H in gogol stages of biography and creativity. Brief creative biography of Gogol

Role and place in literature

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - outstanding classic Russian literature XIX centuries. He made a great contribution to dramaturgy and journalism. According to many literary critics, Gogol founded a special direction called " natural school". The writer, with his work, influenced the development of the Russian language, focusing on its nationality.

Origin and early years

N.V. Gogol was born on March 20, 1809 in the Poltava province (Ukraine) in the village of Velikie Sorochintsy. Nikolai was born the third child in a landowner's family (there were 12 children in total).

The future writer belonged to an old Cossack family. It is possible that the Hetman Ostap Gogol himself was an ancestor.

Father - Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky. He was engaged in stage activities and instilled in his son a love for the theater. When Nikolai was only 16 years old, he died.

Mother - Maria Ivanovna Gogol-Yanovskaya (nee Kosyarovskaya). She got married in young age(14 years). Her beautiful appearance admired by many contemporaries. Nikolai became her first child to be born alive. And so he was named in honor of St. Nicholas.

Nikolai spent his childhood in a village in Ukraine. The traditions and way of life of the Ukrainian people greatly influenced the future creative activity writer. And the religiosity of the mother was passed on to her son and was also reflected in many of his works.

Education and work

When Gogol was ten years old, he was sent to Poltava to prepare for his studies at the gymnasium. He was taught by a local teacher, thanks to whom, in 1821, Nikolai entered the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn. Gogol's progress left much to be desired. He was strong only in drawing and Russian literature. Although the Gymnasium itself is to blame for the fact that Gogol's academic success was not great. Teaching methods were outdated and not useful: rote learning and caning. Therefore, Gogol took up self-education: he subscribed to magazines together with his comrades, was fond of theater.

After finishing his studies at the gymnasium, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, hoping for a brighter future here. But the reality disappointed him a little. His attempts to become an actor failed. In 1829, he became a petty official, a scribe in a department of the ministry, but did not work there for long, having become disillusioned with this matter.

Creation

Work as an official did not bring joy to Nikolai Gogol, so he tries himself in literary activity. The first published work is “Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala” (at first it had a different name). Gogol's fame began with this story.

The popularity of Gogol's works was explained by the interest of the St. Petersburg public in the Little Russian (as some regions of Ukraine were previously called) being.

In his work, Gogol often referred to folk legends, according to beliefs, used folk simple speech.

The early works of Nikolai Gogol are attributed to the direction of romanticism. Later, he writes in his original style, many associate it with realism.

Major works

The first work that brought him fame was the collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. These stories are attributed to the main works of Gogol. In them, the author amazingly accurately depicted the traditions of the Ukrainian people. And the magic that lurks on the pages of this book still surprises readers.

Important works include the historical story "Taras Bulba". It is included in the cycle of stories "World City". dramatic destiny heroes against the backdrop of real events makes a strong impression. Films have been made based on the story.

One of the great achievements in the field of Gogol's dramaturgy was the play "The Government Inspector". The comedy boldly exposed the vices of Russian officials.

Last years

The year 1836 was the time for Gogol to travel around Europe. He is working on the first part dead souls". Returning to his homeland, the author publishes it.

In 1843, Gogol published the story "The Overcoat".

There is a version that Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls on February 11, 1852. And in the same year he was gone.

Chronological table (by dates)

Year(s)	Event
1809	Year of birth N.V. Gogol
1821-1828	Years of study at the Nizhyn gymnasium
1828	Moving to Petersburg
1830	The story "Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala"
1831-1832	Collection "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka"
1836	Finished work on the play "Inspector"
1848	Trip to Jerusalem
1852	Nikolai Gogol is gone

Interesting facts from the writer's life

• Passion for mysticism led to the writing of the most mysterious work of Gogol - "Viy".
• There is a version that the author burned the second volume of Dead Souls.
• Nikolai Gogol had a passion for miniature publications.

Writer's Museum

In 1984, the museum was opened in the village of Gogolevo in a festive atmosphere.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol- the great Russian writer, author of the works "Inspector", "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", "Taras Bulba", " Dead Souls"and many others.

Born March 20 (April 1), 1809 in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province, in the family of a poor landowner. In addition to Nicholas, the family had eleven more children. N.V. Gogol spent his childhood years in the estate of his parents Vasilievka (another name is Yanovshchina).

