biography of gogol

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Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer. He contributed to Russian literature through his magnificently crafted dramas, novels and short stories. He was one of the major proponents of the natural school of Russian literary realism. His notable works include Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, The Government Inspector and “The Portrait”.

Born on March 31, 1809 in Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate, Ukraine, Gogol was raised by a Polish mother and an amateur Ukrainian playwright and poet father. His family spoke both Russian and Ukrainian. From a very young age Gogol developed a keen interest in Ukrainian-language plays and helped his uncle stage them. His father died when he was fifteen.  During 1820’s, Gogol received education from higher art school in Nizhyn. It is here that he learned the art of writing and practiced his skills. He became an outcast in his class and his fellow students called him a “mysterious dwarf”. Such incidents engendered a situation for him to embrace his dark side secretly.

Upon completion of his studies, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg to join civil service. His lack of wealth and social connections made him realize that in order to attain a respectable job he would have to work hard. He had already penned a Romantic poem on German idyllic life, titled Hans Küchelgarten . He published it at his own expense, under the pseudonym V. Alov. As he met rejection and ridicule of the publishing magazine he destroyed all the copies of his poem in utter dejection. Later, he embezzled his mother’s money on a trip to Germany but eventually returned and became an underpaid government employee.

However, he became a preeminent figure in short story writing as he occasionally wrote for a periodical. The young storyteller achieved overnight success. He was endowed with great respect by twentieth century literary giants like Alexander Pushkin  and Vasily Zhukovsky for his contributions. In 1834, he was offered position of a senior professor of medieval history at St. Petersburg University. Feeling ill-equipped for the job, he left after teaching a year long.

Gogol’s first collection of Ukrainian stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , was published in 1931. It was followed by a number of volumes, one of them entitled Mirgorod . The subject matter of his stories varies sometimes from devils and witches to idyllic village life. His miscellaneous prose was published in a volume, titled Arabesques . The critics applauded his work for having a distinct Ukrainian voice. Gogol’s literary work highlighted the supposed difference between Ukrainian and Russian social aspects. His early prose was inspired by contemporary writers, such as Vasily Narezhny and Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. Still his work had a distinctive quality that is his use of unconventional and sophisticated satire. Moreover, the colloquial nature of the prose became a breath of fresh air in Russian literature.

The second volume , Arabesques brings out the realism as it shows a romantic’s struggle to expose the evil and duplicity of the world that he can neither embrace nor evade. Gogol’s highly acclaimed satirical play, The Government Inspector, is a comedy of errors. It draws attention to politically corrupt Imperial Russia by underlining human attributes, like greed and foolishness. Gogol is held in esteemed regard for constructing original work that avoids clichéd sympathetic characters and love interest. Another of one of his play, Dead Souls, lampoonsthe double-standards of Imperial Russia. Afterwards, his creative genius took a sudden nosedive and eventually deserted him. He died on 4 th of March, 1852 after burning up some of his manuscript and refusing to eat food.

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Nikolay Gogol

• Born March 31 , 1809 · Sorochintsy, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire [now Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine]
• Died March 4 , 1852 · Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia] (self-inflicted starvation)
• Birth name Nikolay Vasilyevich Yanovskiy
• Nikolai (Mykola) Gogol was a Russian humorist, dramatist, and novelist of Ukrainian origin. His ancestors were bearing the name of Gogol-Janovsky and claimed belonging to the upper class Polish Szlachta. Gogol's father, a Ukrainian writer living on his old family estate, had five other children. He died when the Gogol was 15. Young Gogol was fond of the drama class at his high school in Nezhin, Ukraine. He was strongly influenced by his religious mother, as well as by the enchanting beauty of the Ukrainian folklore. He also called himself a "free Cossac". At age 18 Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, became a student, and later a professor of history at the St. Petersburg University. His short stories, set in St. Petersburg, became a success. His play "Revizor" (1836, The Inspector General) had its premiere in St. Petersburg attended by the Tzar Nickolai I. But it also made him many powerful enemies who hated his satire on the corrupt Russian society. It was his friend Alexander Pushkin who suggested to him the subject for "Revizor". Pushkin also suggested the main idea of "The Dead Souls" (1842), a bitter satirical story of a crook, who was buying the names of dead surfs from various greedy landlords, for a tax-evasion scheme. In his other famous story "Shinel" (1842, The Overcoat) a poor clerk is intimidated both by thieves and by the government. Gogol's discontent against the slavery and social injustices in Russia caused him trouble. He escaped to Europe for 12 years, returning to Russia briefly to publish the 1st part of "The Dead Souls". His religious beliefs were used by the State-controlled Orthodox Church to place guilt on him and to cause interruption of his literary work. In 1848 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After his return to Russia, he settled in Moscow, where he fell under the control of the fanatical Orthodox priest, Konstantinovskii, who demanded that Gogol quit writing and destroy the manuscript of the 2nd part of "The Dead Souls". Torn by his inner conflict with guilt and being under the pressure from the fanatical priest, Gogol burned his manuscript. He died nine days later in pain without having any food during his last days. In the 1931 excavation of his tomb, his body was found lying face down, which caused suspicion that Gogol was buried alive. His style involves the elements of the fantastic and grotesque, with the taste for the macabre and absurd, following the tradition of E.T.A. Hoffmann . Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaimed, "We all came out from under his Overcoat", referring to Gogol's influence on Russian writers. Sometimes compared with Franz Kafka , Gogol had such followers, as Yevgeni Zamyatin , Vladimir Nabokov , and Mikhail A. Bulgakov . - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
• Founder of realism in Russian literature.
• In the Soviet Union, he was considered the father of Russian Realism; now, most would consider him to be a father of Surrealism (Nabokov's book on Gogol has been influential in this regard).
• The band Gogol Bordello got its name from Nikolai Gogol.
• While born with the surname of Ianovskii, the reason behind his use of the name Gogol was due to his grandfather taking this name to be able to claim a noble Cossack ancestry.
• This gentleman evidently belonged to the category of those people who wish the Government to interfere in everything, even in their daily quarrels with their wives.

