Father Theodore’s scheme is quite conditional: these “departments” can be redistributed or others can be allocated - for example, letters about the responsibilities of various classes and the vocation of each individual (“What is a governor’s wife”, “Russian landowner”, “To someone who occupies an important place” , “Whose destiny 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, the national idea is 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 serve Russia truly honestly needs to have a lot of love for her, which would absorb all other feelings - he needs to have a lot of love for people in general and become true Christian, in every 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 acted as a 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 these are important), but mainly on spiritual foundations national character. Gogol's view of Russia is, first of all, the view of an Orthodox Christian, aware that all material wealth must be subordinated to a higher goal and directed towards it.
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. The central place is occupied by 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 his mind alone, 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 Vasilievna 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 the 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, classical works- “Confession” of St. Augustine and “Confession” of Rousseau. 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. In spiritual literature, this genre was represented by the wonderful work of Hieroschemamonk Sergius - “Letters of the Holy Mountain 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 Oh".
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 identity of the author 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“unable to meet Christ directly.” 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 the idle literary word: “You need to handle the 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 “ Spiritual path 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 character, 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 think 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 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 “A textbook of 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, then in order to spread throughout the world in the strongest light from them. Not a grain of what is truly Russian and what is sanctified by Christ Himself will die from our antiquity. It will be carried by the sonorous strings of poets, announced by the fragrant lips of 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 a new literary path and the craving for monastic life remain.
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.
I am glad that your health is better; my health... but aside from our health; we must forget about them, as well as about ourselves. So, you return again to your provincial city. You must love him with new strength - he is yours, he is entrusted to you, he must be your family. It is in vain that you begin to think again that your presence in relation to social activities in it is completely useless, that society is fundamentally corrupted. You're just tired, that's all. The governor's wife will have to work everywhere, at every turn. She even makes an impact when she does nothing. You yourself already know that it’s not a matter of fuss and recklessly throwing yourself into everything. Here are two living examples that you yourself named. Your predecessor, F***, started a bunch of charitable institutions, and with them - heaps of paper correspondence and fuss, housekeepers, secretaries, theft, stupidity, became famous for charity in St. Petersburg and created a mess in K***; Princess O***, who was before her the governor of your same city K***, did not open any establishments or shelters, did not make any noise anywhere beyond her city, did not even have any influence on her husband and was not involved in anything , actually government and official, and yet to this day no one in the city can remember her without tears, and everyone, from the merchant to the last nobleman, still repeats: “No, there will never be another Princess O***! » And who repeats this? The same city for which you believe nothing can be done is the same society that you believe is forever corrupted. So, as if nothing can be done? You're tired - that's all! You were tired because you started too rashly, you relied too much on your own strength, you were carried away by the feminine agility... I repeat to you again the same thing as before: your influence is strong. You are the first person in the city, they will take everything from you to the last trinket, thanks to the monkeyiness of fashion and our Russian monkeyiness in general. You will be a legislator in everything. If you just begin to manage your own affairs well, then you will already have an influence, because you will force others to take better care of their own affairs. Drive away luxury (for now there are no other things to do), this is already a noble cause, and it does not require any fuss or costs. Don’t miss a single meeting or ball, come just to show up in the same dress; wear the same dress three, four, five, six times. Praise at everyone only what is cheap and simple. In a word, drive away this disgusting, nasty luxury, this ulcer of Russia, the source of bribes, injustices and abominations that we have. If you manage to do just this one thing, then you will bring more significant benefit than Princess O*** herself. And this, as you can see for yourself, does not even require any donations, and does not even take time. My friend, you are tired. From your previous letters, I see that, to begin with, you have already managed to do a lot of good (if you weren’t in too much of a hurry, even more would have happened), rumors have already spread about you outside of K***; some of them reached me too. But you are still very hasty, you are still too carried away, you are still too agitated and overwhelmed by all sorts of unpleasantness and nastiness. My friend, remember again my words, the truth of which, you say that you yourself are convinced: look at the whole city, like a doctor looks at the infirmary. Look like this, but add something else to this, namely: assure yourself that all the sick people in the infirmary are your relatives and people close to your heart, then everything will change for you: you will be reconciled with people and will antagonize only their diseases. Who told you that these diseases are incurable? You told yourself this because you didn’t find the means in your hands. Well, are you an all-knowing doctor? Why didn’t you ask others for help? Did I ask you for nothing to tell me everything that is in your city, to introduce me to the knowledge of your city, so that I have a complete understanding of your city? Why didn’t you do this, especially since you yourself are sure that I can have more influence on many things than you; especially since you yourself attribute to me some general knowledge of people that is not common to everyone; especially, finally, since you yourself say that I helped you in your spiritual matter more than anyone else? Do you really think that I could not help your incurable patients in the same way? After all, you have forgotten that I can pray, my prayer can reach God, God can send admonition to my mind, and a mind admonished by God can do something better than a mind that has not been admonished by Him.
Until now, in your letters you have given me only general concepts about your city, in general terms that can belong to any provincial city; but also are common yours are not complete. You relied on the fact that I know Russia like the back of my hand; and I don’t know anything about it. If I knew one thing, it had already changed since I left. Significant changes took place in the composition of the administration of the provinces: many places and officials moved away from the dependence of the governor and entered the department and administration of other ministries; new officials and places have appeared, in a word - the province and the provincial city appear in relatively many ways in a different form, and I asked you to introduce me absolutely in your position, not any perfect, But essential, so that I can see everything that surrounds you, from small to large.
You yourself say that during your short stay in K*** you got to know Russia more than in your entire previous life. Why didn't you share your knowledge with me? Say that you don’t even know where to start, that a lot of information you have typed into your head is still in disarray (NB the reason for failure). I will help you put them in order, but just fulfill the following request in good faith, as best you can - not the way your brother is used to fulfilling it - a passionate woman who will miss eight out of ten words and answer only two, because they came she somehow likes it, but just like our brother - a cold, impassive man, or, better, like a businesslike, smart official who, without taking anything particularly to his heart, answers exactly all points.
