“selected passages from correspondence with friends.

Rated the book

“Selected places,” of course, belong more to history than to literature or journalism. What they did for our social life and political thought would not have been dreamed of by Gogol in his wildest phantasmagoric dream. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death for reading Belinsky’s letter to Gogol about “Selected Places” in Petrashevsky’s circle. Neither more nor less. And the severity of the punishment was explained by the fact that while reading, Dostoevsky’s eyes “burned.” Officially, he was led to execution for “failure to report the dissemination of a criminal letter about religion and government from the writer Belinsky.” That is, first of all, for blasphemy! Dostoevsky! Who will later become the main religious writer for the whole world! And then Gogol’s polemic with Belinsky regarding “Selected Places” will determine the path of development of political thought in Russia for fifty years. Belinsky's theses will become the religion of Westerners and supporters of progress, Gogol's theses - religious guardians. And now no one reads this last book of Gogol. Boring religious moralizing. Moreover, it is outdated. Only authors whose direction can be called Orthodox enlightenment remember it.

But I wanted to say something else. This book unexpectedly gives a clear understanding of Gogol's life drama. It’s as if she’s highlighting the unfortunate figure of Nikolai Vasilyevich with a headlight. Reading Selected Places, we see the duality that became his curse. On the one hand, by nature Gogol had an excessive imagination, as if not entirely dependent on himself, a demonic and inexhaustible imagination. On the other hand, he early realized his calling - to morally heal society. His subconscious gave birth to an endless number of devils and demons, and his consciousness was directed towards God. He tried to subordinate his works, starting with The Inspector General, to the project of human improvement, but the public found in them only a brilliant satire on bureaucracy, serfdom and autocracy. And not because the public was stupid. No. Belinsky, who enlisted Gogol as a revolutionary, was perhaps the most sensitive reader of the 19th century; it’s just that Gogol’s subconscious always turned out to be a hundred times more energetically powerful than his godly mental projects. Rozanov said about “Dead Souls”: “After Gogol, it became not scary to break, it became not a pity to break.” That is, Gogol, with his demonic laughter, from the point of view of the revolutionaries, simply drove a stake into the “fat-assed” landowner Holy Rus'. Morally justified the revolution...

Gogol suffered terribly that he was misunderstood. But what to do?! And he decides to abandon his treacherous imagination and explain in simple words how to live and how to understand everything. This is where the book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was born. He wrote, explained everything in detail, even shouted rather than wrote... but again they did not understand him. Made fun of. They called him crazy. In all seriousness. When “Selected Places” was first published, the public in Moscow and St. Petersburg sadly admitted that the classic had lost his mind. The subconscious constantly betrayed Gogol, but the mind was not the best assistant. People did not rush to change for the better, did not read “Selected Passages” five to ten times, as the author asked them in the preface, but preferred to quickly forget about this unpleasant book.

Gogol had a dream, after all, to equally combine imagination and reason, literature and moral preaching. He wanted to implement his idea in the second volume of Dead Souls, where he decided to bring out a number of positive types, examples to follow. But the idea failed. "Dead Souls 2" went to the fireplace. It turned out that Gogol's imagination could endlessly produce devils, Chichikovs, flying coffins, trousers the size of the Black Sea, but refused to produce noble landowners and honest governors. Poor Gogol! The brilliant imagination won an unconditional victory over both the mind and the exhausted body of Gogol. And mind you, he won a historical victory, because Gogol is still not understood the way he wanted. Or maybe this is the only correct understanding? Maybe Gogol’s subconscious was right everywhere, but his mind was lying?!

Pachkuale_Pestrini

Rated the book

It is necessary to immediately clarify that I read this relatively small book for a catastrophically long time and even offhand I cannot name a work whose reading was also difficult (except for Meyrink’s “The Golem”). Partly because of the topics covered in the text, partly because of the cumbersome, very difficult to understand style of writing. Which is in no way characteristic of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s works.

I adore “Evenings on a Farm...”, and it’s hard to find a person who doesn’t share my point of view, and therefore it’s worth reading “Selected Places...” if only because it’s still Gogol, the one we love Gogol since childhood. And here it would be worth writing something like “But what we see is not the Gogol we know,” but this would not be a completely honest embellishment of the review. For me, the figure of Nikolai Vasilyevich has always been shrouded in some kind of deep mysticism, something mysterious and tragic. We have all heard (I don’t know if it’s true) about his lethargic sleep (by the way, in one of the first paragraphs of the will included in the book, the writer asks to bury him only when there are signs of rotting of the body), about immersion in religion, about morbidity and otherness, detachment from the world. It would be pointless to expect farmhouse recklessness from “Selected Places...” When opening the book, one must be prepared for serious topics.

And this is where a slight dissonance arises, because topics that were important and relevant then are today for the most part of historical interest, idle curiosity. The Russia that Nikolai Vasilyevich speaks of has disappeared, the then administrative structure of state bodies has dissolved, and the estates have crumbled. Gogol wrote, looking to the future, expecting the inevitable transformation of Russia, he confidently declared that Europe, crumpled under the weight of unnatural freedoms, would soon crawl to us to learn morality, that Russia would rise. Gogol wrote this without imagining that in a little more than half a century a phenomenon called the terrible word revolution would sweep across Russia like a circular saw. The fulfillment of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s prophecies is being postponed (we know that Europe has nowhere else to crawl, we just don’t know whether it, Europe, will still have a sensible understanding of its catastrophic situation), and this makes reading “Selected Places...” often sad, because that between the lines one can see “just about” and “a little more.” But one hundred and fifty years have already passed - is that “a little”? - and we know something that Gogol did not suspect. We know, for example, that public readings, for which the author prophesied a great future, had no chance not against the theater (the theater itself had no chance left), but against the cinema that had filled the minds, which in the mid-nineteenth century was only thought about by science fiction writers.

