Nikolai Gogol

“Gogol” redirects here. For other uses, see Gogol(disambiguation).

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (/ˈɡoʊɡəl, -ɡɔːl/;[2] Russian:Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь, tr. Nikolay VasilievichGogol; IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈgogəlʲ]; Ukrainian:Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, Mykola Vasyliovych Ho-hol; 31 March [O.S. 19 March] 1809 – 4 March[O.S. 21 February] 1852) was a Russian[3][4][5][6][7]dramatist, novelist and short story writer of Ukrainianethnicity.[8][4][9] Russian and Ukrainian scholars de-bate whether or not Gogol was of their respectivenationalities.[10][11][12]

Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminentfigures of the natural school of Russian literary realism,later critics have found in Gogol’s work a fundamentallyromantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism and thegrotesque ("The Nose", "Viy", "The Overcoat,” "NevskyProspekt"). His early works, such as Evenings on a FarmNear Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbring-ing, Ukrainian culture and folklore.[13][14] His later writ-ing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire(The Government Inspector, Dead Souls), leading to hiseventual exile. The novel Taras Bulba (1835) and theplayMarriage (1842), along with the short stories "Diaryof a Madman", "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quar-reled with Ivan Nikiforovich", "The Portrait" and "TheCarriage", round out the tally of his best-known works.

1 Early life

Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village ofSorochyntsi,[4] in Poltava Governorate of the RussianEmpire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a de-scendant of Polish landowners. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks and whodied when Gogol was 15 years old, belonged to the 'pettygentry', wrote poetry in Ukrainian and Russian, and wasan amateur Ukrainian-language playwright. As was typ-ical of the left-bank Ukrainian gentry of the early nine-teenth century, the family spokeUkrainian as well as Rus-sian. As a child, Gogol helped stage Ukrainian-languageplays in his uncle’s home theater.[15]

In 1820, Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nizhynand remained there until 1828. It was there that he be-gan writing. He was not popular among his schoolmates,who called him their “mysterious dwarf”, but with two or

three of them he formed lasting friendships. Very earlyhe developed a dark and secretive disposition, markedby a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition.Equally early he developed a talent for mimicry, whichlater made him a matchless reader of his own works andinduced him to toy with the idea of becoming an actor.In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Saint Peters-burg, full of vague but glowingly ambitious hopes. He hadhoped for literary fame, and brought with him a Romanticpoem of German idyllic life –Hans Küchelgarten. He hadit published, at his own expense, under the name of “V.Alov.” The magazines he sent it to almost universally de-rided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them,swearing never to write poetry again.Gogol was one of the first masters of the short story,alongside Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée, E. T. A.Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.He was in touch with the “literary aristocracy”, had astory published in Anton Delvig's Northern Flowers, wastaken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and(in 1831) was introduced to Pushkin.

2 Literary development

In 1831 he brought out the first volume of his Ukrainianstories (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka), which metwith immediate success. He followed it in 1832 with asecond volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of storiesentitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscel-laneous prose entitled Arabesques. At this time Russianeditors and critics such as Nikolai Polevoy and NikolaiNadezhdin saw in Gogol the emergence of a Ukrainian,rather than Russian, writer, using his works to illustratesupposed differences between Russian and Ukrainian na-tional characters, a fact that has been overlooked in laterRussian literary history.[16] The themes and style of theseearly prose works by Gogol, as well as his later drama,were similar to the work of Ukrainian writers and drama-tists who were his contemporaries and friends, includ-ing Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko and Vasily Narezhny.However, Gogol’s satire was much more sophisticatedand unconventional.[17]

At this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainianhistory and tried to obtain an appointment to the his-tory department at Kiev University. Despite the sup-port of Pushkin and Sergey Uvarov, the Russian minis-ter of education, his appointment was blocked by a Kyi-

1

2 2 LITERARY DEVELOPMENT

Cover of the first edition of The Government Inspector (1836).

van bureaucrat on the grounds that he was unqualified.[18]His fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history ofUkrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his in-terests. During this time he also developed a close andlifelong friendship with another Ukrainian, the historianand naturalist Mykhaylo Maksymovych.[19]

In 1834 Gogol was made Professor of Medieval Historyat the University of St. Petersburg, a job for which he hadno qualifications. He turned in a performance ludicrousenough to warrant satiric treatment in one of his own sto-ries. After an introductory lecture made up of brilliantgeneralizations which the 'historian' had prudently pre-pared and memorized, he gave up all pretense at erudi-tion and teaching, missed two lectures out of three, andwhen he did appear, muttered unintelligibly through histeeth. At the final examination, he sat in utter silence witha black handkerchief wrapped around his head, simulat-ing a toothache, while another professor interrogated thestudents.”[20] This academic venture proved a failure andhe resigned his chair in 1835.Between 1832 and 1836 Gogol worked with great energy,and though almost all his work has in one way or anotherits sources in these four years of contact with Pushkin, hehad not yet decided that his ambitions were to be fulfilled