For my sake, you must begin to review your provincial city again. Firstly, you must tell me all the main people in the city by first name, patronymic and last name, every single official. I need it. I must be a friend to them just as you yourself must be a friend to all of them without exception. Secondly, you must write to me exactly what each person’s position is. You must learn all this personally from them, and not from anyone else. After talking with everyone, you should ask him what his position is, so that he tells you all of it items and designated it limits. This will be the first question. Then ask him to explain to you exactly how and how much good you can do in this position, under current circumstances. This will be the second question. Then, what exactly and how much evil can be done in this same position. This will be the third question. Having found out, go to your room and immediately write it all down on paper for me. You will already do two things at once: besides giving me a means of being useful to you later, you will learn for yourself from the official’s own answers how he understands his position, what he lacks, in a word - with his answer he will describe himself. He may even lead you to do something right now... But that’s not the point: it’s better not to rush until the time comes; do not do anything even if it seems to you that you can do something and that you are able to help something. It’s better to take a closer look for now; for now be content with passing it on to me. Then on the same page, opposite the same place or on another piece of paper - your own comments, what you noticed about each gentleman in particular, what others say about him, in a word - everything that can be added about him from the outside.
Then provide me with the same information about the entire female half of your city. You were so smart that you paid them all visits and recognized almost all of them. However, they found out imperfectly, I’m sure of that. Regarding women, you are guided by first impressions: the one you don’t like, you leave that one. You are looking for all the favorites and the best. My friend! I will reproach you for this. You must love everyone, especially those who have more rubbish in them - at least get to know them more, because a lot depends on this and they can have a great influence on their husbands. Take your time, don’t rush to instruct them, but just ask them; You have the gift of asking questions. Find out not only the affairs and activities of each, but even the way of thinking, tastes, what each person likes, what each of them likes, what each person’s hobby is. I need it all. In my opinion, in order to help someone, you need to know him through and through, and without that I don’t even understand how you can give anyone any advice. Any advice you give him will be addressed to him by its difficult side, it will not be easy, it will be difficult to implement. In a word, women - all of them! so that I have a perfect understanding of your city.
In addition to the characters and persons of both sexes, write down every incident that in any way characterizes the people or the spirit of the province in general, write down ingenuously, in the form as it was, or as in which faithful people conveyed it to you. Also write down two or three pieces of gossip, the first ones you come across, so that I know what kind of gossip you have going on. Make this writing a permanent activity of yours, so that there is a designated hour in the day for this. Imagine in your mind, systematically and in its entirety, the entire volume of the city, so that you can suddenly see if you have missed anything for me to write down, so that I finally get a complete understanding of your city.
And if you introduce me in this way to all the persons, to their positions, and how they understand them, and, finally, even to the nature of the events themselves that happen to you, then I will tell you something, and you will see that much is impossible The incorrigible is possible and can be corrected. Until then, I won’t say anything precisely because I could be wrong, and I wouldn’t want that. I would like to speak words that would hit right where they should be, neither above nor below the object at which they are directed - to give such advice that you would say at the same moment: “It is easy, it can be carried out.”
Here, however, is something ahead, and not for you, but for your spouse: ask him, first of all, to pay attention to ensuring that the advisers to the provincial government are honest people. This is the main thing. As soon as the advisers are honest, immediately the police captains and assessors will be honest, in a word - everything will become honest. You need to know (if you don’t already know this) that the safest bribe, which eludes all persecution, is the one that an official takes from an official on command from top to bottom; it sometimes goes like an endless staircase. The police captain and assessors often have to bend their hearts and take what is taken from them and because they need money to pay for their place. This buying and selling can take place before your eyes and at the same time not be noticed by anyone. God bless you even to pursue. Just try to keep everything honest from above; from below everything will be honest by itself. Until the time when evil has matured, do not pursue anyone; Better act morally in the meantime. Your idea that the governor always has the opportunity to do a lot of evil and little good and that in the field of good he is limited in actions is not entirely fair. The governor can always have influence moral, even very big, just like you can have a big one moral influence, although you have no power, established by law. Believe me, if he didn’t pay a visit to some gentleman, the whole city would be talking about it, they would ask why and why - and this same gentleman, because of this single fear, would be afraid to commit meanness, which he would not be afraid to commit in the face of power and the law. Your action, that is, yours and your spouse’s, with the district judge of the M*** district, whom you deliberately summoned to the city in order to reconcile him with the prosecutor, to honor him with a warm meal and a friendly reception for his directness, nobility and honesty - believe me , has already done its job. What I like about this case is that the judge (who, as it turned out, was a most enlightened man) was dressed in such a way that, as you say, he would not have been accepted into the hallway of St. Petersburg drawing rooms. At this moment I would like to kiss the hem of his shabby tailcoat. Believe that best image actions in the present time - do not arm yourself cruelly and vehemently against bribe-takers and bad people and do not persecute them, but instead try to show every kind of honest trait, in a friendly manner, in the sight of everyone, to shake the hand of the straight, honest man. Believe me, as soon as it becomes known throughout the entire province that the governor is really doing this, all the nobility will already be on his side. There is an amazing feature in our nobility that has always amazed me, this is a sense of nobility, not the nobility that infects the nobility of other lands, that is, not the nobility of birth or origin and not the European point d’honneur, but real, moral nobility. Even in such provinces and places where, if you take apart another nobleman, it will turn out to be simply rubbish, but if you challenge him only to some truly noble feat, everything will suddenly rise as if by some kind of electricity, and people who do dirty tricks will suddenly do the noblest case. And therefore everyone Noble act the governor will first of all find a response among the nobility. And is it important. The governor must certainly have a moral influence on the nobles; only by this alone can he encourage them to rise to invisible positions and unattractive places. And this is necessary, because if a nobleman from the same province takes some place in order to show how to serve, then no matter what he himself is, although he is lazy and not good to many, he will fulfill his task in the same way as the official sent will never fulfill it, even if he wears out his life in the offices. In a word, in no case should one lose sight of the fact that these are the same nobles who in the twelfth year sacrificed everything - everything that anyone had in their souls.
