A short message about the life of Gogol. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: biography. Briefly about the family, life and death of the writer. Interesting Facts

■
■
■
■
■

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

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

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

Conversations about his biography still do not subside, since he is one of the most mystical and mysterious figures among the intelligentsia of the 19th century.

Childhood and youth

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

Since childhood, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s belonging to the Little Russian nationality had a significant influence on his worldview and writing activity. Psychological characteristics Little Russian nationality were reflected in the content of it early works and on artistic style his speeches.

My childhood years were spent on my parents' estate Vasilyevka, Mirgorod district, not far from the village of Dikanki. An hour's drive from Vasilyevka along the Oposhnyansky tract was the Poltava Field - the site of the famous battle. From his grandmother Tatyana Semyonovna, who taught the boy to draw and even embroider with garus, Gogol listened winter evenings Ukrainian folk songs. Grandmother told her grandson historical legends and legends about the heroic pages of history, about the Zaporozhye Cossack freemen.

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

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

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

In 1821, after two years of study at the Poltava district school, the boy’s parents enrolled the boy in the newly opened gymnasium of higher sciences of Prince Bezborodko in Nizhyn, Chernigov province. It was often called a lyceum: like the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, the gymnasium course was combined with university subjects, and classes were taught by professors. Gogol studied in Nizhyn for seven years, visiting his parents only on vacation.

At first, studying was difficult: insufficient preparation at home had an effect. Children of wealthy parents, classmates of Gogol, entered the gymnasium with knowledge of Latin, French and German languages. Gogol envied them, felt slighted, shunned his classmates, and in letters home begged them to take him away from the gymnasium. The sons of rich parents, among whom was N.V. Kukolnik, did not spare his pride and ridiculed his weaknesses. From his own experience, Gogol experienced the drama of the “little” man, learned the bitter price of the words of the poor official Bashmachkin, the hero of his “The Overcoat,” addressed to the scoffers: “Leave me alone! Why are you offending me? Sick, frail, suspicious, the boy was humiliated not only by his peers, but also by insensitive teachers. Rare patience and the ability to silently endure insults gave Gogol the first nickname he received from schoolchildren - “Dead Thought.”

But soon Gogol discovered an extraordinary talent in drawing, far outstripping his offenders in success, and then enviable literary abilities. Like-minded people appeared, with whom he began to publish a handwritten magazine, publishing his articles, stories, and poems in it. Among them is the historical story “The Tverdislavich Brothers”, the satirical essay “Something about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools”, in which he ridiculed the morals of local inhabitants.

The beginning of a literary journey

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

Already in 1825, he contributed to a handwritten gymnasium magazine and composed poetry. Another hobby of Gogol, a high school student, was the theater. He took an active part in staging school plays, played comic roles, and painted scenery.

Gogol early awakened dissatisfaction with the musty and dull life of Nizhyn “existents”, dreams of serving noble and high goals. The thought of the future, of “serving humanity,” already captured Gogol. These youthfully enthusiastic aspirations, this thirst for socially useful activity, a sharp rejection of philistine complacency found their expression in the first poetic work of his that has come down to us. Hanz Kuchelgarten".

Dreams and plans for future activities drew Gogol to the capital, to distant and tempting St. Petersburg. Here he thought to find an application for his abilities, to devote his strength to the good of society. After graduating from the gymnasium, in December 1828, Gogol left for St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg did not kindly greet the enthusiastic young man who had come from distant Ukraine, from a quiet provincial wilderness. Gogol faces setbacks from all sides. The official-bureaucratic world treated the young provincial with indifferent indifference: there was no service, life in the capital for a young man who had very modest means turned out to be very difficult. Gogol also experienced bitter disappointment in the literary field. His hopes for the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten", brought from Nizhyn, were not justified. Published in 1829 (under the pseudonym V. Alov), the poem was not successful.

An attempt to enter the stage also ended in failure: Gogol’s true Riolist talent as an actor turned out to be alien to the then theater management.

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

Gogol recognized during these years the deprivation and need experienced in St. Petersburg for the most part service, disadvantaged people. Whole year Gogol served as an official in the department. However, bureaucratic service attracted him little. At the same time, he attended the Academy of Arts, studying painting there. Resumed it literary studies. But now Gogol no longer writes dreamy-romantic poems like “Hanz Küchelgarten”, but turns to the well-known Ukrainian life and folklore, starting work on a book of stories, which he entitled “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka.”

