Gogol Nikolay Vasilyevich

Main article: Writers and poets of Russia

Biography

1809: Birth in the Great Sorochins in the Poltava region

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born in 1809 in Velikiye Sorochintsy, which is located on the banks of the Psel River in the Poltava region.

The village was prosperous. Throughout the district, the Transfiguration Church was famous for its beauty and interior decoration, where Gogol was baptized in 1809. This church has a unique seven-tiered carved iconostasis made of valuable wood. The Sorochinsky Fair was held in Gogol's homeland, as a rule, at the end of summer, at the end of August, turning into a real holiday - bright, loud, filled with an amazing and unique flavor of the local places.

1828

Moving to St. Petersburg at the age of 19

Young Gogol complained about a boring life in Nizhyn, Chernihiv province: "You don't know where to go. You sit at the book all day long and yawn. " "Maybe I will get a whole century to be outlived in St. Petersburg, at least I have already drawn such a goal for a long time. Even in the very times of the past, from the very years of almost misunderstanding, I flared with unquenchable jealousy to make my life necessary for the good of the state, I was boiling to bring at least the slightest benefit... I swore not a single minute of my short life not to be lost without doing the good.... Will my high marks be fulfilled?..., "- wrote an eleven-year-old teenager.

And so, 8 years later, in December 1828, when Gogol was 19 years old, he and his friend Alexander Danilevsky went to St. Petersburg. As Danilevsky recalled, "the road lay on Moscow, but Gogol never wanted to pass through it, so as not to spoil the impressions of the first solemn minute of entry into St. Petersburg." Friends decided to go along the Belarusian road. As we approached St. Petersburg, the impatience and curiosity of the travelers increased every hour. At last, countless lights appeared, announcing that they were approaching the capital. The young people were delighted: they forgot about the cold, every now and then they stuck out of the crew and raised themselves on their toes to get a better look at the capital.

Travelers settled in the house of Truth at the Kokushkin bridge. These and other memories of Gogol, as well as his correspondence, are given in the book by Vincent Veresaev "Gogol in Life" (1933), which can be found on the portal of the Presidential Library.

Failed visit to Pushkin

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol from a young age read out the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, was his devoted admirer, so having arrived in St. Petersburg in 1828, he decided to pay a visit to the poet.

The story about this failed visit of Gogol to Pushkin is well known: "Immediately upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Gogol, driven by the need to see Pushkin, who occupied all his imagination while still at school, went straight from home to him.

The closer he approached Pushkin's apartment, the more timidity mastered him and, finally, developed at the very door of the apartment to the point that he ran away to the confectionery and demanded a glass of liquor. Backed by him, he returned to the attack again, boldly called, and to his question: "Is the owner at home?" - the servants heard the answer: "Rest!" It was too late in the yard. Gogol, with great participation, asked: "Right, I worked all night?" - "How, I worked," the servant answered, "I played pictures."

Gogol admitted that this was the first blow dealt to the school idealization of him. He did not otherwise imagine Pushkin until he was constantly surrounded by a cloud of inspiration... "

1829: Job Search

Petersburg in reality turned out to be completely different than in Gogol's dreams. Already on January 3, 1829, he writes to his mother: "Upon my arrival in the capital, I was attacked by a blues or other similar, and I sit for about a week, shaking my hands, and do nothing... Petersburg did not seem to me at all the way I thought. I imagined him much more beautiful, more magnificent... Living here is not quite pork, that is, having cabbage soup and porridge once a day is incomparably more expensive than they thought. For an apartment, Danilevsky and I pay eighty rubles a month, for one wall, firewood and water. It consists of two small rooms and the right to use in the master's kitchen. Food supplies are also not cheap... This all makes me live like in the desert: I am forced to give up my best pleasure - to see the theater. "

The search for work was delayed. Nikolai Vasilievich explained the reason for this as follows: "I am offered a place with 1000 rubles of salary per year. But should I sell my health and precious time for a price that can barely buy out an annual rent of an apartment and a table? And on perfect trifles, what does it look like? A day has no more free time than two hours, and so on all the time do not leave the table and rewrite the old nonsense and stupidity of the masters of the founders, and so on. "

Other things did not go well either. The publication with its own money under the pseudonym V. Alov of the romantic idyll "Ganz Kühelgarten," written back in Nizhyn, collapsed. After an impartial review in the press (Nikolay Polevoy, editor and publisher of the Moscow Telegraph, as they said, "slammed her in his magazine with a mockery") Gogol bought up all the remaining copies of his youthful work from bookstores and burned them. Gogol tried to "join the number of actors." But after the first "test of his comic talent" in the presence of actors Karatygin and Bryansk, he was forced to abandon this idea.

