokopovich with the publication of the first collection of his works. Gogol spent the summer in Germany, in October he moved to Rome. He is working on the second volume of Dead Souls, apparently begun in 1840; he devotes much time to preparing collected works. The Works of Nikolai Gogol, in four volumes, came out in early 1843, as the censorship suspended the two volumes already printed for a month.
The three-year period, from 1842 to 1845, which followed the writer's departure abroad, was a period of intense and difficult work on the second volume of Dead Souls.
At the beginning of 1845, Nikolai Gogol showed signs of a new mental crisis. The writer travels to Paris to rest and recuperate, but returns to Frankfurt in March. A period of treatment and consultations with various medical celebrities begins, moving from one resort to another: now in Halle, then in Berlin, then in Dresden, then in Carlsbad. In late June or early July 1845, in a state of a sharp exacerbation of the disease, Gogol burns the manuscript of the second volume. Subsequently, Gogol explained this step by the fact that the book did not clearly show the "paths and roads" to the ideal.
Gogol spent the winter of 1847-1848 in Naples, reading Russian periodicals, novelties of fiction, history and folklore books. At the same time, he is preparing for a long-planned pilgrimage to holy places. In January 1848 he went by sea to Jerusalem. In April 1848, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Gogol finally returned to Russia, where he spends most of his time in Moscow, visits St. Petersburg, and also in his native places - Little Russia.
In the years 1849-1850, Gogol read individual chapters of the 2nd volume of Dead Souls to his friends. General approval and enthusiasm inspire the writer, who now works with renewed vigor. In the spring of 1850, Gogol made the first and last attempt to arrange his family life - he made an offer to Anna Mikhailovna Vielgorskaya. According to VA Sollogub, she "seems to be the only woman with whom Gogol was in love," but she is refused.
In October 1850, Gogol arrived in Odessa. His condition is improving, he is active, cheerful, cheerful, willingly converges with the actors of the Odessa troupe, to whom he gives lessons in reading comedy works, with local writers. In March 1851 he left Odessa and, having spent the spring and early summer in his native places, in June he returned to Moscow. A new circle of readings of the 2nd volume of the poem follows; up to 7 chapters were read in total. In October he attended The Inspector General at the Maly Theater, with Shumsky as Khlestakov, and was satisfied with the performance. In November, he reads "The Inspector General" to a group of actors, among the listeners was Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
January 1, 1852 Gogol finished the 2nd volume of Dead Souls. But in the last days of the month, signs of a new crisis were clearly revealed. He is tormented by a premonition of imminent death, aggravated by the newly intensified doubts about the beneficialness of his writing. On February 7, Gogol confesses and takes communion, and on the night of February 11-12, Gogol woke up his serf boy Semyon and ordered to light the stove in his office. On the way there, Nikolai Vasilievich stopped in every room and was baptized. At the same time, he kept the briefcase with the manuscripts under his arm. When Gogol threw notebooks rolled into a tube and tied with a string into the fire, Semyon fell to his knees and tearfully begged the master to come to his senses. "None of your business!" - answered Nikolai Vasilievich. The tight bundle still did not flare up, and Gogol pulled it out of the fire, untied it and sent it back into the hell, rolling the paper with a poker until only ash remained. This is how the second volume of Dead Souls perished, with the exception of those few chapters that were not in the briefcase, but in the closet, and which Gogol forgot about.
Having destroyed his labor, the patient returned to his room and lay down on the sofa. Gogol now had absolutely no reason to live. Another 10 days passed. Gogol completely calmed down, although he was monstrously weakened. Now he did not wash, did not dress, only lay motionless on the sofa with an enlightened gaze and a clear face and answered all the harassment of friends, doctors and priests: "Leave me, I feel good!"
The writer's funeral took place with a huge gathering of people at the cemetery of St. Danilov Monastery, and in 1931 the remains of Gogol were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Interesting Facts:
- Gogol had a passion for needlework. Knitted scarves on knitting needles, cut dresses for sisters, weaved belts, sewn scarves for himself by summer.
- The writer loved to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings.
- One of his favorite drinks is goat's milk, which he brewed in a special way, adding rum. He jokingly called this concoction a mogul-mogul, and often laughing, he said: "Gogol loves a mogul-mogul!"
- Nikolai Vasilyevich walked along the streets and alleys usually on the left side, so he constantly ran into passers-by.
- Gogol was very afraid of a thunderstorm. According to contemporaries, bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.
- Gogol always had sweets in his pockets. Living in a hotel, he never allowed the servants to take away the sugar served for tea, collected it, hid it, and then gnawed pieces at work or while talking.
- A few years later, when Gogol became a famous writer, his mother could not understand what exactly he became famous for, and told everyone he met that his son had invented the steamer, the telegraph and the railway.
- There are genuine photographs of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. They were shot in Rome, in 1845, by one of the pioneers of Russian photography, Sergei Lvovich Levitsky.
- In theatrical performances, Gogol as an actor had no equal. He had tremendous talent and all the data for playing on stage. Comrade Gogol later said: "I saw the play" The Minor "in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but I always retained the conviction that no actress succeeded in the role of Prostakova as well as the then sixteen-year-old Gogol played this role."
- In the gymnasium, Gogol was known as the keeper of the books that were issued in a pool, i.e. was a librarian. The high school student who received a book to read had to sit down decorously on a bench in the classroom, in the place indicated to him, in the presence of the librarian, and not get up until he returned the books. Also, the librarian personally wrapped the thumb and forefinger in pieces of paper for each reader, and then only entrusted the book to him. Gogol took books like a jewel, and especially loved miniature editions.
- Almost all the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol have been filmed (since 1907, more than 60 adaptations have been made based on the works of Gogol), some even more than once.
