My friend Gogol. Selected places from correspondence with friends

A century after Gogol’s death, schoolchildren who had not fully read Dead Souls tell each other horror stories about how Gogol was buried alive. Homosexuals found something not entirely clear in Gogol and dragged him into their camp - to cover up the primitivism of their “otherness and rejection” with mysticism and Gogolian beauty in the description of decay.
Pushkin, who is our everything, is the sea - clear and transparent, visible to the horizon, immense, at times incomprehensible, but light and deep.

Gogol is different. Gogol is a lake on the Russian plain, bright on a fine day, black in bad weather with yellow leaves on the surface, with pools into which the unwary gets sucked.

His works from school curriculum seem to be written with the confident brush of a calm master, but if you dig deeper, then in their calm narrative such a pool will rise and such depths will open that it is impossible to reach the bottom. And at the bottom is Gogol himself. Not an artist, but a personality, with a vague, complex soul restless to the last, the mystery of which we try to understand and cannot... A mystical Russian writer.

He had a reason to become like this - everything was not easy even before birth.

"Gogol's mother, Maria Ivanovna, born a noblewoman Kosyarovskaya, married Vasily Afanasyevich at the age of fourteen; Vasily Afanasyevich was almost twice her age. About her family life Maria Ivanovna reports:
“My life was the calmest; my husband and I had a cheerful character. We were surrounded by good neighbors. But sometimes gloomy thoughts came over me. I foresaw misfortunes, believed in dreams. At first I was worried about my husband’s illness. He had two years before his marriage. fever. Then he was healthy, but suspicious..."

Maria Ivanovna was distinguished by her greatly increased impressionability, religiosity and superstition. Vasily Afanasyevich was also superstitious. His story of how he married Marya Ivanovna breathes with superstition: as if she appeared to him in a dream mother of God and pointed to a certain child. Later, he recognized this same child in Maria Ivanovna.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born in March 1809. His exact date of birth is unknown. Gogol himself celebrated it on March 19. Before him, Maria Ivanovna had two children, but they were stillborn. Gogol was born in Sorochintsy, where Maria Ivanovna went in anticipation of giving birth. Nikolai grew up as a frail, sickly, impressionable child. He was tormented by fears; Even then he recognized remorse.
A. O. Smirnova in her “Autobiography” tells from Gogol’s words how one day he was left alone in complete silence. “The knock of the pendulum was the knock of time going into eternity.” The silence was broken by a cat. Meowing, she carefully crept towards Gogol. Her claws tapped against the floorboards, her eyes sparkling with an evil green light. The child first hid from the cat, then grabbed it, threw it into the pond and began to drown it with a pole, and when the cat drowned, it seemed to him that he had drowned a man, he cried bitterly and confessed his crime to his father. Vasily Afanasyevich whipped his son. Only then did Gogol calm down.

The cat, which scared Gogol in childhood, will later appear in “May Night”, in its image the stepmother will sneak up on her stepdaughter with her fur on fire, with iron claws knocking on the floor. You will also meet her in “Old World Landowners”; grey, thin, wild, she will scare Pulcheria Ivanovna to death. This memory perfectly conveys Gogol's childhood fears.

Another Gogol story from his childhood concerns mysterious voices.
“You, no doubt, have ever heard a voice calling you by name, when the common people explain it this way: that the soul yearns for a person and calls him; after which death inevitably follows. I confess that I was always afraid of this mysterious call. I remember that in childhood I often listened to it, sometimes suddenly behind me someone clearly pronounced my name. The day was usually the clearest and sunny at this time; not a single leaf in the garden on the tree moved, it was quiet I was dead, even the grasshopper stopped at that time, not a soul in the garden; but, I confess, if the most furious and stormy night, with all the elements of hell, had overtaken me alone in the middle of an impenetrable forest, I would not have I was frightened by it, as by this terrible silence, in the middle of a cloudless day. I usually then fled with the greatest fear and caught my breath from the garden, and then I only calmed down when I came across some person, the sight of whom drove away this terrible heart desert" ("Old World landowners").

Mysterious voices are mild auditory hallucinations; Many people hear them in childhood, experiencing not an eerie feeling, but rather curiosity. Gogol is afraid. He draws attention to the fact that even then, as a child, he felt a dead silence and even a “terrible desert of the heart.”

A painful predisposition to fears was strengthened by the stories of elders about what “God will punish,” about hell and the torment of sinners, about the devil and evil spirits.

Gogol writes in one of his letters to his mother:
“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 looked at everything with dispassionate eyes; I went to church because they ordered me, or because they carried me; but standing in it, I saw nothing except the vestments, the priest and the disgusting roar of the sextons. I was baptized because I saw that everyone was baptizing But once - I remember this incident vividly, as if now - I asked you to tell me about the Last Judgment, and you told me, a child, so well, so clearly, so touchingly about the benefits that await people for a virtuous life, and so strikingly, so horribly described the eternal torment of sinners, that it shocked and awakened sensitivity in me, it sparked and subsequently produced in me the highest thoughts."

It is clear that such a beginning did not foretell an easy fate and easy literature, since the child was gifted to become a writer. Moreover, Gogol faced a troubled era, which, according to the literary historian Bogdanovich, he had to proclaim as Cassandra, realizing what terrible news he would bring. He was tormented either by pain, or by a presentiment of pain, or by the awareness of the irreparability and fatality of his predictions.

“Not a single name in Russian literature, except for the name of Dostoevsky, is so closely connected with everything tragic in the fate and life of Russia as with the name of Gogol. But Dostoevsky lived later; he only developed, revealed, mastered what he had previously seen, foreseen, or rather, Gogol had a presentiment “in sacred horror. It all began with Gogol,” and therefore Dostoevsky himself, and his appearance cannot be understood without understanding and appreciating Gogol. But if Rozanov’s words about Dostoevsky are true, that he will begin to be understood as follows, only “in the days of great upheavals,” then this is even more true regarding Gogol. Understand Gogol completely, give the real critical assessment his work and, especially, to find out the significance of his influence on Russian life, in our opinion, is possible only now, only in our days, when a cloud “heavy with the coming rains” has already hung over the “immense expanse” of Russia and filled it with a flood.