1830: "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" bring Gogol fame

A year after moving to St. Petersburg, he manages to decide on serving in the Ministry of the Interior, and from April 1830 he begins to serve in the Department of Inheritance - first as a scribe, then as an assistant to the head teacher. However, as the first biographer of the writer Panteleimon Kulish wrote in "Notes on the Life of Gogol" (1856), Nikolai Vasilyevich "was a bad official, and, in his own words, only learned from the service in this institution only the benefit that he learned to sew paper."

"I see that Nikosha has not yet learned to live prudently. His main expense is on books for which he is able to lose food, "wrote the writer's mother Maria Ivanovna to her relative General Troshchinsky, who has repeatedly provided financial assistance to young Gogol.

But the books were not only a source of expenditure for the young man, but also his guiding light. Cherishing dreams of a literary field, Gogol asks his mother to send him information about Little Russian morals, customs, beliefs, various stories "told by commoners, in which spirits and unclean people participate," costumes, as well as "notes kept by the ancestors of some old surname, manuscripts of old people..." etc.

All this was material for the future book "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka. Stories published by Bee-keeper Rudym Pank, "which became the beginning of Gogol's literary fame. It was here that for the first time in Gogol's work the image of St. Petersburg appears. In the novel "The Night Before Christmas," the capital of the empire is described through the eyes of the blacksmith Vakula, who flew here on the hell: "Oh my God! knock, thunder, shine; four-story walls are bulky on either side; the knock of the horse's hooves, the sound of the wheel responded with thunder and surrendered from four sides; the heaps grew and seemed to rise from the ground at every step; bridges were shaking; carriages flew... "Oh my God, what a light!" the blacksmith thought to himself. 'We don't get that light during the day '. Bright, dazzling, deafening - this is exactly what St. Petersburg and Gogol himself first saw.

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka," published in the early 1830s, aroused general admiration. One of the first to welcome the fresh fiction of the young author, shimmering with all colors, was Pushkin: "How amazed we were at the Russian book, which made us laugh, we, who have not laughed since the time of Fonvizin! I was told that typesetters died laughing, typing a book. I congratulate the audience on a truly cheerful book, and I sincerely wish the author further success. "

1831: First meeting with Pushkin

The first meeting between Gogol and Pushkin, which laid the foundation for personal acquaintance, took place at an evening with Pletnev on May 20, 1831. The authors continued to communicate, and soon their relationship became really friendly.

In the summer of 1831, Gogol "almost every evening" met with Pushkin and Zhukovsky, who lived in Tsarskoye Selo. Later, Nikolai Vasilievich wrote to his friend A. S. Danilevsky: "All summer I lived in Pavlovsk and Tsarskoye Selo. Almost every evening we gathered: Zhukovsky, Pushkin and me. Oh, if you knew how many charms came out of the pen of these husbands. "

Pushkin praised the literary talent of his young colleague. The poet enthusiastically responded to Gogol's book "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka," published in the fall of 1831: "Here is real fun, sincere, laid-back, without rudeness, without prudence. And in some places what poetry! what a sensitivity! All this is so extraordinary in our current literature that I have not yet come to my senses. "

According to the memoirs of Pavel Nashchokin, Pushkin "joyfully and warmly met all young talent, took Gogol to himself, patronized him, took care of the attention of the public to him, personally bothered to stage The Inspector General, in a word, brought Gogol to people."

1832

According to Kulish, "for the first time Gogol was introduced to the circle of writers as the author of" Evenings on the Farm "on February 19, 1832 at the famous dinner of A.F. Smirdin, on the occasion of the transfer of his bookstore from the Blue Bridge to Nevsky Prospekt." The guests presented the owner with various plays that compiled the almanac "Housewarming," which also contained "The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivanov Nikiforovich" by Nikolai Gogol.

The writer was expected to continue the lightness of the syllable, the subtlety of humor and the charm of life. But from under his hand came out in places realistically minor, in places satirical novels "Nevsky Prospekt," "Portrait," "Notes of a madman," "Nose," "Overcoat."

Starting from Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg becomes a full-fledged hero of many of Gogol's works. But this is no longer the enchantingly beautiful city that the blacksmith Vakul saw and whose lights young Gogol admired on the way from Little Russia. "Oh, don't believe this Nevsky Prospekt!.. All deception, all dream, everything is not what it seems!" - warns the writer.

St. Petersburg is not only a city of "masters in covered cloth coats," but also a smug lieutenant Pirogov, a poor artist Piskarev, who lost the nose of Major Kovalev, a petty official Akakia Akakievich Bashmachkin, whose life goal was a new overcoat, titular adviser Aksenty Ivanovich Prischin, who imagined himself "king of Spain."

St. Petersburg is not only a city of front facades, but also dirty streets; "black stairs of St. Petersburg houses," gasped for "alcohol smell that eats eyes"; tiny apartments that don't live in - people exist.

