This article will discuss the life of Gogol. This writer created many immortal works that rightfully occupy their rightful place in the annals of world literature. There are many rumors and legends associated with his name, some of which Nikolai Vasilyevich spread about himself. He was a great inventor and mystifier, which certainly affected his work.

Parents

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

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

Childhood years

Gogol's biography, a brief summary of which will be useful for everyone to know, began in truly hothouse conditions. Dad and mom adored the baby and did not deny him anything. Besides him, there were eleven more children in the family, but most of them died in middle age. However, the most great love Nicholas certainly enjoyed it.

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

Education

Together with his younger brother Ivan, Nikolai Gogol was sent to the Poltava district school in 1818. The biography of a home boy, accustomed to greenhouse conditions, followed a completely different scenario. His comfortable childhood was quickly ending. At school he was taught very strict discipline, but Nikolai never showed any particular zeal for science. The very first holidays ended in a terrible tragedy - brother Ivan died from an unknown disease. After his death, all the parents' hopes were placed on Nikolai. He needed to get better education, for which he was sent to study at the Nizhyn classical gymnasium. The conditions here were very harsh: children were raised every day at 5.30 am, and classes lasted from 9.00 to 17.00. During the remaining time, the students were supposed to study their lessons and pray diligently.

However future writer managed to get used to local customs. Soon he made friends, famous and respected people in the future: Nestor Kukolnik, Nikolai Prokopovich, Konstantin Basili, Alexander Danilevsky. All of them, having matured, became famous writers. And this is not surprising! While still high school students, they founded several handwritten magazines: “Meteor of Literature”, “Dawn of the North”, “Zvezda” and others. In addition, teenagers were passionate about theater. Moreover creative biography Gogol could well have been different - many predicted his fate famous actor. However, the young man dreamed of public service and, after graduating from high school, he decisively headed to St. Petersburg to pursue a career.

Official

Together with his friend from the gymnasium, Danilevsky, in 1828 Gogol went to the capital. St. Petersburg greeted young people with inhospitability; they were constantly in need of money and unsuccessfully tried to find decent work. At this time, Nikolai Vasilyevich is trying to make a living through literary experiments. However, his first poem "Hanz Küchelgarten" was not successful. In 1829, the writer began serving in the department of state economy and public buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then worked for almost a year in the department of appanages under the leadership of famous poet V.I. Panaeva. Staying in the offices of various departments helped Nikolai Vasilyevich collect a wealth of material for future works. However, the civil service forever disappointed the writer. Fortunately, he soon experienced truly stunning success in the literary field.

Fame

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

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

"Inspector"

How much trouble this play caused the author! Being a brilliant writer and a playwright who far anticipated his time, Nikolai Vasilyevich was never able to convey to his contemporaries the meaning of his immortal work. The plot of The Inspector General was given to Gogol by Pushkin. Inspired by the great poet, the author wrote it literally for a few months. In the fall of 1835, the first sketches appeared, and in 1836, on January 18, the first hearing of the play took place at an evening with Zhukovsky. On April 19, the premiere of “The Inspector General” took place on the stage of the Alexandria Theater. Nicholas the First himself came to her, along with his heir. They say that after watching the emperor said: “Well, it’s a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than everyone else!” However, Nikolai Vasilyevich was not amused. He, a convinced monarchist, was accused of revolutionary sentiments, undermining the foundations of society, and God knows what else. But he was simply trying to ridicule the abuse of local officials; his goal was morality, and not politics at all. The distressed writer left the country and went on a long trip abroad.

Abroad

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

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

Return to Russia

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

Matters of the heart

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

Work on the second volume

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

Recent years

The writer continued to write his novel, but was increasingly distracted by other matters. For example, he composed “The Inspector's Denouement,” which radically changed the entire previous interpretation of the play. Then, in 1847, “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was published in St. Petersburg. In this book, Nikolai Vasilyevich tried to explain why the second volume of Dead Souls has not yet been written, and expressed doubts about educational role fiction.

A whole storm of public indignation hit the writer. “Selected places...” is the most controversial point that marks Gogol’s creative biography. A brief history of the creation of this work suggests that it was written in a moment of mental turmoil of the writer, his desire to move away from his previous positions and start a new life.

Burning of manuscripts

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

Death

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

Posthumous will

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

The writer loved miniature editions. Not loving and not knowing mathematics, he ordered a mathematical encyclopedia only because it was published in a sixteenth of a sheet (10.5 × 7.5 cm).

