Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol facts from life. Unknown facts about famous writers

The brightest representative galaxy of famous classics of Russian literature Nikolai Gogol became famous throughout the world. His works are popular not only in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but also far beyond their borders - they have been translated into dozens of languages, and literary critics from the most different countries His books are still being taken apart piece by piece.

His mother, amazingly beautiful woman, got married at the age of 14. The future father of the great Russian writer was twice as old as she.
Nikolai Gogol received his name in honor of St. Nicholas.
The Gogol family went back to the Ukrainian Cossacks, in particular to the famous hetman Ostap Gogol.
In total, the Gogol family had 12 children. Nikolai was born third. Two brothers were stillborn, another died in early childhood, but Nikolai, despite poor health, survived and grew up safely.
Gogol's father wrote plays for home theater. This is what probably predetermined the inclinations of the future writer.
According to surviving evidence, Nikolai Gogol was never taught foreign languages during his studies.
The writer had a phenomenal memory, easily remembering huge amounts of information.
Gogol's favorite subject during his studies was Russian literature. Moreover, his teacher constantly criticized the works of Pushkin and Zhukovsky, which, naturally, only increased interest in them ().
Nikolai Gogol with youth He was fond of sewing and knitting - he cut and sewed wonderful dresses, which he gave to his sisters, as well as scarves for himself.
When Gogol was still little, his mother vividly described to him the Last Judgment and hell, talking about the punishment of sinners and rewards virtuous people V the afterlife. These stories made an indelible impression on the boy, leaving an imprint on his entire future life.
At the age of 5, Gogol drowned a cat in a pond, because it was empty and dark house she scared him. Then the boy's conscience began to torment him, and he talked about shameful act to the father who whipped him.
The plot of The Inspector General was suggested to Gogol by Alexander Pushkin, and this story was based on real events that occurred in the Novgorod province. Pushkin also persuaded Gogol not to abandon the play, although he had thought about doing so more than once ().
As a child, Nikolai Gogol drew a lot, but to his family his drawings seemed strange and incompetent, so he never returned to painting.
In his youth, Gogol, having moved to St. Petersburg, was unpleasantly surprised by its high cost. To earn money, he even tried to become a theater actor and official.
Gogol's first publication was the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten", published by him under the pseudonym "V. Alov,” but critics received it coldly. The disappointed writer bought the remaining edition and destroyed it.
Initially, on Gogol’s grave lay a huge stone, nicknamed Golgotha for external resemblance with this biblical hill. After the writer’s reburial, the stone was replaced with a new monument, and Calvary gathered dust in the back room of cemetery workers until it was noticed by Bulgakov’s widow, who was looking for a suitable one for her deceased husband. gravestone. Now the former tombstone of Gogol stands on the grave of the author of “The Master and Margarita” ().
After the death of both parents, Nikolai Gogol voluntarily renounced his share of the inheritance in favor of his sisters.
It is believed that the phrase “We all came from Gogol's overcoat"belongs to Dostoevsky. In fact, he was the first to say it French critic, who analyzed the work of the author of “Crime and Punishment” ().
Nikolai Gogol collected small editions of books. Despite his complete indifference to mathematics and even his dislike for numbers, the writer ordered himself a mathematical reference book, because the size of the book was only 10 by 7 centimeters.
The first story Gogol published received a cold reception. The author was so upset that he bought the entire edition of the work and destroyed it.
When Gogol decided to write about Little Russia, his mother helped him collect materials for novels and stories. New approach to creativity brought success and popularity to the writer.
Pushkin, who admired Gogol's works, gave him a pug. When the dog died, the writer was very sad, because he had no one closer to this pug.
Dessert "Gogol-mogol" appeared long before birth Russian writer and has nothing to do with him. True, Gogol had his own drink, to which he gave a similar name - it was goat milk with rum.
Nikolai Gogol was very worried about his nose, so he always asked painters to depict in his portraits a different form of this part of the body - a more ideal one, as it seemed to him.
No one has ever read the second volume of Gogol’s famous “Dead Souls.” The writer, having already finished it, suddenly burned all the manuscripts.
Gogol was afraid of thunder and lightning, and also strangers– if a stranger appeared in the company, the writer hastily left.
While working, Gogol, thoughtfully, rolled balls of bread crumb. He himself said that it helps him concentrate.
Nikolai Gogol himself said that his famous “Viy” was based on a folk tale he once heard.
Shortly before his death, the writer claimed that he heard some otherworldly voices.
One of Nikolai Gogol's main phobias was the fear of being buried alive.
He constantly carried sugar with him in his pockets, which he nibbled on while working.
For some unknown reason, on roads and sidewalks, Gogol throughout his life stuck to the left side, and not to the right, like everyone else around him.
Nikolai Gogol was a good cook. According to the testimonies of his friends, he was especially good at dumplings and dumplings.