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

Gogol and theater

In 1837, he appeared in Sovremennik with the article “St. Petersburg Notes of 1836,” much of which was devoted to drama and theater. Gogol's judgments broke the established canons and asserted the need for a new one for the Russian stage. artistic method- realism. Gogol criticized two popular genres that took over “theaters all over the world” in those years: melodrama and vaudeville.

Gogol sharply condemns the main vice of this genre:

Our melodrama lies in the most shameless way

Melodrama does not reflect the life of society and does not produce the proper impact on it, arousing in the viewer not participation, but some kind of “anxious state.” Vaudeville, “this light, colorless toy,” in which laughter “is generated by light impressions, fluent witticisms, puns,” also does not correspond to the tasks of the theater.

Theater, according to Gogol, should teach and educate audiences:

We made a toy out of the theater, like those trinkets that are used to lure children, forgetting that this is a pulpit from which a live lesson is read to a whole crowd at once.

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

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

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

In December 1828, Gogol said goodbye to his native Ukrainian lands and headed north: to alien and tempting, distant and desired Petersburg. Even before his departure, Gogol wrote: “From the very times of the past, from the very years of almost misunderstanding, I burned with unquenchable zeal to make my life necessary for the good of the state. I went over in my mind all the states, all the positions in the state and settled on one. On Justice. “I saw that here only I can be a blessing, here only I will be useful to humanity.”

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

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

After a little time, Gogol receives a new position in one of the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After 3 months, he couldn’t stand it here and wrote a letter of resignation. He moved to another department, where he then worked as a scribe. Gogol continued to look closely at the life and everyday life of his fellow officials. These observations later formed the basis of the stories “The Nose” and “The Overcoat”. After serving for another year, Gogol left the departmental service forever.

Meanwhile, his interest in art not only did not fade away, but every day it overpowered him more and more. The bitterness with “Hanz Küchelgarten” was forgotten, and Gogol continued to write.

His new collections and works will be published soon. 1831 - 1832 Gogol writes the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, 1835 - the collection “Mirgorod”, in the same year he begins to create “ Dead souls" and "The Inspector General", in 1836 - the story "The Nose" was published and the premiere of the comedy "The Inspector General" took place in theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Later, after his death, some stories depicting St. Petersburg “in all its glory,” with officials and bribe-takers, were combined into “Petersburg Stories.” These are stories such as: “The Overcoat”, “The Nose”, “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Notes of a Madman”. St. Petersburg stories reflected both high and not best properties Russian character, life and customs of different layers of St. Petersburg society - officials, military, artisans. Literary critic A.V. Lunacharsky wrote: “The vile faces of everyday life teased and called for a slap.” The story “Nevsky Prospect” with its Pirogov, Hoffmann and Schiller, with ladies, generals and department officials parading along Nevsky Prospect “from two to three hours afternoon..."

In St. Petersburg, Gogol had a difficult life, full of disappointments. He couldn't find his calling. And finally I found it. N.V. Gogol’s calling is to be a writer depicting the vices of the human soul and the nature of Little Russia.

Gogol died at the age of 43. Doctors who treated him last years, were in complete bewilderment about his illness. A version of depression was put forward.

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

On the night of February 24, he burned the second volume of Dead Souls. After 4 days, Gogol was visited by a young doctor, Alexei Terentyev. He described the writer’s condition as follows:

He watched as a man for whom all tasks were resolved, every feeling was silent, every word was in vain... His whole body became extremely thin, his eyes became dull and sunken, his face became completely drawn, his cheeks sunken, his voice weakened...

Doctors invited to see the dying Gogol found he had severe gastrointestinal disorders. They talked about “intestinal catarrh,” which turned into “typhoid fever,” and about unfavorable gastroenteritis. And finally, about “indigestion,” complicated by “inflammation.”

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

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

A few days later the writer passed away.

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

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

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

Lidin's stories stirred up old rumors that Gogol was afraid of being buried alive in a state of lethargic sleep and seven years before his death he bequeathed:

My body will not be buried until it appears obvious signs decomposition. I mention this because even during the illness itself, moments of vital numbness came over me, my heart and pulse stopped beating

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

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

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol - genius Russian writer, a person who is known, first of all, as the author of the timeless work “Dead Souls”, a person with tragic fate, which is still shrouded in a halo of mystery.