When it happens, because of the nasty things committed, that another official is brought to trial, then in this case it is necessary that he be brought to justice withdrawal from business. It is very important. For if he is put on trial without retiring from business, then all the employees will remain on his side for a long time, he will continue to fuss for a long time and will find ways to confuse everything so much that he will never get to the truth. But as soon as he is brought to trial with retirement from business he will suddenly hang his nose, become no one’s threat, evidence will come towards him from all sides, everything will come out clean water and suddenly the whole matter becomes known. But, friend, for the sake of Christ, do not leave the official who has been pushed out of his place, no matter how bad he is: he is unhappy. It must pass from your husband's hands to yours; he's yours. Do not explain yourself to him and do not accept him, but follow him from afar. You did well to expel the matron at the insane asylum because she decided to sell the rolls assigned to these unfortunate people - a doubly disgusting crime, taking into account the fact that the insane cannot even complain, and therefore were expelled; it had to be done publicly and transparently. But do not abandon any person, do not cut off anyone’s return, follow the renounced; sometimes, out of grief, out of despair, out of shame, he falls into even greater crimes. Act either through your confessor, or even through some smart priest, who would visit him and give you reports on him constantly, and most importantly, try not to let him remain without some kind of work and work. Don't be like this in this case dead the law, but alive God, who strikes a person with all the scourges of misfortune, but does not leave him until the very end of his life. Whatever the criminal, if the earth still bears him and the thunder of God has not struck him, this means that he remains in the world so that someone, touched by his fate, will help him and save him. If, however, during the descriptions that you will begin to make for me, or during your own research into all sorts of ailments, you will be too amazed by our sad sides and your heart will be indignant, then I advise you to talk about this more often with the bishop; he, as can be seen from your words, is an intelligent man and a good shepherd. Show him your entire infirmary and reveal to him all the diseases of your sick. Even if he was not a great expert in the science of healing, even then you must introduce him to all attacks, signs and phenomena of diseases. Try to outline everything to him so vividly that it floats before his eyes, so that your city, as if alive, would constantly remain in his thoughts, as it should constantly remain in your thoughts, so that through this very thing his thoughts themselves strive yourself to unceasing prayer for him. Believe me, because of this, his very sermon will be directed more and more to the hearts of his listeners every Sunday, and he will then be able to lay much bare and, without pointing out anyone personally, will be able to bring everyone face to face with their own abomination, so that he himself the owner will spit on his own property. Pay also attention to the city priests, be sure to recognize them all; everything depends on them, and the matter of our improvement is in their hands, and not in the hands of anyone else. Do not neglect any of them, despite the simplicity and ignorance of many. They can be returned to their duty sooner than any of us. We, secular ones, have pride, ambition, self-love, self-confidence in our perfection, as a result of which no one among us will listen to the words and admonitions of his brother, no matter how fair they may be, and finally, the most entertainment... Spiritual, no matter what he is , he still more or less feels that he should be more humble than everyone and lower than everyone; moreover, already in the very daily service he performs, he hears a reminder to himself, in a word, he is closer than all of us to returning to his path, and by returning to it himself, he can return all of us. And therefore, even if you meet one of them who is completely incapable, do not neglect him, but talk to him thoroughly. Ask everyone what his parish is, so that he can give you a complete understanding of what the people in his parish are like and how he himself understands and knows them. Don’t forget that I still don’t know what the philistinism and merchant class are like in your city; that they also begin to become fashionable and smoke cigars, this is the case everywhere; I need to take them from among them live someone so that I can see him from head to toe in every detail. So, find out about them all in detail. You will learn one side of this matter from the priests, the other from the chief of police, if you take the trouble to have a good conversation with him about this subject, the third side you will learn from them themselves, if you do not disdain to talk with one of them, even when leaving church on Sunday. All the information collected will serve to outline in front of you approximate image a tradesman and merchant, what he should really be; in the freak you will feel the ideal of what the freak has become a caricature of. If you feel this, then call the priests and talk to them: you will tell them exactly what they need: the very essence of every title, that is, what it should be with us, and a caricature of this title, that is, what it has become as a result of our abuses. Don't add anything else. He himself will be brought to mind if he only begins to correct his own life. Our priests especially need a conversation with such ready-made people who would be able to outline for them in a few, but bright and clear lines, the limits and responsibilities of every rank and position. Often, solely because of this, some of them do not know how to deal with parishioners and listeners, and express themselves in generalities that do not directly address the subject. Also consider his own situation, help his wife and children if his parish is poor. Whoever is ruder and more arrogant, threaten him bishop; but in general try to act better morally. Remind them that their duty is too terrible, that they will give a better answer than any of the people of any other rank, that now both the synod and the sovereign himself are paying special attention to the life of the priest, that a bulkhead is being prepared for everyone, because not only the highest government, but even every single private person in the state is beginning to notice that the reason for all the evil is that the priests have begun to perform their duties carelessly... Announce to them more often those terrible truths that will involuntarily make their soul shudder. In a word, do not neglect the city priests in any way. With their help, the governor can produce a lot of moral influence on the merchants, philistines and every simple class living in the city, so much influence that even you can’t imagine now. I will tell you just a little of what she can do, and point out the means by which she can do it: firstly... but I remembered that I have absolutely no idea what kind of philistinism and merchants are in your city : my words may not come at the right time, it’s better not to utter them at all; I will only tell you that you will be amazed later when you see how many such feats await you in this field, from which there is several times more benefit than from shelters and all sorts of charitable institutions, which not only do not involve any donations or labor, but they will turn into pleasure, into relaxation and entertainment of the spirit.