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Biography of Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol is one of Russia’s most famous writers, renowned for his short stories, novels, and plays. Vladimir Nabokov called him “the strangest prose-poet Russia ever produced.” Scholars Dmytro Chyzhevsky and Danylo Husar Struk say of his writing, “Gogol's works display different variations of the Romantic style and a masterly use of metaphor, hyperbole, and ironic grotesque. His language is exceptionally rhythmic and euphonic. He was the first writer of the so-called Ukrainian school in Russian literature to employ a host of lexical and syntactic Ukrainianisms, primarily to play with various stylistic levels from the vulgar to the pathetic.”

Gogol was born on March 31, 1809 in the Poltava province in Ukraine. While his family name was Ianovskii, his grandfather took “Gogol” to connect him to his Cossack ancestry. His father was a minor Ukrainian noble who also wrote, and his mother was a religious woman who passed such spiritual concerns down to her son.

An unpopular child who was nicknamed “the mysterious dwarf,” Nikolai attended a boarding school and Nezhin secondary school. After he graduated, he went to St. Petersburg hoping to make it as a writer and actor. He took a few low-level government jobs to support himself and eventually realized he would not be able to make acting his career. His first poem, "Hans Kuechelgarten," was eviscerated by critics. During this time, he also wrote for a few periodicals about his memories of Ukraine, but he did not achieve fame.

In 1831, Gogol met Aleksandr Pushkin, perhaps Russia’s most famous novelist. Pushkin later helped get him a position teaching at the Patriotic Institute and then the University of St. Petersburg. Pushkin also urged Gogol to look to Ukrainian folktales for inspiration for his short stories, which led to the successful Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831).

By 1835, Gogol had published two more collections of stories and essays, including the famous story “ Diary of a Madman .” The following year, he published “ The Carriage ” and “ The Nose ." Gogol published his only play, The Inspector General (or The Government Inspector ) in 1835, but he was so distressed by its staging and the way the audience and critics received it that he left Russia. He traveled around Europe for twelve years, spending most of it in Rome.

While he was in Rome, he wrote the novel Dead Souls , or what he intended to be its first part. Published in 1842, it was received well by critics and the public. Unfortunately, Gogol struggled with the second part of the novel and did not receive approbation for his nonfiction work, Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends (1847), which was deemed to be too reactionary.

Gogol most likely suffered from depression, which he tried to alleviate by embarking on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Ivan Turgenev thought Gogol was suffering from “some secret sorrow, preoccupation, or morbid anxiety.” When Gogol returned to Moscow, he fell under the sway of a fanatical priest, Father Konstantinovski. Because of the priest's view that all fiction was a lie, Gogol burned what he had of the second part of Dead Souls. He also apparently starved himself and may have gone insane. Doctors tried numerous awful remedies to help him, but none worked. Gogol died on March 4, 1852, at the age of 42. He left no family and no estate.

The tsarist government forbade the mention of Gogol’s death in national publications. In 1931, his body was exhumed, and since the corpse was facedown, rumors abounded that he was buried alive.

Study Guides on Works by Nikolai Gogol

The carriage nikolai gogol.

At the beginning of 1843 was published (with a note - 1842), the third volume of the Gogol’s works, which contained placed seven novels, one of which was the story "Carriage", that has been written in 1835. Thus, Gogol himself brought together...

• Study Guide

Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls is a novel by celebrated Russian author Nikolai Gogol. First published in 1842, it details the quest of a bureaucrat named Chichikov to purchase the names of deceased serfs in a scheming effort to acquire land and wealth. Gogol claimed...

• Lesson Plan

Diary of a Madman Nikolai Gogol

Diary of a Madman is a short story written by Nikolai Gogol in 1834. The novel was published for the first time in the collected stories Arabesques with the title Shreds of Notes of a Madman in 1835. Later, it was included in the St. Petersburg...

The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol

The Government Inspector is one of the most famous Russian plays, renowned for its satirical portrayal of government officials and laced with apocalyptic, absurd overtones. Vladimir Nabokov praised the play, stating “The play begins with a...

Marriage Nikolai Gogol

"Marriage" is a play by Nikolai Gogol was written in 1833-1835 years, and published in 1842.

Gogol began work on the comedy, originally named "Grooms" in 1833. In May 1835 he gave Pogodin excerpts from the play "Provincial bride" (the action took...

Nevsky Prospekt Nikolai Gogol

"Nevsky Prospect" is the story of Nikolai Gogol, written in 1833-1834. "Nevsky Prospect" was first published in the collection "Arabesque" (1835), and was highly praised by critics. Gogol began working on the story during the creation of "Evenings...

The Nose Nikolai Gogol

"The Nose" is a satirical, absurdist short story written by Nikolai Gogol between 1832 and 1833.

In "The Nose," Gogol seeks to show the image of an empty and bombastic man, Kovalev, who loves appearances, high social status, and favor from his...

The Overcoat Nikolai Gogol

“The Overcoat”, published in 1842, is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, a Ukrainian-born Russian writer of plays, short stories and novels. Though Gogol is sometimes described as a realist writer, “The Overcoat” contains surreal, exaggerated and...

