April 1 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. In the history of Russian literature it is difficult to find a more mysterious figure. Brilliant artist words left behind dozens of immortal works and the same number of secrets that are still beyond the control of researchers of the writer’s life and work.
During his lifetime he was called a monk, a joker, and a mystic, and his work intertwined fantasy and reality, the beautiful and the ugly, the tragic and the comic.
There are many myths associated with the life and death of Gogol. For several generations of researchers of the writer’s work, they have not been able to come to an unambiguous answer to the questions: why Gogol was not married, why did he burn the second volume? Dead souls“and whether he burned it at all and, of course, what killed the brilliant writer.
Birth
The exact date of birth of the writer remained a mystery to his contemporaries for a long time. At first it was said that Gogol was born on March 19, 1809, then on March 20, 1810. And only after his death, from the publication of the metric, it was established that the future writer was born on March 20, 1809, i.e. April 1, new style.
Gogol was born in a region covered in legends. Next to Vasilievka, where his parents had their estate, there was Dikanka, now known to the whole world. In those days, in the village they showed the oak tree where Maria and Mazepa met and the shirt of the executed Kochubey.
While still a boy, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s father went to a temple in the Kharkov province, where he was wonderful image Mother of God. One day he saw in a dream the Queen of Heaven, who pointed to a child sitting on the floor at Her feet: “...Here is your wife.” He soon recognized in his neighbors' seven-month-old daughter the features of the child he had seen in his dream. For thirteen years, Vasily Afanasyevich continued to monitor his betrothed. After the vision repeated itself, he asked for the girl’s hand in marriage. A year later, the young people got married, writes hrono.info.
Mysterious Carlo
After some time, a son, Nikolai, appeared in the family, named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra, before whose miraculous icon Maria Ivanovna Gogol made a vow.
From his mother, Nikolai Vasilyevich inherited a fine spiritual organization, a tendency towards God-fearing religiosity and an interest in premonition. His father was suspicious. It is not surprising that from childhood Gogol was fascinated by secrets, prophetic dreams, and fatal omens, which later manifested itself on the pages of his works.
When Gogol was studying at the Poltava School, his younger brother Ivan, who was in poor health, suddenly died. For Nikolai, this shock was so strong that he had to be taken from school and sent to the Nizhyn gymnasium.
At the gymnasium, Gogol became famous as an actor in the gymnasium theater. According to his comrades, he joked tirelessly, played pranks on his friends, noticing their funny traits, and committed pranks for which he was punished. At the same time, he remained secretive - he did not tell anyone about his plans, for which he received the nickname Mysterious Carlo after one of the heroes of Walter Scott's novel "Black Dwarf".
The first book burned
In the gymnasium, Gogol dreams of a wide social activities, which would allow him to accomplish something great “for the common good, for Russia.” With these broad and vague plans, he arrived in St. Petersburg and experienced his first severe disappointment.
Gogol publishes his first work - a poem in the spirit of the German romantic school "Hans Küchelgarten". The pseudonym V. Alov saved Gogol’s name from heavy criticism, but the author himself took the failure so hard that he bought all the unsold copies of the book in stores and burned them. Until the end of his life, the writer never admitted to anyone that Alov was his pseudonym.
Later, Gogol received service in one of the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Copying out the nonsense of the gentlemen, the clerks,” the young clerk looked closely at the life and everyday life of his fellow officials. These observations will be useful to him later to create famous stories"The Nose", "Notes of a Madman" and "Overcoat".
"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", or childhood memories
After meeting Zhukovsky and Pushkin, inspired Gogol began to write one of his best works- "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka." Both parts of "Evenings" were published under the pseudonym of the beekeeper Rudy Panka.
Some episodes of the book in which real life intertwined with legends, were inspired by Gogol’s childhood visions. Thus, in the story “May Night, or the Drowned Woman,” the episode when the stepmother, who has turned into a black cat, tries to strangle the centurion’s daughter, but as a result loses a paw with iron claws, reminds real story from the life of a writer.
One day the parents left their son at home, and the rest of the household went to bed. Suddenly Nikosha - that’s what Gogol was called in childhood - heard meowing, and a moment later he saw a sneaking cat. The child was scared half to death, but he had the courage to grab the cat and throw it into the pond. “It seemed to me that I had drowned a man,” Gogol later wrote.