We always loved to read Gogol, everyone recognized him literary significance even during his lifetime - both Russian society and Russian criticism. The entire subsequent period of Russian literature was unanimously recognized as the period “after Gogol.” But how naive now in our tragic days some critical reviews about him seem, representing the so-called established opinion. "Gogol established in Russian literature realistic direction“Gogol depicted Russian reality,” etc. - these are the usual school definitions of the meaning of Gogol. But, gentlemen, read again the above excerpt from “Dead Souls.” The figure of Gogol will appear before you not at all in the form of a truthful narrator, full of epic calm and impartiality, but rather in the form of a prophet and holy fool, half-mad and terribly enlarged, with “unnaturally illuminated eyes,” looking into the “sparkling distance, Russia” and with all his might feeling something—it is unknown whether good or evil—but something , insanely terrible, infinitely wide and at the same time infinitely dangerous, what is about to happen to her. He looks, however, with still unseeing, although “eyes illuminated by an unnatural power.” He, his one-sided gaze, “was not given” to understand what was hidden in this cloud, full of future rains, but it was given more to feel the approach of something tragic (“and a mighty space envelops me threateningly, reflecting itself with terrible force in my soul”) than anyone else. And, moreover, he was given the opportunity to feel that he himself was involved in causing this cloud “full of future rains,” that he himself, with the sharp whips of his satire, inadvertently enraged the Russian troika, rushing into this unknown sparkling distance, that he... in short: the Russian revolution began with Gogol. This is where Gogol comes from - this horror of his own creations, this burning of "Dead Souls", this "Correspondence with Friends", for which Belinsky so furiously attacked him and, finally, this tragic death, the death of a man who could not bear the discord between his personality and your creativity.
Of the Russian critics, Rozanov was the first to feel this tragedy of Gogol - Russia, and it was precisely thanks to the study of Dostoevsky when he wrote his famous work about his "Grand Inquisitor". But Rozanov, with all his boundless intuition, nevertheless understood his guess for himself only when he came into close contact with the coming revolution, that is, after a similar revolution took place in his own soul. This “brilliant cynic”, who did not hide any of his thoughts, no matter how petty or shameful, himself a former “revolutionary”, did not hide his purely animal fear of the revolution. “In 1904-5,” he writes in his “Fallen Leaves,” “I wanted to write something like a “hymn of freedom” ... but now ... I would run like a slaughtered cow, clutching my head , by the hair, and... howl, howl, howl about yourself, and, of course, not about the fact that “the government is bad” - the eternal extemporaneity of donkeys! It was precisely this animal fear of the revolution that forced Rozanov, with his characteristic instinct , feel a “personal enemy” in Gogol and attack him in “Fallen Leaves”.

He does not consider Pushkin the founder of a new direction, but the culmination of the entire previous, Petrine period of Russian literature. Pushkin and Lermontov “didn’t want anything special.” Exactly - everyone finished. Exactly - sunset, the evening of an entire civilization. The Russian sea is smooth as glass... on everything - great style Rastrelli... Hermitage, Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Public Library, Karamzin... In Rastrelli's style, even the opposition is the Decembrists... Silent deep night. But “The devil suddenly stirred the bottom with a stick, and currents of turbidity and swamp bubbles came from the bottom... It was Gogol who passed through. Everything is behind Gogol. Melancholy. Bewilderment. Anger, a lot of anger.” Extra people". Yearning people. Bad people... "Ugh, devil, get lost."

This is how Rozanov “roars” at Gogol. But, leaving aside this “psychology of a half-cut cow,” we must still note in Rozanov’s speeches what constitutes their inner truth, i.e., that “the critical attitude toward Russians began with Gogol.” reality, which gradually created a revolutionary spirit in Russia. Not because it didn’t exist before. It has always been there, and especially since the times of Elizabeth and Catherine. But Gogol was the first to introduce into this attitude the pathos of mercilessness and intransigence, which formed the basis for further Russian history. public.

Before Gogol, satire was a pleasant game that even kings enjoyed. After him, it became a terrible sentence, condemning Rus' to the torment of the impending operation, and convincing her to go under the operating knife became the immediate task of the Russian intelligentsia. Hence the “Hannibal Oaths” of the Westerners, and the messianistic pathos of the Slavophiles, who felt the inevitability of “the cross and redemption” for Russia.

But that is why Rozanov is deeply wrong in relation to Gogol when he sends such reproaches to him. These reproaches will not only never take away from Gogol his great dignity, which constitutes the entire essence of his work, realized by him, but even more so will strengthen for him the aura of an irreconcilable fighter against human vulgarity.

Inner essence people can be recognized just as well by their negative ideal as by their positive one, that is, not only by how they understand good, but also by how they understand evil. Evil personified by Gogol in the form of a devil, “resembling a German” with a pig’s snout, hooves and long tail, indicates that for Gogol, as later for Dostoevsky, the concept of evil was identified precisely with the concept of vulgarity, and, consequently, the concept of beauty was the opposite concept. “Beauty saves (spiritually) the world,” said Dostoevsky. Vulgarity, on the contrary, morally ruins the world. Gogol felt this with his whole being, Gogol - a poet - a prophet.

Vulgarity is worse than murder, more terrible than many passions and vices. The thieves repent, albeit on the cross, the sinful Magdalenes kiss the feet of Christ, the money-loving Zacchaeus, who sinned a lot, but also loved a lot, give away their property accumulated by untruths. But only the self-loving “righteous” Pharisees are incapable of good, whose vanity and empty complacency constitute the essence of their nature, and the found amount of external well-being is the limit of their desires. Was it for him, Gogol, a romantic idealist to the core, to become better days the flourishing of your creativity on the side of this vulgarity and defend its ideals? Of course not, and he mercilessly castigated this vulgarity with the laughter of his satire. Only at the end of your life, in the days of decline mental strength, he realized that with this he was leading Russia along the path of trials, perhaps along the path of the godfather. He began to "beat the lights out". He died from the consciousness of the horror of what was threatening his Rus', but he could no longer stop the troika, enraged by the scourge. It was in this consciousness that something inevitable and irreparable was approaching that Gogol died."

Having died, Gogol did not find peace. "Gogol himself, at the end of his life, made attempts to give the symbol an abstract, allegorical, even mystical character, that is, he was already turning reality into a symbol. The Russian symbolists made this abstraction and mysticism of Gogol their banner. Here is death for living images. With Gogol this it happened because reality was slipping away from under his feet."

A century after Gogol's death, schoolchildren, who have not fully read Dead Souls, tell each other terrible stories about how Gogol was buried alive. Homosexuals found something not entirely clear in Gogol and dragged him into their camp - to cover up the primitivism of their “otherness and rejection” with mysticism and Gogolian beauty in the description of decay. The riddle of Gogol is transformed by a modern intellect, greedy for sensations, into a “horror story”, into a cliche and a label, because this collective common Russian unconscious cannot tolerate such a mystery of “its” writer, who should have been understood by us long ago - but it doesn’t work out. ..

“Until now, there is more in Gogol that has not been revealed than that has been revealed. What spiritual secrets did Gogol have in mind when speaking about his works? To what end did he lead his Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov? Is everything clear in “Viya”, in “Terrible Vengeance”? What does the sorcerer's magical summoning of the soul of Katerina's daughter mean? Why couldn't Khoma Brut resist and look? Why on earth does Kovalev's "nose" visit the Kazan Cathedral? "May Night". The thing is transparent, glowing, but inside there is something black. There is something dark in Gogol's images.