The Portrait Nikolai Gogol

“The Portrait” is a short story by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. This narrative was initially published in 1835 by the author in Part I of his collection Arabesques . After significant revising, it was republished in 1842 in a magazine called The...

The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich Nikolai Gogol

"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" is a short story of Nikolai Gogol. It was Included in the stories collection "Mirgorod".

First it was published in the anthology of Smirdin "The Housewarming" (the 2nd part, 1834)....

Taras Bulba Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol was born in Poltava province. He spent his young years there, and later moved to St. Petersburg. But he was interested in the history and customs of his native land during all his life. In the narrative Taras Bulba the history of...

Viy Nikolai Gogol

Viy is a mystical novel written by Nikolai Gogol, first published in his stories collection "Mirgorod" in 1835. The name of the story is the name of the Slavic demonic male creature with which the plot is associated.

In a footnote to the book,...

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Nikolay Gogol

Born: Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governate - 31 March 1809 Died: Moscow - 4 March 1852

Nikolay Gogol, the author of the first great Russian novel of the 19th century, Dead Souls , as well as two classic plays and some of the finest short stories written in any language, was a true literary oddity. His peculiar, unhappy life and his uniquely dark comic sensibility have been consistently misunderstood by posterity, with critics fiercely debating his nationality, his religious beliefs, and even his sexuality. What has never been in doubt, however, is his immense literary talent which, while essentially sui generis , provided a template for the absurdist, surreal streak in Russian literature that continues to bear fruit to this day. Along with Alexander Pushkin, he also established a literary pattern for the depiction of St. Petersburg as a city of ambiguity and even monstrosity, life in which proves untenable for many of his long-suffering protagonists.

Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol was born in Sorochyntsi, a Ukrainian Cossack village in what is now Ukraine's Poltava Oblast. His family were from the lower ranks of the gentry, his mother of Polish descent and his father a Ukrainian Cossack who wrote poetry and drama in Ukrainian. The family spoke both Ukrainian and Russian at home, and Gogol would later make a conscious choice to pursue a literary career in Russian rather than Ukrainian. He was educated at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nezhyn, a school founded as part of Alexander I's education reforms.

On leaving school in 1828, he moved to St. Petersburg with high ambitions of becoming a famous writer. He had with him a long Romantic poem of German rural life called Hans Küchelgarten , which he had published at his own expense and sent copies of to the leading literary journals. The work was rejected and derided by all, and Gogol bought up and burnt all the copies, swearing never to write poetry again.

He turned instead to prose, producing a series of tales set in the Ukrainian countryside, mostly comic, sentimental and occasionally macabre. These met with instant success, and were published in two volumes under the title Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka in 1831 and 1832. Gogol's work was strongly supported by the leading lights of the St. Petersburg literary scene, including Vasiliy Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and even Alexander Pushkin, who he met in 1831 and formed a frienship with. His Ukrainian pastoral period continued with the two volumes of Mirgorod , published in 1835, but in the same year he also published the collection Arabesques , which contained stories set in St. Petersburg and included the classic Nevsky Prospekt and Diary of a Madman . These stories began to explore the themes of alienation and mental instability, set against the fripperies of fashionable life and the Byzantine inhumanity of the state's bureaucracy, that he would further develop in his most famous stories, The Nose (1836) and The Overcoat (1842).

It was also in 1835 that he completed his first comedy for the stage, Marriage , although it was not published or performed until 1842. The Government Inspector , his most famous play, was premiered in 1836 after receiving the official approval of Nicholas I. A biting satire on the corruption and incompetence of provincial government, it was interpreted by many as an attack on the whole system of Tsarist rule, much to Gogol's consternation as he was in fact an ultraconservative monarchist.

Although he had achieved the literary success that he craved, and was equally admired by critics and general readers, Gogol had not found much personal happiness. He had developed an entirely amateur passion for history, and attempted to gain an appointment at the University of Kyiv, despite being utterly lacking in qualifications. His literary fame allowed him to win the professorship of medieval history at St. Petersburg University in 1834, but his lack of knowledge made him completely incapable of performing the work, and he resigned after only a year of farcical subterfuge and failure.

Gogol left Russia in 1836 and spent most of the next twelve years abroad, travelling in France, Germany and Switzerland, and eventually settling in Rome. There he studied art, became a committed opera lover, and supposedly fell in love in 1838 with Count Joseph Vielhorskiy, the 23-year-old son of a prominent Russian official who had come to Italy in an attempt to cure his tuberculosis. He died there the following year. All this time, Gogol continued to work his masterpiece, the satirical novel Dead Souls . He completed it in 1841 and returned to Russia to oversee its publication. It appeared the following year and was an enormous success, further cementing Gogol's position as one of Russia's best-loved authors.

Once again, however, Gogol was shocked and upset at the way his work was seen as a satirical attack on the whole Tsarist system. In fact, Gogol planned for Dead Souls to be the first part of a trilogy that would see his roguish protagonist Chichikov gradually reformed and spiritually purified. His increasingly religious disposition and his terror of demonic forces prompted him to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1846-1847, and in 1848 he returned to Russia to complete the second volume of his work. Dissatisfied with his writings, he fell further under the influence of the spiritual elder Matvey Konstantinovsky, who tried to convince him that writing fiction was a demonic and sinful activity. Gogol became increasingly ascetic, and suffered severe bouts of depression. During one of these on 24 February 1852, he burned most of the manuscripts of the second volume of Dead Souls . In despair at what he had done, believing himself to have been tricked by the Devil himself, Gogol took to his bed and refused all food, and died in agony nine days later.