Why wasn't Gogol married?
Despite the success of his second book, Gogol still refused to consider the literary work his own. main task. He taught at the Women's Patriotic Institute, where he often told young ladies entertaining and instructive stories. The fame of the talented “teacher-storyteller” even reached St. Petersburg University, where he was invited to lecture at the department of world history.
In the writer’s personal life, everything remained unchanged. There is an assumption that Gogol never had any intention of getting married. Meanwhile, many of the writer’s contemporaries believed that he was in love with one of the first court beauties, Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset, and wrote to her even when she and her husband left St. Petersburg.
Later, Gogol was attracted to Countess Anna Mikhailovna Vielgorskaya, writes gogol.lit-info.ru. The writer met the Vielgorsky family in St. Petersburg. Educated and good people They warmly welcomed Gogol and appreciated his talent. The writer became especially friendly with the Vielgorskys’ youngest daughter, Anna Mikhailovna.
In relation to the Countess, Nikolai Vasilyevich imagined himself as a spiritual mentor and teacher. He gave her advice regarding Russian literature and tried to maintain her interest in everything Russian. In turn, Anna Mikhailovna was always interested in Gogol’s health and literary successes, which supported his hope for reciprocity.
According to the Vielgorsky family legend, Gogol decided to propose to Anna Mikhailovna in the late 1840s. “However, preliminary negotiations with relatives immediately convinced him that their inequality social status excludes the possibility of such a marriage,” according to the newest edition of Gogol’s correspondence with the Vielgorskys.
After an unsuccessful attempt to arrange his family life, Gogol wrote to Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky in 1848 that, as it seemed to him, he should not tie himself to any ties on earth, including family life.
"Viy" - "folk legend" invented by Gogol
His passion for the history of Ukraine inspired Gogol to create the story "Taras Bulba", which was included in the 1835 collection "Mirgorod". He handed over a copy of “Mirgorod” to the Minister of Public Education Uvarov to present to Emperor Nicholas I.
The collection includes one of Gogol's most mystical works - the story "Viy". In a note to the book, Gogol wrote that the story “is a folk legend,” which he conveyed exactly as he heard it, without changing anything. Meanwhile, researchers have not yet found a single piece of folklore that exactly resembles “Viy”.
The name of the fantastic underground spirit - Viya - was invented by the writer as a result of combining the name of the ruler of the underworld "Iron Niya" (from Ukrainian mythology) and the Ukrainian word "viya" - eyelid. Hence the long eyelids of Gogol's character.
Escape
The meeting in 1831 with Pushkin was of fateful significance for Gogol. Alexander Sergeevich not only supported the aspiring writer in the literary environment of St. Petersburg, but also gave him the plots of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls.”
The play "The Inspector General", first staged on stage in May 1836, was favorably received by the Emperor himself, who presented Gogol with a diamond ring in exchange for a copy of the book. However, critics were not so generous with their praise. The disappointment he experienced became the beginning of a protracted depression for the writer, who in the same year went abroad to “unlock his melancholy.”
However, the decision to leave is difficult to explain solely as a reaction to criticism. Gogol got ready for the trip even before the premiere of The Inspector General. He went abroad in June 1836, traveled almost all over Western Europe, having spent the longest time in Italy. In 1839, the writer returned to his homeland, but a year later he again announced his departure to his friends and promised to bring the first volume of Dead Souls next time.
One day in May 1840, Gogol was seen off by his friends Aksakov, Pogodin and Shchepkin. When the crew was out of sight, they noticed that black clouds had obscured half the sky. Suddenly it became dark, and the friends were overcome with gloomy forebodings about Gogol’s fate. As it turned out, it is no coincidence...
Disease
In 1839, in Rome, Gogol contracted severe swamp fever (malaria). He miraculously managed to escape death, but a serious illness led to progressive mental and physical health problems. As some researchers of Gogol’s life write, the writer’s illness. He began to have seizures and fainting, which is typical of malarial encephalitis. But the most terrible thing for Gogol were the visions that visited him during his illness.
As Gogol’s sister Anna Vasilyevna wrote, the writer hoped to receive a “blessing” from someone abroad, and when the preacher Innocent gave him the image of the Savior, the writer took it as a sign from above to go to Jerusalem, to the Holy Sepulcher.