In 1818-1819, the writer studied at the Poltava district school, and in 1820-1821, he took lessons from the Poltava teacher Gabriel Sorochinsky, living with him. In May 1821 Nikolai Gogol entered the gymnasium of higher sciences in Nizhyn. There he learned to play the violin, studied painting, participated in performances, performing comic roles. Thinking about his future, he stops at justice, dreaming of "suppressing injustice."

After graduating from the gymnasium in June 1828, in December Gogol went to St. Petersburg with the hope of starting professional activity. At the end of 1829, he managed to find a job in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings of the Ministry of the Interior. From April 1830 to March 1831, N.V. Gogol served in the department of appanages as an assistant clerk, under the supervision of the famous idyllic poet V.I. Panaev. Staying in the offices caused Gogol deep disappointment, but became rich material for future creations.

During this period, "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" (1831-1832) were printed, combining stories from Ukrainian life, the stories "Sorochinsky Fair", "May Night", etc. They aroused universal admiration. With the support of A.S. Pushkin and V.A. Zhukovsky, Nikolai Gogol in 1834 received a position as an associate professor at St. pedagogical activity and from 1835 began to deal exclusively with literature. The study of works on the history of Ukraine became the basis for the idea of ​​"Taras Bulba". Collections of stories "Mirgorod" are published, which include "Old World Landowners", "Taras Bulba", "Viy" and others, and "Arabesques" (on the themes of St. Petersburg life). The story "The Overcoat" became the most significant work Petersburg cycle. Working on the stories, Gogol N.V. He also tried his hand at dramaturgy.

According to the plot donated by Pushkin, Gogol wrote the comedy The Inspector General, which was staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The comedy caused discontent of different sections of society. Shocked by the failure, Nikolai Vasilyevich left for Europe in 1836 and lived there until 1849, only occasionally returning to Russia. While in Rome, the writer begins work on the 1st volume of Dead Souls. The work was published in Russia in 1842. Volume 2 of Dead Souls was filled with religious and mystical meaning by Gogol.

In 1847 Gogol N.V. published "Selected passages from correspondence with friends". This book drew sharp criticism from friends and foes alike. In 1848 he tried to justify himself in the "Author's Confession" in the 2nd volume of "Dead Souls". This work receives universal approval and the writer is taken to work with renewed vigor.

In the spring of 1850, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol undertook the first and one last try arrange your family life. He makes an offer to A. M. Vielgorskaya, but is refused.

Living in St. Petersburg, Odessa, Moscow, he continued to work on the second volume of Dead Souls. He was increasingly seized by religious and mystical moods, his health was deteriorating. In 1852, Gogol began meeting with Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky, a fanatic and mystic. February 11, 1852, being in a difficult state of mind, the writer burned the manuscript of the second volume of the poem. On the morning of February 21, 1852, Nikolai Vasilyevich

Gogol died in his apartment on Nikitsky Boulevard.

The writer was buried in the Donskoy Monastery. After the revolution, the remains of N.V. Gogol were transferred to Novodevichy cemetery.

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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809 - 1852) - a classic of Russian literature, writer, playwright, essayist, critic. The most important works of Gogol are: the collection "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", dedicated to the customs and traditions of the Ukrainian people, as well as greatest poem"Dead Souls".

Among the biographies of great writers, the biography of Gogol stands in a separate row. After reading this article, you will understand why this is so.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a generally recognized literary classic. He worked expertly in the most different genres. Both contemporaries and writers of subsequent generations spoke positively about his works.

Talk about his biography has not subsided to this day, because from among the intelligentsia of the 19th century he is one of the most mystical and enigmatic figures.

Childhood and youth

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on March 20, 1809 in the town of Sorochintsy (Poltava province, Mirgorod district) into a family of local poor Little Russian nobles who owned the village of Vasilyevka, Vasily Afanasyevich and Maria Ivanovna Gogol-Yanovsky.

The belonging of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol to the Little Russian people from childhood had a significant impact on his worldview and writing activity. Psychological features of the Little Russian people were reflected in the content of its early works and on art style his speeches.

Childhood years were spent in the estate of parents Vasilievka, Mirgorod district, not far from the village of Dikanka. An hour's drive from Vasilyevka along the Oposhnyansky tract was the Poltava field - a place famous battle. From his grandmother Tatyana Semyonovna, who taught the boy to draw and even embroider with a garus, Gogol listened to winter evenings Ukrainian folk songs. Grandmother told her grandson historical legends and legends about the heroic pages of history, about the Zaporizhzhya Cossack freemen.