He was buried at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. In the 1930s his grave was transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery, during which process it was discovered that he was lying face down in his coffin, giving rise to the rumour that he had been buried alive. In St. Petersburg, Gogol is commemorated with an imposing and somewhat mournful statue on pedestrian Malay Konyushennaya Ulitsa just off Nevsky Prospekt.

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Nikolai Gogol

Biography, Russian Author  

Biography of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, a Ukranian-born Russian novelist, dramatist and short story writer as well as founder of Russian realism known for his work Dead Souls.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a humorist, playwright, and novelist born in Ukraine whose works, written in Russian, significantly influenced the direction of Russian literature. His novel "Dead Souls" (1842.) and his short story "The Overcoat" (1942) are considered the foundations of the great tradition of Russian realism of the 19th century.

Early Life and Education

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born on March 19, 1809, in Sorochintsy, near Poltava, Ukraine, previously the Russian Empire, and now in Ukraine. The Ukrainian countryside, with its colorful peasantry, Cossack traditions, and rich folklore, formed the background of Gogol's childhood.

A member of the small Ukrainian nobility and a subject of the Russian Empire, Gogol was sent to the gymnasium in Nezin at the age of 12 where he distinguished himself with his caustic language, his contributions of poetry and prose to the magazine, and his portrayal of comic old men and women in school theaters. In 1828, he went to Petrograd, hoping to enter the civil service, but he soon discovered that, without money and connections, he would have to struggle for life. He tried to become an actor, but the auditions he did were unsuccessful. In this predicament, he remembered a mediocre sentimental-idyllic poem he had written in high school.

Eager to achieve fame as a poet, he published it at his own expense, but its failure was so disastrous that he burned all copies and considered emigrating to the United States. He embezzled the money his mother sent him to pay the mortgage on her farm and took a boat to the German port of Lübeck. He did not sail but briefly visited Germany. Soon he ran out of money, so he returned to St. Petersburg, where he took a poorly paid government job.

Meanwhile, Gogol occasionally wrote for periodicals, finding escape in his childhood memories of Ukraine. He wrote about sunny landscapes, peasants, and noisy country boys, as well as stories about devils, witches, and other demonic or fantastical creatures that enliven Ukrainian folklore. Romantic stories from the past are thus intertwined with realistic events from the present. Such was the origin of his eight stories, published in two volumes in 1831 - 1832 under the title "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka". Written in lively and occasionally colloquial prose, these works contributed something fresh and new to Russian literature.

In addition to the author's whimsical inflections, they abounded in original folk flavor, including numerous Ukrainian words and phrases, all of which conquered the Russian literary world.

Writing Career

The young author became famous overnight. Among his first admirers were the poets Alexander Pushkin and Vasily Zhukovski, whom he met before. This respect was soon shared by writer Sergej Aksakov and critic Vissarion Belinsky, among others. Having given up his second government post, Gogol now taught history at a girls' boarding school.

In 1834 he was appointed assistant professor of medieval history at the University of St. Petersburg, but he felt ill-equipped for the position and left it after a year. In the meantime, he vigorously prepared for the publication of his next two books, Mirgorod and Arabeski ("Arabesques"), which were published in 1835.

A great story about the Cossack past as "Taras Buljba" certainly made it possible to escape from the present. But "Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich" was, for all its humor, full of bitterness because of the meanness and vulgarity of existence. Even the idyllic motif of Gogol's "The Old World Landowners" is undermined by satire, because the mutual affection of the elderly couple is undermined by gluttony.

In Gogol's St. Petersburg stories published (together with some essays) in his second work, the aggressive realism of the romantic prevails, who can neither adapt to the world nor escape from it and therefore wants to expose its naivety and malignity even more. In one of these stories, "Diary of a Madman", the hero is an extremely frustrating office bum who finds compensation in megalomania and ends up in an insane asylum.

In the second story, "Nevsky Prospekt", a tragic romantic dreamer is opposed to an adventurous vulgarian, while in the revised finale "Portrait" the author emphasizes his belief that evil is ineradicable in this world.

In 1836, Gogol published in Pushkin's "The Contemporary", one of his most cheerful satirical stories, "The Coach". In the same magazine, his amusingly acerbic surrealist story "The Nose" appeared. Gogol's association with Pushkin was of great value because he always trusted his friend's taste and criticism; moreover, he received from Pushkin the themes for his two major works, the play "The Government Inspector" and "Dead Souls", which were important not only for Russian literature but also for the further fate of Gogol.

In a great comedy, a government inspector mercilessly comes down on the corrupt bureaucracy under Nicholas I. Replacing the well-dressed airman with a hideous incognito inspector, the officials of a provincial town bribe him and throw him a banquet to distract him from the glaring evil of their administration. But during the triumph, after the departure of the fake inspector, the arrival of the real inspector is announced - to the horror of those concerned. It was only by special order of the emperor that the first performance of this comedy of accusations and "laughter through tears" was held on April 19, 1836.

Nevertheless, the uproar and shouting raised by the reactionary press and officials were such that Gogol left Russia for Rome, where he stayed, with some interruptions, until 1842. The atmosphere he found in Italy appealed to his taste and his somewhat patriarchal - not to say primitive - religious inclination. The religious painter Aleksandar Ivanov, who worked in Rome, became his close friend. He also met several traveling Russian aristocrats, and he often saw the emigrant princess Zinaida Volkonska, a convert to Roman Catholicism, in whose circle many religious topics were discussed. Gogol also wrote most of his masterpiece, "Dead Souls", in Rome.