And in your personal life, secrets are everywhere. We have to limit ourselves to guesswork about Gogol’s relationship with a woman. Many of his relationships with friends and acquaintances are mysterious and incomprehensible. His letters are often very doubtful in terms of reliability. Sometimes it seems as if he is made up of scraps, he amazes with his tenacity, he is a man of one goal, one plan. People who passionately loved Gogol, very often, were lost in defining what he was like. S. T. Aksakov bitterly admitted: “I see in Gogol the prey of satanic pride”; but he later declared: “I recognize Gogol as a saint.”

A strange man...heavy, gloomy man! There is a lot of dark and unpleasant stuff in it.

Many comparisons and comparisons involuntarily arise before the reader when he bends over the wondrous pages and thinks about the terrible fate of their creator. All these and other images are covered by one, most terrible image. Gogol has an excerpt from an unfinished novel about a captive and captive thrown into a dungeon. The smell of rot there was breathtaking. The toad, of gigantic stature, bulged its terrible eyes. Pieces of cobweb hung in thick clumps. Human bones were sticking out. "An owl or a bat would be a beauty here." When they began to torture the captive, a terrible, black voice was heard: “Don’t talk, Ganulechka.” Then a man stepped forward. “It was a man... but without skin. The skin was torn off from him. He was all boiling with blood. Only the veins turned blue and spread over him like branches. Blood was dripping from him. A bandura on a rusty leather sling hung on his shoulder. bloody face his eyes flashed terribly..." Gogol was this bloody bandura player-poet, with eyes that had seen too much. It was he who shouted against his will new Russia in a black voice: “Don’t give it away, Ganulechka!”

The scheme of Father Theodore is sufficiently conditional character: these “departments” can be redistributed or others can be allocated - for example, letters about the responsibilities of the various classes and the vocation of each individual person(“What is a governor’s wife”, “Russian landowner”, “Occupying an important place”, “Whose lot on earth is higher”). But the main thing in which Archimandrite Theodore is undoubtedly right is that Gogol’s thoughts have a certain internal connection and are subordinated to the expression of the main idea. This idea is already visible in the titles of the chapters, which amaze with the abundance of national accents: “Readings of Russian poets before the public”, “A few words about our Church and the clergy”, “On the lyricism of our poets”, “You need to love Russia”, “You need to travel around Russia ", "What can a wife be for her husband in a simple home life, given the current order of things in Russia", "Fears and horrors of Russia", "What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity." In ten of the thirty-two chapters of the book national idea included in the title. However, even in those chapters where her name is not in the title, we are talking about Russia, and in the preface Gogol asks his compatriots to read his book “several times” and “everyone in Russia” to pray for him. We can say that the main content of “Selected Places...” is Russia and its spiritual future.

Of all the Russian writers, no one, it seems, exposed the ulcers of the Russian soul as much as Gogol, pointing out their source - the fatal separation of most of society from the Church. All the untruths of a vain and petty existence, which nested in the cultural environment and coexisted with the aspiration for material wealth and entertainment, is a consequence of this soul-killing separation. Gogol considered the only condition for the spiritual revival of Russia to be the churching of Russian life. “There is a reconciler of everything within our land itself, which is not yet visible to everyone - our Church,” he writes. “She is already preparing to suddenly assume her full rights and shine with light throughout the whole earth. It contains everything that is needed for a truly Russian life, in all its relations, from the state to the simple family, the mood for everything, the direction for everything, the lawful and right path for everything” (“Enlightenment”); “We own a treasure that has no price, and not only do we not care to feel it, but we don’t even know where we put it” (“A few words about our Church and the clergy”).

Gogol pointed out two conditions without which no good transformations in Russia are possible. First of all, you need to love Russia. What does it mean to love Russia? The writer explains: “Whoever wants to truly honestly serve Russia needs to have a lot of love for her, which would already absorb all other feelings - he needs to have a lot of love for people in general and become a true Christian, in the entire sense of the word.”

One should also not do anything without the blessing of the Church: “For me, the idea of ​​​​introducing some kind of innovation into Russia, bypassing our Church, without asking her blessing for it, is crazy. It is absurd even to instill any European ideas into our thoughts until she christens them with the light of Christ” (“Enlightenment”).

In his book, Gogol played the role of statesman striving for the best device country, the establishment of the only correct hierarchy of positions, in which everyone fulfills his duty in his place and is more deeply aware of his responsibility, the higher this place is (“Occupying an important place”). Hence the variety of letter recipients: from a statesman to a spiritual shepherd, from an artist to a secular woman.

But this is only the external side of the matter. Gogol's apology for Russia, the affirmation of its messianic role in the world, ultimately rests not on the external improvements and international authority of the country, not on military power (although they are important), but mainly on the spiritual foundations of the national character. Gogol's view of Russia is, first of all, a view Orthodox Christian conscious that all material wealth must be subordinated highest goal and directed towards her.

Here is the main Gogol idea and a constant moment of temptation to reproach the writer for great-power chauvinism: Gogol allegedly claims that Russia stands ahead of other nations precisely in the sense of a more complete embodiment of the Christian ideal. But, according to Gogol, the guarantee of the future of Russia lies not only in the special spiritual gifts that Russian people are generously endowed with compared to other peoples, but also in their awareness of their disorder, their spiritual poverty (in the evangelical sense), and in those enormous opportunities , which are inherent in Russia as a relatively young Christian power.

This idea is clearly expressed in the wonderful ending of “Bright Sunday”: “Are we better than other nations? Are you closer to Christ in life than they are? We are no better than anyone, and life is even more unsettled and disordered than all of them. “We are worse than all others” - this is what we should always say about ourselves... We are still melted metal, not cast into our national form; It is still possible for us to throw away, to push away from ourselves what is indecent to us and to bring into ourselves everything that is no longer possible for other peoples who have received a form and have been tempered in it.”

All issues of life - everyday, social, state, literary - have a religious and moral meaning for Gogol. Recognizing and accepting the existing order of things, he sought to transform society through the transformation of man. “Society is formed by itself, society is made up of units,” he wrote. - It is necessary for each unit to fulfill its duty... A person must remember that he is not a material beast at all, but a high citizen of high heavenly citizenship. Until he lives at least to some extent the life of a heavenly citizen, until then earthly citizenship will not come into order.”

Gogol's book speaks of the need for internal reorganization of everyone, which ultimately should serve as the key to the reorganization and transformation of the entire country. This idea determines the entire artistic structure of “Selected Places...” and, first of all, their construction.

The arrangement of the letters has a thoughtful composition, embodying a distinct Christian message. In the “Preface,” the author announces his intention to go to the Holy Land during Lent and asks everyone for forgiveness, just as on the eve of Lent, on Forgiveness Sunday, all Christians ask forgiveness from each other. The book opens with a “Testament” to remind everyone of the most important Christian virtue - mortal memory. Central location occupies the seventeenth chapter, which is called “Enlightenment”.