Commemorative plaque on his house in Rome

by success in literature. During this time, the Russiancritics Stepan Shevyrev and Vissarion Belinsky, contra-dicting earlier critics, reclassified Gogol from a Ukrainianto a Russian writer.[16] It was only after the presentation,on 19 April 1836, of his comedy The Government Inspec-tor (Revizor) that he finally came to believe in his literaryvocation. The comedy, a violent satire of Russian provin-cial bureaucracy, was staged thanks only to the interven-tion of the emperor, Nicholas I.From 1836 to 1848 Gogol lived abroad, travellingthrough Germany and Switzerland. Gogol spent the win-ter of 1836–1837 in Paris, among Russian expatriates andPolish exiles, frequently meeting the Polish poets AdamMickiewicz and Bohdan Zaleski. He eventually settled inRome. For much of the twelve years from 1836 Gogolwas in Italy. He studied art, read Italian literature anddeveloped a passion for opera. He mingled with Rus-sian and other visitors, and in 1838 met Count JosephVielhorskiy, the 23-year-old son of the official who hadbrought Gogol’s Government Inspector to the attention ofthe emperor. Vielhorsky was travelling in hopes of cur-ing his tuberculosis. Gogol and Vielhorsky fell in love, arelationship which was soon severed as Vielhorsky diedin 1839. Gogol left an account of this time in his Nightsat the Villa. “if my death could restore him to health, withwhat readiness I would have rushed toward it!"[21]

Pushkin’s death produced a strong impression on Gogol.

3

His principal work during years following Pushkin’s deathwas the satirical epic Dead Souls. Concurrently, heworked at other tasks – recast Taras Bulba and The Por-trait, completed his second comedy,Marriage (Zhenitba),wrote the fragmentRome and hismost famous short story,The Overcoat.In 1841 the first part of Dead Souls was ready, and Gogoltook it to Russia to supervise its printing. It appeared inMoscow in 1842, under the title, imposed by the censor-ship, of The Adventures of Chichikov. The book instantlyestablished his reputation as the greatest prose writer inthe language.

3 Creative decline and death

After the triumph ofDead Souls, Gogol’s contemporariescame to regard him as a great satirist who lampoonedthe unseemly sides of Imperial Russia. Little did theyknow that Dead Souls was but the first part of a plannedmodern-day counterpart to The Divine Comedy of Dante.The first part represented the Inferno; the second partwould depict the gradual purification and transformationof the rogue Chichikov under the influence of virtuouspublicans and governors – Purgatory.[22]

Gogol, painted in 1840

In April 1848 Gogol returned to Russia from a pilgrimageto Jerusalem and passed his last years in restless move-ment throughout the country. While visiting the capitals,he stayed with friends such asMikhail Pogodin and SergeiAksakov. During this period, he also spent much time

with his old Ukrainian friends, Maksymovych and OsypBodiansky. He intensified his relationship with a staretsor spiritual elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky, whom he hadknown for several years. Konstantinovsky seems to havestrengthened in Gogol the fear of perdition by insistingon the sinfulness of all his imaginative work. Exagger-ated ascetic practices undermined his health and he fellinto a state of deep depression. On the night of 24 Febru-ary 1852 he burned some of his manuscripts, which con-tained most of the second part of Dead Souls. He ex-plained this as a mistake, a practical joke played on himby the Devil. Soon thereafter, he took to bed, refused allfood, and died in great pain nine days later.Gogol was mourned in the Saint Tatiana church at theMoscow University before his burial and then buried atthe Danilov Monastery, close to his fellow SlavophileAleksey Khomyakov. His grave was marked by a largestone (Golgotha), topped by a RussianOrthodox cross.[23]In 1931 Moscow authorities decided to demolish themonastery and had Gogol’s remains transferred to theNovodevichy Cemetery.[24]

Gogol’s grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery

His body was discovered lying face down, which gave riseto the story that Gogol had been buried alive. The au-thorities moved the Golgotha stone to the new gravesite,but removed the cross; in 1952 the Soviets replaced thestone with a bust of Gogol. The stone was later reused forthe tomb of Gogol’s admirer Mikhail Bulgakov. In 2009,in connection with the bicentennial of Gogol’s birth, thebust was moved to the museum at Novodevichy Ceme-tery, and the original Golgotha stone was returned, alongwith a copy of the original Orthodox cross.[25]

4 5 POLITICS

Post-2009 gravesite of Nikolai Gogol in Novodevichy Cemetery,Moscow, Russia

The first Gogol monument in Moscow, a Symbolist statueon Arbat Square, represented the sculptor Nikolay An-dreyev's idea of Gogol rather than the real man.[26] Un-veiled in 1909, the statue received praise from Ilya Re-pin and from Leo Tolstoy as an outstanding projection ofGogol’s tortured personality. Joseph Stalin did not like it,however, and the statue was replaced by a more orthodoxSocialist Realism monument in 1952. It took enormousefforts to save Andreyev’s original work from destruction;as of 2014 it stands in front of the house where Gogoldied.[27]

4 Style

Among the illustrators of Dead Souls was Pyotr Sokolov.