Gogol loved to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings. One of his favorite drinks is goat's milk, which he boiled in a special way, adding rum. He called this concoction Gogol-Mogol and often, laughing, said: “Gogol loves Gogol-Mogol!”

The writer usually walked along the streets and alleys on the left side, so he constantly collided with passers-by.
Gogol was very afraid of thunderstorms. According to contemporaries, the bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.

He was extremely shy. As soon as a stranger appeared in the company, Gogol disappeared from the room.

Gogol often, when writing, rolled balls out of white bread. He told his friends that this helps him solve the most difficult problems.

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

Gogol's whole life still remains an unsolved mystery. He was haunted by mysticism, and after his death there were more questions than answers. They allow you to look at the work of your favorite writer from a completely different perspective, try to explain some contradictions and inconsistencies and see him not as an idol, but as a simple, incredibly subtle and talented person.

Nikolai Vasilyevich was passionately interested in everything that came into his field of vision. The history of his native Ukraine was one of his favorite studies and hobbies. It was these studies that prompted him to write the epic story “Taras Bulba”. It was first published in the collection “Mirgorod” in 1835. Gogol personally handed one copy of this magazine into the hands of Mr. Uvarov, the Minister of Public Education, so that he presented it to Emperor Nicholas I.

In the same collection the most incredible and mystical of all was published. Gogol's works- story “Viy”. The writer himself claimed that “Viy” is folk legend, which he allegedly heard and wrote down without changing a single word.

But what’s interesting is that neither literary critics, nor historians, nor folklorists, nor researchers have ever been able to find either oral or, especially, written references to folk legends or fairy tales that would be at least vaguely reminiscent of the plot of “Viy”. All this gives reason to consider the story solely a figment of the imagination of the great mystifier and writer.

Researchers of Gogol’s life and work are inclined to think that the name “Viy” itself is a free combination of the name of the owner of the inferno “Iron Niy”, who was a deity in Ukrainian mythology, and the word “viya”, which in Ukrainian means “eyelid” .

Neither contemporaries nor descendants can explain what happened to Gogol in recent years his life. It is believed that when Gogol visited Rome in 1839, he contracted malaria. Despite the fact that over time the disease did subside, its consequences became fatal for the writer. It was not so much the physical torment as the complications that caused Gogol to have seizures, fainting, but most importantly, visions, which made his recovery difficult and lengthy.

In the fall of 1850, while in Odessa, Nikolai Vasilyevich felt relief. Contemporaries recall that his usual liveliness and vigor returned to him. He returned to Moscow and seemed completely healthy and cheerful. Gogol read out to his friends individual fragments from the second volume of Dead Souls and rejoiced like a child, seeing the delight and hearing the laughter of the listeners. But as soon as he put an end to the second volume, it seemed to him that emptiness and doom had fallen upon him. He felt the fear of death, such as his father had once suffered.

No one knows for certain what happened on the night of February 12, 1852. Biographers, with a joint titanic effort, tried literally minute by minute to reconstruct the events of that night, but what is absolutely certain is that until three o’clock in the morning Gogol prayed earnestly. Then he took his briefcase, took out some sheets of paper from it, and ordered everything that was left in it to be immediately burned. After which he crossed himself and, returning to bed, sobbed uncontrollably until the morning. It is traditionally believed that that night Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls, but some biographers and historians are confident that this is far from the truth, which is unlikely to be known by anyone.

Modern specialists in the field of psychiatry have analyzed thousands of documents and come to a very definite conclusion that there is no mental disorder Gogol had no trace of it. He may have suffered from depression, and if it had been applied to him correct treatment, great writer would have lived much longer.

Mysterious, sometimes even mystical art world Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol fascinates us early years. Even the most avid C students cannot escape the soulful “May Night” and the creepy “Viy”. These stories will definitely tickle your nerves. to the younger generation. Senior schoolchildren will feel uneasy even while reading the poem “Dead Souls” - Gogol’s psychological portraits still live in our society and, whether we like it or not, sometimes at a distance arm's length. How were these works created, which have no analogues in Russian classics and are comparable only to the Gothic literature of Allan Poe? The most mysterious Russian writer simply cannot have an ordinary fate. Both the life and death of Gogol are shrouded in secrets and guesses...