Try to encourage all the chosen and best in the city to also engage in social activities: each of them can do a lot almost like you. They can be moved. If you give me only a complete understanding of their characters, lifestyle and activities, I will tell you with what and how they can be incited; There are hidden strings in a Russian man, which he himself does not know, which can be struck so hard that he will perk up all over. You have already named some in your city as smart and noble people; I am sure that even more will be found. Don’t look at the repulsive appearance, don’t look at the unpleasant manners, rudeness, callousness, awkwardness of treatment, or even the fanfare, the cliché of actions and all sorts of overly clever swagger. We have all recently acquired something arrogantly unpleasant to use, but despite all this, in the depths of our souls there are more good feelings than ever, despite the fact that we have cluttered them with all sorts of rubbish and even simply spat on them ourselves. Especially don't neglect women. I swear, women are much better than us men. They have more generosity, more courage for everything noble; don’t look at the fact that they are spinning in a whirlwind of fashion and emptiness. If only you can speak to them in the language of the soul itself, if only you can somehow outline before a woman her high field, which the world now expects from her - her heavenly field to be the leader of us in all that is direct, noble and honest, to cry out to man for the noble desire, then the same woman whom you thought was empty will suddenly flare up nobly, look at herself, at her abandoned duties, motivate herself to do everything pure, encourage her husband to fulfill an honest duty and, throwing her rags far to the side , everyone will be turned to business. I swear, our women will wake up before men, nobly reproach us, nobly whip us and drive us with the scourge of shame and conscience, like a stupid herd of sheep, before each of us has time to wake up and feel that he should have run away himself long ago, without waiting for the scourge. They will love you, and they will love you deeply, but they cannot help but love you if they recognize your soul; but until that time you love them all, every single one, no matter if someone doesn’t love you...
But my letter is getting long. I feel that I am beginning to say things that may not be entirely appropriate either for your city or for you at the present moment; but you yourself are to blame for this by not providing me with detailed information about anything. Until now, I'm just like in the forest. I only hear about some incurable diseases and I don’t know what hurts anyone. And it is my custom not to believe in rumors of any incurables, and I will never call any disease incurable until I feel it with my own hand. So, look again, for my sake, at the whole city. Describe everything and everyone, without saving anyone from the three inevitable questions: what is his position, how much good can be done in it and how much evil. Act like a diligent student: make a notebook for this and do not forget to be as thorough as possible in your explanations with me, do not forget that I am stupid, absolutely stupid, until they introduce me to the most detailed knowledge. Better imagine what is in front of you there is a child or such an ignoramus who needs to interpret everything down to the last trinket; then only your letter will be as it should be. I don’t know why you consider me some kind of know-it-all. That I happened to predict something for you and that what was predicted came true - this happened solely because you brought me into the situation of your soul at that time. It's very important to guess! One has only to take a closer look at the present, and the future suddenly appears by itself. A fool is one who thinks about the future without the present. He will either lie or tell a riddle. By the way, I will also scold you for your following lines, which I will put before your eyes here: “It’s sad and even woeful to see the state of Russia up close, but, however, we shouldn’t talk about it. We must look with hope and bright eyes to the future, which is in the hands of a merciful God. Everything is in the hands of a merciful God: the present, the past, and the future. That’s why all our trouble is that we don’t look at the present, but look at the future. That’s why the whole trouble is that as soon as we look at the present, we notice that some things in it are sad and sad, others are simply disgusting or are not being done the way we would like, we give up on everything and let’s stare into the future. That is why God does not give us intelligence; that is why the future hangs in the air for all of us: some people hear that it is good, thanks to some advanced people, who also heard it by instinct and have not yet verified it with a legitimate arithmetic conclusion; but no one knows how to reach this future. It's like sour grapes. Forgot the trifle! Everyone forgot that there are ways and roads to this light the future is hidden precisely in this dark And confusing the present, which no one wants to recognize: everyone considers it low and unworthy of their attention and even gets angry if they expose it to everyone. At least introduce me to the knowledge of the present. Do not be embarrassed by abominations and give me every abomination! Abominations are nothing new to me: I am quite vile myself. While I was still a little involved in abominations, all sorts of abominations embarrassed me, I became despondent from many things, and I became afraid for Russia; from the moment I began to look more closely at the abominations, I became enlightened in spirit; Outcomes, means and paths began to appear before me, and I revered Providence even more. And now most of all I thank God for the fact that He has vouchsafed me, at least in part, to recognize the abominations of both my own and my poor brothers. And if there is any drop of intelligence in me, which is not characteristic of all people, it is because I looked more closely at these abominations. And if I was able to provide spiritual help to some close to my heart, including you, it was because I looked more closely at these abominations. And if I finally acquired a love for people, not dreamy, but substantial, it was finally from the same thing that I looked more closely at all sorts of abominations. Do not be afraid of abominations, and especially do not turn away from those people who for some reason seem vile to you. I assure you that the time will come when many of us in Rus' from clean ones They will cry bitterly, covering their faces with their hands, precisely because they considered themselves too pure, because they boasted of their purity and all sorts of lofty aspirations somewhere, considering themselves through this to be better than others. Remember all this and, pray, get back to your business more vigorously and freshly than ever before. Read my letter five or six times, precisely because everything in it is scattered and there is no strict logical order, which, however, is your own fault. It is necessary that the essence of the letter remains entirely within you, my questions become your questions and my desire becomes your desire, so that every word and letter pursues you and torments you until you fulfill my request in exactly the way I want.
1846
- Addressed to A. O. Smirnova (see comments about her to the letter VI. About helping the poor), whose husband, N. M. Smirnov, in 1845-1851. was the governor of Kaluga. The article is based on Gogol’s long letter to A. O. Smirnova dated July 6 and. Art. 1846 The chapter was banned by censorship. First published in the newspaper “Modernity and Economic List” (1860. No. 1), reprinted under the title “Letter of N.V. Gogol” in the magazine “Home Conversation” (1866. Issue 6).
- This refers to Elizaveta Nikolaevna Zhukovskaya (1803-1856), the wife of the Kaluga governor N.V. Zhukovsky. On January 14, 1846, A. O. Smirnova wrote to Gogol about her from Kaluga: “Zhukovskaya, the governor’s wife, came here and started all these philanthropic houses, committees, correspondence in order, relations with philanthropic societies, received certificates of merit for virtue, etc. Thus, I found a work already prepared for me, but in such a form that my soul does not belong to all this” (Correspondence of N.V. Gogol. T. 2. P. 172).