1836

Premiere of "The Examiner"

In Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General," which takes place in a small county town, the image of St. Petersburg also appears. They fear him, imitate him, talk about him, admire him. The Inspector General mentions specific addresses related to the life of the author of the comedy in St. Petersburg. When Khlestakov regrets that "Jochim did not rent a carriage," we mean the carriage master Johann Jochim, the first owner of the house on Bolshaya Meshchanskaya (now Kazan Street), where Gogol lived in a cramped apartment under the roof itself on the fourth floor from April to July 1829.

In a letter from Khlestakov, sent to "His noble, gracious sovereign, Ivan Vasilyevich Tryapichkin, in Pochtamtskaya Street, in a house numbered ninety-seventh, turning to the courtyard, on the third floor to the right," Gogol noted another of his addresses, only slightly encrypting it. From 1833 to 1836, he lived in the house of the artist Lepen at 97, now 17 on Malaya Morskaya Street, as if continuing Pochtamtskaya, in an apartment on the third floor of the courtyard outbuilding. It was here that the "Inspector General" was written, and Malaya Morskaya Street itself from 1902 to 1993 bore the name of Gogol.

The plot of "The Examiner" was suggested to the writer by Pushkin. Gogol began working on the play in the fall of 1835, and on April 19, 1836, its premiere took place on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. As Alexander Nikitenko, censor and professor at St. Petersburg University, wrote, "Gogol's comedy" The Inspector General 'made a lot of noise. It is constantly given, almost a day later. The sovereign was at the first performance, clapped and laughed a lot... and even told ministers to go watch The Examiner... Many believe that the government approves in vain of this play, in which it is so harshly condemned. "

"The common voice heard on all sides of the chosen public was:" This is impossibility, slander and farce, "recalled memoirist Pavel Annenkov. - At the end of the performance Gogol came to the table, and, relying on it, said thoughtfully: "Lord God! Well, if one, two scolded, well, God is with them, and then that's it, that's it.... '. "

Gogol was not just offended. He was crushed. 'I'm tired and soul and body. I swear no one knows or hears my suffering. God is with them all! I was disgusted by my play. I would like to run away now, God knows where, "he wrote.

Going abroad

In early June 1836, Nikolai Vasilievich left St. Petersburg and Russia. "Whatever was done to me, everything was saving for me," he writes to Pogodin shortly before leaving. - All insults, all troubles were sent to me by high providence for my upbringing, and now I feel that it is not earthly will that guides my path. He is, right, essential to me. "

On the eve of Gogol's departure abroad, Pushkin sat in his apartment on Malaya Morskaya all night long. The poet read the works begun by Nikolai Vasilyevich - at that time Gogol was working on the novel "Dead Souls," the plot of which Pushkin also told him. It was their last date...

Gogol will remember St. Petersburg more than once. And not only as a city, at the thought of which the skin "is imbued with terrible damp and foggy atmosphere." In the Petersburg Notes of 1836, Gogol admits:... "when the Neva opened before me, when the pink color of the sky smoked from the Vyborg side with blue fog, the buildings of the Petersburg side were dressed in almost purple, hiding their ugly appearance, when churches, in which fog with a single-color cover hid all the bulges, seemed painted or pasted on pink matter, and only the spitz of the Peter and Paul bell tower shone in this purple-blue haze, reflecting in the endless mirror of the Neva - it seemed to me that I was not in St. Petersburg. It seemed to me that I had moved to some other city where I had already been, where I knew everything. "

Gogol lived abroad in Germany, Switzerland, spent the winter with A. Danilevsky in Paris, where he met and became especially close to A. O. Smirnova and where he was caught by the news of Pushkin's death, which struck him terribly.

In March 1837 he was in Rome, which he became extremely fond of and became for him as if the second homeland. European political and social life has always remained alien and completely unfamiliar to Gogol; he was attracted to nature and works of art, and Rome at that time represented precisely these interests. Gogol studied ancient monuments, art galleries, visited artist workshops, admired folk life and loved to show Rome, "treat" them to visiting Russian acquaintances and friends.

1837: On the death of Pushkin: "Everything that I have good, I owe him all this"

The news of the death of A.S. Pushkin found Gogol abroad. The writer took it as a personal disaster. "God, how strange. Russia without Pushkin..., "- he wrote to Pletnev.