Interesting facts from the childhood of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

• Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born on March 20, 1809 in a rural family. He became the third child, but remained the eldest, since two boys born before him died at birth. In total, 12 children were born into the large Gogol family. Apart from Gogol himself, only three of his most younger sisters. One of the most noticeable childhood shocks for Nikolai Vasilyevich was the death of his younger brother.
• Gogol's mother was incredible beautiful woman. She married at barely 14 years old to a man twice her age. From her the future writer inherited a reverent attitude towards death, rare intuition, suspiciousness, faith in prophetic dreams and other mysticism. When Gogol was still just a boy, his mother told him in colors about the existence Last Judgment, before which everyone will have to appear with their sins and virtues after physical death.
• From childhood, Gogol was withdrawn, shy and had little contact with others. He was sensitive and had a hard time dealing with adversity. One day, left at home alone, five-year-old Gogol was so scared domestic cat that he grabbed her and drowned her in the pond. Perhaps this is a memory from childhood, this terrible act then resulted in an episode with a witch who turned black cat, in the work “May Night, or the Drowned Woman.”
• Gogol's school writings left much to be desired.
• The future classic loved drawing, but no one took his “masterpieces” seriously. Criticism of what you love most in a negative way reflected on the self-esteem of young Gogol.
• In addition, Gogol had a hobby that was strange by the standards of those around him - he adored needlework. He knitted, cut and sewed, and wove belts. I took great pleasure in coming up with outfits for my sisters.
• At the age of ten, Gogol was sent to study at the Poltava gymnasium. There he joined a literary circle.

Interesting facts about Gogol's adult writing life, his fears and habits

• Nikolai Vasilyevich’s low self-esteem, which was laid down in childhood, was intensified with age and developed into mental disorder. The writer was very timid, but loved relatives, friends and their visits.
• Your first literary works Gogol composed while secluded in the shade of the garden trees at the gymnasium, while his fellow students were having fun.
• Gogol loved sweets. He always carried sugar cubes in his pockets, which he periodically took out to chew.
• Gogol was an admirer of everything miniature.
• There were often bread balls on the writer’s desk. He assured his friends that rolling these balls helped him concentrate and solve any problem.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich was terrified of thunderstorms. Many attribute this to his increased nervousness.
• Gogol was lucky enough to meet Pushkin. The great Russian poet gave him a miniature dog, the death of which the writer then experienced very hard, since this pet became the closest creature on earth to him.
• Gogol did not immediately see the writer in himself. He tried acting and served in a department of the ministry.
• At the gymnasium, Nikolai Vasilyevich was involved in the production of a magazine. There, under the pseudonym Alov, he published his first poem. She was severely criticized, the writer’s vulnerable psyche could not stand the failure, and he destroyed the entire batch of the magazine so that not a trace remained of his work.
• There are rumors about Gogol's personal life various rumors. Some researchers are sure that Nikolai Vasilyevich considered relationships with the opposite sex to be something unworthy and unclean from a religious point of view. Some even talk about the writer's homosexuality. It is now impossible to determine who is right; the only fact remains that Gogol never married. Only one of his attempts to propose marriage to a lady is known. It was Countess Villegorskaya, who refused due to social inequality. This was another terrible blow to the writer’s self-esteem. Since then, Gogol has made no new attempts to connect his fate with a woman.
• Being a teacher at the university, Gogol went to Italy in 1836. The trip dragged on for 10 years. There the writer fell ill with malaria and almost died. Serious illness left an indelible mark on Gogol's nervous state. He still suffered from seizures, hallucinations, and prolonged loss of consciousness as complications.

Mysteries and controversies surrounding the death of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

• The illness suffered far from his homeland fatally affected Gogol’s psyche. His God-fearing mood increased a hundredfold. Due to frequent and prolonged fainting, the writer developed a fear of being buried alive. He bequeathed to bury himself only when, after death, signs of decomposition appeared on his body.
• From then on, any death in Gogol’s circle became a blow for him and caused a storm of emotions. By 1845, a new mental crisis provoked the writer to be destroyed through the burning of the second volume of Dead Souls.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich, in despair, even wanted to go to a monastery to live out the rest of his days there. But due to his nervous state and seizures, they did not leave him in the monastery.
• The closer the writer came to death, the more he feared it. Gogol asked the pharmacist to find him a cure for fear. What scared him most was the prospect of waking up alive in a coffin. Nikolai Vasilyevich constantly saw about this scary dreams, which he himself considered prophetic.
• On the night of February 12, 1852, Gogol again burned his manuscript. According to researchers of his biography, this was a newly written second volume of Dead Souls. After this, the writer finally fell ill. On February 21 he passed away.
• According to rumors, a huge black cat was seen at the writer’s funeral, which disappeared immediately after the coffin was lowered into the grave.
• In 1931, Gogol's body was exhumed in order to be transferred to the cemetery in the Novodevichy Convent. Many of the witnesses to this event stated that the lid of the writer's coffin was scratched from the inside, and his head was turned to the side.