The Gogol family stood out for its stable cultural demands. Gogol's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, was a talented storyteller and theater lover. He got close with distant relative, former minister Justice D. P. Troshchinsky, who lived in retirement in the village of Kibintsy, not far from Vasilyevka. A rich nobleman arranged in his estate home theater, where Vasily Afanasyevich became a director and actor. He composed for this theater his own comedies in Ukrainian, the plots of which he borrowed from folk tales. V. V. Kapnist, a venerable playwright, author of the famous Yabeda, took part in the preparation of the performances. On the stage in Kibintsy, his plays were performed, as well as "Undergrowth" by Fonvizin, "Podshchip" by Krylov. Vasily Afanasyevich was friendly with Kapnist, sometimes visiting with his whole family in Obukhovka. In July 1813 little Gogol I saw here G. R. Derzhavin visiting a friend of his youth. Gogol inherited his gift for writing and acting talent from his father.

Mother, Maria Ivanovna, was a religious, nervous and impressionable woman. Having lost two children who died in infancy, she fearfully waited for the third. The couple prayed in the Dikan church in front of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas. Having given the newborn the name of a saint revered by the people, the parents surrounded the boy with special caress and attention. From childhood, Gogol remembered his mother's stories about the last times, about the death of the world and the Last Judgment, about hellish torments sinners. They were accompanied by instructions on the need to maintain spiritual purity for the sake of future salvation. The boy was especially impressed by the story of the ladder that angels lower from heaven, offering their hand to the soul of the deceased. On this ladder are seven measurements; the last, the seventh, raises the immortal soul of man to the seventh heaven, to heavenly abodes, which are accessible to few. The souls of the righteous go there - people who spent their earthly life "in all piety and purity." The image of the stairs will then pass through all Gogol's reflections on the fate and calling of man to spiritual perfection.

From his mother, Gogol inherited a subtle mental organization, a penchant for contemplation and God-fearing religiosity. Kapnist's daughter recalled: "I knew Gogol as a boy, always serious and so thoughtful that his mother was extremely worried." The boy's imagination was also influenced by the pagan beliefs of the people in brownies, witches, watermen and mermaids. Variegated and motley, sometimes comically cheerful, and sometimes leading to fear and awe mysterious world Folk demonology was absorbed by Gogol's impressionable soul from childhood.

In 1821, after two years of study at the Poltava district school, the parents assigned the boy to the newly opened high school of higher sciences, Prince Bezborodko, in Nizhyn, Chernihiv province. It was often called a lyceum: like the Tsarskoye Selo lyceum, the gymnasium course in it was combined with university subjects, and the classes were taught by professors. Gogol studied for seven years in Nizhyn, coming to his parents only for the holidays.

At first, the teaching was slow: insufficient home preparation had an effect. The children of wealthy parents, classmates of Gogol, entered the gymnasium with knowledge of Latin, French and German. Gogol envied them, felt slighted, shied away from classmates, and in letters home he begged to be taken away from the gymnasium. The sons of wealthy parents, among whom was N.V. Kukolnik, did not spare his pride, ridiculed his weaknesses. On his own experience, Gogol experienced the drama of the "little" man, learned the bitter price of the words of the poor official Bashmachkin, the hero of his "Overcoat", addressed to the scoffers: "Leave me! Why do you offend me?" Sickly, frail, suspicious, the boy was humiliated not only by his peers, but also by insensitive teachers. Rare patience, the ability to silently endure insults gave Gogol the first nickname received from high school students - "Dead Thought."

But soon Gogol discovered extraordinary talent in drawing, far ahead of the successes of his offenders, and then enviable literary abilities. Like-minded people appeared, with whom he began to publish a handwritten journal, placing his articles, stories, poems in it. Among them - historical tale"Brothers Tverdislavichi", a satirical essay "Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written for fools", in which he ridiculed the customs of the local inhabitants.

The beginning of the literary path

Gogol early became interested in literature, especially poetry. Pushkin was his favorite poet, and he copied his "Gypsies", "Poltava", chapters of "Eugene Onegin" into his notebooks. Gogol's first literary experiments also date back to this time.