In many letters from abroad, Gogol spoke about the significance of Pushkin in his literary fate: "All the pleasure of my life, all my highest pleasure disappeared with him. I did nothing without his advice. Not a single line was written without me imagining it in front of me. What he will say, what he will notice, what he will laugh, what he will say indestructible and eternal approval of his own, that is what only occupied me and animated my strength. " "All that I have is good, all that I owe him... I entertained myself with the idea of ​ ​ how pleased he would be, guessed what he would like, and this was my highest and first reward. "

1852: Death in Moscow in a house on Nikitsky Boulevard

At the end of January 1852, O. M. Bodyansky visited Gogol and found him working full of strength and energy; Gogol invited him to a music evening and promised to follow him. But the evening did not take place. On January 26, the wife of A. S. Khomyakov, the sister of Gogol's late friend, the poet Yazykov, died. This death shocked Gogol; after the funeral service, looking at the face of the deceased, he said: "Nothing can be solemn death; life would not be so beautiful if there was no death. "

Khomyakov recounts this: "The death of my wife and my grief shocked him greatly; he said that in it many died again for him, whom he loved with all his soul, especially N. M. Languages. At the funeral service, he said: "It's over for me."

From that moment, Kulish says, he felt that he was sick with the very disease from which his father died, precisely what "the fear of death found on him."

Gogol prophetically depicted his death in "The Old World Landowners"; since childhood, he panicked at the mysterious call in broad daylight, "after which death follows inevitably," and died for the same reason that Athanasius Ivanovich died.

"He suddenly heard that behind him someone uttered a rather explicit voice:" Athanasius Ivanovich "...

"He all obeyed his spiritual conviction that Pulcheria Ivanovna calls him: he obeyed with the will of an obedient child, dried, coughed, melted like a candle, and finally faded as she did when there was nothing left to support her poor flame."

This is an accurate diagnosis of the author's own illness: Gogol died because he was called by the deceased Khomyakova; he also "submitted" and also "stagnated like a candle."

Believing in the inevitability of death, the writer began to prepare for it ascetic: he spoke on Shrovetide; "before accepting the Holy Gifts, he fell at the depletion and cried for a long time." He spent most of the nights awake in prayer.

"At night from Friday to Saturday (February 8-9), he exhausted fell asleep on the sofa, without bed, and something extraordinary, mysterious happened to him: waking up suddenly, he sent for the parish priest, explained to him that he was dissatisfied with the recent communion and asked immediately again to administer and gather him, because he saw himself dead, heard some voices and now reveres himself dying. Apparently, after visiting the priest, he calmed down, but did not interrupt the reflections that deeply shocked him "(A. T. Tarasenkov). Pletnev wrote to Zhukovsky: "Passing only a few drops of water with red wine, he continued to kneel in front of the many images set before him and pray. He answered all the admonitions quietly and meekly: "Leave me, I am good." Friends turned to the authority of Metropolitan Filaret, and he, on behalf of the Church, ordered the patient to obey the doctors, but he refused.

On the night of February 12, Gogol burns Dead Souls. According to Pogodin, having come to the room, "he ordered to serve a briefcase from the closet. When the briefcase was brought, he took out a bunch of notebooks tied with a braid, put it in the oven and lit it with a candle from his hands... After the corners of the notebooks were burned, Gogol noticed this, took a bunch out of the stove, untied the braid and, laying the sheets so that it would be easier to get to the fire, lit it again and sat on a chair in front of the fire, waiting for everything to burn and drain. Then he, crossing himself, turned to his former room, kissed the boy, lay down on the sofa and cried. "

The next day, Gogol told A. P. Tolstoy: "Imagine how strong the evil spirit is! I wanted to burn the papers, long ago certain, and burned the chapters of "Dead Souls," which I wanted to leave to friends as a memory after my death. "

Dr. Tarasenkov, who treated Gogol, talks about the burning in a slightly different way:

"When almost everything burned down, he sat for a long time thinking, then cried, ordered to call the count, showed him the burning corners of the papers and said with sorrow:" This is what I did! I wanted to burn some things, prepared for a long time, but burned everything! How evil is strong - here he moved me to! And I was there a lot of good information and outlined; it was the crown of my work: from it they could understand everything and what was unclear in my previous works... And I thought to send my friends a notebook as a keepsake: let them do what they want. Now everything is gone. " The count, wanting to remove from him the gloomy thought of death, with an indifferent appearance said:

"This is a good sign - and before you burned everything and then wrote even better. So, and now it is not before death. After all, you can remember everything. " "Yes," Gogol answered, putting his hand on his forehead, "I can, I can, I have all this in my head," and, apparently, became calmer, stopped crying. "

Let's turn to the story of N. Kulish. "On Monday in the second week of fasting, the confessor invited him to join and indulge in oil. He agreed to this with joy and listened to all the Gospels, holding a candle in his hands, shedding tears. On Tuesday it seemed to be easier for him, but on Wednesday there were signs of a cruel nervous fever, and on the morning of Thursday February 21 he was gone. "

The house of Talyzin, in which Gogol died, is located in Moscow at the address - Nikitsky Boulevard, 7, 7a. Here Nikolai Vasilievich lived for 4 years until his death.

"Some of the last words he said in full consciousness were the words:" How sweet to die "(Shevyrev).