Nikolai Gogol was a great prose writer, playwright, and poet. Most of us are familiar with his basic biography.

He was born April 1, 1809. In memory of the great playwright, journalists collected the most interesting facts from the life of this man.

Gogol came from a sick family. So, his father Vasily Afanasyevich often had fevers, and a few days before his death he started bleeding from his throat. And in my mother’s family there were mentally ill people. Maria herself was “extremely impressionable and suspicious” and attributed all the latest inventions to her son and told everyone about it. She also tormented her son with her superstitions. Pictures of the Last Judgment, drawn by his mother as a child, haunted Gogol all his life.

There were 12 children in Gogol's family: six boys and six girls, Gogol was the third. The first two babies died immediately after birth. And they named him Nikolai in honor miraculous icon St. Nicholas, kept in the church of Bolshie Sorochintsi, where the writer’s parents lived. By the way, at birth the writer’s surname was Yanovsky, and only at the age of 12 did he become Nikolai Gogol-Yanovsky.

Nikolai often used original methods to assert himself. So, one day he... drowned a cat in a pond. In addition, at the Nizhyn Lyceum, where Gogol studied, he was feared for his secrecy and unexpected dangerous tricks. Nikolai never took part in violent pranks, but he could give someone an apt nickname. And once, in order to avoid punishment, Gogol pretended to be crazy so convincingly that he frightened all the gymnasium authorities.

Gogol had a big sweet tooth: in one “sitting” he could eat a jar of jam. He always had sweets in his pockets. And as an adult, Gogol collected sugar from hotels that was given for tea and hid it so that he could gnaw it later while working or talking. The writer could not be stopped even by the fact that he suffered from pain in the stomach and intestines almost all his life. Moreover, Gogol described in detail his “colic” and “hemorrhoidal constipation” in letters to friends. He also boasted to his acquaintances: they say that doctors from Paris checked him and found a pathology - his stomach was upside down.

A little-known portrait of Gogol was made by Antonio Zona in Venice 5 years before the writer’s death.

Gogol had many hobbies. For example, he loved miniature editions. Once, completely ignorant of mathematics, he ordered a mathematical encyclopedia only because it was published in size 10.5 x 7.5 cm. Gogol also loved handicrafts: he knitted scarves, cut out dresses for his sisters, wove belts, and sewed for himself for the summer neckerchiefs.

In addition, the writer was interested in the history of Ukraine. By the way, it was these studies that prompted him to write the epic story “Taras Bulba”. It was first published in the collection “Mirgorod” in 1835. Gogol personally handed one copy of this magazine into the hands of Mr. Uvarov, the Minister of Public Education, so that he presented it to Emperor Nicholas I.

According to Gogol's correspondence, he fell in love with women twice. However, these feelings did not end in anything: living alone, he remained alone. At the same time, he had a beloved mother and sisters. But they also did not have the power to destroy his loneliness.

Gogol loved to travel. He often wandered around strange corners, lived on rented apartments. The habit of homelessness made him an eccentric and an ascetic. The writer did not have many of his own things: they fit into a large briefcase and a small suitcase. At the same time, his wardrobe included: colored velvet vests, light yellow nankee trousers, a blue tailcoat with gold buttons, colorful ties, a long raincoat and a feather hat.

The road was a lifesaver for Gogol. So, one day in Rome, he suddenly turned to his companion with a look of complete despair: “Save me, for God’s sake: I don’t know what’s happening to me... I’m dying... I almost died from a nervous attack this night... Take me somewhere, “Yes, quickly, so that it’s not too late.” He immediately hired a carriage. The road to Albano completely healed Gogol, he became calm and never returned to this episode.