D.S. Mirsky characterized Gogol’s universe as “oneof the most marvellous, unexpected – in the strictestsense, original[28] – worlds ever created by an artist ofwords.”[29]

The other main characteristic of Gogol’s writing is hisimpressionist vision of reality and people. He saw theouter world romantically metamorphosed, a singular giftparticularly evident from the fantastic spatial transforma-tions in his Gothic stories,ATerrible Vengeance andABe-witched Place. His pictures of nature are strange moundsof detail heaped on detail, resulting in an unconnectedchaos of things. His people are caricatures, drawn withthe method of the caricaturist – which is to exaggeratesalient features and to reduce them to geometrical pat-tern. But these cartoons have a convincingness, a truth-fulness, and inevitability – attained as a rule by slight butdefinitive strokes of unexpected reality – that seems tobeggar the visible world itself.[30]

The aspect under which the mature Gogol sees real-ity is expressed by the Russian word poshlost', whichmeans something similar to “triviality, banality, inferi-ority”, moral and spiritual, widespread in some group orsociety. Like Sterne before him, Gogol was a great de-stroyer of prohibitions and romantic illusions. It was hewho undermined Russian Romanticism by making vul-garity reign where only the sublime and the beautiful hadreigned.[31] “Characteristic of Gogol is a sense of bound-less superfluity that is soon revealed as utter emptinessand a rich comedy that suddenly turns into metaphysi-cal horror.”[32] His stories often interweave pathos andmockery, while "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quar-reled with Ivan Nikiforovich" begins as a merry farce andends with the famous dictum, “It is dull in this world, gen-tlemen!"

5 Politics

Gogol was stunned when The Government Inspector cameto be interpreted by many, despite Nicholas I’s patronageof the play, as an indictment of tsarism. In reality, Gogolhimself was an adherent of the Slavophile movement andbelieved in a divinely inspired mission for both the Houseof Romanov and the Russian Orthodox Church. Sim-ilarly to Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gogol sharply disagreedwith those Russians who preached constitutional monar-chy and the disestablishment of the Orthodox Church.After defending autocracy, serfdom, and the OrthodoxChurch in his book Selected Passages from Correspon-dence with his Friends, Gogol was attacked by his formerpatron Vissarion Belinsky. The first Russian intellectualto publicly preach the economic theories of Karl Marx,Belinsky accused Gogol of betraying his readership bydefending the status quo.

5

The first Gogol memorial in Russia (an impressionistic statue byNikolay Andreyev, 1909).

Amore conventional statue of Gogol at the Villa Borghese, Rome.

Gogol burning the manuscript of the second part of Dead Soulsby Ilya Repin

6 Influence and interpretations

Even before the publication of Dead Souls, Belinskyrecognized Gogol as the first realist writer in the lan-guage and the head of the Natural School, to which

Postage stamp, Russia, 2009. See also: Gogol in philately, Rus-sian Wikipedia

he also assigned such younger or lesser authors asGoncharov, Turgenev, Dmitry Grigorovich, VladimirDahl and Vladimir Sollogub. Gogol himself seemed tobe skeptical about the existence of such a literary move-ment. Although he recognized “several young writers”who “have shown a particular desire to observe real life”,he upbraided the deficient composition and style of theirworks.[33] Nevertheless, subsequent generations of radi-cal critics celebrated Gogol (the author in whose world anose roams the streets of the Russian capital) as a greatrealist, a reputation decried by the Encyclopædia Britan-nica as “the triumph of Gogolesque irony.”[34]

The period of modernism saw a revival of interest in anda change of attitude towards Gogol’s work. One of the pi-oneering works of Russian formalism was Eichenbaum'sreappraisal of The Overcoat. In the 1920s, a group ofRussian short story writers, known as the Serapion Broth-ers, placed Gogol among their precursors and consciouslysought to imitate his techniques. The leading novelistsof the period – notably Yevgeny Zamyatin and MikhailBulgakov – also admired Gogol and followed in his foot-steps. In 1926, Vsevolod Meyerhold staged The Gov-ernment Inspector as a “comedy of the absurd situation”,revealing to his fascinated spectators a corrupt worldof endless self-deception. In 1934, Andrei Bely pub-lished the most meticulous study of Gogol’s literary tech-niques up to that date, in which he analyzed the coloursprevalent in Gogol’s work depending on the period, hisimpressionistic use of verbs, expressive discontinuity ofhis syntax, complicated rhythmical patterns of his sen-

6 7 LEGACY

tences, and many other secrets of his craft. Based on thiswork, Vladimir Nabokov published a summary accountof Gogol’s masterpieces in 1944.