The facts about Gogol’s burial alive in the grave have not been documented. But his life and death are absolutely shrouded to this day mystical secrets. The visions that he included in the texts of his works create a special atmosphere between the lines. Anyone who reads Gogol, who often wrote on the verge of a nervous breakdown, feels the psychological power of his literary works to the point of goosebumps.

Even during his lifetime, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was known as a great mystifier, able to skillfully intertwine reality and fantasy, good and evil, tragedy and comedy. Biographers constantly find facts confirming the unusualness of this person from the first days of his life until his death. Even the writer’s birthday is covered in a mystical veil.

For some time it was believed that Gogol was born on March 18, 1809; there are sources claiming that it was March 20, 1810. Without fully understanding it, biographers offer two dates at once - March 19 and 20, 1809.

But the strangeness of Gogol’s birth began even before his birth. Even the story of his parents’ marriage is shrouded in mysticism. Nikolai's father, Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky, a Ukrainian and Russian writer, when in adolescence, visited a temple in the Kharkov province, where he admired the image Mother of God. The image of the Mother of God came to him one day in a dream and pointed to the child sitting at her feet. And very soon Vasily recognized this child - it was a neighbor’s seven-month-old girl. The girl grew up, and Vasily watched her growing up.

As an adult, Vasily Afanasyevich saw the proposal again and realized that the time had come to ask for the girl’s hand in marriage. Maria Ivanovna, nee Kosyarovskaya, was 14 years younger than her husband. From this marriage Nikolai was born. He was his parents' third child, but the first to survive.

Only Facts

Kolya is small

The boy began to get interested in literature as a high school student. True, he was not a role model. Teachers emphasized his poor academic performance and lack of obedience. But the child had an excellent memory and clearly had a natural aptitude for drawing and literature. Here at the gymnasium, together with his comrades, he started his first handwritten journal. He wrote both prose and poetry. At the same time, sketches for future masterpieces of world literature appeared.

Kolya big

The young man could not afford to remain a child for long; he had to grow up very quickly. At the age of 10, the boy suffered severe stress when his brother Ivan, who was in poor health, died. And the death of his father, for a sixteen-year-old boy, was a severe blow. Family matters fall on the boy's shoulders. Grief brought Kolya very closely together with his mother, who considered her son a genius. Maria Ivanovna believed in her son’s talent so much that she gave him her last savings to organize life in Nizhyn and St. Petersburg.

Modest funds were barely enough to implement all the ideas. It’s good that the talent didn’t take long to show itself, and after the first failure, which became a lesson, it revealed itself in all its splendor.

Unmercenary

Throughout his life, Nikolai maintained a relationship with his mother, expressing his filial love. I asked for advice and helped. And in the last years of his life he often visited her. It is known for sure that the writer refused the inheritance, which was divided between his sisters. And his lifestyle was very modest. He had neither his own estate nor his own home. Last months During his life he lived in the house of Count Tolstoy.

And he donated the last two thousand rubles to charity for needy students at Moscow University. An inventory of all property after death showed that he had personal belongings worth 43 rubles 88 kopecks.

Extermination by fire

Even at the beginning creative path young Gogol wrote his first poem, entitled “Hanz Küchelgarten”. The pen test was unsuccessful. Critics gave such an assessment to the work that the upset author could not come up with anything better than to buy all the copies of his own book and burn it.

General ledger

The writer himself considered the poem “Dead Souls” to be the main work of his life. He wrote the second volume and planned to write a third...

But the church, represented by Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky, who was the first reader of the continuation of “Dead Souls,” immediately advised the author to destroy some chapters. The concepts of the Russian church did not approve of either the plot or the presentation of information. And the author himself fell into deep thought from such a wish.