This comic novel or "epic", as the author called it, reflects feudal Russia, with its serfdom and bureaucratic lawlessness. Chichikov, the hero of the novel, is a smooth con artist who, after several accidents, wants to get rich quickly. His bright but criminal idea is to buy from various landowners a certain number of their recently deceased serfs (or "souls", as they were called in Russia) whose deaths have not yet been registered by the official census and are therefore considered to be still alive. The landowners are overjoyed to get rid of the fictitious property on which they continue to pay taxes until the next census. Chichikov intends to pawn the "souls" in the bank and with the money thus collected, he settles in a distant region as a respectable gentleman. The inhabitants of the province where he first resided were charmed by his polite manners; he approaches several proprietors in the district who are all willing to sell the "souls" in question, knowing full well the fraudulent nature of the business. The sad conditions in Russia, where serfs were bought and sold like cattle, are revealed through grotesquely humorous transactions. Landlords, another more strange and repulsive than the previous one, became nicknames familiar to every Russian reader. When the secret of Chichikov's tasks begins to emerge, he hastily leaves town.

"Dead Souls" was published in 1842, the same year that the first edition of Gogol's collected works was published. The edition included, among other works of his, the lively comedy "Marriage" and the story "The Overcoat". The latter concerns a humble scribe who, at untold sacrifices, has acquired an elegant coat; when it is stolen from him, he dies of a broken heart. The tragedy of this insignificant man was elaborated with so many significant details that years later Fyodor Dostoyevsky would exclaim that all Russian realists originated "under Gogol's overcoat". The peak of Gogol's fame was still "Dead Souls".

Democratic intellectuals of the Belinsky brand saw in this novel a work imbued with the spirit of their liberal aspirations. Its author was all the more popular because, after Pushkin's tragic death, Gogol was now seen as the head of Russian literature. Gogol, however, began to understand his leading role from his perspective.

Having witnessed the salutary results of the laughter caused by his accusations, he was sure that God had given him a great literary talent to make him not only condemn abuses with laughter but also reveal to Russia the right way to live in an evil world. Therefore, he decided to continue "Dead Souls" as a kind of Divine Comedy in prose; the already published part would represent the hell of Russian life, and the second and third parts (with Chichikov's moral regeneration) would be his Purgatorio and Paradiso.

Unfortunately, having embarked on such a salutary task, Gogol noticed that his former creative ability was leaving him. He worked on the second part of his novel for more than 10 years, but with meager results. In the drafts of four chapters and a fragment of the fifth found among his papers, the negative and grotesque characters are outlined with a certain intensity, while the virtuous types he so wished to exalt are stiff and lifeless. This lack of enthusiasm was interpreted by Gogol as a sign that, for some reason, God no longer wanted him to be the voice urging his countrymen to a more dignified life.

Nevertheless, he decided to prove that at least as a teacher and preacher - if not as an artist - he was still able to set forth what was needed for Russia's moral and worldly improvement. He did this in his work "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends", a collection of 32 speeches praising not only the conservative official church but the very powers that he had so ruthlessly condemned only a few years earlier. It is no wonder that the book was fiercely attacked by his former admirers, especially Belinsky, who in an indignant letter called him "a preacher of the wick, a defender of obscurantism and the darkest oppression" .

Devastated by all this, Gogol saw in it another proof that, no matter how sinful he was, he had lost God's favor forever. In 1848 he even made a pilgrimage to Palestine but in vain. Despite a few bright moments, he began to wander from place to place like a condemned soul. He finally settled in Moscow, where he came under the influence of a fanatical priest, Father Matvej Konstantinovsky, who practiced a kind of spiritual sadism on Gogol. On his order, Gogol burned the probably finished manuscript of the second volume of "Dead Souls" on February 24 in 1852. Ten days later he died, on the verge of semi-madness.

Regardless of the vagaries of Gogol's mind and life, his role in Russian literature was immense. Above all, Belinsky derived from the nature of such works as "The State Inspector", "Dead Souls", and "The Coat" the principles of the "natural school" (as opposed to the "rhetorical" or romantic school) which was responsible for the trend of later Russian fiction. Gogol was among the first writers who discovered Russia for themselves.

However, unlike the simple classical-realistic prose of Pushkin, which was adopted by Leo Tolstoy , Ivan Goncharov, and Ivan Turgenev, Gogol's ornate and turbulent prose was adopted by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Gogol's realism of the indictment found many followers, among them the great satirist Mihail Saltikov. He was also an advocate of the little man as a literary hero. Both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky continued (but on a higher level) with his experience of the spirit, as well as with his effort to transcend "mere literature".

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died on March 4, 1852. in Moscow, Russia.

There is an assumption that the prophecy of his death was predicted by Gomola in "Old-World Landowners". Friends remembered that Gogol "dissolved before their eyes", he became weak - but refused food, he was sick - but rejected the doctor's advice. He said that he is his doctor.

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Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol 

Born: 20 March 1809

Died: 21 February 1852

Notable Works: The Government Inspector (1836), Petersburg Tales (1833-1842)

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a Russian writer of Ukrainian origin. His short stories and plays have been noted for their surrealism, dark humor, and use of the grotesque. A key concept in his work is poshlost , a Russian word that means “triviality, inferiority, and banality.” Poshlost is embodied by his caricatures of everyday people who face moral and spiritual emptiness in their lives. 

Nikolai Gogol’s influence has been acknowledged by Mikhail Bulgakov , Fyodor Dostoevsky , Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin , Flannery O’Connor , and Franz Kafka , among other writers. 

1. Biography

1.1. early life.

Nikolai Gogol was born on 20 March 1809 in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Sorochyntsi, in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire. Gogol’s family hailed from the lower ranks of the gentry and his father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, was a poet and amateur playwright who staged plays in his theater. His mother was of Polish origin and a descendant of Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment . 