In the last years of his life, something was wrong with Gogol. According to friends, he became infected with maleria in 1839 while visiting Rome. Despite the fact that the illness subsided, after this the writer began to have seizures, fainting and visions. This lasted until the autumn of 1850, when he, being in Odessa, felt relief. He returned to Moscow and seemed completely healthy and cheerful. Gogol read to his friends individual fragments from the second volume" Dead souls"and rejoiced like a child, seeing the delight and hearing the laughter of the listeners. But as soon as he put an end to the second volume, it seemed to him that emptiness and doom had fallen upon him. He felt the fear of death, such as his father had once suffered... .

No one knows exactly what happened on the night of February 12, 1852. Biographers, collecting information bit by bit, found out that Gogol prayed earnestly until three o'clock in the morning. Then he took his briefcase, took out some sheets of paper from it, and ordered everything that was left in it to be immediately burned. After which he crossed himself and, returning to bed, sobbed uncontrollably until the morning.

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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a Russian prose writer, playwright, poet, critic, publicist, recognized as one of the classics of Russian literature. Came from ancient noble family Gogol-Yanovskikh.

There are many myths associated with the life and death of Gogol. For several generations now, researchers of the writer’s work have not been able to come to an unambiguous answer to the questions: why Gogol was not married, why he burned the second volume of Dead Souls and whether he burned it at all and, of course, what killed the brilliant writer.

Gogol was born in a region covered with legends. Next to Vasilievka, where his parents had their estate, there was Dikanka, now known to the whole world. In those days, in the village they showed the oak tree where Maria and Mazepa met and the shirt of the executed Kochubey.

As a boy, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s father went to a temple in the Kharkov province, where there was a wonderful image of the Mother of God. One day he saw in a dream the Queen of Heaven, who pointed to a child sitting on the floor at Her feet: “...Here is your wife.” He soon recognized in his neighbors' seven-month-old daughter the features of the child he had seen in his dream. For thirteen years, Vasily Afanasyevich continued to monitor his betrothed. After the vision repeated itself, he asked for the girl’s hand in marriage. A year later, the young people got married.

Nikolai Gogol was named after the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas, kept in the Church of Greater Sorochintsi, where the writer’s parents lived.

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

Gogol wrote very mediocre essays at school; he was very weak in languages and made progress only in drawing and Russian literature.

At the gymnasium, Gogol became famous as an actor in the gymnasium theater. According to his comrades, he joked tirelessly, played pranks on his friends, noticing their funny traits, and committed pranks for which he was punished. At the same time, he remained secretive - he didn’t tell anyone about his plans, for which he received the nickname Mysterious Carlo after one of the heroes of Walter Scott’s novel “Black Dwarf”.

In the gymnasium, Gogol dreams of a wide social activities, which would allow him to accomplish something great “for the common good, for Russia.” With these broad and vague plans, he arrived in St. Petersburg and experienced his first severe disappointment.
Gogol publishes his first work - a poem in the spirit of German romantic school"Hans Kuchelgarten." The pseudonym V. Alov saved Gogol’s name from heavy criticism, but the author himself took the failure so hard that he bought all the unsold copies of the book in stores and burned them. Until the end of his life, the writer never admitted to anyone that Alov was his pseudonym.

Gogol was very afraid of thunderstorms. According to contemporaries, the bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.

Gogol was fascinated by mysteries from childhood, prophetic dreams, fatal signs, which later appeared on the pages of his works.

Italian pasta is Nikolai Vasilyevich’s favorite food. He enjoyed making them himself, adding salt, pepper, butter and Parmesan cheese. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, no one “could eat as much pasta as he dipped in sometimes.”

Gogol also absolutely could not live without sweets. His trouser pockets were always full of sweets and gingerbread, which he “chewed incessantly.” The writer loved not only to eat himself, but also to treat his friends. Living in a hotel, he never allowed the servants to take away the sugar served with tea, he collected it, hid it, and then gnawed pieces while working or talking.

Critic Mikhail Pogodin, Gogol’s friend, recalled: “His supply of excellent tea was never short. The main thing for him was to collect various cookies for tea. And where he found all sorts of pretzels, buns, crackers, only he knew, and no one else. Every day something new appeared, which he first let everyone try and was very happy if anyone found it to their taste and approved the choice with some special phrase. Nothing more could be done to please him.”