The house in Moscow where Gogol died. The building containsthe fireplace where he burned the manuscript of the second partof Dead Souls.

Gogol’s impact on Russian literature has been enduring,yet his works have been appreciated differently by var-ious critics. Belinsky, for instance, berated his horrorstories as “moribund, monstrous works”, while AndreiBely counted them among his most stylistically daringcreations. Nabokov especially admired Dead Souls, TheGovernment Inspector, and The Overcoat as works of ge-nius, proclaiming that “when, as in his immortal 'TheOvercoat,' Gogol really let himself go and pottered hap-pily on the brink of his private abyss, he became the great-est artist that Russia has yet produced.”[35] The Overcoatwas traditionally interpreted as a masterpiece of “human-itarian realism”, but Nabokov and some other attentivereaders argued that “holes in the language” make the storysusceptible to interpretation as a supernatural tale abouta ghostly double of a “small man.”[36] Of all Gogol’s sto-ries, The Nose has stubbornly defied all abstruse interpre-tations: D.S. Mirsky declared it “a piece of sheer play,almost sheer nonsense.”Gogol’s oeuvre has also had a large impact on Russia’snon-literary culture, and his stories have been adaptednumerous times into opera and film. Russian Com-poser Alfred Schnittke wrote the eight part Gogol Suite asincidental music to The Government Inspector performedas a play, and composer Dmitri Shostakovich set TheNose as his first opera in 1930, despite the peculiar choiceof subject for what was meant to initiate the great tradi-tion of Soviet opera.[37] Most recently, to celebrate the200th anniversary of Gogol’s birth, Vienna’s renownedTheater an der Wien commissioned music and librettofor a full length opera on the life of Gogol from Russiancomposer and writer Lera Auerbach.[38]

Some attention has also been given to the apparent anti-Semitism in Gogol’s writings, as well as those of his con-temporary, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.[39] Felix Dreizin andDavid Guaspari, for example, in their The Russian Souland the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentricis discuss “thesignificance of the Jewish characters and the negative im-age of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol’s novel

Taras Bulba, pointing out Gogol’s attachment to anti-Jewish prejudices prevalent in Russian and Ukrainianculture.”[40] In Leon Poliakov’s The History of Anti-semitism, the author mentions that “The 'Yankel' fromTaras Bulba indeed became the archetypal Jew in Rus-sian literature. Gogol painted him as supremely exploita-tive, cowardly, and repulsive, albeit capable of gratitude.But it seems perfectly natural in the story that he andhis cohorts be drowned in the Dniper by the Cossacklords. Above all, Yankel is ridiculous, and the image ofthe plucked chicken that Gogol used has made the roundsof great Russian authors.”[41]

Despite his problematic portrayal of Jewish characters,Gogol left a powerful impression even on Jewish writ-ers who inherited his literary legacy. Amelia Glaser hasnoted the influence of Gogol’s literary innovations onSholemAleichem, who “chose tomodel much of his writ-ing, and even his appearance, on Gogol... What SholemAleichem was borrowing from Gogol was a rural EastEuropean landscape that may have been dangerous, butcould unite readers through the power of collective mem-ory. He also learned from Gogol to soften this dangerthrough laughter, and he often rewrites Gogol’s Jewishcharacters, correcting anti-Semitic stereotypes and nar-rating history from a Jewish perspective.”[42]

7 Legacy

Gogol has been featured many times on Russian andSoviet postage stamps; he is also well represented onstamps worldwide.[43][44][45][46][47] Several commemo-rative coins have been issued from Russia and theUSSR. In 2009, the National Bank of Ukraine issueda commemorative coin dedicated to Gogol.[48] Streetshave been named after Gogol in various towns, includ-ing Moscow, Lipetsk, Odessa, Myrhorod, Krasnodar,Vladimir, Vladivostok, Penza, Petrozavodsk, Riga,Bratislava, Belgrade, Harbin and many other towns andcities.Gogol is mentioned several times in Fyodor Dos-toyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Chekhov's TheSeagull. More than 135 films[49] have been based onGogol’s work, the most recent being The Girl in the WhiteCoat (2011). BBC Radio 4 made a series of six Gogolshort stories, entitled Three Ivans, Two Aunts and anOvercoat (2002, adaptations by Jim Poyser).The main character in the 2003 novel The Namesake andits 2006 movie is named after Nikolai Gogol, after hisfather is saved after a train crash because he was holdinga copy of one of Gogol’s books in his hand.An eponymous poem 'Gogol' by the poet-diplomat AbhayK refers to some of the great works of Gogol such as TheNose, The Overcoat, Nevsky Prospect, Dead Souls andThe Government Inspector.[50]

Gogol serves as an ideological influence for Gypsy

7

punk band Gogol Bordello because Gogol “smuggled”Ukrainian culture into Russian society, which Gogol Bor-dello intends to do with Gypsy/East-European music inthe English-speaking world.