However, his stay in Jerusalem did not bring the expected result. “I have never been so little satisfied with the state of my heart as in Jerusalem and after Jerusalem,” said Gogol. “It was as if I was at the Holy Sepulcher so that I could feel there on the spot how much coldness of heart there is in me, how much selfishness and self-esteem."
The disease subsided only for a short time. In the fall of 1850, once in Odessa, Gogol felt better, he again became cheerful and cheerful as before. In Moscow, he read individual chapters of the second volume of “Dead Souls” to his friends, and, seeing everyone’s approval and delight, he began to work with renewed energy.
However, as soon as the second volume of Dead Souls was completed, Gogol felt empty. The “fear of death” that once tormented his father began to take hold of him more and more.
The serious condition was aggravated by conversations with a fanatical priest, Matvey Konstantinovsky, who reproached Gogol for his imaginary sinfulness and demonstrated horrors Last Judgment, thoughts about which tormented the writer since early childhood. Gogol's confessor demanded that he renounce Pushkin, whose talent Nikolai Vasilyevich admired.
On the night of February 12, 1852, an event occurred, the circumstances of which still remain a mystery to biographers. Nikolai Gogol prayed until three o'clock, after which he took his briefcase, took out several papers from it, and ordered the rest to be thrown into the fire. Having crossed himself, he returned to bed and cried uncontrollably.
It is believed that that night he burned the second volume of Dead Souls. However, later the manuscript of the second volume was found among his books. And what was burned in the fireplace is still unclear, writes Komsomolskaya Pravda.
After this night, Gogol delved even deeper into his own fears. He suffered from taphephobia - the fear of being buried alive. This fear was so strong that the writer repeatedly gave written instructions to bury him only when obvious signs of cadaveric decomposition appeared.
At that time, doctors could not recognize his mental illness and treated him with drugs that only weakened him. If doctors had started treating him for depression in a timely manner, the writer would have lived much longer, writes Sedmitsa.Ru, citing Associate Professor of the Perm Medical Academy M. I. Davidov, who analyzed hundreds of documents while studying Gogol’s illness.
Mystery of the Skull
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died on February 21, 1852. He was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel Monastery, and in 1931 the monastery and the cemetery on its territory were closed. When Gogol's remains were transferred to, they discovered that a skull had been stolen from the deceased's coffin.
According to the version of the professor of the Literary Institute, writer V.G. Lidin, who was present at the opening of the grave, Gogol’s skull was removed from the grave in 1909. That year, philanthropist and founder of the theater museum Alexei Bakhrushin persuaded the monks to get Gogol’s skull for him. “In the Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum in Moscow there are three unknown skulls: one of them, according to assumptions, is the skull of the artist Shchepkin, the other is Gogol’s, nothing is known about the third,” Lidin wrote in his memoirs “The Transfer of Gogol’s Ashes.”
Rumors about the writer’s stolen head could later be used by Mikhail Bulgakov, a great admirer of Gogol’s talent, in his novel “The Master and Margarita.” In the book, he wrote about the head of the chairman of the board of MASSOLIT stolen from the coffin, cut off by tram wheels on the Patriarch's Ponds.
The material was prepared by the editors of rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born into a difficult family. The writer's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, also had the ability to literary work, wrote short plays for home theater and was an excellent storyteller. It was he who instilled in his son a love of literature and theater. But Vasily Afanasyevich was a very sick person. He died when the future great Russian writer was only 15. This left a certain mark on Gogol’s worldview.
Mother, Maria Ivanovna (before her marriage - Kosyarovskaya), came from a large family of a potchmaster. She was extremely different complex character, increased anxiety, impressionability and mystical exaltation. There were several mentally ill people in Maria Ivanovna's family. There is a possibility that she may have inherited certain personality traits from them.
Maria Ivanovna instilled her belief in everything mystical in her offspring, of whom she had 12. The writer’s mother lost many children while they were still alive. early age that's not in the best possible way affected the woman’s mental state. Not only was she extremely superstitious and believed in everything otherworldly, but she also sometimes behaved strangely. For example, I told my friends that Nikolai Vasilyevich is the author of most modern inventions.
Writer's personal life
It is not surprising that Nikolai Vasilyevich was deeply imbued with faith in everything mystical and was also obsessed with the fear of death. IN recent years these personality traits began to dominate. In his youth, the writer, like his anxious mother, was strikingly different from the general mass of his peers with some character quirks. He was very reserved and secretive. He was prone to unexpected and dangerous tricks. The students of the Nizhyn gymnasium, where he studied, called Nikolai Vasilyevich “beech.”