Gogol's culinary passions were also dumplings and goat's milk, which he cooked himself in a special way, adding rum to it. He called this concoction gogol - mogol and often, laughing, said: “Gogol loves gogol - mogol!”

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

“And why am I not Gogol?! I love pasta with cookies! But I don’t write novels!” - this is probably what every second person can exclaim. But... It is difficult to find in our literature a peak that would be equal to this Everest! “Sheer delight and nothing more. This is the greatest Russian writer,” Chekhov wrote about Gogol, and it’s hard to disagree with this.

Gogol had a passion for needlework. I knitted scarves, cut out dresses for my sisters, wove belts, and sewed neckerchiefs for the summer.

The writer usually walked along the streets and alleys on the left side, so he constantly collided with passers-by.

The writer claimed that "Viy" is folk legend, which he allegedly heard and wrote down without changing a single word. But what’s interesting is that neither literary critics, nor historians, nor folklorists, nor researchers have ever been able to find either oral or, especially, written references to folk legends or fairy tales that would be at least vaguely reminiscent of the plot of “Viy”. All this gives reason to consider the story solely a figment of the imagination of the great mystifier and writer.
Researchers of Gogol’s life and work are inclined to think that the name “Viy” itself is a free combination of the name of the owner of the inferno, “Iron Niy,” who was a deity in Ukrainian mythology, and the word “Viya,” which translated from Ukrainian means “eyelid.”

Having met Alexandra Osipovna, Gogol was so fascinated by her that he immediately found himself among the retinue of her admirers. Among her fans were Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky, Lermontov - writers liked Alexandra Osipovna’s powers of observation, wit, subtle humor and, of course, attractive appearance.

However, unlike most of these brilliant secular gentlemen, Nikolai Vasilyevich did not seek to get closer to Alexandra Osipovna physically. However, one day Alexandra Osipovna managed to reveal the writer’s feelings. “And you seem to be in love with me!” - in response to this remark, Gogol became embarrassed and ran away.

In his letters, Gogol shared with Alexandra Osipovna his thoughts about literature, religion, secular and public life. Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset was one of the few people to whom Gogol read excerpts from unfinished works whose opinion he listened to. “This is the pearl of all the Russian women I happened to know... She was a true comforter, while hardly anyone’s word could console me, and, like two twin brothers, our souls were similar to each other,” Gogol wrote about Alexander Osipovna.

As soon as he put an end to the second volume, it seemed to him that emptiness and doom had fallen upon him. He felt the fear of death, such as his father had once suffered.

To this day, it remains a mystery what happened to Gogol on the night of February 12, 1852. It is believed that it was then that he burned the second volume of Dead Souls. Historians have made great efforts to reconstruct the events of that night, literally minute by minute. It is known that until 3 o’clock in the morning the writer said a prayer, then took out several sheets of paper from his briefcase, and burned everything that was left in it. By all known opinion- this was the second volume of Dead Souls.

Some literary scholars believe that the reason for the burning of the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls was also one of Alexandra Osipovna’s letters. Smirnova-Rosset told Gogol that she had a dream in which the writer burned his work. Alexandra Osipovna called the dream “transformation,” but Nikolai Vasilyevich understood it in his own way.

“The appearance of the second volume in the form in which it was would have caused more harm than good... There is a time when it is impossible to otherwise direct society or even an entire generation towards the beautiful until you show the full depth of its real abomination; There are times when you shouldn’t even talk about the lofty and beautiful without immediately showing, as clear as day, the paths and roads to it for everyone.”- Gogol wrote after the manuscript died in the fire.

After this night, Gogol delved even deeper into his own fears. Fear of hell, torment beyond the grave and the Last Judgment hastened his death, for which, in fact, he was preparing in the last weeks of his life.

Nikolai Gogol suffered from taphephobia - the fear of being buried alive. This fear was so strong that the writer in his will, 7 years before his death, warned that his body should be buried only in case obvious signs decomposition.

At that time, doctors could not recognize his mental illness and treated him with drugs that only weakened him.

Modern specialists in the field of psychiatry have analyzed thousands of documents and come to a very definite conclusion that there is no mental disorder Gogol didn't have it. He may have suffered from depression.