As was typical of families of the Ukrainian gentry, they spoke both Ukrainian and Russian. The Ukrainian countryside, folklore, and traditions Gogol was exposed to in his boyhood inspired his short story collections, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod . 

In 1820, Gogol was enrolled in the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nezhin. There, he contributed to a literary magazine and acted in school plays. He was not popular among his schoolmates but managed to make a few good friends. This school is now known as the Nizhyn Gogol State University. 

After graduating in 1828, Gogol left for St. Petersburg to pursue his literary ambitions. He wrote a Romantic poem, Hans Küchelgarten , and published it at his own expense. However, the magazines he sent it to criticize the poem harshly. As a result, Gogol bought all the copies of his poem and destroyed them, vowing never to write poetry again. 

1.2. Literary Career 

After swearing off poetry, Nikolai Gogol turned to prose. His first collection of short stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, was published in two volumes in 1831 and 1832. The stories in this collection were filled with references to Ukrainian culture and folklore, causing Gogol to be viewed as a regional writer by some contemporary critics. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka was an immediate success and established Gogol’s unique style of blending humor and horror. Gogol entered Russia’s literary circle, meeting and establishing a friendship with Alexander Pushkin, considered by many to be the founder of modern Russian literature. 

In the early 1830s, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian Cossack history. He eventually obtained a position as a Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg. However, he was ill-qualified for the job and resigned in 1835. 

That same year, Gogol published his second short story collection, Mirgorod . Like Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , Mirgorod is also inspired by life in the Ukrainian countryside. He started writing the short stories in Mirgorod in 1832 and completed them during his tenure as a professor.

Nikolai Gogol’s third collection, Arabesques , was published in 1835. In Arabesques , he moved away from his Ukrainian origins and wrote stories about life in St. Petersburg. In addition, the collection contained articles on chronicles, geography, and art. Some of Gogol’s most famous works, Nevsky Prospect , Diary of a Madman, and The Portrait, are from this collection. 

In 1836, Gogol published his famous play, The Government Inspector , a satire of political corruption in the Russian Empire. The play caused moral outrage in the reactionary press, and it took the intervention of Tsar Nicholas I to have it staged. Despite the play being seen as an attack on the Tsarist system, Gogol was actually a conservative monarchist. 

From 1836 to 1848, Gogol traveled across Europe, spending the winter of 1836 – 1837 in Paris and later settling in Rome. Gogol spent most of his twelve years abroad in Italy, a country he grew to love, developing an interest in Italian opera, art, and literature. 

The first part of his only novel, Dead Souls , was completed in 1841 and published in 1842. Unlike his short stories, Dead Souls was meant to offer solutions rather than just point out social ills. However, Gogol did not complete the second part, where the protagonist Chichikov undergoes spiritual purification. Gogol burnt most of the novel’s second part shortly before his death, having come to believe that writing fiction was the work of the Devil. 

In 1842, Gogol also published his iconic short story, The Overcoat , which had a massive impact on Russian literature. 

1.3. Final years and death

Nikolai Gogol’s final years were marked by increased religiosity and fear of damnation. In 1846, he left for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and returned to Russia in 1848. Gogol fell under the influence of a spiritual elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky, who convinced him that writing fiction was the work of the Devil. Extreme asceticism damaged Gogol’s health, and he sank into depression. 

Konstantinovsky heightened his fear of damnation, which led him to burn his manuscripts, including most of the second part of Dead Souls, on 24 February 1852. Soon after, he refused all food and took to bed, dying nine days later in agony. He was buried in the Danilov Monastery, with a large stone and a cross marking his grave. 

2. Influence and Legacy of Nikolai Gogol

2.1. literature.

Nikolai Gogol has had a massive impact on later generations of Russian writers. He has been recognized by the famed literary critic Belinsky as the originator of the Natural School, a literary movement that arose in Russia in the 1840s. Writers of the Natural School aimed to imitate real life in their work, borrowing ideas from the French Enlightenment. Nekrasov, Turgenev, Grebenka, Dostoyevsky, and Saltykov-Shchedrin, among other writers, were part of this movement. 

Belinsky, N.G. Chernyshevsky, and other literary critics interpreted Gogol’s work as social criticism. However, Gogol was not the social critic his liberal admirers imagined, holding a conservative viewpoint throughout his life. Nevertheless, he was able to criticize the corruption of his society by disguising his critique with fantastical elements at a time when authors were bound by heavy censorship. In the 20th century, Soviet writers such as Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov would borrow this technique to circumvent censors. 

In the 1920s, a group of Russian writers called the Serapion Brothers took inspiration from Gogol and wrote many short stories that were critical of government policy, but the group later became more mainstream. 

Novelist Vladimir Nabokov greatly admired Gogol’s Dead Souls , The Government Inspector , and The Overcoat . He has called The Overcoat “The greatest short story in the Russian language.” 

Outside of Russia, Gogol’s influence can be seen in the works of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka, and others.

Some writers have highlighted the anti-semitism in Gogol’s stories. Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari, in their book, The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentrism , shed light on “the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol’s novel Taras Bulba .” In Léon Poliakov ‘s The History of Antisemitism , the author mentions that the character of Yankel in Taras Bulba incorporates many antisemitic stereotypes, being portrayed as exploitative, greedy, and cowardly. 

The Jewish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem borrowed elements from Gogol’s work but removed the antisemitism. Amelia Glaser noted that Aleichem “chose to model much of his writing, and even his appearance, on Gogol… What Sholem Aleichem was borrowing from Gogol was a rural East European landscape that may have been dangerous, but could unite readers through the power of collective memory. He also learned from Gogol to soften this danger through laughter, and he often rewrites Gogol’s Jewish characters, correcting anti-Semitic stereotypes and narrating history from a Jewish perspective.”