“To enlighten,” writes Gogol, “does not mean to teach, or instruct, or educate, or even illuminate, but to completely illuminate a person in all his powers, and not in just his mind, to carry his entire nature through some kind of purifying fire.” Without spiritual enlightenment (“The Light of Christ enlightens everyone!”), according to Gogol, there can be no light. The idea runs through the entire book of how to “enlighten the literate before the illiterate,” that is, those who have pens and paper in their hands, officials, local authorities who could enlighten the people, and not multiply evil.

The crown of the book is “Bright Sunday”, reminding everyone of eternal life. In “Selected Places...” in this way, the reader seems to go through the path of the Christian soul during Lent (traditionally identified with a journey) - from death to Resurrection, through sorrow (chapter “Fears and Horrors of Russia”) - to joy.

In his book, Gogol decisively spoke about “the most important”. “If a writer’s thoughts are not focused on important subjects,” he said, “then there will be only emptiness in him.” The seed of the book originated back in 1844 - in the “Rule of Living in the World,” which, with its depth of thought and laconic form, resembles the apostolic epistles: “The beginning, root and affirmation of everything is love for God. But for us this is the beginning at the end, and we love everything that is in the world more than God.” Gogol, together with some prominent hierarchs of the Church (such as St. Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus, and St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow) foresaw a catastrophic decline in religiosity in society. With his book, he seemed to sound the alarm, calling on his fellow citizens to radically reconsider all issues of the social and spiritual life of the country. He contacted sermon And confession to all of Russia.

Both of these genres have a rich world tradition. As a sermon, Gogol’s book is focused primarily on the apostolic epistles, primarily his beloved holy Apostle Paul, who “instructs everyone and leads everyone on the straight path” (from Gogol’s letter to his sister Olga Vasilyevna dated January 20 (New Style) 1847 ). This tradition goes further through the patristic epistles (Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa), which were well known to Gogol. In “Selected Places...” he acts as a preacher and spiritual teacher, capable of showing the path of salvation to everyone - from the first to last person in the state. At the same time, he, like St. John Chrysostom, teaches and denounces his compatriots: “Christian! They drove Christ out into the streets, into infirmaries and hospitals, instead of calling Him to their homes, under their own roof, and they think that they are Christians!”

In the Gogol era, the tradition of the church word lived in preaching literature, the most outstanding representatives of which were St. Philaret of Moscow and Archbishop Innocent of Kherson. Without a doubt, Gogol's style was nourished not only by book sources, but also by living sources - the sermons of church pastors he constantly heard.

The genre of confession has an equally deep tradition, represented in Western literature, in particular, by classical works - St. Augustine’s Confessions and Rousseau’s Confessions. It is closely connected with the epistolary genre, very characteristic of Russia at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. Suffice it to recall the “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Nikolai Karamzin, the “Chronicle of a Russian” by Alexander Turgenev, the “Philosophical” letters of Pyotr Chaadaev or the letters of Vasily Zhukovsky, including to Gogol himself. This genre was represented in spiritual literature wonderful work Hieroschemamonk Sergius - “Letters of the Holy Mountainer to his friends about the Holy Mount Athos.”

Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov noted the naturalness of the epistolary genre for Gogol. According to him, “Gogol expresses himself completely in his letters; in this respect they are much more important than his printed works.” It is easy to notice, however, that for literary prose Gogol is characterized by almost the same confessionalism as his letters. Let us at least remember the lyrical digressions in his stories and “Dead Souls”.

This side of “Selected Places...” was very significant for Gogol himself. He called his book “the confession of a man who spent several years inside himself.” Even before its publication, he asks Shevyrev (in a letter from Naples dated December 8, 1846) to find his confessor in Moscow, a priest from the parish of the Church of St. Sava the Sanctified Father John Nikolsky, and give him a copy of the book as a continuation his confession.

The extreme sincerity of the confessions, in which many saw the pride of self-abasement, was partly the reason that those who seemed to share Gogol’s beliefs recoiled from the book. The author's identity was further exposed by the intervention of censorship. “All the officials and officials for whom the best articles were written,” Gogol complained, “disappeared along with the articles from the readers’ view; I was left alone, as if I had published my book precisely in order to expose myself to public disgrace” (from a letter to Countess Anna Mikhailovna Vielgorskaya dated February 6 (NS) 1847).

And yet Gogol remained Gogol, and society, in his opinion, was obliged to accept his confession as the confession of a writer, the author of Dead Souls, and not a private person. “In response to those,” he said in the “Author’s Confession,” “who reproach me for why I exposed my inner cage, I can say that after all, I am not yet a monk, but a writer. In this case, I acted like all those writers who said what was in their hearts.”

Contemporaries reproached Gogol for neglecting his creative gift. “The main fair accusation against you is the following,” Shevyrev wrote to him on March 22, 1847, “why did you leave art and abandon everything before? Why have you neglected the gift of God? . Just like Belinsky, Shevyrev urged Gogol to return to artistic activity.

“I cannot understand,” Gogol answered, “why this absurd thought settled in about my renunciation of my talent and art, while from my book one could, it seems, see... what suffering I had to endure for the love of art... What should I do if my soul has become the subject of my art, am I to blame for this? What should I do if I am forced by many special events in my life to look more strictly at art? Who is to blame here? He is to blame, without whose will not a single event takes place.”

In his book, Gogol said what, in his opinion, art should be. Its purpose is to serve as an “invisible step to Christianity,” for modern man “is unable to meet directly with Christ.” According to Gogol, literature should fulfill the same task as the works of spiritual writers - to enlighten the soul, lead it to perfection. For him, this is the only justification for art. And the higher his view of art became, the more demanding he was of himself as a writer.

The awareness of the artist’s responsibility for the word and for everything he wrote came to Gogol very early. Even in the “Portrait” of the 1835 edition, the old monk shares his religious experience with his son: “Marvel, my son, at the terrible power of the demon. He tries to penetrate everything: into our affairs, into our thoughts, and even into the artist’s very inspiration.” In “Selected Places...” Gogol clearly raises the question of the purpose of a Christian artist and the payment that he pays for the gift of God entrusted to him - the Word.

The Holy Gospel says about a person’s responsibility for his word: “... for every idle word that people say, they will give an answer..." (Matthew 12:36). Gogol rebelled against idleness literary word: “You need to treat your word honestly. It is the highest gift of God to man... It is dangerous for a writer to joke with words. Let no rotten word come from your mouth! . If this should be applied to all of us without exception, then how many times more should it be applied to those whose field is the word ... "

Konstantin Mochulsky in the book “The Spiritual Path of Gogol” wrote: “In the moral field, Gogol was brilliantly gifted; he was destined to abruptly turn all Russian literature from aesthetics to religion, to move it from the path of Pushkin to the path of Dostoevsky. All the features that characterize the “great Russian literature”, which has become world literature, were outlined by Gogol: its religious and moral system, its citizenship and public spirit, its militant and practical nature, its prophetic pathos and messianism. With Gogol, a wide road begins, the open spaces of the world. Gogol’s power was so great that he managed to do the incredible: turn the Pushkin era of our literature into an episode to which there is no and cannot be a return.”