Brief biography and creative path

Gogol was born on March 20 (or April 1 according to the new style) 1809 in Sorochintsy, Poltava province in large family landowner. Gogol's childhood They were brought up on the principles of mutual respect, love of nature and literary creativity. After graduating from the Poltava School, the young man entered the Nizhyn Gymnasium to study justice. He was interested in painting, delved into the principles of Russian literature, but did not write very skillfully in those years.

Literary achievements

With Gogol's move to northern capital in 1828 it began literary path as a unique author. But everything didn’t work out smoothly right away: Nikolai Vasilyevich served as an official studied painting at the Academy of Arts and even made attempts to become an actor, but none of the activities mentioned brought the expected satisfaction.

Acquaintance with such influential figures in society as, and Delvig helped Gogol to show the originality of his talent. His first published work was “Basavryuk”, then “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, which gave the writer his first fame. Later world literature I began to recognize Gogol from original plays such as “The Inspector General,” short stories (“The Nose”) and stories with a Ukrainian flavor (“ Sorochinskaya fair»)

Completion of life's journey

One of the last turns of the writer’s biography was traveling abroad influenced negative reaction public for the production of The Inspector General. In Rome, he works on “Dead Souls,” the first volume of which he publishes after returning to his homeland. But it seems that the author is not happy with anything: he falls into depression, breaks down spiritually, and on the eve of his death, February 21, 1852, he simply burned the second volume of the completed work.

Mysterious death

Surprisingly, there are rumors about what exactly did the great Russian writer die from? still haven't subsided. Even modern doctors cannot make an accurate diagnosis, although according to biographers, Gogol was a sickly child from childhood. Despite the variety of diagnoses that could lead to death - from cancer to meningitis, from typhus to insanity - even version of poisoning writer with mercury.

Oddities and eccentricities

Russian and world literature knows Gogol as a man whose immortal creations call for good light, true reason and spiritual perfection. While the life of the writer himself is full of very strange and ambiguous phenomena. Some researchers are confident that Nikolai Vasilyevich suffered from schizophrenia, as well as attacks of psychosis and claustrophobia. The writer personally claimed that he had displaced organs in his body, some of which were placed upside down. Contemporaries said that he amazed everyone with atypical attachments for a person of his level, for example, needlework, sleeping in a sitting position, and writing, on the contrary, only while standing. The prose writer also had passion for rolling bread balls.

Other unusual facts from the writer’s biographical path include the following:

• Gogol never married. He proposed to a woman only once, but was rejected.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich loved cooking and cooking, often treating his acquaintances to home-cooked dishes, including a special drink containing rum called “nog-mogol”.
• The writer always had sweets with him, which he never tired of chewing.
• He was a shy person and was very embarrassed about his own nose.
• Fears occupied a special place in Gogol’s life: a strong thunderstorm got on his nerves, and in general, he was a man not alien to religious, mystical and superstitious considerations. Perhaps this is why mysticism has always haunted the prose writer: for example, he himself said that his story “Viy” is nothing more than folk legend, which he once heard and simply re-recorded. But neither historians, nor folklorists, nor researchers in other fields have found any mention of this.

Not only fate and creativity, but even the death of a writer is one continuous mystery. After all, during reburial, he was found turned to one side.

If this message was useful to you, I would be glad to see you

Co school days We know the work of N.V. Gogol, his main works. But here we will focus on only one aspect: how life circumstances influenced the writer’s personality. Researchers note that the classic of Russian literature successively experienced different periods: naturalistic, passion for Ukrainian folklore and mysticism, religious and journalistic, and so on. What influenced the formation and formation of such a complex genius?

N.V. Gogol. Biography: short pedigree

Everyone knows that this mysterious Russian of origin was born in 1809 in the village of Velikiye Sorochintsy (Poltava province, Mirgorod district). It is also no secret that his parents were landowners. But few researchers delved into the writer’s genealogy. But she is very interesting. Gogol's biography indicates that the child's worldview was formed under the influence of his father and mother. Their stories also left a lasting impression on him. Maria Ivanovna Kosyarovskaya was from a noble family. But my father was from a hereditary line of priests. True, the writer’s grandfather, whose name was Afanasy Demyanovich, left the spiritual field and signed up for service in the hetman’s office. He, in fact, added the prefix Gogol to his surname - Yanovsky, which “related” him to the glorious 17th century colonel Eustachius.