Gogol grew up vulnerable and terribly impractical, not adapted to ordinary life human. Being a brilliant writer, Nikolai Vasilyevich did not have his own home all his life. And he died in someone else’s - in the mansion of Count Tolstoy in Moscow. As required by law, after the writer’s death an inventory of his property was made. Of all the “wealth” the deceased had only books, badly worn clothes, a stack of manuscripts and a gold watch donated by Zhukovsky (in memory of Pushkin). The total cost of the property is 43.88 rubles.
Gogol not only died in poverty. He lived as an ascetic, remaining alone all his life. At the same time, he often helped young writers in need. Nikolai Vasilyevich’s ordinary human affection was directed towards his selflessly beloved sisters and mother. Gogol never married and had no children. And yet there were 2 women in his life who awakened feelings of love.
Favorite women of Nikolai Vasilyevich
Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset
Gogol was not a charming man. Short and rather awkward, with a long nose, he could hardly claim to be popular with the ladies. And because of his views and habit of living in poverty, he simply could not afford to start a family. And yet the writer loved. One of his favorite women was the imperial maid of honor, the beauty and cleverness of Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset.
Dark, black-eyed Sashenka was friends with many writers and outstanding personalities of that time. She even inspired many: she was a real muse of Lermontov and Vyazemsky, Pushkin and, of course, Gogol himself. The latter was introduced to the maid of honor by Zhukovsky. The pretty beauty immediately won Gogol's heart.
A touching and tender relationship began between them. Nikolai Vasilyevich corresponded with Alexandra, shared with her his writing ideas, plans, and discussed works that had just come out of his pen. But he did not even dare to talk to the girl about his love. She intuitively felt that she was loved by Gogol, and responded to the writer with the most tender affection. But he was not a worthy match for such a high-ranking person, so there was no talk of any reciprocity or physical love.
Sashenka married a rich man and influential official Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nikolai Smirnov. The husband was not only a high-ranking person, but also owned a huge Spasskoye estate near Moscow. According to the world, the maid of honor made a brilliant part.
Maria Sinelnikova
The second woman who touched the writer’s heart was his cousin Maria Sinelnikova. She was married off early, but family life things didn't work out between the spouses. Maria left her husband and moved to her Kharkov estate, Vlasovka. Left alone, she began to go out into the world. Once, during an illness, she was visited by relatives - her aunt and her adult children, one of whom was Nikolai Vasilyevich.
Maria was amazed by his gentle character, subtle, vulnerable soul. As the woman later wrote, she found in him “real brotherly sympathy.” It was probably precisely this kind of understanding that she lacked in men. Maria Sinelnikova immediately fell in love with Gogol and even confessed her feelings to him
During the entire time that her relatives were visiting her on the estate, Maria did not leave the writer a single step, constantly whispering something in his ear and making him blush. Alas, all this happened shortly before the writer’s death. Nikolai Vasilyevich was then strongly influenced by religious and mystical trends, fasted regularly and did not even think about marriage.
After his departure, Maria began to regularly write tender letters to her lover, and he always answered them. 2 years after they met, Gogol passed away. Maria Sinelnikova forever retained the fondest memories of him.
Something similar happened after the films based on Dostoevsky - it’s funny, but cinema returned Fyodor Mikhailovich to us. Nowadays everyone is discussing Nikolai Vasilyevich, the controversial film about him and, of course, perhaps the most “catchy” moment - Gogol’s fatal love, Liza Danishevskaya, performed by Taisiya Vilkova. And many people wonder - what really happened in the writer’s personal life? ... Women, especially smart ones, often become victims of male intelligence.