Gogol was a merciless critic of himself. He rewrote each chapter up to seven times, clearing out every place that raised even the slightest doubt. The writer said that when he served his service and finished what he was called to earth for, he would die.

After the negative conclusion of the priest, the writer decided that he had served his service.

Creative crisis

After ten years of dizzying literary success, Nikolai Vasilyevich began creative crisis. And it’s not that he didn’t have inspiration to write. Not at all! He began to make such exaggerated demands on his work that manuscripts that, in his opinion, did not meet certain criteria, continually fell into the fire. The writer seemed to be immersed in his inner world, to which no one had access.

The greatest loss is the second volume of “Dead Souls,” which was mercilessly consigned to the flames. The event occurred on the night of February 12, 1852. Nikolai Vasilyevich prayed until three hours, after which he took his briefcase, took out the contents and burned it.

Pushkin's influence on Gogol's work

The acquaintance of the two masters of the pen began with an abusive speech. One literary newspaper published their works nearby, and Pushkin was unhappy that paper scribblers were being published next to him. But later Pushkin not only softened, but also highly appreciated Gogol’s style, praised him and admired him.

It is believed that it was Pushkin who pushed Gogol to write The Inspector General, suggesting the plot.

For Nikolai Vasilyevich, Pushkin has always been a model.

Gogol's personal life

Biographers are often asked the question: “Why was Gogol never married? Is he heterosexual? But those who like to search for obscenities will be disappointed. The writer simply had no desire to get married, but fell in love and was interested in women.

His contemporaries say that he was in love with Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset, his peer, one of the first court beauties. Gogol also had feelings for Anna Mikhailovna Vielgorskaya. In this woman he found something that was not in any other - intelligence. There is an assumption that he proposed to her, but was refused. However, he was in correspondence with her for many years. Nikolai Vasilyevich said to Pletnev: “This woman has not intelligence, but intelligence.”

He once admitted to Zhukovsky that he would not tie himself to any ties in this world, including family ones. When discussing the personal life of the great author, we must not forget that he is not like everyone else. The earth rarely gives birth to such people. For him, serving the pen was a priority; he was in love with Russian literature. The writer put the question of faith and the search for truth in second place. He simply did not have enough time for worldly activities.

Religiosity

The last years of his earthly life, Nikolai Vasilyevich increasingly opened his soul to faith.

Raised in a God-fearing family and having written so many books about evil spirits, the author began to doubt the correctness of his actions.

Without that serious condition The writer was aggravated by frequent conversations with the fanatical priest Matvey Konstantinovsky, who reproached Gogol for his sinfulness.

The confessor demanded from Nicholas not only recognition of his mistakes and repentance, he insisted on proving his commitment to God by renouncing Pushkin. Both authors, according to Matvey Konstantinovsky, wrote a lot of literature that is not pleasing to God.

But doubts about the fairness of the world’s structure weighed more and more on the writer. The breakdown occurred at the funeral of Ekaterina Mikhailovna Khomyakova on January 26, 1852. This thirty-five-year-old woman was the owner of a literary salon, the wife of the philosopher Alexei Khomyakov and the sister of the poet Yazykov. The woman had seven children and died while pregnant with her eighth.

Gogol refused to understand why this happened to this glorious woman. He began to think even more deeply about the meaning of existence on earth, until he suddenly decided that it was all over for him. He began to pray constantly, day and night. A week before Lent, the writer decided to fast, and from February 5th he almost completely gave up food and only prayed.

Taphophobia

The writer really suffered from this disease. This gave rise to numerous fictions that the writer fell into a lethargic sleep, which was mistaken by those around him for death, was buried alive and died from lack of air in the grave.

Indeed, Nikolai Vasilyevich asked his friends not to bury him until the body showed obvious signs decomposition. This is known from correspondence.

Strange disease

In 1839, in Rome, Gogol contracted a severe swamp fever - malaria. He miraculously managed to recover, but his serious illness led to progressive physical and mental disorder. The illness was accompanied by seizures, fainting and visions. And in 1845, in letters to friends, he complained that he was constantly freezing and his arms and legs were swollen, but after a few years Nikolai Vasilyevich felt better. By the fiftieth year, visible symptoms were no longer visible at all.

Some researchers are confident that the writer died of typhoid fever, the outbreak of which in Moscow occurred in 1852. The doctors surrounding the patient were sure that this was a special form of meningitis, and they treated him in a rather unique way, against the will of the patient himself. The council that met on February 20 was harsh. We decided to do everything by force: care for, treat, feed. Probably, without wanting it themselves, the doctors brought the hour of the patient’s death closer.