Childhood

His father's stories about Cossack ancestors instilled in young Nikolai a love for Ukrainian history. But even more than the memories of Vasily Afanasyevich, the very area where he lived influenced the writer. Gogol's biography tells that he spent his childhood years on the family estate Vasilievka, which is located in close proximity to Dikanka. There are villages in Ukraine where local residents say that sorcerers and witches live there. In the Carpathian region they are called malfars, in the Poltava region they were simply passed on from mouth to mouth. horror stories, in which the inhabitants of Dikanka appeared. All this left an indelible imprint on the boy’s soul.

Parallel reality

Having completed his studies at the gymnasium in 1828, Nikolai left for the capital, St. Petersburg, in the hope that a bright future would now open before him. But severe disappointment awaited him there. He failed to get a job; his first attempts at writing caused derogatory criticism. Gogol's biography defines this period in the writer's life as realistic. He works as a minor official in the allotments department. Gray, routine life proceeds, as it were, in parallel with the creative search of the writer. He attends classes at the Academy of Arts, and after the success of the story “Basavryuk” he meets Pushkin, Zhukovsky, and Delvig.

Biography of Gogol and emigration

The theme of the “little man,” criticism of the Russian bureaucracy, grotesque and satire - all this was embodied in the cycle of St. Petersburg stories, the comedy “The Inspector General,” as well as the world-famous poem “Dead Souls.” However, Ukraine did not leave the writer’s heart. In addition to “Evenings on the Farm,” he writes historical story"Taras Bulba" and the horror film "Viy". After the reactionary persecution of “The Inspector General,” the writer leaves Russia and goes first to Switzerland, then to France and Italy. Gogol's biography makes us understand that somewhere in the second half of the 1840s, the writer's work took an unexpected turn towards fanaticism, mysticism and praise of autocracy. The writer returns to Russia and writes a series of publications that alienate his former friends. In 1852, on the verge of a mental breakdown, the writer burned the second volume of Dead Souls. A few days later, on February 21, Gogol died.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lived a short but eventful life. They talk a lot about him to this day, more than one generation has grown up on his works, they are in demand in schools, and based on them, art paintings. The name of this writer certainly left a significant mark on history.

Childhood

In 1809, in the spring of March 20, a boy was born into the family of a simple landowner Gogol, who began to be called Nikolai, by his patronymic - Vasilyevich. His family lived in a small town in the Poltava province. Then it was called the Great Sorochintsy.

The future writer spent his childhood near the village of Dikanka, where his parents had their own estate. Creative nature in little Gogol it was revealed by his father, who was a fan of art and theater, a writer of comedies and poetry. The boy received his education within the walls of the house.

Youth

After completing home schooling, Gogol spent 2 years at the district school of the Poltava province, after which he successfully entered the gymnasium in Nezhin. This institution was created to educate provincial noble children.

Young Gogol learned to draw, play on stage and play the violin here. In his future, he saw himself as a lawyer, dreaming of dispensing justice. But literature took precedence over his dreams.

Despite the unsuccessful auditions, which he failed in December, after graduating from high school (1828), his attitude towards literature and the desire to develop in this direction did not fade.

In 1829 he became a minor official. His monotonous, boring life was brightened up by painting, which he studied at the Academy of Arts, and literature.

Creation

In 1830, Gogol wrote his first work. It was the story “Basavryuk”, which was later reworked into “The Evening on the Eve of I. Kupala”.

In his social circles, young Gogol had many famous people: Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Bryullov and many others. Such acquaintances broadened his horizons, helping in the development of his activities. He was friends with Pushkin.

Nikolai Vasilyevich became literary famous after the publication of the book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” to the creation of which he devoted 1831-32 years of his life. It includes the famous story “Sorochinskaya Fair”.

The following year, Gogol decided to connect his activities with scientific and pedagogical practice, and already in 1834 he was appointed associate professor at the University of St. Petersburg (department general history). This experience and the study of Ukrainian history served as the basis for the creation of his new work “Taras Bulba”.