- This refers to Agrafena Yuryevna Obolenskaya (born Neledinskaya-Meletskaya; 1789-1828), wife of Prince A. GG. Obolensky, who was in 1825-1831. Kaluga governor. Gogol also takes information about A. Yu. Obolenskaya from the indicated letter to him from Smirnova dated January 14, 1846, which, in particular, says: “In the old days, Princess Obolenskaya, the daughter of Neledinsky, was here, who died here. All classes, from the poor to the richest, merchants and nobles, all unanimously cried for her. She died about 15 years ago, but her memory is so alive in all hearts that I constantly hear something new about her. Her husband was a governor and of a very mediocre mind; she did not enter into anything, but meanwhile had the most beneficial influence on everyone. She did not start a single school, not a single shelter and did not collect taxes for the poor, and everyone repeats in hospitals, almshouses, prison castles and in the clergy: “No, there will no longer be a second Princess Obolenskaya!” (Correspondence of N.V. Gogol. T. 2. P. 171 - 172).
About A. Yu. Obolenskaya and her moral impact on the residents of Kaluga, see: Chronicle of Recent Antiquity. From the archive of Prince Obolensky-Neledinsky-Meletsky. St. Petersburg, 1876. pp. 290-291.
- On December 16, 1845, A. O. Smirnova wrote to Gogol from Kaluga: “This month I learned more about Russia and humanity in general than during my entire stay in the palace” (Correspondence of N. V. Gogol. Vol. 2. P. 167).
- This refers to the Meshchovo district judge Klementyev, about whom Smirnova spoke in a letter to Gogol dated February 21, 1846 (see: Correspondence of N.V. Gogol. T. 2. P. 182-183). Later, on January 18, 1851, A. O. Smirnova wrote to Gogol: “We had elections in Kaluga, I saw the Meshchov judge Klementyev; He seemed so bitter to the whole district that he was almost voted out, however, he retained his place. He loves his position, values it and says that he cannot live without it.<…> Klementyev was sick with a nervous disorder, but he is better, he is very pious and writes strange things in a religious sense, no less very remarkable. He told me his thoughts about relics, which he calls power - strength, temple, bedchamber of the Spirit of God given to us. This is a whole theory, and there is a connection in everything he says and writes. Remarkable is this lonely, silent spiritual development, completely original, which did not develop from alien influence, but resulted from suffering and unceasing prayer. I don’t know what will happen to him next; but he is, of course, very remarkable” (Russian Antiquity. 1890. No. 12. P. 662).
- a matter of honor (French).
- This refers to the Right Reverend Nicholas (Sokolov), in 1834-1851. Bishop of Kaluga. Smirnova wrote to Gogol about him on January 14, 1846 (see: Correspondence of N.V. Gogol. T. 2. P. 174).
- Gogol quotes lines from a letter to him from A. O. Smirnova dated May 14, 1846 (see: Correspondence of N. V. Gogol. T. 2. P. 186).
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. Maria Ivanovna reports about her family life:
“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 the Mother of God appeared to him in a dream 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 cat broke the silence. 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 someone behind me clearly pronounced my name. The day was usually the clearest and sunny; not a single leaf in the garden moved, it was silent. 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 done so. I was frightened by it, as by this terrible silence, in the middle of a cloudless day. I usually then ran with the greatest fear and caught my breath from the garden, and then I only calmed down when some person came towards me, the sight of whom drove away this terrible desert of the heart” (“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 fear was strengthened by elders’ stories 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 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 everyone being baptized. But once - I remember this incident vividly, as if now - I asked you to tell me about the Last Judgment, and you, a child, told me so well, so clearly, so touchingly about the benefits that await people for being virtuous. life, and so strikingly, so horribly described the eternal torment of sinners that it shocked and awakened sensitivity in me, it seeded 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 foresaw “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, he will be understood as he is. should only be “in days of great upheaval,” then this is all the more true for Gogol. Understand Gogol completely, give the real one. 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 the realistic trend in Russian literature, Gogol depicted Russian reality,” etc. - these are the usual school definitions of the meaning of Gogol. But, Gentlemen, read the above excerpt from “Dead Souls” once again. 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 image of a prophet and holy fool, half-mad and terribly widened, “with unnatural power, illuminated eyes,” looking into the “sparkling distance, Rus'” and feeling with all his might something - good or evil is unknown - but something insanely terrible, infinitely wide and at the same time infinitely dangerous, which must happen to her. He looks, however, with still unseeing, although “eyes illuminated by unnatural power.” He, his one-sided gaze, “was not given” to understand what was hidden in this cloud, full of future rains, but to feel the approach of something tragic (“and a mighty space envelops me menacingly, with terrible force reflected in my soul") was given more than anyone else. And, moreover, he was given the opportunity to feel that he himself was involved in calling this cloud “full of coming rains,” that he himself, with the sharp whips of his satire, inadvertently enraged the Russian the troika, rushing into this unknown sparkling distance, that he... in short: the Russian revolution began with Gogol. This is where Gogol came from - this horror of his own creations, this burning of "Dead Souls", this "Correspondence with Friends", for which. so furiously did Belinsky attack him and, finally, this tragic death, the death of a man who could not bear the discord between his personality and his work.
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 extemporalia 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... everything has Rastrelli’s magnificent style... The Hermitage, Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, the Public Library, Karamzin... In Rastrelli’s style, even the opposition is the Decembrists... Quiet 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. Everyone followed Gogol. Melancholy. Bewilderment. Anger, a lot of anger. “Superfluous people.” Longing 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 towards 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.
The inner essence of 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 a long tail, indicates that for Gogol, as later for Dostoevsky, the concept of evil was identified precisely with the concept of vulgarity, and, consequently, its opposite the concept was the concept of beauty. “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 possible for him, Gogol, a romantic idealist to the core, to stand in the best days of the heyday of his 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 his life, in the days of decline in mental strength, did he realize 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 did Khoma Brut not resist and look? Why on earth does Kovalev's "nose" visit the Kazan Cathedral?.. Almost every work of Gogol really contains some kind of secret. His works are reminiscent of the drowned stepmother. "May Night" The thing is transparent, it glows, but inside 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... a 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. stuck out human bones. "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 tell me, 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. On the bloody His eyes flashed terribly on his face..." 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!”
N.V. Gogol was familiar with many famous people of his 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 subtle 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 took an active part in Gogol’s affairs throughout his life and 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 long 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 the character, relationships with people, and the writing work of this 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 settled 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 in her salon “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, and later the 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 of the “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 the “little”, 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 the ideological and artistic principles that 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; A new period of Russian literature, Russian poetry begins with Gogol...
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.
“The storyteller and amusing man suddenly ran away from home and became a monk,” is how P. A. Vyazemsky characterized the attitude of his contemporaries towards Gogol after the release of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends.” Subsequently, many critics, literary scholars, and philosophers wrote about this book. Most of her contemporaries, as well as her descendants, subjected her to scathing criticism - just look at Belinsky’s famous letter, which became a manifesto of the revolutionary reprisal against the “obscurantists.” But almost all of them viewed this book as a journalistic or didactic work, without taking into account its literary merits. Meanwhile, understanding the formal structure of “Selected Places”, revealing their poetics in connection with the writer’s previous work, identifying the traditions on which Gogol relied - all this seems to be perhaps the most important for understanding the concept of the book.
V.V. Vinogradov speaks of a one-sided assessment of Gogol’s work, when “Gogol’s” is reduced to complex expressive forms of comic mockery and irony, to “the inexhaustible poetry of the comic style.” Indeed, with this approach, it remains to consider “Selected places...” as completely out of keeping with big picture a secondary phenomenon. It is not surprising that we still do not have a more or less complete description of poetics Gogol's work, which the author himself considered his “only practical book.”
Chaos or synthesis?
It is known what great importance Gogol gave to the composition of “Selected Places”: “In this book, everything was calculated by me and the letters were placed in strict sequence...”. Meanwhile, an opinion was established that the structure of the book was chaotic and ill-thought out. Here is what Professor I.M. Andreev writes, for example: “The main formal drawback of “Correspondence” (that is, “Selected Places” is V. T.) - this is its incompleteness, lack of integrity, mixing into one mechanical whole of heterogeneous letters written at different times, and placing deeply thought-out letters next to immature ones. “Correspondence” is a draft of topics collected in one pile that are clear and unclear to the author himself, complete treatises and scraps of incorrect thoughts, important life problems and small, insignificant fleeting impressions.” The subtle critic Andrei Sinyavsky says approximately the same thing: “The impression of blasphemy<…>stemmed, for the most part, from a mixture of genres that were legitimate in their separate form and merged here into something unnatural: the Bible and a cookbook, prayer and newspapers, earthly and heavenly concerns.”
There is undoubtedly some truth in these statements, but in general we cannot agree with them. It would be strange and deeply erroneous to believe that such Great master words like Gogol suddenly abandoned his talent and began to write somehow, without any processing and without reflection. Y. Barabash emphasizes that “Correspondence” is “a certain organized ideological and aesthetic unity, an integral work.” And further, having analyzed in detail Gogol’s work on the book, the critic concludes that “the approach of the author of “Selected Places...” cannot be called anything other than a systematic approach.”
All of Gogol’s work convinces us that in his works, behind the visible external content the inner, the deep is always hidden. Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky writes about this, for example: “... all research gets stuck in the outer side of Gogol’s work, as if not noticing that behind the outer shell there are other “layers”<…>In Gogol, behind the external plot, other themes constantly appear, in which the artistic acuity and power of this work is hidden.” And “The Nose”, and “The Overcoat”, and “The Inspector General”, and, of course, “Dead Souls” are by no means just humorous or satirical sketches, but works of profound symbolic power that reveals itself to the thoughtful reader.
According to S.S. Averintsev, “the meaning of a symbol does not exist as some kind of rational formula that can be “embedded” in an image and then extracted from the image.” Speaking in the language of Vyach. Ivanov, the symbol is like a sunbeam penetrating different layers. Depending on which layer we study, the content of the image is revealed to us differently. For example, P. G. Palamarchuk saw the key to “The Inspector General” in the idea of the city, dating back to St. Augustine and reinterpreted by Gogol. We find something similar in “Selected Places”.
Where's the key?
The famous researcher of Gogol’s work V.V. Voropaev expressed the idea that the composition of “Selected Places” corresponds to the structure of Lent. Upon careful study of the book, it turns out that this similarity is not at all superficial or accidental, but deep and fundamentally important for understanding the writer’s intention.
In the “Preface,” Gogol talks about his intention to “go to the Holy Land for the coming Lent” and asks everyone for forgiveness, just as on the last Sunday before this Lent all Christians ask for forgiveness from each other. On Forgiveness Sunday, a passage from the Gospel is read in church, which says: If you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.(Matthew 6:14). In Gogol's notebook we find a detailed story about how people forgive before Lent.
Thus, the journey that Gogol “would like to make as a good Christian” is the Lenten wandering. Of course, this does not erase the direct meaning of the “Preface,” that is, Gogol’s intention to go to Jerusalem. Indeed, Gogol had long dreamed of visiting the Holy Land, received a blessing for this trip from Bishop Innocent of Kharkov at the beginning of 1842, prepared a lot for it, and told his friends about it. However, he made his pilgrimage only in 1848.
In the book, “a trip to Jerusalem” has symbolic meaning. The fact is that the long Lenten wandering (Gogol could often encounter this image both in the writings of the Holy Fathers and in church hymns) serves as an image of Israel’s wanderings in the desert, described in the book of Exodus. This forty year old Lent- a forty-day journey led the ancient Jews to Jerusalem. Now, when everyone within the church fence is God’s chosen people, they, like the ancient Israelites, make their way during Great Lent to the Heavenly Jerusalem, to the Bright Resurrection of Christ - Easter (the chapter “Bright Resurrection” ends Gogol’s book).
P. G. Palamarchuk in the book “The Key to Gogol” says that for the writer the trip to Jerusalem was “a journey to the prototype of the New City.” It is said about him in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian: And I, John, saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband(Rev 21:2). From “the city with all the whirlwind of gossip - a prototype of the idleness of life of all humanity en masse,” as Palamarchuk put it, - to the City of God: this is the path of Great Lent. Palamarchuk analyzes in detail the evolution of the “city” in Gogol and proves the importance of this image in his work. Thus, the “journey to Jerusalem” is the path of the Christian soul during Great Lent. It should be noted that on the last Friday before Lent, an excerpt from the Book of the Prophet Zechariah is read at the service. Here are a few selected passages from it that speak of Jerusalem as the goal and salvation:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the setting of the sun; and I will bring them, and they will live in Jerusalem, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness<…>And many tribes and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray to the face of the Lord(Zechariah 8:7–8,22).