2.2. Film and other media

Nikolai Gogol’s stories have been adapted into numerous films, operas, radio serials, and other media. The renowned composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his first opera based on Gogol’s short story The Nose , for which he also wrote the libretto. The Government Inspector and The Overcoat, in particular, have received many film adaptations in Russian, German, Polish, English, Indonesian, Hindi, Italian, Greek, and Dutch. 

The 1956 British short film The Bespoke Overcoat, directed by Jack Clayton, was based on Gogol’s The Overcoat . The film won an Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).

The latest film adaptation of Gogol’s work is The Girl in the White Coat , a 2011 Canadian film based on The Overcoat and directed by Darell Wasyk. In this film, a poor factory worker tormented by her colleagues becomes determined to buy a new lab coat. 

2.3. Sculpture 

Along Arbatskaya Boulevard, Moscow, there is a sculpture of Nikolai Gogol made by the Soviet Sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. The statue was cast in 1909 to mark the 100th anniversary of Gogol’s birth. Tomsky was given instructions to make Gogol look cheerful despite the pessimism in the writer’s work. 

Gogol is closely associated with St. Petersburg as many of his famous works, including The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Nevsky Prospect, and The Nose, are set there. Along St. Petersburg’s Malaya Konyushennaya street, there is another Gogol statue made by the sculptor Mikhail Belov. 

In Kyiv, Ukraine, a sculpture of Gogol’s nose hangs from a building wall on Andriyivsky Uzviz, a historic tourist street. The sculpture is a tribute to Gogol’s short story, The Nose . According to legend, Gogol was walking along the Andriyivsky Uzviz when he caught a cold, which inspired him to write the story. 

2.4. Nizhyn Gogol State University 

The Nizhyn Gogol State University in Ukraine is named after its most famous alumni, Nikolai Gogol, who studied there from 1821 – 1828. It is one of the oldest tertiary institutions in Ukraine, dating back to 1805 when Count Bezborodko received permission from the Tsar to set up a Gymnasium of Higher Learning in Nizhyn. The university houses the Gogol Museum and the Gogol Research Centre. 

3. Bibliography

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka – short story collection (1831-1832)

Mirgorod – short story collection (1835)

Arabesques – short story collection (1835)

The Nose – short story (1835)

Taras Bulba – novella (1835)

The Carriage – short story (1836)

Rome – fragment  (1842)

The Overcoat – short story (1842)

Dead Souls – novel (1842)

Petersburg Tales – short story collection (1843)

Decoration of Vladimir of the Third Class , unfinished comedy (1832).

Marriage (1842)

The Gamblers (1842)

The Government Inspector , also translated as The Inspector General (1836)

Leaving the Theater , ( After the Staging of a New Comedy ) (1836)

4. Quotes from Nikolai Gogol

“It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.” from The Government Inspector

“But nothing is lasting in this world. Even joy begins to fade after only one minute. Two minutes later, and it is weaker still, until finally it is swallowed up in our everyday, prosaic state of mind, just as a ripple made by a pebble gradually merges with the smooth surface of the water.” from The Nose

“The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.” Nikolai Gogol

“Countless as the sands of sea are human passions, and not all of them are alike, and all of them, base and noble alike, are at first obedient to man and only later on become his terrible masters.” from Dead Souls

“Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man.” from Dead Souls

5. Frequently Asked Questions about Nikolai Gogol

What was nikolai gogol known for.

Gogol was a Russian writer of Ukrainian heritage known for being one of the founders of modern Russian literature. His unique style blends dark humor, realism, and surrealism; he shows verbal skill in unusual metaphors, puns, and expressions. 

What was Nikolai Gogol influenced by?

In his early stories, Gogol was inspired by Ukrainian folklore, traditions, and his Ukrainian upbringing. His later stories satirized the political corruption in Imperial Russia. Many are steeped in the cold, urban atmosphere of St. Petersburg and feature landmarks from the city. 

Why did Gogol burn Dead Souls?

It is unclear why Gogol burned Dead Souls , but some have speculated that it was either he was dissatisfied with the novel’s second part or due to his religious convictions. In “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” he wrote,  “The publication of the second volume the way it is would do more harm than good……Creating a few beautiful characters who reveal the generosity of spirit of our breed will lead nowhere. It will only arouse hollow pride and boasting….”

Towards the end of his life, Gogol became influenced by a religious leader known as Matvey Konstantinovsky, who convinced him that writing fiction was the work of the devil. This conviction caused him to fall into depression, which may have had something to do with burning the second part of the Dead Souls’ manuscript .

6. Books about Nikolai Gogol for further reading

Nabokov, Vladimir. (1961). Nikolai Gogol. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 

Bojanowska, Edyta M. (2007). “Introduction.” Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Fanger, Donald (2009). The Creation of Nikolai Gogol . Harvard University Press.

Nechiporenko, Yuri, Korablev, Alexander, Tikos, Laszlo. (2017) Gogol’s Art: A Search for Identity. 

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5 must-read books by Nikolai Gogol to understand Russia

A young swindler arrives in the provincial town of N and pretends to be an important official from the capital. A seminarian performs a requiem for a deceased maiden, who rises from the grave. Major Kovalev wakes up one morning to discover that his nose has run away.

These are just three plots from Nikolai Gogol, the most comical, the most satirical, and (one of) the most profound Russian writers. 210 years have flowed under the bridge since his birth, yet his works are as fresh, relevant, and funny as ever. Moreover, he traced many of the features of the Russian character that would be developed by later better-known writers, and identified and poked fun at many problems in Russian society.