A year after his appointment, Gogol left the department and became completely absorbed in literary work, having written such works as: “Viy”, “Taras Bulba”, “The Inspector General” and collections of stories “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” ...

The most significant work dedicated to St. Petersburg was the story “The Overcoat”. Nikolai Vasilyevich worked on this work for about 7 years, finishing only in 1842, although the draft version was ready already in 1836. At the same time, he was working on other works. In 1841 he wrote Dead Souls, the first volume of which was published a year later. Since the creation of this work, the writer began to experience attacks of nervous disorders.

From 1837 to 39, Gogol traveled, and he left after the unsuccessful production of The Inspector General. He visited Switzerland, Paris and Rome. Afterwards he returned, left Russia again (he spent more than a year in Vienna), then again ended up in his homeland.

Work on the second volume of Dead Souls coincided with a writer's crisis. His works were criticized, Belinsky condemned the writer’s religiosity and mysticism. All this influenced state of mind the writer was driven to despair.

In 1852, the writer began to communicate with Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky, who was a mystic and fanatic. In the same year, in a state of severe mental breakdown, the writer burned his works of the second volume of the poem about dead souls.

Gogol died in 1852, 10 days after the destruction of the second volume of the poem. On February 21, the writer passed away.

• “Portrait”, analysis of Gogol’s story, essay
• “Dead Souls”, analysis of Gogol’s work

The life of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is so vast and multifaceted that historians are still researching the biography and epistolary materials of the great writer, and documentarians are making films that tell about the secrets of the mysterious genius of literature. Interest in the playwright has not waned for two hundred years, not only because of his lyric-epic works, but also because Gogol is one of the most mystical figures of Russian literature of the 19th century.

Childhood and youth

To this day it is unknown when Nikolai Vasilyevich was born. Some chroniclers believe that Gogol was born on March 20, while others are sure that the true date of birth of the writer is April 1, 1809.

The master of phantasmagoria spent his childhood in Ukraine, in the picturesque village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province. He grew up in big family- in addition to him, 5 more boys and 6 girls were raised in the house (some of them died in infancy).

The great writer has an interesting pedigree, dating back to the Cossack noble dynasty of the Gogol-Yanovskys. According to family legend, the playwright’s grandfather Afanasy Demyanovich Yanovsky added the second part to his surname to prove blood ties with the Cossack hetman Ostap Gogol, who lived in the 17th century.

The writer's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, worked in the Little Russian province in the postal department, from where he retired in 1805 with the rank of collegiate assessor. Later, Gogol-Yanovsky retired to the Vasilyevka estate (Yanovshchina) and began farming. Vasily Afanasyevich was known as a poet, writer and playwright: he owned the home theater of his friend Troshchinsky, and also performed on stage as an actor.

For productions he wrote comedy plays based on Ukrainian folk ballads and legends. But only one work by Gogol the Elder has reached modern readers - “The Simpleton, or the Cunning of a Woman Outwitted by a Soldier.” It was from his father that Nikolai Vasilyevich adopted his love for literary art and creative talent: it is known that Gogol Jr. began writing poetry from childhood. Vasily Afanasyevich died when Nikolai was 15 years old.

The writer's mother, Maria Ivanovna, née Kosyarovskaya, according to contemporaries, was pretty and was considered the first beauty in the village. Everyone who knew her used to say that she was religious person and was engaged in the spiritual education of children. However, Gogol-Yanovskaya’s teachings were reduced not to Christian rituals and prayers, but to prophecies of the Last Judgment.

It is known that the woman married Gogol-Yanovsky when she was 14 years old. Nikolai Vasilyevich was close to his mother and even asked for advice on his manuscripts. Some writers believe that thanks to Maria Ivanovna, Gogol’s work is endowed with fantasy and mysticism.

Nikolai Vasilyevich’s childhood and youth were spent surrounded by peasant and gentleman life and were endowed with those bourgeois characteristics, which the playwright meticulously described in his works.

When Nikolai was ten years old, he was sent to Poltava, where he studied science at school, and then learned to read and write from a local teacher, Gabriel Sorochinsky. After classical training, the 16-year-old boy became a student at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv region. In addition to the fact that the future classic of literature was in poor health, he was also not strong in studies, although he had an exceptional memory. Nikolai’s relationship with the exact sciences did not work out, but he excelled in Russian literature and literature.