8 Bibliography

See Nikolai Gogol bibliography.

9 Notes and references[1] Some sources indicate he was born 20 March/1 April

1809.

[2] “Gogol”. Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictio-nary.

[3] Encyclopedia of Ukraine

[4] “Nikolay Gogol”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 31December 2010.

[5] Donald Fanger: The Creation of Nikolai Gogol. Harvard1965

[6] Amy C. Singleton: Noplace Like Home: The LiteraryArtist andRussia’s Search for Cultural Identity. NewYork1997

[7] Robert Maguire: Gogol from the Twentieth Century:Eleven Essays. Princeton University Press 1997

[8] Stephen M. Norris, Willard Sunderland: Russia’s Peopleof Empire: Life Stories from Eurasia, 1500 to the Present.Indiana Press University 2012

[9] Гоголь, Николай Васильевич // Энциклопедическийсловарь Брокгауза и Ефрона: В 86 томах (82 т. и 4доп.). — СПб., 1890—1907.

[10] Tom Parfitt. “Literary giant Nikolai Gogol opens newchapter in rivalry between Russia and Ukraine”. theGuardian.

[11] “Why did Gogol write in Russian?". XIX век.

[12] “Gogol: russe et ukrainien en même temps”.(French)

[13] Ilnytzkyj, Oleh. “The Nationalism of Nikolai Gogol': Be-twixt and Between?", Canadian Slavonic Papers Sep–Dec2007. Retrieved 15 June 2008.

[14] Karpuk, Paul A. “Gogol’s Research onUkrainian Customsfor the Dikan'ka Tales”. Russian Review, Vol. 56, No. 2(April 1997), pp. 209–232.

[15] Edyta Bojanowska. 2007). Nikolai Gogol: BetweenUkrainian and Russian Nationalism. Cambridge Mass:Harvard University Press.

[16] Edyta M. Bojanowska. (2007). Nikolai Gogol: BetweenUkrainian and Russian Nationalism. Cambridge, Mas-sachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 78–88

[17] Richard Peace (30 April 2009). The Enigma of Gogol:An Examination of the Writings of N. V. Gogol and TheirPlace in the Russian Literary Tradition. Cambridge Uni-versity Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-521-11023-5.Retrieved 15 April 2012.

[18] Luckyj, G. (1998). The Anguish of Mykola Ghoghol,a.k.a. Nikolai Gogol. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.p. 67. ISBN 1-55130-107-5.

[19] “Welcome to Ukraine”. Wumag.kiev.ua. Retrieved 22July 2013.

[20] Lindstrom, T. (1966). A Concise History of Russian Lit-erature Volume I from the Beginnings to Checkhov. NewYork: New York University Press. p. 131. LCCN 66-22218.

[21] Simon Karlinsky, The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol(Cambridge, Mass, 1976) p194

[22] Gogol declared that “the subject ofDead Souls has nothingto do with the description of Russian provincial life or of afew revolting landowners. It is for the time being a secretwhich must suddenly and to the amazement of everyone(for as yet none of my readers has guessed it) be revealedin the following volumes...”

[23] Могиле Гоголя вернули первозданный вид: нанее поставили "Голгофу" с могилы Булгакова ивосстановили крест.(Russian)

[24] “Novodevichy Cemetery”. Passport Magazine. April2008. Retrieved 12 September 2013.

[25] Могиле Гоголя вернули первозданный вид: нанее поставили "Голгофу" с могилы Булгакова ивосстановили крест.(Russian) Retrieved 23 September2013

[26] Российское образование. Федеральныйобразовательный портал: учреждения, программы,стандарты, ВУЗы, тесты ЕГЭ. (Russian)

[27] For a full story and illustrations, see Российскоеобразование. Федеральный образовательный портал:учреждения, программы, стандарты, ВУЗы, тестыЕГЭ. (Russian) and Москва и москвичи (Russian)

[28] Gogol’s originality does not mean that numerous influ-ences cannot be discerned in his work. The principle ofthese are: the tradition of the Ukrainian folk and puppettheatre, with which the plays ofGogol’s father were closelylinked; the heroic poetry of the Cossack ballads (dumy),the Iliad in the Russian version by Gnedich; the numer-ous and mixed traditions of comic writing from Molièreto the vaudevillians of the 1820s; the picaresque novelfrom Lesage to Narezhny; Sterne, chiefly through themedium of German romanticism; the German romanti-cists themselves (especially Tieck and E.T.A. Hoffmann);the French tradition of Gothic romance – a long and yetincomplete list.