The book is probably better read aloud. There are some things that you just don’t perceive about yourself. Every three to five pages I fell asleep sweetly right in the chair.
For the sake of truth, it should be reported that my drowsiness was largely influenced not by the content or style of writing, but directly by the design of the notorious “green series” in its misery. Small font, tiny line spacing, “inflexibility” of the book are the three enemies of thoughtful reading, this is a well-known fact.

Some letters are really interesting. They are doubly interesting if you recognize yourself as the addressee, because in essence Gogol addressed all of us.

The book is very difficult to find, and what’s more, few people even know about it. They barely found it in the Biblio-Globus, but that says something.

And at the same time, Nikolai Vasilyevich himself pinned colossal hopes on “Selected Places...”. The book draws a line under all his work. Gogol explains why he burned that very second volume of “Dead Souls” and asks for forgiveness from readers for frivolous works that could harm someone. Drawing a line is something that is often missing in literature. Researchers and analysts are one thing; the word of the author himself, the final chord, is completely different. Gogol felt the proximity of death, which is why he conceived such a “farewell” work, and we, as readers, must treat such an impulse with the utmost respect.

“SELECTED PLACES FROM CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS,”

journalistic collection of Gogol. Published (with significant censorship): Selected passages from correspondence with friends of Nikolai Gogol. St. Petersburg, 1847. The book was published on December 31, 1846 (January 12, 1847). For the first time, the full text was published by F. V. Chizhov: The Complete Works of N. V. Gogol. T. 3. M., 1867. The composition of the V. m. from the village of Gogol was determined as follows: Preface. I. Will. II. Woman in the light. III. The meaning of diseases. IV. About what a word is. V. Readings of Russian poets before the public. VI. About helping the poor. VII. About the Odyssey translated by Zhukovsky. VIII. A few words about our Church and clergy. IX. About the same thing. X. About the lyricism of our poets. XI. Controversy. XII. The Christian moves forward. XIII. Karamzin. XIV. About the theater, about the one-sided view of the theater and about one-sidedness in general. XV. Subjects for the lyric poet at the present time. XVI. Adviсe. XVII. Education. XVIII. Four letters to different persons regarding “Dead Souls”. XIX. You need to love Russia. XX. We need to travel around Russia. XXI. What is a governor's wife? XXII. Russian landowner. XXIII. Historical painter Ivanov. XXIV. What can a wife be for her husband in a simple home life, given the current order of things in Russia? XXV. Village court and punishment. XXVI. Fears and horrors of Russia. XXVII. Myopic friend. XXVIII. Occupying an important place. XXIX. Whose destiny on earth is higher. XXX. Parting words. XXXI. What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity? XXXII. Bright Sunday. In the first edition, letters XIX “You need to love Russia”, XX “You need to travel around Russia”, XXI “What is a governor’s wife”, XXVI “Fears and horrors of Russia”, XXVIII “To someone who occupies an important place” were removed by censorship. Gogol was going to present these chapters personally to Emperor Nicholas I and had already drawn up a letter addressed to the highest name, but P. A. Pletnev dissuaded him from this. In V. m. from p.s. d., Gogol’s views on religion, history and art were developed, expressed in a number of articles in the collection “Arabesques”: “Life”, “Thoughts on Geography”, “On the Teaching of World History”, “Sculpture” , painting and music" and "The Last Day of Pompeii".

On June 18 (30), 1846, Gogol wrote to P. A. Pletnev from Schwalbach: “Finally, my request! You must fulfill it, just as a most trusted friend fulfills the request of his friend. Put all your business aside and start printing this book entitled: “Selected passages from correspondence with friends.” Everyone needs it, too much - that’s what I can say for now; the book itself will explain everything else to you; By the end of its printing, everything will become clear, and the misunderstandings that have previously troubled you will disappear by themselves. The beginning is sent here. A follow-up will be sent immediately. I am still waiting for the return of some letters, but there will be no stopping after that, because even those that were returned to me are enough. Printing must take place in silence: it is necessary that no one except the censor and you knows. Choose Nikitenka as a censor: he is more favorable to me than others. I will write two words to it. Also make him promise not to tell anyone that my book will be published. It needs to be printed in a month so that by mid-September it can be out. Print on good paper, 8 sheets of medium size, with clear and easy to read letters, the placement of lines is as needed to make the book most convenient to read; no vignettes, no borders, maintain noble simplicity throughout. There is no need for false titles before each article; it is enough that each one begins on a new page, and there is a wide space from the title to the text. Print two factories and prepare paper for the second edition, which, in my opinion, will follow immediately: this book will sell more than all my previous works, because it is still my only useful book. Following the notebook enclosed with this, you will receive others non-stop. I hope in God that he will support me in this work. The attached notebook is numbered No. 1. It contains a preface and six articles, a total of seven, and including here also an article about the Odyssey, which I sent to you a month before this, which in printing should immediately follow them, a total of eight. There are twenty pages in the attached notebook. Notify me immediately of receipt of all this.”

On September 23 (October 5), 1846, Gogol wrote to N. M. Yazykov: “You read my book carefully, which will contain a selection from different letters. There is something there directed towards you, stronger than before, and if God is so merciful as to arm my word with power and direct it precisely to the place where it should be struck, then they will hear other messages from you, and in them your own strength with all the originality of your talent. So I believe and want to believe. But for now, this is between us. The book is being printed in St. Petersburg by Pletnev, and will be published no earlier than a month after you receive this letter. In Moscow, only Shevyrev knows.”

October 5 A.D. Art. In 1846, Gogol wrote from Frankfurt to S.P. Shevyrev: “That the book (the new edition of Dead Souls - B.S.) will be published a little later is nothing; It shouldn’t even go out before some other preface, without which I can’t go on the road. This matter was entrusted to Pletnev. This is a selection from some of my letters to friends, which should come out as a special book. But this is between us for now. There, by the way, is part of my confession and an explanation of what so confused some about my secrecy and so on. I had to print in St. Petersburg for reasons that you can understand yourself, due to the proximity of immediate and higher censorship permissions. No one has been brought into this matter except Pletnev and the censor, and therefore don’t tell anyone about it, except perhaps Yazykov, who alone has information about it, and that’s because something from the letters I wrote to him was received by choice. From this book you will see that my life was active even in my painful state, although in a different field, which is, however, my rightful field, and that God is great in His heavenly mercies... Maybe in a month, that is, if not at the end of October, then at the beginning of November, the book should be published, and therefore do not release “Dead Souls” until then. Pletnev will send you several copies, including one signed by the censor for the second edition, because, in my opinion, the book should sell out in a month. This is my first practical book, which is needed by many of us, and perhaps, if God is so merciful, will bring them real benefit: what came from the soul cannot fail to bring benefit to the soul.”

Gogol sent the fifth and final notebook of the book to P. A. Pletnev on October 4/16, 1846: “I am in a hurry to send you the fifth and final notebook. So tired that there is no urine; I have successfully mastered it, especially with the article on poetry, which in three of my eras I wrote and burned again and finally wrote now, precisely because my book needs it to explain the elements of the Russian person. Without this, it would never have been written: it’s so difficult for me to write anything about literature. I myself don’t see how close she can be to the cause that is my deepest concern. It saddens me to hear the chaos that has occurred due to Nikitenka’s slowness. But what is my fault, my good friend? I chose him because I knew him, after all, to be the best of the others, and, moreover, seeing his name displayed in your Sovremennik, I thought that you had closer relations with him than with other censors. Nikitenko is lazy, even incredibly lazy, I knew that, but he has a kind soul, and you should especially press him personally. I constantly tell him what I, for my part, want to explain to him thoroughly: that there is no need to delay with the book, because before the new year I need to collect money for its sale in order to set off on a long journey (a trip to the Holy Land. - B.S.). Traveling to the East is not like traveling through Europe. There are no conveniences, a lot of expenses, and I need, on top of this, to help those people who, except me, no one will help. If Nikitenko finds it difficult or overcome by timidity, then my opinion is to print the book and present the entire book in proof sheets for the Emperor to read. My business is truth and benefit, and I believe that my book will be completely missed by them. In the latter case, talk about this thoroughly with Alexandra Osipovna (Smirnova - B.S.), if she is already in St. Petersburg; she will know how to arrange it. If it comes to spiritual censorship, then do not be afraid of it. Just don’t do this in an official manner, but call a spiritual censor to you and talk to him personally; he will let you through, and sooner, perhaps, than you think. My words about the Church say the same thing that our Church says about itself and in which every one of our spiritual ones agrees... In this notebook you will find an insertion and change to the letter “On the lyricism of our poets.” It is necessary to throw out all that passage where it is said about the meaning of the power of the monarch, in which it should appear in the world. This will not be understood and will be taken in a different sense. In addition, it was said somewhat ridiculously; someday one could write an intelligent article about it. Now you absolutely must throw it away, even if the article was printed, and in its place insert what is written on the last page of the notebook. The piece that should be thrown out begins with the words: “The significance of the powers of the monarch’s power will increase further,” etc., and ends with the words: “Such a definition has not yet come to European jurists.”... There are 147 pages in notebook 5, including the previous one, and articles two and three are inserted.” In the next letter to P. A. Pletnev, dated October 8/20, 1846, Gogol asked: “For God’s sake, use all your strength and measures to print the book as soon as possible. This is necessary, necessary both for me and for others; in a word, it is necessary for the common good. My heart speaks to me and the extraordinary mercy of God, which gave me the strength to work when I no longer dared to think about it, did not dare to expect the freshness of soul required for it, and everything was suddenly given to me at that time: suddenly the most serious illnesses stopped, suddenly all the madness in work deviated, and all this continued until the last line of work ended. This is simply a miracle and the mercy of God, and it would be a grave sin for me if I began to complain about the return of my difficult, painful seizures. My friend, I acted firmly in the name of God when I composed my book, for the glory of His holy name I took up the pen, and therefore all the obstacles and everything that stopped the powerless man cleared away before me. Act in the name of God, printing my book, as if doing this to glorify His name, forgetting all your personal relationships with anyone, having only common good, and all obstacles will clear away before you. You can get along with Nikitenko, but you need to deal with him personally. You can’t do anything with him with a letter or a note... You need to seriously press him and respond to all the reasons he gives with the same words: Listen, all this that you say could have taken place in another case, but remember that Every minute of slowdown completely upsets all the circumstances of the author of the book. You are an intelligent person and you can see for yourself that the book contains a point, and it was undertaken precisely to arouse reverence for everything that is given to us all into law by our own Church and our government. You can imagine for yourself that the Tsar himself and the court will come to her defense. Look at your censorship regulations and all the surplus regulations and show me which paragraph there is a contradiction against. It’s a shame for you to hesitate, sign firmly and now, because the printing house is waiting, and enough time has already been lost. And if they are overcome by any indecision from all sorts of absurd rumors that accompany every time the publication of my book, whatever its type, then talk about everything... with Alexandra Osipovna and, in spite of all the insanity, speed up the publication of the book. Be strong like flint, believe in God and move forward - and everything will give way to you! When the book is published, prepare copies and present them to the entire royal household, including minors, to all the great dukes, the children of the heir, the children of Marya Nikolaevna, and the entire family of Mikhail Pavlovich. Don’t take gifts from anyone and try to get out of it; tell me that the presentation of this book is an expression of that feeling that I myself do not know how to explain to myself, which has recently become even stronger than before, as a result of which everything related to their house has become close to my soul, even with everything that whatever surrounds them, and that by presenting this book to them I already give myself pleasure, completely complete and sufficient, that due to both my painful state and the internal state of my soul, I am not occupied with everything that can still move and occupy a person living in world... Give six copies (the same hour after the book is published) to Sofya Mikhailovna Sollogub... Six copies and the seventh, with the censor’s signature on the second edition, send immediately to Moscow to Shevyrev. (The second edition should be printed in Moscow, for the sake of incomparably greater cheapness and for the sake of rest for you.) Send six copies to my mother, with the inscription: “To her honor Marya Ivanovna Gogol, in Poltava.” One copy to Kharkov Innocent... Two copies - to Rzhev Tver province to priest Matvey Alexandrovich. There are three copies, and if possible more, send them to me immediately by courier. Ask Countess Nesselrod from me personally, giving her a copy on my behalf. Tell her that she will do me a very, very big favor if she arranges for me to receive this book in Naples as quickly as possible, and ask her, too, to send two copies immediately to Paris to Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy. Don't forget Zhukovsky. Give Arkady Rosseti three copies with the letter. That's all for you. No one else, it seems. Others will buy.”

On October 29, 1846, S.P. Shevyrev reported to Gogol: “...You want news from me about what they are saying about you here. When I listen to these news, I always remember the city of NN in “Dead Souls” and its talk about Chichikov. You have deeply taken all this out of our life, which is alien to publicity. If you want, perhaps, I will tell you all this. You seem to have grown so spiritually that you stand above all this. I'll start with the most unfavorable rumors. Others say that you are crazy. Even your good friends greeted me with such questions: “Please tell me, is it true that Gogol has gone crazy?” - “Tell me, do me a favor, is it really true that Gogol has gone crazy?” - Last summer you were already gone and they killed me, and even the banker’s carer, through whom I sometimes sent money to you, asked me with a sad look: is it true that you are no longer in the world? - Your letter to Zhukovsky was printed by the way and assured everyone that you are well (we are talking about the letter “About the Odyssey, translated by Zhukovsky.” - B.S.). Your letter has caused a lot of talk. Rosen rebelled against him in the Northern Bee with these words: if a pagan could compose the Iliad and Odyssey, which is much more difficult, then, one wonders, why do you need to be a Christian to translate them, which is much easier. Many found this remark to be extremely true, thoughtful and witty. More lenient judges of you regret that you have fallen into mysticism. Senkovsky even published in the Library for Reading that our Homer, as he calls you, fell into mysticism. They say that in your Correspondence, which is about to be published, you renounce all your previous writings as if they were sins. This rumor upset even all your friends in Moscow. His source is St. Petersburg gossip. The contents of your book, which Nikitenko censored, were announced somehow strangely and reached here. They are afraid that you want to betray art, that you are forgetting it, that you are sacrificing it to some mystical trend. Your book should arouse everyone's attention; but they are already prepared for it with prejudice against it. I expect endless rumors when it comes out. I will also add to what has been said that if the second half of “Dead Souls” were now released, then all of Russia would rush to it with such greed as has never been seen before. The public is tired of the pitiful state of modern literature. The magazines are filled with vulgar translations of vulgar novels and their frantic chatter... I don’t know your new book yet. But we expect artistic creations from you. I think that a great revolution has taken place in you and, perhaps, it had to take place in order to raise the second part of “Dead Souls”. Oh, when will you, with your creative spirit, reveal to us the deep secret of what is so great and holy and universal in our Rus'. You prepared this with a confession of our shortcomings, and you will complete it.”

On November 6, 1846, S.P. Shevyrev wrote to P.A. Pletnev from Moscow to St. Petersburg regarding the censorship difficulties faced by V.M.’s manuscript from item s.d.: “I can’t help but respond to you right now on your a letter that shocked me yesterday. Thank you, thank you for myself and for Gogol, and for everyone who loves him. You alone in our time can do what you do for him. Nikitenko lost his last dignity in my eyes. I considered him a noble censor and a noble man, but he, apparently, is neither one nor the other. What right did he have to read out the manuscripts that were entrusted to him for reading? Is public opinion really not acting against this? On the one hand, Nikitenko oppresses Gogol, and on the other, he and his gang spread the most terrible rumors about him in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. These people do not act without intent. But Nikitenka’s oppression will be made public here too. Rumors about Gogol cannot be believed until the book is published. His literary talent is already being buried here; they say that he renounces all his works as if they were sins (although he publishes the second edition of “Dead Souls” and “The Inspector General”); they even encroach on the nobility of his opinions. Not to mention further rumors that he fell under the influence of the Jesuits, that he went crazy. The city of NN in “Dead Souls” with its talk about Chichikov is in the faces here. The main source of all this is Nikitenko’s meetings and his censorship immodesty. Only the very publication of the book and the publication of “Dead Souls” can counteract this. Then there will be data by which the public itself will judge Gogol. I understand that a decisive expression of opinions that are not new in him, but have only just matured, could embitter this entire party and cause it to take such actions against its former favorite. I understand how she can rage against Gogol; but I could not imagine that she could stoop to such vile actions against him. You won’t believe how greedily I would like to read what has already been printed (typed in a printing house - B.S.). If this is not an immodest request, then do me a favor and send me at least the proof sheets of what has already been printed. You can be confident in my caution, but some kind of counteraction based on data is necessary, and until now all this data was in the hands of only one side, except you, the side hostile to Gogol’s discovered opinions. There are messengers here who clearly tell everyone that they read Gogol’s manuscript at Nikitenka’s, that they read horrors there; Places and phrases are quoted. Your first letter somewhat calmed the talk among my circle of acquaintances. It is announced as important news that Belinsky, who will be in charge of criticism of Sovremennik, has already changed his opinion about Gogol and will publish a number of articles against him. This will only serve to the honor of Gogol - and it is high time for him, for the sake of his glory, to throw off the stain of praise and exclamations that Belinsky brought him.”

On November 2/14, 1846, Gogol wrote to his mother from Rome: “Soon after this letter, or perhaps along with this letter, you will receive my small book, which contains partly my own confession. It should have been brought to me before I left. I am sending you a published excerpt from the will, which specifically relates to you and your sisters. Although, thanks to the ineffable mercy of God, I am once again saved and live and see the light of God, you still read this will and try to fulfill (both you and the sisters) at least part of my will during my lifetime. You will receive six copies, one for you and one for your sisters. Send the third copy now immediately... to Danilevsky... Give the fourth copy to Andrei Andreevich (Troshchinsky - B.S.), if it is somewhere close to you; if he is in St. Petersburg... you give this fourth copy, along with the last two, to those holy people who prayed for me in the monasteries; ask them to read my book and pray for me more deeply than ever before. I need prayers even more now. Be sure to do this. Your sisters will beg you, under various pretexts, for an extra copy, either for themselves or for their friends. Don't give it to them: this book is by no means for fun and not for flighty society girls; This is a matter of the soul, and therefore it needs to be read first of all by confessors and people who deal with the soul and conscience of a person. Others can buy it and wait to read it.”

On January 1, 1847, P. A. Pletnev notified Gogol about the release of “V. m. from item with d.”: “Yesterday a great thing was accomplished: the book of your letters was published. But this work will influence only the elect; others will not find food for themselves in your book. And she, in my opinion, is the beginning of Russian literature proper. Everything that has happened so far seems to me like a student’s experience on topics chosen from a textbook. You were the first to scoop up thoughts from the bottom and fearlessly bring them to the light. Hugs to you, friend. Be relentless and consistent. No matter what others say, go your own way... In that small society in which I have been living for six years, you have now become a genius of thoughts and deeds.” One of the few who highly appreciated V. m. from p. s. d. was A. O. Smirnova. On January 11, 1847, she wrote to Gogol: “Your book was published on New Year’s Eve. And I congratulate you on such an entry, and to Russia, which you presented with this treasure. Strange! But you, everything that you have written hitherto, even your “Dead Souls” - everything somehow turned pale in my eyes when reading your last volume. My soul brightened for you.”

On January 4/16, 1847, Gogol mentioned V. m. from p. s. d. in a letter from Naples to Countess Vielgorskaya: “You already, without a doubt, know that I am publishing a book. I publish it not at all for the pleasure of the public and readers, and also not to gain fame or money. I am publishing it in the firm conviction that my book is needed and useful for Russia precisely at the present time; in the firm belief that if I do not say these words, which are contained in my book, then no one will say them, because, as I see, no one has become close and dear to the cause of the common good. These letters were not written without prayer; they were written in the spirit of love for the sovereign and for everything that is good in the Russian land. The censorship does not let through those very letters that I consider most necessary. There is something in these letters that the Emperor himself and everyone in the state should read. I submit my case to the court of the Sovereign himself, and I am enclosing here a letter to him, with which I beg him to take a look at the letters that make up the book, written in a move of pure and unfeigned love for him, and decide for himself whether they should be published or not. My heart tells me that he would sooner approve of me than reproach me. And it cannot be otherwise: his lofty soul knows everything beautiful, and I am firmly convinced that no one in the entire state knows him as well as he should. Give this letter to him if others do not dare. Talk about this with the three of you with Mikhail Yuryevich and Anna Mikhailovna (the Vielgorskys - B.S.). Whoever from your family is destined to submit my letter to the Emperor, he should not be embarrassed by such an act. Each of you has the right to say: “Sir, I know very well that I am doing an indecent act; but this man who asks for your judgment and justice is close to us; if we don't take care of it, no one will take care of it; Every subject of yours is dear to you, and even more so who loves you in the way he loves.” You will speak with Pletnev, who is printing my book, in advance so that he can prepare the unmissable articles in such a way that the sovereign could read them the same hour after the letter, if he so desired.” In an address to Nicholas I, Gogol wrote: “Most merciful Sovereign! Only after much thought and prayer to God do I dare to write to you. You are merciful: the last subject of your state, no matter how insignificant he may be in himself, but if only he is in that difficult state when the authorities appointed by you are perplexed to judge him, he has access and refuge to you. I am in exactly this state: I compiled a book in the desire to benefit my compatriots and thereby at least express some gratitude to you, Sovereign, for your benefits and gracious attention to me. The censorship does not dare to omit from my book articles relating to officials, those very articles in the compilation of which I had before my eyes the highest desires of the soul of Your Imperial Majesty. The censorship finds that these articles do not fully correspond to the goals of our government; It seems to me that my entire book was written in the spirit of the government itself. The only one who can judge me in this matter is the one who, embracing not just one part of the government, but all together, thereby has a fuller and more multifaceted view than ordinary people and who, moreover, knows how to love Russia more and better than how other people love it. ; therefore, only the Sovereign can judge me. Any decision that the lips of Your Imperial Majesty pronounce will be sacred and immutable for me. If, having deigned to take a look at my articles, you find everything in them consistent with your desires, I will then bless God, who has given me the strength to discern not crookedly, but directly the lofty meaning of your concerns and thoughts. If you find it necessary to exclude something from them, as indecent, which occurred more likely from my immaturity and from my inability to express myself, than from any bad intention, I will evenly thank God, who inspired you with the idea of ​​​​reasoning me, and I will kiss you mentally, like a hand father, your royal hand, which led me away from a foolish matter. In both cases, with love for you, I remain Your Imperial Majesty’s grateful loyal subject Nikolai Gogol, to the grave and beyond the grave.” However, the Vielgorskys and Pletnev managed to dissuade the writer from submitting a petition to the Highest Name regarding the censorship fate of V. m. from the village on January 17, 1847. Pletnev wrote to Gogol: “Now it is impossible to even think about providing the sovereign with your completely rewritten book. Otherwise, with what eyes will I meet the heir, when he himself personally advised me not to print places prohibited by the censor, and I, as if in mockery of him, will go further. And who knows if he didn’t show this to the Emperor, who, not wanting to make the matter public, perhaps ordered him to say on his own what I heard from him.”

January 30th Art. 1847 Gogol wrote to A. O. Smirnova: “In my affairs, complete confusion has occurred. Only one third of my book was printed, cut off and tangled, some strange scrap, not a book. Pletnev announces very cold-bloodedly, which simply did not pass through the censorship. The most important letters, which should form a significant part of the book, were not included in it - letters that were aimed precisely at better acquainting ourselves with the troubles occurring from ourselves inside Russia, and about ways to correct many things, letters with which I thought to render an honest service to the Emperor and all my compatriots. I wrote to Vielgorsky the other day, asking and begging him to present these letters to the Emperor for trial. My heart tells me that he will honor them with his attention and order them to be published.”

February 22nd Art. 1847 Gogol wrote to A. O. Smirnova from Naples: “I was so pleased to receive your lines, my dear Alexandra Osipovna. They write to me little now: since the publication of my book, no one has yet written to me. Apart from short notices that the book has been published and is generating a variety of buzz, I still don’t know anything - I don’t know exactly which rumors, I can’t even determine them in advance, because I don’t know which of my articles were missed and which were not missed. . From Pletnev I only received, together with the notification of the publication of the book and the notification that it was sent to me, that more than half were not missed, and the articles that were missed were mercilessly cut off by censorship. The whole censorship trick is still dark and unsolved for me. I only know that the censor seemed to be in the hands of people of the so-called European outlook, overcome by the spirit of all kinds of transformations, who were unpleasant about the appearance of my book. I still haven’t received it and I’m even afraid to receive it. No matter how hard I try, I confess to you that it will be difficult for me to look at her. Everything in it was connected and in sequence and gradually introduced the reader into the matter - and the whole connection is now destroyed! Be a witness to my mental weakness and my inability to endure. Everything that is difficult for some people to bear, I now bear easily with God’s help, and I only cannot bear the pain of the censor’s knife, which insensitively cuts off entire pages written from a feeling soul and from a good desire. My entire weak staff is shaken at such moments. It’s just as if her beloved child was stabbed to death before a mother’s eyes—this censored murder is so hard for me. And this was done by the same censor who favored my works, fearing, in his own words, to make even a scratch on them. Pletnev attributes this to his stupidity, but I don’t quite believe it: this man is not stupid. There is something here, at least to me, that is incomprehensible. I asked Vielgorsky and Vyazemsky to carefully review all the articles that had not been omitted and, having destroyed in them what seemed indecent and awkward to them, submit them further to the court. If the Sovereign says that it is better not to print them, then I will consider it the will of God that these letters should not be published in public; at least, I will have at least some consolation when I find out that the letters were read by those who, indeed, value the well-being and goodness of Russia, that although a grain of thoughts contained in them produced a beneficial influence, that the seed, perhaps the future fruit was implanted in their hearts along with them. These letters were to landowners, to officials, a letter to you about what can be done for the governor’s wife also ended up there, and therefore you should not be surprised that it did not come in handy for you: when I wrote it to you, I already had many in mind others and wanted through him to achieve true and real information about the internal state of the spiritual people living everywhere among us.” But soon Gogol abandoned the idea of ​​appealing to the emperor. On March 27, 1847, he wrote to Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky: “... I ask the good countess not to worry and not to disturb herself with the thought that she has not fulfilled my request in any way. I will tell you sincerely that I was overcome by some fear for the unreasonableness of my action, but at the same time some kind of unnatural force forced him to do it and burden the countess with a letter that embarrassed her. Tell her that there is no need to rush in this matter, that I am too convinced that for complete success you need to take a lot of time and think about everything very much.” In the preface to the book, Gogol wrote: “My heart says that my book is needed and that it can be useful. I think so not because I had a high opinion of myself and hoped in my ability to be useful, but because I have never before had such a strong desire to be useful. Sometimes it’s enough for us to extend our hand in order to help, but it’s not we who help, it’s God who helps, sending down power to the powerless word.”

April 20th Art. 1847 Gogol wrote to A. O. Smirnova from Naples: “Nothing will bother me if God does not leave me, and God is merciful - should He leave me if I sincerely pray to Him, praying to be able to pray to Him forever , and if many people, pleasing and best to Him, offer fervent prayers for me, a sinner? But I definitely need to listen to everyone in order to act smartly. My path is solid and I am still the same, with some improvements (by the grace of God). But I am already structured in such a way that I need attacks, scoldings and even the most opposite rumors about me, so that my view of myself is clear and so that my path is clear in front of me and not only does not become darkened in any way, but even becomes clearer the further I go. , the more. All these insults, rumors, and contradictions about me are also needed to show me a much closer society than it can seem to anyone else. Have you noticed one extraordinary property of my book, which hardly any book has had before? Precisely the fact that, despite all its countless shortcomings, it can serve as a touchstone for recognizing a modern person? In his judgments about her, the whole person will be revealed to you, even forgetting his caution. This is not a trifle for a writer, but especially one for whom man and the soul of man became the subject in earnest. It was not for nothing that God temporarily took away from me the strength and ability to produce works of art, so that I would not arbitrarily invent things from myself, would not be distracted by ideality, but would adhere to the most essential truth. And the truth of Rus' now appeared before me as never before. You don’t just need to yawn, but pick up everything, because you won’t soon see another such favorable moment, which forced even many secretive people to open their buttons wide open. That is why all talk is so dear to me, even from people, apparently the simplest and most stupid: they reveal to me their state of mind... They blame me for talking about God, that I have no right to do so, being infected and pride and pride, hitherto unheard of. What should we do if even with these vices we still talk about God? What should you do if a time comes when you involuntarily talk about God? How to remain silent when even the stones are ready to scream about God? No, the wise men will not confuse me with the fact that I am unworthy, and not my business, and do not have the right: every single one of us has this right, we must all teach each other and instruct each other, as Christ and the apostles command. And that we do not know how to express ourselves well and decently, that sometimes words of arrogance and self-confidence pop out, for this reason God humbles us, and He benefits us by sending us humility. If my book had been a success and many people had been on my side, then pride and all the vices that are attributed to me could have taken possession of me. Now, as a result of all these rumors, having looked at myself from all sides, I can speak in such a balanced and moderate voice that it will be difficult for them to find fault with me.”

Rumors about V. m. from p s d. spread even before the publication of the book. S. T. Aksakov recalled: “At the end of 1846, during my severe illness, rumors reached me that “Correspondence with Friends” was being published in St. Petersburg, I was even told several lines from different places. I was horrified and immediately wrote a long letter to Gogol, in which I asked him to postpone the publication of the book, at least for a little while.” This letter, dated December 9, said, in part: “It was necessary to write to you a long, long time ago. For a long time my soul has longed to pour itself into your soul... Whenever my illness weakens, I think and have thought about you and often speak mentally to you... I want to speak to you so deeply frankly that only my voice or my hand has the right to utter or write such speeches; and I can hardly sign my name! Necessity forced me to use Konstantin (the letter was written in the hand of K.S. Aksakov, since Sergei Timofeevich could not write due to weakened vision - B.S.), a person who loves you and is infinitely devoted to you. It seems you shouldn't be offended by this. I began to dislike your religious direction a long time ago. Not because I, being a bad Christian, did not understand him well and therefore was afraid; but because the manifestation of Christian humility seemed to me a manifestation of your spiritual pride. Many passages in your letters to me confused me; but they were surrounded by such a brilliance of poetry, such sincerity of feeling that I did not dare to give in, did not dare to believe my inner voice, which condemned them, and tried to interpret my unpleasant impression in a direction favorable to you. I was even carried away, blinded by you, and I remember that I once wrote a passionate letter to you, truly grieving that I myself, as a Christian, was immeasurably far from what I could be. Meanwhile, your new direction developed and grew. My fears were renewed with greater force: each of your letters confirmed them. Instead of the previous friendly, warm outpourings, the preacher’s instructions began to appear, mysterious, sometimes prophetic, always cold and, worst of all, full of pride in the rags of humility... Soon you sent us, in the most mysterious letter, the soul-saving life of Thomas a à Kempis with a detailed recipe: how, when and because to use it promises us an undoubted revolution in our spiritual life... My concerns turned into fear, and I wrote you a rather harsh and frank letter. At this time, a terrible misfortune began to befall me: I was permanently losing sight in one eye and began to feel weakening in the other. Despair took over me. I poured out my sorrow into your soul and received in response several dry and cold lines that could not touch, not delight the suffering heart of a friend, but outrage him... Each of your actions was a new blow for me, and each one stronger than the other. Your article, published in Moskovskie Vedomosti about the translation of the Odyssey (later included in the V. m. from the item with d. - B. S.), containing a lot of beautiful things, at the same time showed your unforgivably erroneous looking at the action you predict for him with self-confidence, dogmatically. Your praise for the translation exceeded not only the measure, but also the very possibility of the dignity of such work..."

The publication of his will made a terrible impression on Gogol's relatives. On January 13/25, 1847, he was forced to write to his mother: “My letter inadvertently served as a test of your state of mind and revealed to me at what level of love and faith and in general at what level of Christian knowledge and virtues you all are, especially since that from the letters written upon arrival from Kiev, it already seemed to me that my sisters understood what Christianity is and why it is necessary in the affairs of life (here the pride in humility that S. T. Aksakov wrote about was clearly manifested. - B . WITH.). I was deceived. The spiritual order that I made during a serious illness, from which God, by His grace, delivered me, an order that, truly, every Christian must make in advance and without illness, even if he hoped for his strength and perfect health, because we rule our days, a man is alive today, and tomorrow he is gone - this very order made such an impression on all of you, except Olga alone, as if I were already dead and not in the world. I was only amazed at how those who only pray to God and do not live in him can lose heart, how God punishes them with clouding of reason, because only one whose mind is in an eclipse can interpret the lines of my letter in this way... My testament, made During my illness, I needed to print for many reasons in my book. In addition to the fact that this was necessary to explain the very appearance of such a book, it was also needed to remind many of death, which few living people think about. It was not for nothing that God made me feel during my illness how scary it becomes before death, so that I could convey this feeling to others. If you were truly and properly instructed in Christianity, then every single one of you would know that mortal memory is the first thing that a person should carry in his thoughts every minute. The Holy Scripture says that he who remembers his end every minute will never sin. He who remembers death and imagines it vividly before his eyes will not wish for death, because he sees for himself how many good deeds need to be done in order to deserve a good death and without fear to appear before the Lord for judgment. Until a person becomes familiar with the thought of death and makes it seem like it awaits him tomorrow, he will never live as he should, and will put everything off from day to day for the future. The constant thought of death educates the soul in an amazing way, gives strength for life and exploits in life. It insensitively strengthens our firmness, invigorates our spirit and makes us insensitive to everything that outrages cowardly and weak people. I owe it to my thoughts about death that I still live in the world. Without this thought, given my poor state of health, which has always been painful in me, and with those severe sorrows that a person faces in my field more than in all other fields, I would not have endured much, and I would have been gone for a long time. light. But, keeping death in mind before you and seeing before you the immeasurable eternity awaiting us, you look at everything earthly as a trifle and smallness, and not only do you not fall from all sorts of griefs and troubles, but you also challenge them to battle, knowing that only for a courageous battle with them can one be worthy of receiving eternity and eternal bliss.”

The misunderstanding of V. m. from p. with d. even by close friends upset Gogol. On January 8/20, 1847, he wrote from Naples to S. T. Aksakov: “...You are mistaken, suspecting some new direction in me. From my early youth I have had one road along which I walk. I was only secretive because I was not stupid - that’s all. The reason for your current conclusions and conclusions about me... was that I, relying on my own strength and on my (as if) completed maturity, dared to speak about something about which I should have been silent for a little while longer, until my words came to such a conclusion. clarity that even a child would understand. Here's the whole story of my mysticism. I should have worked in silence for a while longer, still burned what needed to be burned, not say a word to anyone about my inner self and not respond to anything, especially not give any answer to my friends about my writings. Partly the unreasonable pushing on their part, partly the inability to see for myself at what level of my own upbringing I am, was the reason for the appearance of the articles that so outraged your spirit. On the other hand, all this did not happen without the will of God. The appearance of my book, which contains correspondence with many very remarkable people in Russia (whom I would perhaps never have met if I had lived in Russia and stayed in Moscow), will be needed by many (despite all the incomprehensible places) in many truly significant relationships. And I will need even more for myself. My book will be attacked from all angles, from all sides and in all possible respects. I need these attacks too much now: they will show me closer to myself and at the same time show me you, that is, my readers. Without seeing more clearly what I am at this moment and what my readers are, I would be absolutely unable to do my job effectively. But this will not be clear to you yet; just take it on faith; Through this you will remain in profit. And don’t hide any of your feelings from me! After reading the book, immediately, while nothing has caught a cold, pour it all out, as it is, onto paper. Don’t be embarrassed if harsh words come out of your mouth: it’s absolutely nothing, I even love them very much. The more open and sincere you are with me, the more profit you will make.”