They put their patient in a bath of hot water and poured cold water on his head. They constantly used bloodletting, and they put leeches on the nose, causing nosebleeds, and put mustard plasters on. All this only made the situation worse.

It is known that Gogol’s mother was a God-fearing woman, and the writer himself spent his entire life searching for his path to God. When he was little, he was told about angels who lower a ladder from heaven, helping the soul of the deceased quickly reach a new refuge. The last intelligible expression of the dying writer were the words:

The stairs. Let's hurry up the stairs

Half a century later, Dr. Bazhenov stated that the cause of the writer’s death was improper treatment. As a professor of psychiatry, he stated that the patient suffered from periodic psychosis in the form of periodic melancholia.

It must be said that information about the strange illness of the famous writer greatly worried Muscovites. His admirers began to gather right on the boulevard to hear news about his health. They were poorly informed, and this gave rise to more and more rumors.

When it became known that the writer had died, friends actively began preparing his funeral, but the university intervened, taking all the initiative into its own hands. Thus, farewell to the writer received a more public response.

Since the university was in charge of the funeral, the writer’s body was transferred to the university church of the Martyr Tatiana. For two days people came here in an endless stream. All the surrounding streets and alleys were filled with people. It seemed that all of Moscow had come to say goodbye to Gogol. The funeral service also took place here.

The hearse, drawn by eight black horses, decorated with white roses, which arrived for the funeral ceremony, was decided not to be used at all. The coffin was carried to the cemetery in their arms, which was seven miles away. The burial took place at the cemetery of the St. Daniel's Monastery.

The official version for all Gogol’s admirers was declared to be a cold, but not everyone believed this diagnosis. There was no end to the rumors and stories about the writer’s death. An aura of secrets literally shrouded the last years and the departure of Nikolai Vasilyevich.

The sculptor Ramazanov, who removed the death mask, said that remembering Gogol’s fears of being buried alive, he did not dare to begin his work for a long time, doubting the fact of death. But since the death mask was made, the version about lethargic sleep disappears by itself.

Experts say that if during manufacturing death mask the writer was alive, the procedure would have shown this. The alabaster used to cover the face completely stops the access of oxygen. And without oxygen, any person, being in an unconscious state or lethargic sleep, will not live more than six minutes.

Unanswered riddles

In June 1931, when the cemetery of St. Daniel's Monastery was abolished, the remains of a number of historical figures, by order of Lazar Kaganovich, was transferred to the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. The grave of Nikolai Vasilyevich was also subject to reburial.

And here a new mysticism began. It’s as if when Gogol’s grave was excavated, it turned out that his coffin was lowered to a much greater depth than is usually customary. It seemed as if someone was trying to drag the coffin deeper into the ground. The top boards had rotted from time to time, but the side boards, covered with foil and metal corners, were intact. The frock coat and even the linen were preserved. There is information that during exhumation it was discovered that the lining of the coffin seemed to be all scratched and torn, and the body was unnaturally twisted. It seemed that the deceased was trying to move the lid of the coffin and get out. This is the basis for the version that the writer died already in the coffin.

But the most interesting thing is that there was no skull in the coffin; the remains began with the cervical vertebrae. Exhumation work had to be stopped until investigators arrived. When and under what circumstances the writer’s skull disappeared, and whether it disappeared at all, remains a mystery.

One of the versions was expressed by the writer Vladimir Lidin. He assumed that in 1909, when during the installation of the monument on Prichetnichesky Boulevard in Moscow, the restoration of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s grave was being carried out, one of the most famous collectors in Moscow allegedly persuaded the monks of the monastery, for a lot of money, to get Gogol’s skull for him.

The arriving NKVD group, working under the heading "top secret", left no documents, except for the examination report, which does not contain any details of the procedure, and the report does not say anything specifically about the skull. People who were members of the commission monitoring the transfer of the grave and who put their signatures on the act later gave completely contradictory testimony.

NKVD workers conducted a serious investigation and put forward several versions of the writer’s death. There was nothing mystical in their versions, only a rational approach.

The first version was that Gogol was poisoned by doctors. Two days before death, the patient was examined several times: weakened pulse, clean but dry tongue, constant desire to drink and chills. These are all signs of mercury poisoning.