Already in 1825, he collaborated in the manuscript journal of the gymnasium, composing poetry. Theater was another hobby of Gogol the high school student. He took an active part in staging school plays, played comic roles, and painted scenery.

Gogol early awakened dissatisfaction with the musty and dull life of the Nezhin "existents", dreams of serving the noble and lofty goals. The thought of the future, of "serving humanity," captured Gogol even then. These youthful enthusiastic aspirations, this thirst for socially useful activity, a sharp denial of philistine complacency found their expression in his first poetic work-poem that has come down to us " Ganz Küchelgarten".

Dreams and plans for future activities attracted Gogol to the capital, to distant and alluring Petersburg. Here he thought to find an application for his abilities, to give his strength for the good of society. At the end of the gymnasium, in December 1828, Gogol leaves for St. Petersburg.

Petersburg unkindly met an enthusiastic young man who came from distant Ukraine, from a quiet provincial wilderness. On all sides, Gogol suffers setbacks. Officially - bureaucratic world with indifferent indifference reacted to the young provincial: the service was not, metropolitan life for a young man who had very modest means, it turned out to be very difficult. Gogol was also bitterly disappointed in the literary field. His hopes for the poem "Hanz Kühelgarten", brought from Nizhyn, did not come true. Published in 1829 (under the pseudonym V. Alov), the poem was not successful.

An attempt to enter the stage also ended in failure: Gogol's genuine rhyolistic talent as an actor turned out to be alien to the then theater directorate.

Only at the end of 1829 did Gogol manage to get a job as a minor official in the department of state economy and public buildings. However, Gogol did not stay long in this position and already in April 1830 he entered the department of appanages as a scribe.

Gogol learned during these years of deprivation and need experienced in St. Petersburg for the most part service, unsecured people. whole year Gogol served as an official in the department. However, the bureaucratic service did not attract him much. At the same time, he attended the Academy of Arts, painting there. Resumed it literary pursuits. But now Gogol no longer writes dreamy-romantic poems like "Hanz Küchelgarten", but turns to Ukrainian life and folklore, which he knows well, starting work on a book of stories, which he entitled "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka".

In 1831, the long-awaited acquaintance with Pushkin took place, which soon turned into a close friendly closeness of both writers. Gogol found in Pushkin an older comrade, a literary director.

Gogol and theater

In 1837, he appeared in Sovremennik with an article entitled Petersburg Notes of 1836, which was largely devoted to dramaturgy and theatre. Gogol's judgments broke the established canons and affirmed the need for a new stage for the Russian stage. artistic method- realism. Gogol criticized two popular genre who took over in those years "theaters of the whole world": melodrama and vaudeville.

Gogol sharply condemns the main vice of this genre:

Lies in the most shameless way our melodrama

Melodrama does not reflect the life of society and does not produce the proper impact on it, arousing in the viewer not participation, but some kind of " anxiety state". Does not correspond to the tasks of the theater and vaudeville, "this light, colorless toy", in which laughter "is generated by light impressions, a quick wit, a pun."

The theater, according to Gogol, should teach, educate the audience:

From the theater we made a toy like those trinkets with which they lure children, forgetting that this is such a pulpit from which a live lesson is read at once to a whole crowd

In the draft version of the article, Gogol calls the theater a "great school". But the condition for this is the fidelity of the reflection of life. “Really, it’s time to know already, writes Gogol, that there is only one true depiction of characters, not in general outlined features, but in their nationally poured out form, striking us with liveliness, so that we say:“ Yes, this seems to be a familiar person, ”- only such an image brings significant benefit. Here and in other places, Gogol defends the principles of the realistic theater and attaches great social and educational significance to such a theater alone.

For God's sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics! on their stage, to the laughter of everyone!

Gogol reveals the meaning of laughter as the strongest weapon in the fight against public vices. “Laughter, Gogol continues, is a great thing: it does not take away either life or property, but before him is guilty, like a tied hare ...” In the theater, “with the solemn brilliance of lighting, with the thunder of music, with unanimous laughter, an acquaintance is shown hiding vice". Man is afraid of laughter, Gogol repeatedly repeats, and refrains from that "from which no force would have kept him." But not every laughter has such power, but only "that electric, life-giving laughter" that has a deep ideological basis.