N.V. was buried. Gogol at the cemetery of the St. Danilov Monastery.

In 1931, after the closure of the monastery and cemetery, Gogol's remains were transferred to Novodevichy Cemetery. During the transfer of the ashes, it was discovered that a skull had been stolen from the deceased's coffin.

It is also rumored that during the transfer of the ashes it was discovered that the lid of the coffin was scratched, which indicates burial alive.

This became the reason for numerous mystical assumptions that in reality the writer was buried in a state of lethargic sleep.
After Gogol's death, many questions remained, the answers to which no one will ever receive.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the greatest classics of Russian literature. His biography is shrouded in secrets and mysteries.

Perhaps this affected the writer’s work, because his works are also full mystical images and motives. Gogol's life was eventful and full of tragic moments. Even during his lifetime, the writer encountered rumors, often embellished. There were many reasons for this; Gogol was known as a reclusive person; he deliberately avoided society, maintaining relationships with only a few friends. And even though more than a century and a half has passed since the writer’s death, to this day practically nothing is known about his life.

According to biographers, Gogol’s mother, Maria Ivanovna, gave birth to dead children before the appearance of Nikolai Vasilyevich. In those days, throughout Dikanka there was fame about miracles through prayers before the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in St. Nicholas Church. This icon was revealed in the forest on an oak stump, local residents They moved it to the nearest church, but the next day they found it again on a piece of oak. The icon was returned to the church three times, but each time it was found in its original place. Then it was decided to build a church on this site and make a cross from a stump, which ended up in the altar. In front of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Dikansky, Marya Ivanovna prayed a lot and made a vow that if she had a son and lived, she would name him in honor of the saint.

On the day of memory of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (May 22), we met with Olga Shtygasheva, associate professor of the department of Russian and foreign literature Faculty of Philology NEFU to tell our readers whether the role of mysticism in the life of a great writer is so great, or is it still to a greater extent myths based on unverified facts, legends and traditions.

Prediction of the Virgin Mary

One day, on the way to a pilgrimage, young Vasily Afanasyevich, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s father, had a dream in which he saw the Mother of God. The Queen of Heaven pointed him to the girl who would be his future wife. After some time, Vasyuta was visiting his neighbors and saw their seven-month-old daughter Masha, in whom he recognized the baby whom the Mother of God had pointed out to him in a dream. Vasily Afanasyevich was then 14 years old, and he began to wait until his chosen one turned the same age to ask for her hand.

As soon as Masha reached the specified age, Vasily Afanasyevich proposed to his chosen one, but was refused. This did not break Vasyuta’s persistence, and he stole her. They secretly got married and appeared to their parents, who had no choice but to bless the newlyweds. However, according to another version, Mary’s parents immediately agreed to the marriage, and the young people became engaged, and a year later they got married. This version is questionable, because it is known that at the time of her marriage, Maria Ivanovna was 14 years old, while getting engaged at the age of thirteen was prohibited in Russia. And what sane parents would marry their child at that age?!

Of course, this is just a legend, but Gogol’s mother was indeed barely 16 years old at the time of his birth, and the circumstances of the writer’s birth are also shrouded in oddities and coincidences, again not documented. However, what are biographers’ disputes about exact date birth of Nikolai Vasilyevich!

It turns out that some otherworldly intervention, or, more correctly, God’s Providence, manifested itself in Gogol’s life long before his birth, which gave rise to many implausible and simultaneously true conjectures and rumors. Perhaps Gogol is one of the only writers in Russia whose life and death are surrounded by such a huge number of legends.

Indelible mark

From childhood, Nikolai Vasilyevich was distinguished by great religiosity, which was instilled in him by his mother Maria Ivanovna, a deeply religious and almost fanatically pious woman herself. After several stillborn children in front of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, she vowed to spend the rest of her life in godly deeds and prayers if a son was sent to her. After some time, God made her dream come true, and a healthy baby was born into the Gogol family, named after Nikolai Ugodnik.

Maria Ivanovna truly kept her vow until the end of her days, teaching her children to do the same. As in any other family of that time, the religious side of life was given great value: revered by everyone Christian traditions, sincerely believed in the existence of hell and heaven, observed fasts and maintained spiritual fidelity Orthodox customs.