Indeed, the patient was treated with the drug Calomel (mercuric chloride), popular in the 19th century. This remedy has a disinfectant, diuretic, choleretic effect, but it must be removed from the body in a timely manner. Otherwise, the toxic effect on the patient will lead to irreversible consequences. Suffering from the destructive effects of mercury nervous system, everyone's work is destroyed internal organs and hearts.

But this version cannot be one hundred percent. From the doctors' notes it is clear that Calomel was given to the patient once, but for it to have a destructive effect it must be taken at least twice. But there are doubts. Firstly, there is a possibility that the repeated use of the drug was simply not recorded, and secondly, the writer could have been so weakened that even one serving was enough for him. Reliable facts to directly state medical error, still not enough.

The second version matured only by 1938, from which it followed that the writer could actually be buried alive. That unknown infectious disease that Gogol suffered from could also affect his brain and, ultimately, lead to a state similar to lethargic sleep.

Suddenly, all investigations into the case stopped. Perhaps the idea of ​​excavating a new grave, and the possible resonance around this event, was considered unnecessary. The investigation remains unfinished.

Both versions are apocryphal in nature, and have been repeatedly criticized by contemporary art critics and biographers. And, probably, the time has come to leave the soul of a unique, subtle and talented person alone.

1. Gogol's whole life still remains an unsolved mystery. He was haunted by mysticism, and after his death there were more questions than answers. They allow you to look at the work of your favorite writer from a completely different perspective, try to explain some contradictions and inconsistencies and see him not as an idol, but as a simple, incredibly subtle and talented person.
2. Gogol was born third in the family. The writer's first two brothers were stillborn.
3. Nikolai Vasilyevich was passionately interested in everything that came into his field of vision. The history of his native Ukraine was one of his favorite studies and hobbies. It was these studies that prompted him to write the epic story “Taras Bulba”. It was first published in the collection “Mirgorod” in 1835. Gogol personally handed one copy of this magazine into the hands of Mr. Uvarov, the Minister of Public Education, so that he presented it to Emperor Nicholas I.
4. Russian grammar and drawing are the main subjects in which Nikolai was well versed.
5. Gogol often rolled balls of white bread when he wrote. He told his friends that this helps him solve the most difficult problems.
6. Gogol was extremely shy. As soon as a stranger appeared in the company, Gogol disappeared from the room.
7. The writer usually walked along the streets and alleys on the left side, so he constantly collided with passers-by.
8. The writer loved miniature editions. Not loving and not knowing mathematics, he ordered a mathematical encyclopedia only because it was published in a sixteenth of a sheet (10.5 × 7.5 cm).
9. Gogol had a passion for needlework. I knitted scarves, cut dresses for my sisters, wove belts, and sewed neckerchiefs for the summer.
10. Gogol loved to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings. One of his favorite drinks was goat's milk, which he brewed in a special way by adding rum. He called this concoction Gogol-Mogol and often, laughing, said: “Gogol loves Gogol-Mogol!”
11. Gogol always had sweets in his pockets. Living in a hotel, he never allowed the servants to take away the sugar served with tea, he collected it, hid it, and then gnawed pieces while working or talking.
12. Gogol was very afraid of thunderstorms. According to contemporaries, the bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.
13. Neither contemporaries nor descendants can explain what happened to Gogol in the last years of his life. It is believed that when Gogol visited Rome in 1839, he contracted malaria. Despite the fact that over time the disease did subside, its consequences became fatal for the writer. It was not so much the physical torment as the complications that caused Gogol to have seizures, fainting, but most importantly, visions, which made his recovery difficult and lengthy.
14. No one knows for certain what happened on the night of February 12, 1852. Biographers, with a joint titanic effort, tried literally minute by minute to reconstruct the events of that night, but what is absolutely certain is that until three o’clock in the morning Gogol prayed earnestly. Then he took his briefcase, took out some sheets of paper from it, and ordered everything that was left in it to be immediately burned. After which he crossed himself and, returning to bed, sobbed uncontrollably until the morning. It is traditionally believed that that night Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls, but some biographers and historians are confident that this is far from the truth, which is unlikely to be known by anyone.
15. Modern specialists in the field of psychiatry have analyzed thousands of documents and come to the very definite conclusion that Gogol had no trace of any mental disorder. He may have suffered from depression, and if the right treatment had been given to him, the great writer would have lived much longer.