[29] D.S. Mirsky. A History of Russian Literature.Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. p.155.

8 10 EXTERNAL LINKS

[30] Mirsky, p.149

[31] According to some critics, Gogol’s grotesque is a “meansof estranging, a comic hyperbole that unmasks the banal-ity and inhumanity of ambient reality.” See: Fusso, Su-sanne. Essays on Gogol: Logos and the Russian Word.Northwestern University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8101-1191-8. p.55.

[32] “Russian literature.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2005.

[33] “The structure of the stories themselves seemed especiallyunskilful and clumsy to me; in one story I noted excessand verbosity, and an absence of simplicity in the style”.Quoted by Vasily Gippius in his monograph Gogol (DukeUniversity Press, 1989, page 166).

[34] The latest edition of the Britannica labels Gogol “one ofthe finest comic authors of world literature and perhaps itsmost accomplished nonsense writer.” See under “Russianliterature.”

[35] Nabokov, Vladimir (1961). Nikolai Gogol. New York:New Directions. p. 140. ISBN 0-8112-0120-1.

[36] At least this reading of the story seems to have been onDostoevsky’smindwhen hewroteTheDouble. The quote,often apocryphally attributed to him, that “we all [futuregenerations of Russian novelists] emerged from Gogol’sOvercoat", actually refers to those few who read The Over-coat as a double-bottom ghost story (as did Aleksey Rem-izov, judging by his story The Sacrifice).

[37] Gogol Suite, CD Universe

[38] ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk) (German)

[39] Vladim Joseph Rossman, Vadim Rossman, Vidal Sas-soon. Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era. p. 64. University of Nebraska Press.Google.com

[40] “Antisemitism in Literature and in the Arts”.Sicsa.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 22 July 2013.

[41] Leon Poliakov. The History of Antisemitism. p. 75.University of Pennsylvania Press, Google.com

[42] Amelia Glaser. “Sholem Aleichem, Gogol Show TwoViews of Shtetl Jews.” The Jewish Journal, 2009. Journal:Jewish News, Events, Los Angeles

[43] “2009. Апрель, 1. 200 лет со дня рождения Н. В.Гоголя (1809–1852), писателя". Каталог почтовыхмарок (Почтовый блок России ed.). Издательско-торговый центр "Марка". Retrieved 3 April 2009.

[44] “2009. Апрель, 1. 200 лет со дня рождения Н. В.Гоголя (1809–1852), писателя". Каталог почтовыхмарок (Почтовый блок России ed.). Издательско-торговый центр "Марка". Retrieved 3 April 2009.

[45] "К 200-летию со дня рождения Н. В. Гоголявыпущены почтовые блоки". Новости. Управлениефедеральной почтовой связи Красноярского края– филиал ФГУП "Почта России". Retrieved 3 April2009.

[46] Зчіпка 200-річчя від дня народження Миколи Гого-ля (1809—1852). Марки (in Ukrainian). Дирекціярозроблення знаків поштової оплати. Retrieved 3April 2009.

[47] "Украина готовится достойно отметить 200-летиеНиколая Гоголя". Новости. Отпуск.com. 28 August2006. Retrieved 3 April 2009.

[48] Events by themes: NBU presented an anniversary coin«Nikolay Gogol» from series “Personages of Ukraine”,UNIAN-photo service (19 March 2009)

[49] “Nikolai Gogol”. IMDb.

[50] Possessed Idiots and Deadly Demons Pratilipi,December2012

This article incorporates text fromD.S. Mirsky's “AHistoryof Russian Literature” (1926-27), a publication now in thepublic domain.

10 External links• A quiz on Gogol at Goodreads

• Media related to Nikolai Gogol at WikimediaCommons

• Works by Nikolai Gogol at Project Gutenberg

• Template deprecated. See {{Librivox book}} or{{Librivox author}}

• Gogol : Magical realism

• Some photos of places and statues that are reminis-cent of Gogol and his work

• Biography at kirjasto.sci.fi

• Nikolay Gogol in Encyclopædia Britannica

• Works by or about Nikolai Gogol in libraries(WorldCat catalog)