In December 1828, Gogol said goodbye to his native Ukrainian places and took his way north: to alien and tempting, distant and desirable Petersburg. Even before his departure, Gogol wrote: “Since the very past, from the very years of almost misunderstanding, I have been burning with unquenchable zeal to make my life necessary for the good of the state. I went over in my mind all the states, all the positions in the state and settled on one. On justice. “I saw that here only I can be a benefactor, here I will only be useful to mankind.”

So. Gogol arrived in Petersburg. The very first weeks of his stay in the capital brought Gogol the bitterness of disappointment. He failed to fulfill his dream. Unlike Piskarev, the hero of the story "Nevsky Prospekt", Gogol does not perceive the collapse of his dreams so tragically. Having changed many other activities, he still finds his calling in life. Gogol's vocation is to be a writer. “... I wanted,” wrote Gogol, “in my essay to expose mainly those higher properties of Russian nature that are not yet fairly valued by everyone, and mainly those low ones that are not yet ridiculed and amazed by everyone enough. I wanted to collect here some bright psychological phenomena, to place those observations that I have been making from time immemorial over a person. Soon the poem was finished, which Gogol decided to make public. It was published in May 1829 under the title "Hanz Küchelgarten". Critical reviews soon appeared in the press. They were strongly negative. Gogol took his failure very painfully. He leaves Petersburg, but soon returns again.

Gogol was seized by a new dream: the theatre. But he did not pass the exam. His realistic manner of playing was clearly contrary to the tastes of the examiners. And here again failure. Gogol almost fell into despair.

A short time later, Gogol receives a new position in one of the departments of the Ministry of the Interior. After 3 months, he could not stand it here and wrote a letter of resignation. He moved to another department, where he then worked as a scribe. Gogol continued to look closely at the life and life of his fellow officials. These observations then formed the basis of the stories "The Nose", "The Overcoat". After serving for another year, Gogol leaves the departmental service forever.

Meanwhile, his interest in art not only did not fade away, but every day more and more overwhelmed him. The bitterness with "Hanz Kuchelgarten" was forgotten, and Gogol continued to write.

His new collections and works are coming out soon. 1831 - 1832 Gogol writes the collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", 1835 - the collection "Mirgorod", in the same year begins to create "Dead Souls" and "Inspector", in 1836 - the story "The Nose" was published and the premiere of the comedy " Inspector" in the theaters of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Only later, after his death, some of the stories depicting Petersburg "in all its glory", with officials, with bribe-takers, were combined into "Petersburg Tales". These are such stories as: "The Overcoat", "The Nose", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Notes of a Madman". Petersburg stories reflected both high and not at all best properties Russian character, life and customs of different strata of St. Petersburg society - officials, soldiers, artisans. literary critic A. V. Lunacharsky wrote: “The vile faces of everyday life teased and called for a slap.” Such a slap in the face was the story "Nevsky Prospekt" with its Pirogov, Hoffmann and Schiller, with ladies, generals and department officials, flanking along Nevsky Prospekt "from two to three hours afternoon…”

Petersburg, Gogol had Difficult life, full of frustration. He couldn't find his calling. And finally found. The vocation of N.V. Gogol is to be a writer depicting the vices of the human soul and the nature of Little Russia.

Gogol died at the age of 43. The doctors who treated him last years, were in complete bewilderment 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 a severe depression, resulting in religious ecstasy. Gogol began to fast. His daily diet consisted of 1-2 tablespoons of cabbage pickle and oatmeal, occasionally prunes. Given that the body of Nikolai Vasilyevich was weakened after an illness - in 1839 he had malarial encephalitis, and in 1842 he suffered from cholera and miraculously survived - starvation was mortally dangerous for him.

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 Terentiev. He described the state of the writer as follows:

He watched as a man for whom all tasks were solved, all feeling was silenced, all words were in vain ... His whole body became extremely thin, his eyes became dull and sunken, his face was completely haggard, his cheeks were sunken, his voice weakened ...

Doctors invited to the dying Gogol found severe gastrointestinal disorders in him. They talked about "gut catarrh", which turned into "typhus", about an unfavorable course of gastroenteritis. And, finally, about "indigestion", complicated by "inflammation".

As a result, the doctors diagnosed him with meningitis and prescribed bloodletting, hot baths and douches, which are deadly in this state.

The pitiful withered body of the writer was immersed in a bath, his head was watered cold water. They put leeches on him, and with a weak hand he convulsively tried to brush away the clusters of black worms that were clinging to his nostrils. But how could one think of a worse torture for a person who had felt disgust all his life in front of everything creeping and slimy? “Remove the leeches, lift the leeches from your mouth,” Gogol groaned and pleaded. In vain. He was not allowed to do so.