Fair-haired (that’s right - Gogol began to be portrayed as a brunette only because his early portraits had darkened), touching and moderately modest, Nikolai Gogol quickly made everyone forget about his long nose and unprepossessing figure - his speeches were so smart and his humor was so subtle. By the way, on occasion, he could shock the audience by telling quite a dashing anecdote! It is possible that the vulnerable Nikolai Vasilyevich was complex because of his appearance, but in vain - she did not stop her from falling in love with him. And the ladies looked after him... Princess Varvara Repnina, for example, noticing Gogol’s passion for sweets, prepared compotes for him herself. And Zinaida Volkonskaya, the owner of an elite intellectual salon in Moscow, showed him signs of attention. But in response there was silence... Why? According to one version, Nikolai Vasilyevich was afraid of love. The truth is partly revealed in his letter to Alexander Danilevsky: the writer admitted that his nature is so sensual that “the flame of love would incinerate him in an instant.” There are also versions about Gogol’s hidden homosexuality, which are not confirmed by anything. Rather, and many of his biographers are inclined to this thought, he simply did not have the “ardor of nature.” So on the famous “playful” bas-reliefs of a house on Plotnikov Lane in the capital, Nikolai Vasilyevich is depicted only as an observer, but not a participant in romantic scenes. Or maybe the problem is different. All his life he strived for the ideal.
And in the film “Gogol. The Beginning”, he burns his “Hanz Küchelgarten”, embarrassed by its romantic orientation.
But his ideal is a woman.
Back in 1831, in the Literary Gazette, he wrote: “We are maturing and improving; but when? When we comprehend a woman more deeply and more perfectly.”
So the lack of ardor explains everything. But this does not mean that he was deprived of the ability to love with his heart.
Mom and angel
Maria Ivanovna and Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky had 12 children, of whom only five survived - four daughters (Anna, Maria, Elizaveta and Olga) and a son Nikosha.
The head of the family died at the age of 47, and 16-year-old Nikosha remained the only male in the family. AND main woman His mother will remain in his life forever. Maria Ivanovna adored her son, he was frank with her. He wrote about his first love in a letter to his mother, explaining his urgent departure abroad in 1829. Here are the lines from the letter: “I saw her... no, I won’t name her... she is too tall for anyone, not just me. I would call her an angel, but this expression is inappropriate for her. This is a deity, slightly dressed in human passions...” Who was this woman? Isn’t Danishevskaya also copied from her? However, researchers believe that the writer was weaving tall tales, trying to explain the incomprehensible departure, and nothing more. And whether this “beautiful lady” was real remains a mystery.
Alexandra
The Empress's maid of honor, muse of Pushkin, Lermontov, Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky, Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset met Gogol in 1831. The writer admired her, trusted her with his secrets, wrote the second volume of “Dead Souls” on her estate near Kaluga, and gave her a new, ninth chapter from there to read. There is an assumption that the chapter that shocked Alexandra Osipovna, where Gogol described Platonov’s love for Ulenka, was dedicated to her. Why not? Alexandra was married, Gogol was timid, their relationship remained platonic. But Aksakov was sure that Gogol loved Alexandra, without realizing it.
Anna
With family famous musician The writer became close to Mikhail Vielgorsky in Italy. He also liked Anechka Vielgorskaya. Gogol felt like her mentor, and then realized that he couldn’t find a better bride. He planned to re-educate Anechka, wean her from empty talk and chirping in French, and dreamed of settling her in the village. Having gathered his courage and planned everything out, he proposed to her, but was refused: the writer clearly lost in status to Prince Shakhovsky, whom Anechka later married. The refusal shocked the writer. Here it was not so much a matter of love as of wounded pride. He was lost, torn to pieces, humiliated, endlessly complained to his friend Aksakov and went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Depression worsened as work on " Dead souls"It was extremely difficult. Gogol made no more attempts to arrange his family life.
Mashenka
Gogol's cousin Maria Sinelnikova was the one who deeply and sincerely loved him. After the divorce and moving to the Vlasovka estate, she received Nikolai Vasilyevich there and, according to eyewitnesses, confessed her love to him. After Gogol left, she turned his room into a memorial. Years later, Maria refused to give her and Gogol’s correspondence to the writer’s friend, Professor Shevyrev: “They relate only to me, and therefore I cannot rewrite them for you.”
Apparently, before her death, Maria Nikolaevna destroyed the letters, not allowing anyone to touch their secret and love. Until her death, she did not take off her mourning gold ring, inside of which was engraved: “Deceased.” N. Gogol. 1852 Feb. 21".
After the writer’s death, an inconsolable lady in a veil stood near his coffin all night. It was Countess Evdokia Rastopchina. Wasn't she that "angel"? It’s impossible to recognize... But Nikolai Gogol was unable to feel the full measure of love for himself from his many fans and admirers. This love found him after death...