• Мертвыя души From the Collections at the Libraryof Congress

9

11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

11.1 Text• Nikolai Gogol Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai%20Gogol?oldid=655810926 Contributors: Sjc, Camembert, DW, Olivier,Stevertigo, Lir, Patrick, Jahsonic, Ixfd64, Paul A, Александър, Sethmahoney, John K, Mxn, Dino, Lfh, Tpbradbury, Tero, Stormie,Raul654, Outerlimits, Dimadick, Bearcat, Robbot, Moriori, RedWolf, Egon, Academic Challenger, UtherSRG, JackofOz, Mandel, Jer-ryFriedman, Walloon, Mdmcginn, Cobra libre, Elinnea, Curps, Henry Flower, Chinasaur, Guanaco, Masken, Prosfilaes, Andycjp, Blank-faze, Mzajac, DragonflySixtyseven, Gene s, Ganymead, Yossarian, Irpen, Fanghong, Mike Rosoft, D6, Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough,Hhielscher, Zaslav, CanisRufus, El C, Kwamikagami, Gnomz007, Spearhead, Zidel333, ריינהארט ,לערי Haham hanuka, Alansohn, Hy-driotaphia, Philip Cross, Derumi, BanyanTree, SidP, Deacon of Pndapetzim, BDD, SteinbDJ, Ghirlandajo, RC T., Woohookitty, Jpers36,Pol098, Trapolator, Tabletop, AndriyK, Male1979, TaivoLinguist, Icey, Sjö, Rjwilmsi, Koavf, NatusRoma, Jweiss11, Attitude2000, Lock-ley, Ligulem, Ev, FlaBot, Ground Zero, Oliver Chettle, R Lee E, Fisenko, Great Deku Tree, MishaDynin, YurikBot, Noclador, JDnCoke,RussBot, Alex Bakharev, Milik, Aeusoes1, Tfine80, Badagnani, UDScott, Nephron, Tony1, Bota47, Bronks, Homagetocatalonia, Red-golpe, Mllefifi, Bandurist, Thomas Blomberg, Roke, Obnoxious, SmackBot, Dsmccoy, Kuban kazak, Vald, Bomac, Stephensuleeman,Zyxw, Eskimbot, Discordanian, Alsandro, Gilliam, Chris the speller, Lusanders, MalafayaBot, Jerome Charles Potts, Nberger, Kostmo,DHN-bot, Ledzepp461, Colonies Chris, Henrikhenrik, Konstable, OrphanBot, Nahtmmm, Yulia Romero, DenisRS, Lute88, Dacxjo, En-gleham, Gruznov, Riurik, DDima, Deiz, RossF18, Ohconfucius, Michael David, SashatoBot, John, Horlo, A.b.s, 16@r, Beetstra, Iridescent,Dekaels, TwistOfCain, Ewulp, Shubhox, Esn, JayHenry, 850 C, Iononet, ShelfSkewed, MaxEnt, Cydebot, Danrok, Ntsimp, Galassi, Trey-bien, Meladina, NorthernThunder, Kingstowngalway, PKT, Thijs!bot, Faustian, TonyTheTiger, CopperKettle, Andyjsmith, Mojo Hand,Blacklake, Tealewalrus, Oleg Kikta, Qwerty Binary, JAnDbot, StanStepanic, Arch dude, Midnightdreary, Boguslavmandzyuk, Bogdan182,Rothorpe, .anacondabot, Connormah, VoABot II, Noonday, Michael Goodyear, Prestonmcconkie, Andres68, Tdanylak, Vlad b, Glen,Garik 11, Cocytus, Cssprain, Alaexis, Kimse, Aleksandr Grigoryev, LordAnubisBOT, Michaelabril, Evn ashe, Hubacelgrand, Garret Beau-main, Anatkh, Ratbag11, Bogdan, DH85868993, Donmike10, Sergiymelnyk, Inwind, Idioma-bot, Glossologist, Lights, VolkovBot, CWii,Soshial, AlnoktaBOT, TXiKiBoT, Dirtyshoes7, Stephen Kinch, SteveStrummer, Lvivske, Someguy1221, Draglikepull, JhsBot, Broad-bot, OlehI, Spinningspark, KDoug002, Alcmaeonid, Syzygi, Badvibes101, Xeeria, SieBot, Benedetto xvi, Ostap R, Nihil novi, GrahamBeards, Scarian, Euryalus, Da Joe, Jbmurray, J.M.Domingo, Blago Tebi, Riwnodennyk, Hbyrd, Wilson44691, Monegasque, Tombomp,Sunilwrite, Sanya3, Nadasurfan, Georgequizbowl08, Jaan, Miyokan, Orshick, Chris G Bot, Emukamel, MenoBot, Tesfan, ClueBot, Dim-agene, All Hallow’s Wraith, DionysosProteus, Gregcaletta, Waxweiler, SuperHamster, TarzanASG, Evermore2, Jeanenawhitney, Ktr101,Alexbot, PixelBot, Sun Creator, Narking, RenioLinossi, DumZiBoT, Stoljaroff1987, Aqwin, XLinkBot, Soulscivil, SilvonenBot, Dariab,Kbdankbot, Addbot, Las36, Ned85, Leszek Jańczuk, USchick, Soccersh, Jabezjabez, Chzz, Favonian, Berkunt, Tassedethe, Lightbot, MatějGrabovský, Білецький В.С., Zorrobot, Greyhood, Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Windyhead, Eden87, TaBOT-zerem, Klopiv, Ispeakwith-commas, Guy1890, Nallimbot, AnomieBOT, FeelSunny, Jim1138, JackieBot, Ivan2007, Materialscientist, Citation bot, El1604, Arthur-Bot, WieDiRoc, LilHelpa, PhilAnG, Xqbot, Estlandia, Tad Lincoln, J04n, GrouchoBot, Off2riorob, Omnipaedista, Prunesqualer, Ribot-BOT, Krscal, INeverCry, Haldraper, Green Cardamom, FrescoBot, Anna Roy, V-Mark, Jbcob, PigFlu Oink, Tjam49, Icarlpt, Elockid,Tomcat7, Cnbdty, Beao, AndreusDADA, Spidey420, Ciaoping, Fantasyliterary, Lotje, Satdeep Gill, Udippuy, Ripchip Bot, Богдан Павлік,Medra42, Sasha naas, Whywhenwhohow, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, Elusker, Vittalio, HarDNox, AvicBot, ThatOneAsianKid, H3llBot,Suslindisambiguator, Sklaw5, Wayne Slam, Erianna, Lexusuns, Deepthroat1947, Knowledge Vampire, Chewings72, R.K. Keswani, Clue-Bot NG, Toshko49, Yuriybaliuk, Chrisminter, Calnbj, Swansnic, Helpful Pixie Bot, Accedie, Sjyhorse, Sprinting faster, Сол-раз, Mar-cocapelle, Iryna Harpy, Dgreenhat, Vicpvicpvicp, Алексюшка, Egeymi, Jaanus Parker, Russell Skalden, Ukrained2012, Jamesx12345,Nimetapoeg, Kalhause, Lekoren, ServiceableVillain, Babitaarora, Z748, Ушкуйник, OccultZone, Victorpatton, Monkbot, Ericdelonge182,Ephemeratta, Schoolboyz123, Qwerty9991, APravdin, Gohagoha, Superfluous man, Mr.Kos10ko and Anonymous: 348