Put simply, reading Gogol is pure delight. And if you want to understand Russia more deeply, we highly recommend the following works.

1. Dead Souls

Great actor Alexander Kalyagin starring Chichikov

Most of this book was written in Italy, giving rise to the belief ever since that a Russian writer needs to view the country from the outside in order to peel away all the layers on the inside (and write a good book in the process).

Like many of Gogol’s plots, the storyline is quite intricate. The middle-class official Chichikov arrives in a nameless provincial town and visits the local landowners asking them to sell their “dead souls.” The “souls” in question are serfs that have died (and hence of no use to the landowners), but are still listed in the most recent census as alive. Chichikov’s get-rich-quick scheme is to purchase as many as possible to acquire social status. What could possibly go wrong?

Incidentally, the author himself described the work as a poem, apparently for its numerous lyrical digressions and reflections on the fate of Russia: “And you, Russia of mine –  are not you also speeding like a troika which nought can overtake?”

Gogol initially conceived the book as three volumes to echo Dante’s Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. “Hell” (i.e. the first volume bequeathed to us) flowed off the pen and, as its proposed title suggests, probes the darkest aspects of the Russian character (embezzlement, bribery, hypocrisy, not to mention bad roads) in a lively and humorous manner. However, when it came to “Purgatory,” Gogol realized that his aptitude for portraying good characters was not so sharp, and, according to legend, he burned it (only a fragment survived). Over time, the burning of the second volume by the impulsive Gogol has acquired meme-like status in the Russian literary consciousness.

2. The Government Inspector

Yevgeny Mironov as Khlestakov

Number 2 in the list is a play, once again set in a small provincial town. The main protagonist, a minor official by the name of Khlestakov, pays a visit. He has absolutely no money, not even for lunch. But he soon learns that the entire municipal elite is anxiously awaiting the arrival of an inspector from St. Petersburg, who will conduct his checks incognito. Khlestakov promptly assumes the role of said inspector.

His life is transformed. The local landowners start falling over themselves to toady up to him, offering money and whatever services he desires, while the mayor is determined to marry off his only daughter to the imposter.

No more spoilers. You have to read it for yourself, because it really is very funny, even in translation. By the way, director Sergei Gazarov made a great movie version of the comedy with Yevgeny Mironov in the role of Khlestakov and Nikita Mikhalkov in the role of the mayor. The Government Inspector is a regular at just about every theater in Russia.

3. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka

The Night Before Christmas movie

Gogol was born in the village of Sorochintsy near the city of Mirgorod in what used to be called Malorossiya or “Little Russia” (now Ukraine). He was deeply fond of the “Little Russian” way of life, with its traditions and rural setup. Two of his collections of short stories –  Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod –  are dedicated to his native land. However, in “Little Russia” itself, Gogol was criticized for being too Russian.

The collection contains some scary tales, almost horror-esque (“May Night, or the Drowned Maiden,” “A Terrible Vengeance”), as well as some amusing romps (“The Night Before Christmas”), but all are connected with evil spirits.

Contemporaries highly praised the collection as a breath of fresh air in Russian literature. However, Gogol’s obsession with evil spirits and mysticism (evident in other works too) contributed to some enduring posthumous legends. The writer was buried at Danilov Monastery, but when his remains were exhumed in Soviet times and transferred to Novodevichy Cemetery, it was rumored that the skull was missing. According to other hearsay, the body was found in an unnatural position, suggesting that the writer had been buried alive during a lethargic stupor –  allegedly his very worst fear.

4. Mirgorod

A screenshot from "Taras Bulba" movie

This collection is considered a continuation of Evenings , but far more profound and serious. All four stories are standalone works, and not all readers are aware that they were originally part of one collection. The most famous of them is “Viy” (remember the seminarian who performed burial rites over a deceased girl?), which was made into several horror movies. Another piece definitely worth reading is “Taras Bulba” about a Cossack father and his two sons, who go to war together. A Walter Scott-type tale of love, betrayal, and filicide. “I gave you life, it is on me to take it away from you,” says Yul Bryner to Tony Curtis in the 1962 Hollywood movie. In Russia, Gogol’s original words have become a (hopefully ironic) catchphrase.

“Old World Landowners” tells about the quiet, sedate life of an elderly and childless husband and wife, a touching story of their love for each other. Meanwhile, “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” is self-explanatory. Two “friends” fall out over a petty dispute, hurl ridiculous insults at each other, and ending up taking the other to court. At once very funny and deeply depressing, it is one of the finest examples of the “laughter through tears” genre, which Gogol practically invented.

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Nikolai Gogol Paperback – January 17, 1961

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Nikolai Gogol was the most idiosyncratic of the great Russian novelists of the 19th century and lived a tragically short life which was as chaotic as the lives of the characters he created.

• Print length 172 pages
• Language English
• Publisher New Directions
• Publication date January 17, 1961
• Dimensions 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 9780811201209
• ISBN-13 978-0811201209
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0811201201
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions; Later Printing edition (January 17, 1961)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 172 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780811201209
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811201209
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.3 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• #269 in History & Criticism of Russian & Soviet Literature
• #5,162 in Author Biographies

About the authors

Vladimir nabokov.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and as a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honors degree in 1922. For the next eighteen years he lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin and supporting himself through translations, lessons in English and tennis, and by composing the first crossword puzzles in Russian. In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, with whom he had one child, a son, Dmitri. Having already fled Russia and Germany, Nabokov became a refugee once more in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing ficticvbn ral books of criticism. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

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