But thanks to Maria Ivanovna’s fanatical faith, excesses certainly happened. Most likely, this is why we will not see a transparent attitude towards religious issues in Gogol’s works; he was permanently intimidated in childhood in order to consciously master Christian postulates and bring them to the pages of his works. In religion, he was more attracted to the mystical principle, the otherworldly struggle between good and evil, which was more impressive because it gave incomparably vivid emotions, impressions that excite the imagination and frighten with their closeness to reality.

In the Gogol house, a painting hung in the most prominent place Last Judgment. Marya Ivanovna constantly cited her as an example of what could happen to atheists and sinners. Of course, this frightened the impressionable little Nikolenka: “If you sin, after death you will go to hell, and you will suffer the same torments as those depicted in this picture.” “I remember: I didn’t feel anything strongly as a child, I looked at everything as things created to please me. I didn’t particularly love anyone, except you, and only because nature itself breathed in this feeling... - I remember this incident vividly, as now, - I asked you to tell me about the Last Judgment, and you told me, a child, so understandably, they spoke so touchingly about the blessings that await people for a virtuous life, and described the eternal torment of sinners so horribly that it shocked and awakened all sensitivity in me, it seeded and subsequently produced in me the highest thoughts,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich then mothers.

There is a legend that the Old Testament stories about original sin also left a deep imprint on Gogol’s consciousness. It is a well-known fact that his relationship with women is more than cool. Although researchers of his biography suggest the real reason sudden departure to Italy supposedly for a mysterious stranger from high society, about which he wrote hints to his mother. But I’ll make a reservation, this is just the biographers’ guess.

To confirm this, we can say that there are practically no positive elements in his works. female images, endowed not only with physical, but also moral beauty. We will not find anyone like Natasha Rostova or Tatyana Larina in his works! The “women’s” issue was very acute at that time, and Gogol could not help but see this and react artistically... Only beautiful witches, capricious Oksanas, provoking a deal with evil spirits, yes, the Boxes live on his brilliant pages.

In general, the motif of death in Gogol’s work is very developed, and developed almost on an intuitive level. From the point of view of paganism, a deceased person can bring evil into the real world; from the point of view of Christianity, he can be called to God and receive eternal grace. Are there many such future “blessed dead” in his works? Yes, they don’t exist at all! His heroes live here and now, not thinking about the Day of Judgment, not fearing the torments of hell, not caring about the Almighty's forgiveness. Make fun of vice with deliberate good nature and slight irony, and even with lyrical accompaniment, only Gogol can! Frivolous deceivers, greedy drunkards, ordinary people who do not believe in virtue, gluttons and arrogant officials against the backdrop of folklore coloring turned into unforgettable and intricate images... What cannot be said about Nikolai Vasilyevich himself, who probably still believed in death as an other existence. Death as a post-earthly existence of a person, of course, frightened Nikolai Vasilyevich; most likely, he did not imagine anything majestic and divine in the process of dying. But, tormented by religious dogmas, the sincere faith of a Christian and the blasphemous from the point of view of Orthodoxy the thought of the impossibility of existence after death, he sometimes fell into deep despondency, aggravated by creative downtime and troubles in life. The fear of dying and bringing evil, whether physical or creative, into the world of the living became his constant companion over the last few years of the life of the rebellious genius of Russian literature...

The burden of fear. Lethargy

Towards the end of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s life, he began to be haunted by the fear of being buried alive. Gogol said in letters to friends that sometimes he has attacks when he does not feel his body, the pulse cannot be felt and the heartbeat is almost impossible to notice. In his will, contained in “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” he bequeathed that he should be buried only when signs of decomposition appeared. In the same will, he asked that no monuments be erected on his grave.

Now it has become fashionable to diagnose many famous people after time has elapsed. Nikolai Vasilyevich did not escape this fate. Gogol's fear of being buried in lethargic sleep doctors now call it tafiphobia, which has given rise to huge amount ridiculous rumors and speculation. According to these same doctors, this phobia of Gogol was caused by manic-depressive psychosis. What caused this depression? There may be several factors at play here.