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born into a difficult family. The writer's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, also had a talent for literary work, wrote short plays for home theater and was an excellent storyteller. It was he who instilled in his son a love of literature and theater. But Vasily Afanasyevich was a very sick person. He died when the future great Russian writer was only 15. This left a certain mark on Gogol’s worldview.
Mother, Maria Ivanovna (before her marriage - Kosyarovskaya), came from a large family of a potchmaster. She was distinguished by an extremely complex character, increased anxiety, impressionability and mystical exaltation. There were several mentally ill people in Maria Ivanovna's family. There is a possibility that she may have inherited certain personality traits from them.
Maria Ivanovna instilled her belief in everything mystical in her offspring, of whom she had 12. The writer’s mother lost many of her children at an early age, which did not have the best effect on the woman’s mental state. Not only was she extremely superstitious and believed in everything otherworldly, but she also sometimes behaved strangely. For example, I told my friends that Nikolai Vasilyevich is the author of most modern inventions.
Writer's personal life
It is not surprising that Nikolai Vasilyevich was deeply imbued with faith in everything mystical and was also obsessed with the fear of death. In recent years, these personality traits have become dominant. In his youth, the writer, like his anxious mother, was strikingly different from the general mass of his peers with some character quirks. He was very reserved and secretive. He was prone to unexpected and dangerous tricks. The students of the Nizhyn gymnasium, where he studied, called Nikolai Vasilyevich “beech.”
Gogol grew up as a vulnerable and terribly impractical person, not adapted to ordinary life. Being a brilliant writer, Nikolai Vasilyevich did not have his own home all his life. And he died in someone else’s - in the mansion of Count Tolstoy in Moscow. As required by law, after the writer’s death an inventory of his property was made. Of all the “wealth” the deceased had only books, badly worn clothes, a stack of manuscripts and a gold watch donated by Zhukovsky (in memory of Pushkin). The total cost of the property is 43.88 rubles.
Gogol not only died in poverty. He lived as an ascetic, remaining alone all his life. At the same time, he often helped young writers in need. Nikolai Vasilyevich’s ordinary human affection was directed towards his selflessly beloved sisters and mother. Gogol never married and had no children. And yet there were 2 women in his life who awakened feelings of love.
Favorite women of Nikolai Vasilyevich
Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset
Gogol was not a charming man. Short and rather awkward, with a long nose, he could hardly claim to be popular with the ladies. And because of his views and habit of living in poverty, he simply could not afford to start a family. And yet the writer loved. One of his favorite women was the imperial maid of honor, the beauty and cleverness of Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset.
Dark-skinned, black-eyed Sashenka was friends with many writers and prominent personalities of that time. She even inspired many: she was a real muse of Lermontov and Vyazemsky, Pushkin and, of course, Gogol himself. The latter was introduced to the maid of honor by Zhukovsky. The pretty beauty immediately won Gogol's heart.
A touching and tender relationship began between them. Nikolai Vasilyevich corresponded with Alexandra, shared with her his writing ideas, plans, and discussed works that had just come out of his pen. But he did not even dare to talk to the girl about his love. She intuitively felt that she was loved by Gogol, and responded to the writer with the most tender affection. But he was not a worthy match for such a high-ranking person, so there was no talk of any reciprocity or physical love.
Sashenka married a rich and influential official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nikolai Smirnov. The husband was not only a high-ranking person, but also owned a huge Spasskoye estate near Moscow. According to the world, the maid of honor made a brilliant part.
Maria Sinelnikova
The second woman who touched the writer’s heart was his cousin Maria Sinelnikova. She was married off early, but the couple's family life did not work out. Maria left her husband and moved to her Kharkov estate, Vlasovka. Left alone, she began to go out into the world. Once, during an illness, she was visited by relatives - her aunt and her adult children, one of whom was Nikolai Vasilyevich.
He died 160 years ago, in February 1852. But so far his biographers have not gotten to the bottom of the truth: did he have at least one affair with a woman? Yes, there were ladies who fell in love with him. And there were those whom he considered the incarnation of deity. But, as researchers say, he was afraid to get close to women. They seemed to him to be creatures of a witchcraft breed - vicious and without a soul.
