Mykola Vasylovych Gogol is a writer of Ukrainian descent.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on March 20 (April 1 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1809 in the village of Sorochyntsi, Mirgorod County, Poltava Governorate, into the family of a small landowner.
Shortly after the future writer was born, the family moved to the village of Vasylivka in the same county, where the family estate was located.
Gogol’s father came from an ancient Ukrainian Cossack family and was considered a descendant of Ostap Gogol, the hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine in the late 17th century. He died when Nikolai was 15 years old.
For the most part, the boy was raised by his grandmother.
From 1818 to 1819, the future writer attended the Poltava District School, and from 1821 to 1828, he continued his education at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences.
Career
In 1828, Gogol set out for St. Petersburg, but due to a lack of funds, he was forced to take a position as a civil servant in the Department of Appanages.
Starting in 1830, he began to move in literary circles and became close friends with the poets Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin. This acquaintance influenced the young author’s future creative path.
In late 1833, Gogol tried to secure a position as a professor of general history at St. Vladimir’s University in Kyiv, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he was offered a position teaching Russian history, but he declined.
On July 24, 1834, the writer was appointed assistant professor in the Department of History at St. Petersburg University, where he worked for nearly a year and a half.
On December 31, 1835, he decided to give up teaching entirely and focus on literature.
That same year, he began working on the novel *Dead Souls*. The following year, his comedy *The Inspector General* was staged for the first time at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Maly Theater in Moscow.
After that, the writer left the Russian Empire for a long time and traveled throughout Europe, visiting Germany, France, and Switzerland. He spent most of his time—about four years—in Italy, where he completed the first part of *Dead Souls*.
In 1839, he returned to Moscow. Just one year later, he began showing signs of a serious nervous disorder.
In 1842, after the publication of the first volume of *Dead Souls*, the writer began work on the second volume, but in 1945 he burned the nearly completed manuscript.
In April 1848, he set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and upon his return to Moscow, he resumed work on a new version of the novel’s sequel. On February 12 (February 24 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1852, during another flare-up of his illness, he destroyed this version of the manuscript as well.
Five partially preserved fragments were published after his death.
Death/Fatalities
The writer passed away on February 21, 1852 (March 4 according to the Gregorian calendar) as a result of complete exhaustion.
He was buried in Moscow at the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery.
In 1931, the remains were moved to the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Marital Status
Gogol was never married.
In the spring of 1850, he proposed to Anna Vielgorska, but she turned him down.
Nikolai Gogol: Interesting Facts
Here are some interesting facts about the poet:
- Gogol was born into a large family—he was the third of twelve children. In all, there were six boys and six girls in the family;
- During his school years, he did not excel academically: his work was mediocre, and he struggled with languages;
- The writer had an unusual hobby—he loved doing needlework. He knitted scarves, sewed dresses for his sisters, wove belts, and more;
- Gogol enjoyed cooking. He often treated his friends to vareniki and galushki, and he also made a drink from goat’s milk and rum, which he jokingly called “gogol-mogel”;
- The writer always had candy in his pockets—he was constantly munching on something and was considered quite the sweet tooth;
- The writer was self-conscious about the shape of his nose and, according to some accounts, asked artists to alter it slightly in his portraits. As a result, the poet’s nose is depicted differently in various paintings;
- He was extremely shy.