Firstly, it is a well-known fact that Nikolai Vasilyevich’s mother was not entirely mentally healthy. Deep religiosity seemed to tear her away from real world, Maria Ivanovna suffered from frequent mood swings, fervently believed in prophetic dreams, which, according to her admission, she constantly dreamed of, fell into a state of deep thoughtfulness, sometimes lasting for several hours. She had an extremely impressionable nature. It is quite possible that, along with religiosity, Gogol in childhood also received some amount of maternal mysticism. Nikolai Vasilyevich was accustomed from a young age to trust his mother and rely on her opinion in everything. Moreover, Maria Ivanovna was perhaps the only source of replenishment of the writer’s knowledge folklore stories and Little Russian traditions.

Secondly, after returning from abroad, Gogol was ill for the last few years. Moreover, he felt so bad that he asked his mother in a letter to order a prayer service for his recovery. In 1845, in a letter to N.M. Yazykov, Gogol wrote: “My health has become rather poor... Nervous anxious worry And different signs complete unraveling throughout the body frightens me.” It should also be noted that the increased lately a huge influence on the writer by his confessor, Fr. Matthew (Konstantinovsky), who considered Gogol’s illness a disease more spiritual origin than physical. In this regard, he demanded from Nikolai Vasilyevich strict and strict observance of religious actions (prayer, fasting) for bodily and spiritual purification. Literary creativity, as the frantic confessor believed, was also among the unrighteous activities, as were its fruits. In this regard, Fr. Matthew strongly recommended that Gogol break up with him for a while. writing activity, so as not to aggravate Nikolai Vasilyevich’s already worsening condition every day. We cannot now say to what extent the role of the confessor in the fate of a genius literary thought turned out to be fatal. Perhaps truly concerned about Gogol's mental illness to a greater extent than his physical illness, Fr. Matvey believed that the writer’s brain was under extreme stress, and his internal resources were depleted. A break was needed... To which Nikolai Vasilyevich reacted in his own way, however, as always...

It is also worth mentioning the fact that in January 1852, the wife of Gogol’s friend E. Khomyakov died, who was treated with calomel, which was popular at that time (a mercury-containing substance used in small quantities for disorders of the digestive system). This death made an indelible impression on Nikolai Vasilyevich. Ekaterina Mikhailovna was one of the only women whom Gogol trusted unconditionally! At the funeral service (again, according to legend), the writer heard a mysterious whisper calling him by name, it was unclear where it came from. Nikolai Vasilyevich was completely horrified and, upon returning home, fell into a feverish state, from which he did not recover for almost the next four weeks... The death of Khomyakova, conversations about calomel, which Gogol was also treated with at that time, a funeral service, mysterious whispers, his own even more shaken state, mental and physical torment - all this led to the tragedy that happened two weeks later.

On the night of February 11-12, 1852, Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls. Moreover, not everyone knows that he is burning it for the second time. The first time he burned drafts of the poem was in 1845, seven years earlier. There is a legend that the second volume of “Dead Souls” was saved by someone, but not published. Perhaps his servant Semyon, who was next to Gogol throughout the last years of his life and treated him with extraordinary devotion and love. In this case, the question arises, where did the manuscript go? A draft version of the first few chapters of the second volume was found two months after Gogol's death. And again the question. If Gogol wanted to completely destroy his creation, then why did he leave drafts that give an idea of future fate Chichikova? These questions provoked the birth of another amazing version that there was no second volume! That the writer burned something else that night, confusing it with the manuscript of “Dead Souls.” And the poem itself was only begun shortly before his mental crisis. But there are no facts to support this assumption. Only the question of why the pages of the draft of the second volume were preserved remains, and, perhaps, will remain unanswered...

The painful existence, and there is no other way to describe it, continued for another ten days, during which doctors tried to determine the reason for such a rapid decline of the great writer’s body. The cause of his death also still exists at the level of versions, which has also given rise to many fantastic assumptions. One thing is certain. The fatal mistake made by Nikolai Vasilyevich on the night of February 12 activated all the irreversible processes in his body. Gogol became so weak physically and spiritually that he almost joyfully awaited the approach of death as deliverance from earthly suffering. He took communion and, despite the efforts of the doctors, eagerly and humbly awaited the transition to another world, which he was no longer afraid of. The fear of the Last Judgment no longer haunted the sufferer, because he did everything according to God’s command - he lived, he worked, and he died with prayer... And he always believed so much in his heavenly patron Nicholas the Wonderworker!

To be continued...