A few days later the writer was gone.

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, thievishly removed from the grave: the Danilov Monastery was being transformed into a colony for juvenile delinquents, in connection with which its necropolis was subject to liquidation. It was decided to transfer only a few of the most dear to the Russian heart burials to the old cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. Among these lucky ones, along with Yazykov, Aksakovs and Khomyakovs, 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, Yu. Olesha, M. Svetlov, V. Lidin and others. It was Lidin who became almost the only source of information about the reburial of Gogol. With his light hand began to walk around Moscow scary legends about Gogol.

The coffin was not found right away, - he told the students of the Literary Institute, - for some reason it turned out not to be where they were digging, but somewhat at a distance, to the side. And when they pulled it out of the ground - flooded with lime, seemingly strong, from oak planks - and opened it, bewilderment was added to the heart trembling of those present. In the coffin lay a skeleton with a skull turned to one side. No one has found an explanation for this. Someone superstitious, probably, then thought: “Well, after all, the publican - during his lifetime, as if not alive, and after death not dead, 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, bequeathed:

Do not bury my body until there are clear signs of decomposition. 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 testament had not been fulfilled, that he was buried in a lethargic state, he woke up in a coffin and experienced nightmarish minutes of a new death...

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

Square

Amazing mysterious world N. Gogol surrounds many since childhood: delightful images of "The Night Before Christmas", bright festivities at the Sorochinskaya Fair, creepy stories about “May Night”, “Viya” and “Terrible Revenge”, from which the whole body is covered with small goosebumps. This is just a small list famous works N.V. Gogol, who is considered the most mystical Russian writer, and abroad, his stories are equated with the gothic stories of Edgar Allan Poe. In this article, you will learn Interesting Facts from the biography of Gogol, which are considered mysterious and mystical. Get ready to get goosebumps!

Gogol was born in a rural Ukrainian large family, he was the third child of twelve. His mother is a woman of rare beauty - she was 14 years old when she became the wife of a man twice her age. They say that it was the mother who developed the religious and mystical worldview in her son. Maria Ivanovna was distinguished by her natural view of religion, she told her son about ancient Russian pagan traditions, Slavic mythology. Gogol's letters to his mother dating back to 1833 have been preserved. In one of them, Gogol writes that the mother, in childhood, told the child in colors what Last Judgment what will await a person for virtuous deeds, and what fate will overtake sinners.

Childhood, adolescence and youth

Nikolai Gogol with early years was a closed and uncommunicative person, even close relatives could not imagine what was going on in his head and soul. The boy lived apart, had little contact with his brothers and sisters, but spent a lot of time with his beloved mother.

Gogol later said that at the age of five he first experienced panic fear.

“I was 5 years old. I was sitting alone in Vasilievka. Father and mother left ... Twilight descended. I clung to the corner of the sofa and, in the midst of complete silence, listened to the sound of the long pendulum of the old wall clock. There was a buzzing in my ears, something approaching and leaving somewhere. Believe me, it already seemed to me then that the knock of the pendulum was the knock of time passing into eternity. Suddenly, the faint meow of a cat broke the peace that weighed on me. I saw her, meowing, cautiously creeping towards me. I will never forget how she walked, stretching, and her soft paws weakly tapped her claws on the floorboards, and her green eyes sparkled with an unkind light. I got scared. I climbed onto the couch and leaned against the wall. "Kitty, kitty," I muttered, and, wanting to encourage myself, I jumped off and, grabbing the cat, which easily gave itself into my hands, ran into the garden, where I threw it into the pond and several times, when it tried to swim out and go ashore, pushed her sixth. I was scared, I was trembling, but at the same time I felt some satisfaction, maybe revenge for the fact that she scared me. But when she drowned, and the last circles on the water fled, complete peace and silence settled in, I suddenly felt terribly sorry for the “kitty”. I felt remorse. I felt like I drowned a man. I cried terribly and calmed down only when my father, to whom I confessed my deed, whipped me.

Nikolai Gogol from childhood was sensitive person, giving in to fears, experiences, life's troubles. Any negative situation was reflected in his psyche, when another person could withstand such a thing. The child drowned the cat because of fear, he seemed to have overcome his fear through cruelty and violence, but he realized that panic cannot be overcome in this way. It can be assumed that the writer was left alone with his fears, since his conscience did not allow him to use violence again.