The same passage contains the admonition: These are the things you must do: speak the truth to one another; Judge in truth and peaceably at your gates(Zechariah 8:16). There is no doubt that the words tell the truth to each other Gogol took it as a guide to action, as his duty, as the basis of his book. Mochulsky rightly notes that “his own path” for Gogol is teaching and moral influence. “God commanded,” Gogol claims, “that we teach each other every minute.”
Great Lent is a time of learning about oneself and one’s place in the world, and the goal is meeting Christ in His Resurrection. This is exactly what “Selected Places” is about. Many ideas from Gogol’s book can be found in his own handwritten extract “On Fasting” from “Christian Reading”. Great Lent, according to the Holy Fathers, is a way of our life. Likewise, Gogol’s book covers almost all areas of human activity: it was not without reason that it was compared to Domostroi.
So, already in the first lines of his work, Gogol, speaking about the “coming Great Lent,” gives the reader the key to understanding the second, hidden level of the work. This is like a signal, an indication - “look here.” Gogol says that “no matter how insignificant and insignificant my book is, I<…>I ask my compatriots to read it several times,” it is so difficult to get to the bottom of its inner meaning. “Preface” is like an epigraph to “Selected Passages”, designed to correctly orient the reader.
The Great Path to Resurrection
“Selected Places” consistently and harmoniously reflect every significant moment of the Lenten journey. This hidden and rather complex symbolic connection is not always easy to see, but its presence is undeniable. Let us dwell only on one, the last chapter of Gogol’s book. It is called “Bright Sunday” and was written, unlike most others, specifically for “Selected Places...”.
This is the crown of the book - and the crown of the Lenten path. The chapter itself is a complete lyrical work, a kind of expanded lyrical digression to the third, unwritten volume of “Dead Souls.” (It is known that this volume, according to the author’s plan, was supposed to show the spiritual resurrection of the main character. In relation to “ Divine Comedy“He was Dante in Gogol’s poem “Paradise.”) And in this chapter the influence of the Easter service, the festive mood is clearly felt: from the exclamation Christ is Risen to the desire to “look at a person on this day as your best jewel, to hug and press him to yourself, like your dearest brother, to rejoice at him, as if you were your best friend...”. Let us compare these words with the Easter hymns: “Let us embrace one another with joy, saying: brethren, and we will forgive all those who hate us through the resurrection...”
Gogol continues: “and we became related to him according to our wonderful heavenly Father.” Let us remember the address “compatriots” at the beginning of “Selected Places...” and relate it to what is being heard these days in the church: “Shine, shine, new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is upon you.” The fast is over, we have reached our goal and come to our common Fatherland - Heavenly Jerusalem. As Gogol writes, “on this day we are in our true family, in His own home,” because, as it is sung at the Easter service, “This day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad on it!” “This day is that holy day on which all mankind celebrates their holy, heavenly brotherhood,” exclaims the author.
However, Gogol’s thoughts are imbued not so much with joy as with bitterness from the fact that people “drove Christ out into the street,” that they do not want to embrace a person as a brother. This seems to be a continuation of the theme that sounded back in “The Overcoat”, when in the words of Akaki Akakievich “Why are you offending me?” “Other words rang: “I am your brother.”
Speaking about the “people of the century,” Gogol implicitly draws a parallel with the Pharisees whom Christ denounced. “He is ready to hug all of humanity like a brother, but he will not hug his brother<…>Separate yourself from this humanity, one who suffers more clearly than others from the severe ulcers of his spiritual shortcomings, who more than anyone else requires compassion for himself - he will push him away and will not embrace him.” Compare with the Gospel story:
But He, knowing their thoughts, said to the man who had a withered hand: stand up and step into the middle. And he stood up and spoke. Then Jesus said to them: I will ask you: whato should do on Saturday? good or evil? save your soul or destroy it? They were silent. And looking at them all, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so; and his hand became healthy, like the other(Luke 6:8–10)
The healings, because of which the Pharisees were most indignant at Christ, were performed by Him on Saturday, on day dedicated to the Lord. In New Testament times, Sunday became the Lord's day - when must do good, - and it is no coincidence that Gogol speaks about mercy precisely in the chapter “Bright Sunday”. His words that “they drove Christ out into the streets, into infirmaries and hospitals, instead of calling Him to their homes” are also related to the Gospel:
For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. Then they too will answer Him: Lord! When did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not serve You? Then he will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”(Matthew 25:42–45).
Gogol's denunciations are very close to what the Savior said to the scribes and Pharisees. The writer states: “Rejoiced that it has become in many ways better than its ancestors, humanity of the present century has fallen in love with cleanliness And beauty my. No one was ashamed to publicly show off their spiritual beauty your own and consider yourself better than others” (emphasis mine - V. T.). Let's compare this with the words of Christ:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, while inside they are full of robbery and unrighteousness. Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them may also be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness; So you, on the outside, seem righteous to people, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness(Matthew 23:25–28).
Pride in his purity and beauty - this is the diagnosis Gogol makes for the “man of the century”. This name itself correlates with the Gospel sages of this age. “But everything is forgotten by the man of the nineteenth century, and he pushes his brother away from himself, like a rich man pushes away a beggar covered in pus from his magnificent porch. He does not care about his suffering; He just wouldn’t have to see the pus of his wounds. He doesn’t even want to hear his confession, fearing that his sense of smell will be struck by the foul breath of the unfortunate man’s lips, proud of the fragrance of his purity. Is it right for such a person to celebrate the holiday of heavenly Love?” It is not difficult to see in these Gogol words an allusion to the Gospel story about the rich man and Lazarus and their different fates after the resurrection.
Gogol calls “pride of mind” an even more terrible disease. “The man of the century will endure everything: he will endure the name of a rogue, a scoundrel; give him whatever name you want, he will tear it down - but he won’t tear down the name of a fool. He will allow you to laugh at everything - and he just won’t allow you to laugh at his own mind. His mind is a shrine for him<…>He doesn’t believe in anything or anything; He only believes in his own mind.”