There is a lot of truth in these words, although, probably, the change in Russian literature was not so sharp. In the same Pushkin, especially the mature Pushkin of the 1830s, one cannot help but notice the beginnings of future Russian literature, which, by the way, Gogol was well aware of, calling the poet “our chief apostle.”

One of the reproaches that was brought against Gogol after the book was published was the reproach for the decline of artistic talent. Thus, Belinsky passionately asserted: “What a great truth it is that when a person gives himself entirely to a lie, his intelligence and talent leave him! If your name were not on your book and if those places where you talk about yourself as a writer were excluded from it, who would have thought that this inflated and untidy noise of words and phrases is the work of the author of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” "?"

Surprisingly, no one has tried to refute this highly biased judgment for one and a half hundred years, although among the readers and connoisseurs of the book there were people gifted with subtle artistic taste. In general, it must be said that the study of the style and language of “Selected Places...” is a matter of the future, when we have researchers who are able to correlate Gogol’s book with the tradition of patristic literature and the high style of Russian philosophical poetry of the 18th-19th centuries (examples of which are partly indicated by Gogol himself in the articles “On the lyricism of our poets”, “What is finally the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity” and the unfinished treatise “ Educational book literature for Russian youth"). But it is enough to listen open-mindedly to the music of Gogol’s text to understand the complete injustice of these reproaches. Re-read the last three pages of “Bright Sunday”: in this masterpiece of prose, the rare, dull sounds of the Lenten bell first sound, which at the end are gradually replaced by the jubilant Easter gospel.

“Why this holiday that has lost its meaning? Why does he come again, more and more silently, to call separated people into one family and, having sadly looked at everyone, leaves as a stranger and a stranger to everyone?.. And the earth was already on fire with an incomprehensible melancholy; life becomes stale and stale; everything becomes smaller and smaller, and only one gigantic image of boredom grows in the sight of everyone, reaching immeasurable growth every day. Everything is silent, the grave is everywhere. God! Your world is becoming empty and scary!

Why does it still seem to one Russian that this holiday is celebrated as it should be, and is celebrated as such in his own land? Is this a dream? But why doesn’t this dream come to anyone other than a Russian? What does it really mean that the holiday itself has disappeared, and its visible signs are so clearly sweeping across the face of our land: the words are heard: “Christ is Risen!” - and a kiss, and every time the holy midnight appears just as solemnly, and the hums of all-ringing bells walk and hum throughout the entire earth, as if waking us up? Where ghosts are so obviously running around, it’s not for nothing that they’re running around; where they wake you up, they wake you up there. Those customs that are destined to be eternal do not die. They die in the letter, but come to life in the spirit. They fade temporarily, die in empty and weathered crowds, but are resurrected with new strength in the chosen ones, so that in the strongest light from them it can spread throughout the whole world. Not a grain of what is truly Russian and what is sanctified by Christ Himself will die from our antiquity. It will spread ringing strings poets, will be announced by the fragrant lips of the saints, the darkened will flare up - and the holiday of Bright Sunday will be celebrated as it should be, before us, than among other nations!

Gogol's talent did not fade in his journalism, but manifested itself unpredictably for himself and for the reading public. An atmosphere of tragic misunderstanding developed around Gogol. He concluded from harsh criticism (perhaps incorrectly): “It is not my business to teach by preaching. Art is already teaching.” He returns to “Dead Souls” with the conviction: “Here is my field” - and works on them until his death. But the search for something new literary path and the craving for monastic life remains.

It is noteworthy that the structure of Svyatogorets’ book is the same as “selected passages from correspondence with friends.”

Correspondence of N.V. Gogol: In 2 vols. T. 2. P. 351.

In the minds of most of his contemporaries, Gogol represented classic figure a satirical writer - an exposer of human and social vices, a brilliant humorist, and finally, simply a comic writer who entertains and amuses the public. He himself was bitterly aware of this and wrote in the “Author's Confession” (1847): “I didn’t even know then that my the name is used only to reproach each other and laugh at each other.”

Contemporaries never recognized another Gogol - an ascetic writer, a successor of the patristic tradition in Russian literature, a religious thinker and publicist, and an author of prayers. With the exception of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” published with significant censorship exceptions and misperceived by most readers, Gogol’s spiritual prose remained unpublished during his lifetime. True, subsequent generations were already able to get acquainted with it, and by the beginning of the 20th century, Gogol’s literary appearance was to some extent restored. But here another extreme arose, religious-mystical, “neo-Christian” criticism of the turn of the century and most of all famous book D. S. Merezhkovsky “Gogol. Creativity, Life and Religion" built Gogol's spiritual path according to their own standards, portraying him as an almost morbid fanatic, a mystic with a medieval consciousness, a lonely fighter against evil spirits, and most importantly - completely divorced from the Orthodox Church and even opposed to it - which is why the image of the writer appeared in a bright, but completely distorted form.

The reader - our contemporary - in his ideas about Gogol is thrown back a century and a half: he again knows only Gogol the satirist, the author of "The Inspector General", "Dead Souls" and the "tendentious" book "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends." Gogol's spiritual prose practically does not exist for our contemporaries; partly they are in an even sadder position than the writer’s contemporaries: they could judge him on their own, and the current public opinion about Gogol is imposed - by numerous articles, scientific monographs and teaching in schools and universities. Meanwhile, it is impossible to understand and appreciate Gogol’s work as a whole outside of spiritual categories.

Gogol's genius still remains completely unknown not only to the general reader, but also to literary criticism, which in its current form is simply unable to comprehend the fate of the writer and his mature prose. This can only be done by a deep connoisseur of both Gogol’s work and patristic literature - and certainly one who is in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, living the church life. We dare to say that we do not yet have such a researcher. We do not undertake this task either: this article is just an attempt to outline milestones spiritual path Gogol.

In Gogol's letters from the early forties one can find hints of an event that, as he later said, “made a significant revolution in the work of creativity” for him. In the summer of 1840, he experienced an illness, but rather not a physical one, but a mental one. Experiencing severe attacks of “nervous disorder” and “painful melancholy” and not hoping for recovery, he even wrote a spiritual will. According to S.T. Aksakov, Gogol had “visions” about which he told N.P., who was caring for him at that time. Botkin (brother of the critic V.P. Botkin). Then came the “resurrection”, “miraculous healing”, and Gogol believed that his life was “necessary and would not be useless.” opened up to him new way. “From here,” writes S.T. Aksakov, - Gogol’s constant desire to improve himself begins spiritual person and predominance religious direction, which subsequently reached, in my opinion, such a high mood that is no longer compatible with the physical shell of a person.”

P.V. also testifies to the turning point in Gogol’s views. Annenkov, who states in his memoirs: “He who confuses Gogol will make a great mistake.” last period with the one who was then beginning his life in St. Petersburg, and will decide to apply to the young Gogol moral traits developed much later, already when an important revolution took place in his existence.” Annenkov dates the beginning of Gogol’s “last period” to the time when they lived together in Rome: “In the summer of 1841, when I met Gogol, he stood at the turn of a new direction, belonging to two different worlds.”