This situation is very reminiscent of the moment in the work “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”, when the stepmother turned into a black cat, and the lady hit her in fear and cut her paw.

It is known that Gogol drew as a child, but his drawings seemed mediocre, incomprehensible to others. Such an attitude towards his art, again, could have a negative impact on self-esteem.

From the age of 10, Nikolai Gogol was sent to the Poltava gymnasium, where the boy became a member literary circle. It is not known why Gogol developed such low self-esteem, but it was precisely this self-isolation that provoked a mental breakdown in maturity.

The first attempt to bring his work to the people's court

Nikolai Gogol began to create, he wrote a lot, but he ventured to show his work "Hanz Küchelgarten". It was a failure, criticism was unfavorable to the story, then Gogol destroyed the entire circulation. Before becoming a writer, Gogol tried to become an actor and enter the official service. But the love of literature still captured the young man, who was able to find a new approach to this type of art. It was Gogol who touched on the other side of life and showed how they live in Little Russia! The collection "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" made a splash! His mother Maria Ivanovna helped to collect material and develop plots for the writer. For many years Gogol successfully worked in the literary field, corresponded with Pushkin and Belinsky, who were delighted with his works. Despite his fame, Gogol never became an open person, but on the contrary, over the years he led an increasingly reclusive lifestyle.

By the way, Pushkin gave Gogol the pug Josie, after the death of the dog Gogol was attacked by longing, because the writer definitely had no one closer to Josie.

Question about writer's homosexuality

Gogol's personal life is surrounded by conjectures and assumptions. The writer has never been married to a woman, perhaps even had no intimacy with them. There are references in a letter to his mother that Gogol wrote about a beautiful divine person whom he did not want to correlate with an ordinary woman. Contemporaries say that it was an unrequited love for Anna Mikhailovna Vielgorskaya. After this incident, there were no more women in Gogol's life, as well as men. But researchers believe that letters to men are highly emotional. In the unfinished work "Nights at the Villa" there is a motif of love for a young man suffering from tuberculosis. The work is autobiographical, hence the researchers had a hunch that, perhaps, Gogol had feelings for men.

Semyon Karlinsky argued that Gogol is a very religious person, God-fearing, therefore he could not include any intimate relationships in his life.

But Igor Kon believes that it was God-fearing that prevented Gogol from accepting himself as he is. Therefore, depression developed, fears of being incomprehensible appeared, as a result, the writer completely fell into religion and brought himself to death, the sea of ​​hunger - these were attempts to cleanse himself of sinfulness.

Candidate of Philological Sciences L. S. Yakovlev names attempts to define sexual orientation Gogol "provocative, outrageous, funny publications."

Eggnog

Nikolai Gogol was madly in love with goat's milk combined with rum. The writer jokingly called his amazing drink “mogul-mogul”. In fact, the mogul-mogul dessert appeared in ancient times in Europe, was first made by the German confectioner Keukenbauer. So famous whipped egg yolk with sugar has nothing to do with the famous writer!

Writer's phobias

• Gogol was terribly afraid of thunderstorms.
• When stranger in society, he left so as not to collide with him.
• In recent years, he stopped going out and communicating with writers altogether, led an ascetic lifestyle.
• I was afraid to look ugly. Gogol terribly disliked him a long nose, therefore, he asked the artists in the portraits to depict a nose close to the ideal. On the basis of his complexes, the writer wrote the work "The Nose".

Lethargy or death?

Gogol constantly thought about being buried alive and was terribly afraid of such a fate. Therefore, 7 years before his death, he made a will, where he indicated that he should be buried only when visible signs of decomposition appeared. Gogol died at the age of 42, after fasting before Lent for 15 days. On the night of February 11-12, a week before his death, the writer burns the second volume of Dead Souls in the oven, explaining that he was beguiled by an evil spirit. The writer was buried on the third day after his death. In 1931, the necropolis where Gogol was buried was liquidated and a decision was made to transfer the writer's grave to the Novodevichy cemetery. After opening the grave, they discovered the absence of Gogol's skull (according to Vladimir Lidin), later there is a rumor that the skull was in the grave, but turned on its side. publicity this information long years did not indulge, and only in the 90s they again started talking about whether Gogol was accidentally buried in a state of lethargic sleep?