Some biographers argue that the gymnasium itself is to blame for such an inferior education, rather than the young writer. The fact is that in those years the Nizhyn gymnasium had weak teachers who could not provide students with decent education. For example, knowledge in lessons moral education were presented not through the teachings of eminent philosophers, but through corporal punishment with a rod, the literature teacher did not keep up with the times, preferring the classics of the 18th century.

During his studies, Gogol gravitated toward creativity and zealously participated in theatrical productions and improvised skits. Among his comrades, Nikolai Vasilyevich was known as a comedian and a perky person. The writer communicated with Nikolai Prokopovich, Alexander Danilevsky, Nestor Kukolnik and others.

Literature

Gogol began to be interested in the writing field during his student years. He admired A.S. Pushkin, although his first creations were far from the style of the great poet, but were more like the works of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky.

He composed elegies, feuilletons, poems, tried himself in prose and other literary genres. During his studies, he wrote a satire “Something about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools,” which has not survived to this day. It is noteworthy that the young man initially regarded his craving for creativity as a hobby rather than as his life’s work.

Writing was for Gogol “a ray of light in dark kingdom"and helped to distract from mental torment. Then Nikolai Vasilyevich’s plans were not clear, but he wanted to serve the Motherland and be useful to the people, believing that a great future awaited him.

In the winter of 1828, Gogol went to the cultural capital - St. Petersburg. In the cold and gloomy city, Nikolai Vasilyevich was disappointed. He tried to become an official, and also tried to join the theater, but all his attempts were defeated. Only in literature was he able to find opportunities for income and self-expression.

But failure awaited Nikolai Vasilyevich in his writing, since only two works by Gogol were published in magazines - the poem “Italy” and romantic poem"Hanz Küchelgarten", published under the pseudonym V. Alov. “Idyll in Pictures” received a number of negative and sarcastic reviews from critics. After his creative defeat, Gogol bought all editions of the poem and burned them in his room. Nikolai Vasilyevich did not abandon literature even after a resounding failure; the failure with Hanz Küchelgarten gave him the opportunity to change the genre.

In 1830, in the famous magazine " Domestic notes" was published mystical story Gogol "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala".

Later, the writer meets Baron Delvig and begins to publish in his publications “ Literary newspaper" and "Northern flowers".

After creative success Gogol was warmly received in literary circle. He began to communicate with Pushkin and. The works “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “The Night Before Christmas”, “Enchanted Place”, seasoned with a mixture of Ukrainian epic and everyday humor, impressed the Russian poet.

Rumor has it that it was Alexander Sergeevich who gave Nikolai Vasilyevich the background for new works. He suggested plot ideas for the poem “Dead Souls” (1842) and the comedy “The Inspector General” (1836). However, P.V. Annenkov believes that Pushkin “did not quite willingly cede his property to him.”

Fascinated by the history of Little Russia, Nikolai Vasilyevich becomes the author of the collection “Mirgorod”, which includes several works, including “Taras Bulba”. Gogol, in letters to his mother Maria Ivanovna, asked her to talk in more detail about the life of the people in the outback.

Still from the film "Viy", 2014

In 1835, Gogol's story "Viy" (included in "Mirgorod") about the demonic character of the Russian epic was published. In the story, three students lost their way and came across a mysterious farm, the owner of which turned out to be a real witch. The main character Khoma will have to face unprecedented creatures, church rituals and a witch flying in a coffin.

In 1967, the first film was staged by directors Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachev. Soviet film horror based on Gogol's story "Viy". The main roles were played by and.

Leonid Kuravlev and Natalya Varley in the film "Viy", 1967

In 1841, Gogol wrote the immortal story “The Overcoat”. In the work, Nikolai Vasilyevich talks about the “little man” Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, who becomes poor to such an extent that the most ordinary thing becomes a source of joy and inspiration for him.

Personal life

Speaking about the personality of the author of The Inspector General, it is worth noting that from Vasily Afanasyevich, in addition to a craving for literature, he also inherited fatal fate– psychological illness and fear early death, which began to appear in the playwright from his youth. Publicist V.G. wrote about this. Korolenko and Doctor Bazhenov, based on Gogol’s autobiographical materials and epistolary heritage.

If during the times of the Soviet Union it was customary to keep silent about the mental disorders of Nikolai Vasilyevich, then today’s erudite reader is very interested in such details. It is believed that Gogol suffered from manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar affective personality disorder) since childhood: a cheerful and perky mood young writer gave way to severe depression, hypochondria and despair.

This troubled his mind until his death. He also admitted in letters that he often heard “gloomy” voices calling him into the distance. Because of life in eternal fear, Gogol became a religious person and led a more reclusive life as an ascetic. He loved women, but only from a distance: he often used to tell Maria Ivanovna that he was going abroad to visit a certain lady.

He corresponded with lovely girls of different classes (with Maria Balabina, Countess Anna Vielgorskaya and others), courting them romantically and timidly. The writer did not like to advertise his personal life, especially his amorous affairs. It is known that Nikolai Vasilyevich has no children. Due to the fact that the writer was not married, there is a theory about his homosexuality. Others believe that he never had relationships beyond platonic ones.

Death

The early death of Nikolai Vasilyevich at the 42nd year of his life still excites the minds of scientists, historians and biographers. Mystical legends are written about Gogol, and about the real reason The death of the visionary is still debated to this day.

In the last years of his life, Nikolai Vasilyevich was overcome by a creative crisis. It was associated with the early death of Khomyakov’s wife and the condemnation of his stories by Archpriest Matthew Konstantinovsky, who sharply criticized Gogol’s works and, moreover, believed that the writer was not pious enough. Gloomy thoughts took possession of the playwright's mind, and from February 5 he refused food. February 10 Nikolai Vasilyevich “under the influence evil spirit“He burned the manuscripts, and on the 18th, while continuing to observe Lent, he went to bed with a sharp deterioration in his health.

The master of the pen refused medical help, expecting death. Doctors, who diagnosed him with inflammatory bowel diseases, probable typhus and indigestion, eventually diagnosed the writer with meningitis and prescribed forced bloodletting, dangerous for his health, which only worsened his mental and physical state Nikolai Vasilievich. On the morning of February 21, 1852, Gogol died in the count's mansion in Moscow.

Memory

The writer's works are required for study in schools and higher educational institutions. In memory of Nikolai Vasilyevich in the USSR and other countries were issued stamps. Streets, a drama theater, a pedagogical institute, and even a crater on the planet Mercury are named after Gogol.

Based on the works of the master, hyperbole and grotesque are still created theatrical performances and works of cinematic art are filmed. Thus, in 2017, Russian viewers can expect the premiere of the gothic detective series “Gogol. The Beginning" with and starring.

The biography of the mysterious playwright contains interesting facts; all of them cannot be described even in a whole book.

• According to rumors, Gogol was afraid of thunderstorms because a natural phenomenon affected his psyche.
• The writer lived poorly and wore old clothes. The only expensive item in his wardrobe is a gold watch, donated by Zhukovsky in memory of Pushkin.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich's mother had a reputation strange woman. She was superstitious, believed in the supernatural and constantly told amazing stories, embellished with fiction.
• According to rumors last words Gogol were: “How sweet it is to die.”

Monument to Nikolai Gogol and his bird-troika in Odessa

• Gogol's work was inspiring.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich loved sweets, so he always had sweets and pieces of sugar in his pocket. The Russian prose writer also loved to roll bread crumbs in his hands - this helped him concentrate on his thoughts.
• The writer was sensitive to his appearance; he was mainly irritated by his own nose.
• Gogol was afraid that he would be buried while in lethargic sleep. The literary genius asked that in the future his body be buried only after the appearance of cadaveric spots. According to legend, Gogol woke up in a coffin. When the writer’s body was reburied, the surprised those present saw that the dead man’s head was turned to one side.

Bibliography

• “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” (1831–1832)
• “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” (1834)
• "Viy" (1835)
• "Old World Landowners" (1835)
• "Taras Bulba" (1835)
• "Nevsky Prospekt" (1835)
• "The Inspector General" (1836)
• "The Nose" (1836)
• "Notes of a Madman" (1835)
• "Portrait" (1835)
• "The Carriage" (1836)
• "Marriage" (1842)
• "Dead Souls" (1842)
• "The Overcoat" (1843)