Annenkov’s judgment about the sharpness of the change that took place is hardly fair: in the 1840s, Gogol’s spiritual aspiration only became clearer and acquired specific life forms. Gogol himself always emphasized the integrity and immutability of his path and inner world. In “The Author's Confession,” he wrote, responding to the reproaches of critics who claimed that in “Selected Places...” he betrayed his purpose and invaded boundaries alien to him: “I did not stray from my path. I walked the same road"<…>- and I came to the One who is the source of life.” In the article “A few words about the biography of Gogol,” S.T. Aksakov authoritatively testifies: “Let them not think that Gogol changed his beliefs; on the contrary, with teenage years he remained faithful to them. But Gogol constantly moved forward; his Christianity became purer, stricter; the high significance of the writer’s goal is clearer and the judgment on himself is more severe.”

Gogol gradually develops ascetic aspirations and the Christian ideal emerges more and more clearly. Back in April 1840, he wrote to N.D. Belozersky: “I am now more suited for a monastery than for a secular life.” And in February 1842 he confessed to N.M. Yazykov: “I need solitude, decisive solitude<…>I was not born for worries and I feel every day and hour that there is no higher destiny in the world than the title of monk.” However, Gogol's monastic ideal has a special appearance. It's about about the purification of not only the soul, but also artistic talent along with it. At the beginning of 1842, he conceived a trip to Jerusalem and received the blessing for this of His Eminence Innokenty (Borisov), a famous preacher and spiritual writer, at that time the Bishop of Kharkov. S. T. Aksakov talks about it this way: “Suddenly Gogol enters with the image of the Savior in his hands and a radiant, enlightened face. I have never seen such an expression in his eyes. Gogol said: “I kept waiting for someone to bless me with an image, and no one did it; Finally, Innocent blessed me. Now I can announce where I am going: to the Holy Sepulcher.” Gogol never parted with this image, and after his death it was kept by Anna Vasilyevna Gogol, the writer’s sister.

When Aksakov’s wife, Olga Semyonovna, said that she now expected him to describe Palestine, Gogol replied: “Yes, I will describe it to you, but for that I need to cleanse myself and be worthy.” Continuation literary work he now cannot think without first renewing his soul: “My soul must be purer than the mountain snow and brighter than the heavens, and only then will I have the strength to begin exploits and great endeavors, then only will the mystery of my existence be resolved” (from a letter to V.A. Zhukovsky , June 1842).

An indirect reflection of Gogol’s spiritual life of this time can be found in the second edition of the story “Portrait”. The artist who created the portrait of the moneylender decides to leave the world and becomes a monk. Having purified himself by the ascetic life of a hermit, he returns to creativity and paints a picture that amazes viewers with the holiness of what is depicted. At the end of the story, the monk-artist instructs his son: “Save the purity of your soul. He who has talent within himself must have the purest soul of all. Much will be forgiven to another, but it will not be forgiven to him.”

The second edition of “Portrait,” which appeared in 1842, shortly before the release of “Dead Souls,” remained unnoticed by critics, except for Belinsky’s disapproving review. But Shevyrev, who read Gogol’s reworked “Portrait,” wrote to him in March 1843: “You revealed in it the connection between art and religion in a way that it has not been revealed anywhere else.”

That day we celebrated my birthday! - The cricket smiled. - Crickets have birthdays too! Oh, it was a great day! Why? You will understand now, my dears. Do you know Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol? Yes, yes, our Russian writer! Or rather, you cannot know him personally, unlike me. Because he lived in the 19th century. But... you know his works! You, of course, have read “The Night Before Christmas”, “Taras Bulba”, “The Inspector General”, “Marriage”. And if you haven’t read it yet, you’ve probably heard it. And you, my dears, have many wonderful moments ahead of you with these great books!

The cricket jumped from the mantelpiece and motioned to the table.

Today I am treating you to watermelon!

He waved his paw and there really was a watermelon on the table! Large, bright green with black stripes on the sides. On impact it broke... What a scent that was!

ABOUT! It was the same watermelon that was on the table on that significant day. It's my birthday!

The watermelon was huge. It lay on a table covered with a white embroidered tablecloth, already divided into even, neat pieces. The juicy, sugary pulp didn’t just beckon. It was as if she hypnotized and forced her to continuously look at the most fragrant and bright piece of food, from which black shiny seeds peeked appetizingly. Nikolenka waited... He waited patiently and courageously. The first plate, loaded with scarlet pulp, landed on a snow-white starched napkin in front of daddy. Then the same plate appeared in front of my mother. Finally, that very last piece with the blackest and most shiny seeds in the entire watermelon world smoothly landed on Nikolenka!

Nikolenka noisily inhaled the watermelon freshness. And he had just bent down to take a bite of the long-awaited delicacy when he heard a monotonous loud buzzing in his ear. Wasp! Nikolenka pulled back and watched in horror as a thick, striped wasp impudently tried to land... no, a watermelon is not land! At... watermelon! Yes, “pri-ar-bu-zi-sya!” Nikolenka adored new words. Only he could not understand where they came from in his head. He always wanted to catch at least one word by the tail! After all, every word has a tail. Some have more, some have less, and some have very tiny ones. The word “forelock”, for example... And there’s nothing to grab onto! But he will definitely grab it! Then everyone will even be surprised at how word-loving he is! And daddy will be the most surprised of all, because he says that Nikolenka won’t do any good, that he’s painfully shy, and he thinks about something out of duty. What is not good is...

Ay!!! Nasty wasp! Nose! Ay!!! Nikolenka didn’t even notice how, lost in thought, it really wasn’t good, he really gave in to that same impudent wasp who was enjoying the watermelon nectar on his, Nikolenka’s, piece...

Ay!!! Nikolenka screamed shrilly, tightly covering his face with his hands. No one, neither mummy, nor daddy, nor nanny could persuade him to remove his hands from his face. Everyone just oohed and aahed, offering lotions and poultices. They explained the necessity of these procedures for wasp stings. But it was all in vain. Nikolenka grabbed his nose with an iron grip. Only Doctor Ivan Fedorovich, quickly brought by the nimble servant Trishka on the fast horse Goloputsek, managed to persuade the boy and was the first to look at Nikolenka’s new nose. Yes... The Wasp was indeed a giantess. And time was lost. Through the efforts of the doctor, the tumor was eliminated, but the shape of the nose was hopelessly damaged. The nose stretched out incredibly and remained so on the unforgettable face of our beloved writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol throughout his entire life. great life.

What a sad and significant day! But my dears, don’t be upset! This did not spoil the great life of our writer at all! Trust me. On the contrary, it was useful to some extent! But we continue...

Nikolenka learned to read early. He didn’t even know how to say it, but he already realized that the book was a great thing. Daddy never parted with the book. Even during dinner, I sometimes read, despite the dissatisfaction of my mother, who was firmly convinced that digestion required concentration, although she herself loved to read while drinking tea. In the cozy house of landowner Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol, huge cabinets filled with books occupied endless space. At least that’s what it seemed to little Nikolenka. Among the books were old, dusty, leather-bound books that daddy didn’t allow to look at even from a distance. There were also modern poems, stories, novels, and even various plays that could be “performed at the theater.” Nikolenka still had a vague idea of ​​what theater was, but he knew that daddy also wrote comedies, that is, hilarious stories that were “played out” by roles. Nikolenka dreamed of reading himself, reading freely and easily, expressively, with heartfelt inspiration, so that everyone would listen. Read like daddy...

The desire was so great that one day Nikolenka decided to commit a crime. Dad hid the key to the bookcase securely. No way to find it. But Nikolenka noticed long ago that the key to the buffet in the living room was exactly the treasured key to the kingdom of books. And... lo and behold!.. He, this cupboard key, came up! Nikolenka, not believing his luck, took books from the shelves one after another, examined them carefully and reverently put them in their place. Finally, he came across a familiar book about the “minor” Mitrofanushka, who could not learn anything, but only ate, slept and dreamed of getting married, so that he could eat, sleep and do nothing again. When guests came to daddy’s house, they often read this “Undergrowth” by role, and daddy often read it - and read it great! - for Mrs. Prostakova, mother of the ill-fated Mitrofan. The guests laughed heartily, not suspecting that they had secret admirer, hiding behind the curtains and giggling quietly into his palm. Nikolenka had an excellent memory. So it didn't cost him anything to memorize this great comedy the great Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin. Therefore, when this book came into his hands, he easily figured out letters, sounds, syllables and sentences!

Nikolenka managed to keep the secret of the treasured key for a long time. Papa left at the same time, and Nikolenka had two or three hours of devoted reading at her disposal.

When Nikolenka was sent to the Poltava district school at the age of nine, parting with the bookcase was a real grief. He approached with tears bookshelves and stroked them gently. It’s good that daddy didn’t see this, otherwise he would have been completely upset. He had long given up on his son, considering him “not of this world.” But... Nikolenka was incredibly lucky at school. There was a library there! And not only was it not forbidden to go there, but on the contrary, it was encouraged! Nikolenka was happy. If it were possible, he would drag his bed there and live among the books, constantly enjoying the special smell of books. I must say that these dreams were half fulfilled. Nikolenka, as the most fanatical book lover, was appointed guardian school library! Guardian... It was no longer the cat who sneezed!

Apchhi!!! Nikolenka did not stop sneezing when he had to climb on the bookshelves with a damp rag. He is a custodian, which means that everything should be in order in the bookkeeping entrusted to him! Each book, little book and little booklet should be in alphabetical order and by topic, strictly in its place and in decent form. Nikolenka spared no glue and effort in repairing particularly damaged specimens. Apchhi!!! He even made up the library rules and posted them in front of the entrance.

1. Do not tear or stain books.

2. Come to the library only with clean hands.

3. Return books on time.

4. Violators are excluded mercilessly.

Shy by nature, compliant Nikolenka was as solid as a rock when it came to questions about books. It was useless to ask him for forgiveness for torn or lost book. He will never forgive you! He’ll simply cross it off from the readers’ lists and tear up the form. And take books wherever you want...

Apchhi!!! Nikolenka froze with a rag in the middle of the library and listened... It wasn’t he who sneezed!.. Whoops!!! Someone's impudent loud sneeze was heard again!.. Nikolenka was seriously scared. At this late hour he closed himself alone in the library to put the books in their places and work. He had to finish an article about his favorite poet Alexander Pushkin and his new stunning novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin,” for the gymnasium magazine “Meteor of Literature.” And besides, I decided to write my own tragedy. The name has already been invented and even neatly written on the first piece of paper in the still blank notebook - “Robbers”. Sounds?!. Ah!.. Apchhi!!! Nikolenka carefully went to the sneeze, armed with a broom just in case...

Apchhi!!! It sounded somewhere very close. Nikolenka raised his head and saw... On the top shelf, carefully moving the books to the side, there was a huge black cat! He stretched out the entire length of the shelf and shook his bushy tail. Apchhi!!! Now Nikolenka himself will sneeze. “Be healthy!” the Cat purred and yawned protractedly. The impressionable Nikolenka leaned on the next shelf to avoid fainting, touched it with his elbow, and books fell on him with a roar. But he didn't even pay attention to it. “Where did you come from?!!!”, was all Nikolenka could squeeze out. “From Alex-andr Sergeeevich m-we-s... Push-shkin... Both day and night co-scientist everything goes around and around... did you read it? So this is m-we-s and e-is...” the Cat drawled, softly jumped onto the table and brazenly sat down on Nikolenka’s notebook right on the title of the planned tragedy. Despite the improbability of what happened, Nikolenka could not tolerate such disrespect for his own creation. “Get out of here!” he yelled. But the Cat didn’t even bat an eye. Having licked his left paw with special care, he reached out, swung and hit Nikolenka quite hard on the cheek. “I warn you first and last time, you can only talk to us without your last name, dear Nikolai Vasya -i-lyevich, w-we don’t like this...,” the cat reconciledly rubbed himself against the tip of Nikolenka’s famous nose. Apchhi!!! Nikolenka blew his nose noisily. The cat smiled. “Do we know anyone?” the Cat extended his paw and Nikolenka, surprising himself, also gave the Cat his hand and nodded dumbfounded. “Well, that’s sla-avnenko. I’ll still be useful to you, Nikolai Va-asilyevich, we’ll get some work done... You have a great future..." And silently jumping off the table, the Cat walked away pompously...

Friendship with the Cat continued even when Nikolenka became famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who had already created his brilliant works: “The Inspector General”, “Marriage”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “Petersburg Tales”, “ Dead Souls" The cat came in the evenings. Rarely, really. He said there was a lot to do. Either help this one, or support that one. He was completely running around... Stretching, he settled down on Nikolai Vasilyevich’s desk and slept peacefully to the creaking sounds of his pen. He also came to dinner parties, where the best representatives gathered great era nineteenth century. And what representatives! And Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, and Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, and Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin, and Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin, and Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov... Although these meetings could not be called dinners, there were very few treats for dinner parties, the Cat liked to rub against the trousers of the great guests, leave tufts of your priceless black fur on them and listen... And there was always something to listen to here... At these dinners, along with wonderful music and high poetry sounded the stories and tales of the famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who knew how to turn his readings into real theatrical performance! The cat, without hesitation, fell on his back and laughed heartily along with all the representatives of genius. Yes... He was not mistaken in Nikolenka, he was not mistaken... True, the Cat did not always manage to stand on his own paws. He became old, weak... Nikolai Vasilyevich quickly and deftly picked up his tailed friend and helped him find balance. The cat gratefully rubbed against its native a long nose... Apchhi!!! God bless you, dear Nikolai Vasilyevich!..