There are some facts confirming that Gogol could have been buried alive. I am posting what I have been able to find.

After suffering from malarial encephalitis in 1839, Gogol often fainted, which led to many hours of sleep. Based on this, the writer developed a phobia that he could be buried alive while he was unconscious.

But there is no official evidence that in 1931, during the opening of the grave, a skull turned on its side was found. Witnesses to the exhumation give different testimonies: some say that everything was in order, others claim that the skull was turned to the side, and Lidin did not see the skull at all in its proper place. The presence of a death mask completely debunks these myths. It cannot be done on a living person, even if he is in lethargy, because the person will still react to the high temperature during the procedure and begin to suffocate from filling the external respiratory organs with plaster. But this was not the case, Gogol was buried after a natural death.

Death mask Gogol

On April 1 (March 20, according to the old style), 1809, in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province (now a village in the Poltava region of Ukraine), he came from an old Little Russian family.
Gogol spent his childhood on the estate of his parents 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 Gavriil Sorochinsky, living in his apartment. In May 1821 he entered the gymnasium of higher sciences in Nizhyn, graduating from it in 1828. At the gymnasium, Nikolai Gogol was engaged in painting, participated in performances (as a decorator and as an actor), tried himself in various literary genres - then the poem "Housewarming", the not preserved tragedy "The Robbers", the story "The Brothers Tverdislavichi", satire " Something about Nizhyn, or the law is not written for fools" and others.

FROM youthful years Nikolai Gogol dreamed of a legal career. In December 1828 he moved to Petersburg. Experiencing financial difficulties, fussing about the place, he makes the first literary tests: at the beginning of 1829, the poem "Italy" appeared, and in the spring of the same year, under the pseudonym "V. Alov", Gogol published "an idyll in pictures" "Hanz Kühelgarten". The poem garnered scathing and derisive reviews from critics. In July 1829, Gogol burned the unsold copies of the book and left to travel to Germany.

At the end of 1829, he entered the service in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings of the Ministry of the Interior. From April 1830 to March 1831, the novice writer served in the department of appanages as a scribe, assistant to the clerk under the guidance of the famous idyllic poet Vladimir Panaev. By this time, Gogol devoted more time to literary work. Following the first story "Bisavryuk, or Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" (1830), he printed a series works of art and articles: "Chapter from historical novel"(1831), "Chapter from the Little Russian story: "Terrible boar" (1831). The story "Woman" (1831) was the first work signed by the real name of the author.

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

Literary fame to the young writer brought "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", published in 1831-1832.

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

Unknown Gogol: myths and discoveriesOn the eve of the 200th anniversary of the writer began to open earlier unknown facts and new readings of his works appear. The plot "Unknown Gogol" includes materials on the myths associated with the name of Gogol and the latest discoveries of researchers.

In 1835, the collections "Arabesques" and "Mirgorod" were published. "Arabesques" contained several articles of popular scientific content on history and art, as well as the novels "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Notes of a Madman". In the first part of "Mirgorod" appeared "Old World Landowners" and "Taras Bulba", in the second - "Viy" and "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."

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

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

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

In 1842, under the editorship of the writer, the first collected works of Gogol were published, where the story "The Overcoat" was printed.

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 received extremely negatively by many, including the writer's close friends.

Gogol spent the winter of 1847-1848 in Naples, intensively reading Russian periodicals, novelties of 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, visited St. Petersburg, and also 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 his 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. In incomplete form, only five chapters have been preserved, relating to various draft editions, which 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 100th anniversary of the writer's birth, a monument to Nikolai Gogol by Nikolai Andreev was unveiled in Moscow on Arbatskaya Square. In 1951, the monument was transferred 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, the memorial museum of N.V. Gogol.

In 1952, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gogol's death, a new one, the work of Nikolai Tomsky, was erected on the site of the old monument, with an inscription on the pedestal: "To the great Russian artist, words to Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol from the government of the Soviet Union."

In St. Petersburg - two monuments to the writer. In 1896, a bronze bust of Gogol by the 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 Aleksandrovskaya Square in 1910.

In the homeland of the writer, in the village of Velikie Sorochintsy, a monument to the writer was opened in 1911. In 1929, in honor of the 120th anniversary of the birth of the writer, the Velikosorochinsky Literary and memorial museum N.V. Gogol.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources