Gogol N.V. (1809-1852), writer

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GOGOL Nikolay Vasilievich (1809-1852), writer. Graduated from Poltava Provincial School (1819) and Nezhinsk Gymnasium of Higher Sciences (1828). In 1828 moved to St. Petersburg, in 1829 served in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 1830-31, in the Imperial Land Department (Departament Udelov), in 1831-35 taught history at the Patriotic Institute. In 1834-35 - Adjunct Professor of the World History Department of Petersburg University (lectured in the department in Kabinetskaya Street, today Pravdy Street, the building has not been preserved; there is a memorial plaque in the private office of the University's research assistants). Made his literary debut in 1829. His works were published in Literaturnaya gazeta newspaper, the almanac Severnye tsvety, contributed to Pushkin's Sovremennik. In the late 1830 - early 1831 became acquainted with V. A. Zhukovsky, in 1831 - with A. S.Pushkin, who inspired the creation of The Inspector General and Dead Souls. In 1836 The Inspector General was staged in the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The negative reaction of critics and authorities forced him to leave St. Petersburg, later on he only paid short visits to the city (the last one was in 1848) and lived mainly abroad. The city of St. Petersburg is one of the central characters of his so-called Petersburg stories - Nevsky Prospect, The Portrait, Diary of a Madman (included in Arabesques short stories collection - St. Petersburg, 1835), The Nose (published in the journal Sovremennik, 1836), The Overcoat (SPb, 1842). Gogol masterfully pictures parts and whole streets of St. Petersburg, portraying it as the city of senseless effectiveness and shallow passions of petty officials. Gogol's combination of the grotesque image of the urban life and the precise depiction of specific localities of St. Petersburg determined the main characteristic of the Petersburg text in Russian Literature. Main addresses: 74 Griboedova Canal Embankment (1829, the building has not preserved); 39 Bolshaya Meshchanskaya (today Kazanskaya) Street (1829); 18/69 Griboedova Canal Embankment (1829-31); 17 Malaya Morskaya Street (in 1902-93 Gogolya Street) (1833-36, memorial plaque). Streets in Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Strelna and Pargolovo have been named after Gogol. A library of Krasnogvardeisky District bears his name. The bust to Gogol was placed in the Alexandrovsky Garden (1896, sculptor V.P. Creitan), the monument is in Malaya Konyushennaya Street (1997, sculptor M. Belov, architect V. Vasilkovsky). There is a composition in the memory of Gogol's novel The Nose at the corner of Voznesenskogo Avenue and Rimskogo-Korsakova Avenue (1995, architect V.B. Bukhaev, artist R.L. Gabriadze).

References: Гиллельсон М. И., Мануйлов В. А., Степанов А. Н. Гоголь в Петербурге. Л., 1961; Маркович В. М. Петербургские повести Н. В. Гоголя. Л., 1989.

D. N. Akhapkin. Belov Mikhail Vladimirovich
Bukhaev Vyacheslav Borisovich
Creitan (Cretan) P.
Gabriadze Revaz Levanovich
Gogol Nikolay Vasilievich
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Vasilkovsky V.V.
Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich
Gogolya Street/Pavlovsk, town
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 69/18
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 74
Kazanskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 39
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 17
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Pravdy St./Saint Petersburg, city
Гиллельсон М. И., Мануйлов В. А., Степанов А. Н. Гоголь в Петербурге. Л., 1961
Маркович В. М. Петербургские повести Н. В. Гоголя. Л., 1989 Literaturnaya gazeta (Literary Newspaper), 1830-1831, 1840-1849
Severnye Tsvety (Northern Flowers), almanac
Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Alexandrinsky Theatre
1836
1842