News edited LjoljaBastet - 23-10-2016, 08:07

Gogol had a passion for needlework. I knitted scarves, cut out dresses for my sisters, wove belts, and sewed neckerchiefs for the summer.
The writer loved miniature editions. Not loving and not knowing mathematics, he ordered a mathematical encyclopedia only because it was published in a sixteenth of a sheet (10.5 × 7.5 cm).
Gogol loved to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings. One of his favorite drinks was goat's milk, which he brewed in a special way by adding rum. He called this concoction Gogol-Mogol and often, laughing, said: “Gogol loves Gogol-Mogol!”
The writer usually walked along the streets and alleys on the left side, so he constantly collided with passers-by.
Gogol was very afraid of thunderstorms. According to contemporaries, the bad weather had a bad effect on his weak nerves.
He was extremely shy. As soon as a stranger appeared in the company, Gogol disappeared from the room.
Gogol often rolled balls of white bread when he wrote. He told his friends that this helps him solve the most difficult problems.

Gogol always had . Living in a hotel, he never allowed the servants to take away the sugar served with tea, he collected it, hid it, and then gnawed pieces while working or talking.
Gogol's whole life still remains an unsolved mystery. He was haunted by mysticism, and after his death there were more questions than answers. They allow you to look at the work of your favorite writer from a completely different perspective, try to explain some contradictions and inconsistencies and see him not as an idol, but as a simple, incredibly subtle and talented person.
Nikolai Vasilyevich was passionately interested in everything that came into his field of vision. Story native Ukraine was one of his favorite studies and hobbies. It was these studies that prompted him to write the epic story “Taras Bulba”. It was first published in the collection “Mirgorod” in 1835. Gogol personally handed one copy of this magazine into the hands of Mr. Uvarov, the Minister of Public Education, so that he presented it to Emperor Nicholas I.

N.V. Gogol. Taras Bulba (1835 edition) Viktor Vasnetsov, 1874

The most incredible and mystical of all was published in the same collection. Gogol's works- story “Viy”. The writer himself claimed that “Viy” is a folk legend, which he allegedly heard and wrote down without changing a single word in it.
But what’s interesting is that neither literary critics, nor historians, nor folklorists, nor researchers have ever been able to find any oral or, especially, written references to folk legends or fairy tales that would even remotely resemble the plot of “Viy” . All this gives reason to consider the story solely a figment of the imagination of the great mystifier and writer.
Researchers of Gogol’s life and work are inclined to think that the name “Viy” itself is a free combination of the name of the owner of the inferno, “Iron Niy,” who was a deity in Ukrainian mythology, and the word “Viya,” which translated from Ukrainian means “eyelid.”
Neither contemporaries nor descendants can explain what happened to Gogol in the last years of his life. It is believed that when Gogol visited Rome in 1839, he contracted malaria. Despite the fact that over time the disease did subside, its consequences became fatal for the writer. It was not so much the physical torment as the complications that caused Gogol to have seizures, fainting, but most importantly, visions, which made his recovery difficult and lengthy.
In the fall of 1850, while in Odessa, Nikolai Vasilyevich felt relief. Contemporaries recall that his usual liveliness and vigor returned to him. He returned to Moscow and seemed completely healthy and cheerful. Gogol read out to his friends individual fragments from the second volume of Dead Souls and rejoiced like a child, seeing the delight and hearing the laughter of the listeners. But as soon as he put an end to the second volume, it seemed to him that emptiness and doom had fallen upon him. He felt the fear of death, such as his father had once suffered.

No one knows for certain what happened on the night of February 12, 1852. Biographers, with a joint titanic effort, tried literally minute by minute to reconstruct the events of that night, but what is absolutely certain is that until three o’clock in the morning Gogol prayed earnestly. Then he took his briefcase, took out some sheets of paper from it, and ordered everything that was left in it to be immediately burned. After which he crossed himself and, returning to bed, sobbed uncontrollably until the morning. It is traditionally believed that that night Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls, but some biographers and historians are confident that this is far from the truth, which is unlikely to be known by anyone.
Modern specialists in the field of psychiatry have analyzed thousands of documents and come to the very definite conclusion that Gogol had no trace of any mental disorder. He may have suffered from depression, and if the right treatment had been given to him, great writer would have lived much longer.