11.2 Images• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Originalartist: ?

• File:Gogol_Portrait.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Gogol_Portrait.jpg License: Public domain Con-tributors: Cropped from http://spisyvaem.ru/uploads/posts/2009-08/1249986743_fyodormoller-portretn.v.gogolya.jpgOriginal artist: Un-known

• File:Gogol_by_Repin.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Gogol_by_Repin.jpg License: Public domainContributors: http://www.picture.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=11471 Original artist: Ilya Repin

• File:Gogol_house.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Gogol_house.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contrib-utors: Own work Original artist: Eden87

• File:Gogol_moscow.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Gogol_moscow.jpg License: GFDL Contribu-tors: http://www.ashipilin.narod.ru/Galery.files//gogol3w.jpg Original artist: Al Shipilin

• File:Ivanov_gogol.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Ivanov_gogol.jpg License: Public domain Contrib-utors: Retrieved from http://az.lib.ru/img/g//gogolx_n_w/text_0202/index.shtml Original artist: Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov

• File:Korobochka.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Korobochka.jpg License: PD Contributors:http://postcards.sgu.ru/cards/303.JPG Original artist:Pyotr Sokolov (1821-99).

• File:Monumento_di_Nikolay_Gogol_(Villa_Borghese,_Roma,_Italia).jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Monumento_di_Nikolay_Gogol_%28Villa_Borghese%2C_Roma%2C_Italia%29.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contribu-tors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Nicolas_Gogol.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Nicolas_Gogol.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Con-tributors: Photo taken by Remi Jouan Original artist: Remi Jouan

• File:Nikolai_Gogol_-_Revizor_cover_(1836).jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Nikolai_Gogol_-_Revizor_cover_%281836%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

10 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:Post-2009_gravesite_of_Nikolai_Gogol_in_Novodevichy_Cemetery,_Moscow,_Russia.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Post-2009_gravesite_of_Nikolai_Gogol_in_Novodevichy_Cemetery%2C_Moscow%2C_Russia.jpgLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: I took this photo in Moscow in October, 2011 Original artist: Toshko49

• File:Russia-Stamp-2009-NGogol.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Russia-Stamp-2009-NGogol.jpgLicense: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: SteveStrummer

• File:Wikiquote-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg License: Public domainContributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

• File:Николај_Гогољ,_Гробље_Новодевичје.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%98_%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%99%2C_%D0%93%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%99%D0%B5_%D0%9D%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87%D1%98%D0%B5.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 rs Contributors: Transferred from sr.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Mickiusing CommonsHelper. Original artist: Original uploader was Petar Milošević at sr.wikipedia

11.3 Content license• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0