These thoughts of Gogol directly correlate with his extract “On the Resurrection” from “Christian Reading” (Vol. 2, 1842), which was later included in the handwritten collection “Selected Passages from the Works of St. fathers and teachers of the Church" (! - V.T.). It says: “The future Resurrection of our bodies, dear brethren, is an object of faith, and not knowledge, is a mystery acceptable to the heart, and not comprehended by the mind.”<…> And is it possible to use a smaller mind to judge a larger one? And then a person is even mad if, being not great himself, he judges a great man who far exceeds him in intelligence. But, our God! Is it possible to count all the miracles of Your omnipotence, which at every step stop and amaze the attentive? And how, after this, do we dare, with a mind that disappears in Your mind, like the slightest drop in the abyss of the sea, how dare we hesitate to hesitate when You, the omnipotent Lord of creation, proclaim incorruptibility to this corruptible?” . The most remarkable thing is that the words highlighted here in italics are not in the source itself - “The Word on the Day of the Resurrection of Christ” by an unknown author from “Christian Reading”. According to the authors of the notes to the collected works of the writer, “they probably belong to Gogol himself.”
This proves, on the one hand, that the problem of pride of mind, raised in the chapter “Bright Sunday” (circa 1846), worried Gogol back in 1843–44. On the other hand, the organic inclusion of one’s own thoughts in the context of the sermon “The Word on the Day of the Resurrection of Christ” anticipated the features of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”, oriented towards the patristic tradition. It is not for nothing that Gogol called his handwritten collection “Selected passages from the works of St. fathers and teachers of the Church."
According to Gogol, anger penetrates the world precisely along this road - “the road of the mind, and on the wings of magazine sheets, like an all-destroying locust, attacks the hearts of people everywhere.” This metaphor has its source in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian, which tells about the end of the world.
And out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given the power that the scorpions of the earth have. And she was told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any greenery, or any tree, but only to people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And she was given not to kill them, but only to torture them for five months; and her torment is like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person<…>She had armor on her, like iron armor, and the noise from her wings was like the sound of chariots when many horses run to war.(Rev 9:3–5,9).
The Bible speaks of locust attacks several more times (Ex 10:4–6; Ps 104:34–35), but only in the Apocalypse does it become an image of heartache.
Continuing to reflect on what prevents us from “celebrating Bright Sunday,” Gogol talks about the “stupidest laws” of his time. “What does this fashion mean, insignificant, insignificant, which man allowed as a trifle, as an innocent matter, and which now, like a complete mistress, has already begun to rule in our homes, driving out everything that is most important and best in man? No one is afraid to transgress the first and most sacred laws of Christ several times a day and yet is afraid not to fulfill her slightest command, trembling before her like a timid boy.”
This passage makes us recall the lyrical digression from the first volume of “Dead Souls,” which says: “And more than once not only a broad passion, but an insignificant passion for something small grew in someone born to the best deeds, forced him to forget great and holy duties and to see the great and holy in insignificant trinkets.” Thus, we are once again convinced that both at the stylistic and ideological level, many (and, perhaps, the best) passages from “Selected Passages” are consonant with lyrical digressions from “Dead Souls”.
But Gogol paints death modern society in even darker colors: “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!”
But death, according to the writer, must certainly be followed by resurrection. Customs “die in the letter, but come to life in the spirit,” writes Gogol. “Not a grain of what is truly Russian in it and what is sanctified by Christ Himself will not die from our antiquity. It will be carried by the sonorous strings of poets, announced by the fragrant lips of saints, what has faded will flare up - and the holiday of Bright Sunday will be celebrated as it should be, before us, than among other nations!”
It should be noted that in the symbolism of “Selected Places” Jerusalem is Russia - the image promised land, Heavenly Fatherland. It is on this note that Gogol ends his book and chapter “Bright Sunday”: “...finally, we have courage, akin to no one, and if some task appears to us all, absolutely impossible for any other people, even , for example, to suddenly and at once throw off all our shortcomings, everything that disgraces the high nature of man, then with the pain of our own body, without sparing ourselves, as in the twelfth year, without sparing our property, we burned our houses and earthly wealth, so it will rush from us to throw off everything that shames and stains us, not a single soul will lag behind the other, and at such moments all quarrels, hatreds, enmities - everything is forgotten, brother will hang on his brother’s chest, and all of Russia is one person. Based on this, we can say that the feast of the Resurrection of Christ will be celebrated earlier among us than among others.”
The beginning or the end?
Thus, Gogol in his book, speaking about life, about Russia, about Russian poetry, builds a story in the image of Great Lent. The chapters of “Selected Places” correspond to the main stages of the Lenten path to the Resurrection that the Church goes through. Thus, Gogol points out that only in the Church is fullness of life, fullness of creativity, true spiritual rebirth possible: then and only then “in our country, before in any other land, will the Bright Resurrection of Christ be celebrated!”
Now the rejection of “Selected Places...” by the writer’s contemporaries becomes largely understandable. It was caused by misunderstanding and rejection of the very tradition on which Gogol relied - church and patristic. On the other hand, Nikolai Vasilyevich, trying to carefully follow it, is far from always impeccable, which was noted by both secular and clergy (in particular, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).
Finally, the very image of a preacher and teacher of life, borrowed from the mentioned tradition, did not at all correspond to the real status of Gogol - a writer and a secular person. Gogol, carried away by the rhetorical pathos of his work, did not foresee this “effect of disappointed expectations” among readers. What happened is what A. A. Volkov writes about in the book “Fundamentals of Russian Rhetoric”, in which, by the way, he consistently analyzes the rhetorical aspect of Russian fiction: “The image of a rhetorician develops gradually<…>the audience will evaluate new statements based on the image of the rhetorician that has developed in its mind. The entire rhetorical career is determined by the image of the rhetorician, and if this image is built incorrectly, it can be interrupted.” Apparently, something similar happened to Gogol.
Fortunately, the chapter “Bright Sunday,” written in a single inspired impulse, is free from a teacher’s tone and excessive moralizing. Apparently, it was the best pages of Gogol’s book that allowed Pushkin’s friend, the famous writer P. A. Pletnev, to call “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” “the beginning of Russian literature proper.” Or maybe this is a continuation of ancient Russian literature?