N.V. Gogol knew many famous people of their time - writers, artists, publishers of literary magazines. Among them are great Russian poets: A.C. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov, great Russian critic B G. Belinsky, the first Russian fabulistI.A. Krylov, famous Russian poets V.A. Zhukovsky and E.A. Baratynsky, talented writers S.T. Aksakov, I.A. Goncharov, A.I. Herzen, great Russian artists A.A. Ivanov and K.P. Bryullov, publishers M.P. Pogodin and I.I. Panaev, a famous expert and collector of works of folk poetryV.P. Kireyevsky and many others.

“Gogol loved people. The writer carried many friendships unbreakably throughout his life, and no circumstances changed them. Gogol found friends everywhere, in the most diverse layers of Russian society with which his life encountered him. Gogol was not interested in a person’s social position, his titles, ranks and titles. The writer was attracted by the man himself, his character, his personal qualities,” note researchers of the life and work of N.V. Gogol P.K. Bogolepov and N.P. Verkhovskaya.

The people surrounding the writer were drawn to him - they were attracted by Gogol's talent as brilliant writer, his discriminating taste, wit, selflessness.

Among Gogol's many acquaintances, he had close friends with whom he went through sorrows, adversity, and happy moments of his life. First of all, this is the Aksakov family.

S.T. Aksakov

Gogol met the Aksakov family on his first visit to Moscow, in the summer of 1832. From the very first meeting, Gogol and the Aksakovs felt mutual sympathy; this feeling soon grew into friendship, to which the Aksakovs remained faithful all their lives. The Aksakov family valued Gogol as a brilliant writer; all members of this large family sought to surround Gogol with attention, warmth and care. Sergei Timofeevich received the most Active participation in Gogol's affairs throughout his life, did him a lot of good. For example, during difficult days for Gogol, he organized financial assistance for the writer, which Gogol received from his Moscow friends in a pool. S.T. Aksakov willingly carried out Gogol’s instructions (the writer lived for many years in St. Petersburg), in his letters he told him about everything that was happening in Moscow, especially in its literary life.

In turn, as critics note, communication with Gogol helped Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov find his way in literature. In the Aksakovs' house, Gogol felt like he belonged - easy, cozy, pleasant. Deprived of a family, a home, in this family he found home comfort and always greatly appreciated the Aksakovs’ ardent affection for him.

S.T. Aksakov left interesting memories about N.V. Gogol, by reading which you can learn a lot about character, relationships with people, writing wonderful Russian writer.

Information taken from: http://feb-web.ru/feb/gogol/critics/gvs/gvs-087-.htm

Pavel Vasilievich Annenkov (1812 - 1887), famous Russian critic and memoirist.

P.V. Annenkov was well acquainted with N.V. Gogol, moreover, was friendly with him. They met in the first years of Gogol’s life in St. Petersburg, when his “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” were already known. In the summer of 1841 P.V. Annenkov met Gogol in Rome, where he lived in the same house with him and helped Gogol rewrite his famous poem “Dead Souls.”

Pavel Vasilievich Annenkov

Smirnova Alexandra Osipovna (1809-1882), nee Rosset, one of the educated women of that time, a close friend of N.V. Gogol. Like the writer, she was born in Ukraine, which she loved very much, and she spent her childhood there. After graduating from the Smolny Institute, Alexandra Osipovna was appointed maid of honor to the Empress. In the palace she met V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin and other writers who began to visit her. This is how a small literary salon of a beautiful and educated woman, maid of honor Rosset, was organized. “Live, cheerful, very witty and educated, interested in art, she managed to attract the best literary forces of that time to the living room,” write P. Bogolepov and N. Verkhovskaya in their book about Gogol. In 1834 A.O. Rosset married a major official N.M. Smirnov, who later became the governor of Kaluga.

N.V. Gogol met A.O. Rosset in the first years of his life in St. Petersburg. She dated him as well as A.C. Pushkin and V.A. Zhukovsky summer in Tsarskoe Selo, where the young writer read “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” in her salon, and later - famous play"The Inspector General" and the novel "Dead Souls".

N.V. Gogol considered Alexandra Osipovna a very close person to himself - in terms of views, in spiritual moods. Throughout his life he corresponded with her, and during his travels abroad he met his extraordinary fellow countrywoman on the waters. IN last years Gogol lived in Moscow and went to visit Alexandra Osipovna in Kaluga or at her estate near Moscow. And when she came to Moscow, he saw her every day. To the poet N.M. Yazykov in the summer of 1845 N.V. Gogol wrote from Hamburg: “This is the pearl of all the Russian women I happened to... know... Beautiful in soul... She was my true comforter, whereas hardly anyone’s word could console me.”

Smirnova Alexandra Osipovna

Gogol had a huge impact on the further development of Russian literature along the path of its democratization, nationalization, and strengthening of its realistic character. Directly connected with Gogol is the “natural school”, which united writers of the 40s and was inspired by Belinsky. Writers " natural school”, such as Y. Butkov, D. Grigorovich, V. Sollogub, E. Grebenka, I. Panaev, young Dostoevsky and others, were united by following the humane and realistic traditions of Gogol, sympathetically showing the fate of a “small”, socially deprived person. The depiction of injustice and contrasts in the social environment, the manner of detailed descriptions, and most importantly the democratically protesting pathos of the works of the writers of the “natural school” marked the continuation of those ideological and artistic principles, which were laid down by Gogol. Among the writers of the “natural school” were the young Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Saltykov-Shchedrin began his creative career here, and Herzen was close to them. Writers of the “natural school” continued the work begun by Gogol of bringing literature and life closer together, exposing the feudal system, expanding and deepening the democratic and humanistic tendencies of his work.

Russian writers about Gogol

I have just read “Evenings near Dikanka”. They amazed me. This is real gaiety, sincere, relaxed, without affectation, without stiffness. And in places what poetry! What sensitivity! All this is so unusual in our current literature that I still haven’t come to my senses...

A. S. Pushkin

Gogol introduced new elements into our literature, gave rise to many imitators, and led society to the true contemplation of the novel as it should be; begins with Gogol new period Russian literature, Russian poetry...

V. G. Belinsky

Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is an amazing book, a bitter reproach to modern Rus', but not merciless. Where the gaze can penetrate the fog of unclean, manure fumes, there it sees a daring, full of strength nationality... It is sad in Chichikov’s world, just as we really are sad; and here and there there is only one consolation in faith and hope for the future. But this faith cannot be denied, and it is not just a romantic hope in heaven, but has a realistic basis: the blood somehow circulates well in the Russian’s chest.

A. I. Herzen

One should reverence Gogol as a man gifted with the deepest mind and the deepest love for people... Gogol is a true knower of the human heart...

T. G. Shevchenko

It has been a long time since there was a writer in the world who was as important for his people as Gogol was for Russia.

I. G. Chernyshevsky

[Gogol] wrote not what he might have liked more, and not even what was easier for his talent, but sought to write what he considered most useful for his fatherland.