“I saw her... no, I won’t name her... she’s too tall for anyone, not just me,” he wrote Nikolai Gogol to his mother from St. Petersburg in July 1829. “I would call her an angel, but this expression is inappropriate for her.” This is a deity, but slightly dressed in human passions... In a fit of rage and the most terrible mental torment, I thirsted, seethed to drink in just one look, I hungered for just one look... But for God’s sake, don’t ask her name. She's too tall, too tall!"
The writer never named the name of that beautiful stranger. Researchers are still wondering who she is. There were those who suspected the writer of wanting to create fog. Say, young Nikolai Gogol wasn't in love at all. He just didn’t want his mother to know that he was having a hard time with the failure of his first book - the poem “ Hanz Kuchelgarten" But others argue with them, assuring them: there was a woman after all!
The writer Sergei Aksakov mentioned the name - Alexandra Smirnova, née Rosset. And Gogol called her “swallow Rosetta.”
She was a maid of honor to Empress Maria Feodorovna. She was courted by the famous womanizers of the empire - the poet Alexander Pushkin and Tsar Nicholas II. But only to the author of “Dead Souls” did she open her heart. About a hundred of his letters to her have survived.
For the first time the name of this 22-year-old maid of honor Nikolai Gogol mentioned in a letter to Zhukovsky in September 1831: “I could hardly cope with my book and now I have only received copies to send you stories.” (We were talking about “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka.” - Author). One is actually for you, another is for Pushkin, the third with a sentimental inscription is for Rosetta...” And if you compare the dates, it turns out that he was not writing to his mother about a mythical woman, he was not being cunning, but his head was really turned by the divine “swallow Rosetta.”
“The love that binds you and me is high and holy. It is based on mutual spiritual assistance, which is several times more significant than any external assistance,” wrote Nikolai Vasilievich Smirnova-Rosset.
Alexandra was married, but her husband was only her friend. She couldn't part with him. And marriage with Gogol was impossible. But it was to her, Rosetta, one of the few, that Nikolai Vasilyevich read his works before publication. It was to her, the only one, that he offered to read a new chapter from the second volume of “Dead Souls” and asked not to tell anyone the contents of the manuscript. And in 1845, Alexandra Osipovna had a prophetic dream about the burning of the second volume of Dead Souls, and she told this to Nikolai Vasilyevich. And by an amazing coincidence, he burned the manuscript.
However, many are inclined to believe that between them there was only platonic love- the union of two lonely souls.
One day she told him: “Listen, you are in love with me...” He got angry and ran away. I didn’t go see her for three days! About this strange behavior The writer was also reported by Sergei Aksakov.
However, there is other evidence about Gogol’s attitude towards Smirnova-Rosset. Once, his friend from his youth, Alexander Danilevsky, made fun of Nikolai Vasilyevich about this relationship. The writer wrote him the following lines in response: “It is difficult for someone who has already found something better to chase after something worse...” What did he mean? Rumor has it that he had a close relationship with Danilevsky. As the writer’s contemporaries assured, no one’s appearance ever had such a “magical effect” on Gogol; no one managed to create in him such a “pleasant mood” as Sasha Danilevsky. Their common interests went beyond the generally accepted.
In one of his messages, Danilevsky wrote to Gogol about some gentleman in a restaurant: “he appeared with a large silver coffee pot, without a doubt, he was more desirable to us than the beauties.”
And what’s even stranger is that the same “swallow Rosetta” described Gogol’s ambiguous affection for the young Count Joseph Vielgorsky. Gogol met 23-year-old Joseph in Rome. He suffered from consumption. They called the six months they spent together the happiest period of their lives. Gogol did not leave his bedside, and after his death he even wanted to marry Joseph’s sister. Her parents refused him.
Gogol poeticized the romantic male brotherhood, passionate friendship and the beauty of the male body. But at the same time, even his opponents agreed: it is unlikely that he entered into relationships with men. However, most likely, he did not have intimacy with women either. He suppressed his sexuality and was terrified of love, anticipating its terrible, destructive power over his soul. His nature was so sensual that the flame of love would turn him into dust in an instant.
By the way
Nikolai Gogol loved to tell dirty jokes, and even uttered obscenities and obscene poems in front of the ladies.
Modern psychologists give the following explanation for this behavior: the writer avoided women without ever touching the secrets of sex, because he considered it a sin - but the sexuality he drowned out was transformed into obscenity: in this way the steam of unsatisfied libido was released.
