Mykola Gogol: Ukrainian Roots, Interesting Facts and Myths

Mykola Gogol (known in English as Nikolai Gogol) wrote in Russian, but his world grew out of the Poltava region of Ukraine: Cossack legends, fairs, songs and tales of evil spirits. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Taras Bulba, Viy and The Fair at Sorochyntsi introduced readers across Europe to Ukraine. Here are the writer's Ukrainian roots, interesting facts about his life, and what is true — and what is myth — in popular stories about Gogol.

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Ukrainian roots

Gogol was born on 1 April 1809 (20 March, Old Style) in the small town of Velyki Sorochyntsi in the Poltava region. He grew up on the family estate of Vasylivka (today the village of Hoholeve). His father, Vasyl Hohol-Yanovsky, came from a family of Cossack officers and wrote comedies in Ukrainian, which were staged at the home theatre of his relative Dmytro Troshchynsky in Kybyntsi. His mother, Maria Kosiarovska, came from a neighbouring landowning family.

The family linked the second part of the surname, "Hohol", to the 17th-century Cossack colonel Ostap Hohol. There were many priests on the father's side.

A family legend tells how Vasyl was shown his future wife in a dream while she was still a baby. It cannot be verified, but it captures the atmosphere of a family that believed in signs and old tales.

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Nizhyn and first literary steps

From 1821 to 1828 Gogol studied at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences. He acted in the school theatre, produced handwritten magazines and wrote his first poems. He also kept a notebook, the "Book of Odds and Ends" — a kind of encyclopedia of Ukrainian words, customs, dishes and household items. These notes later fed into his stories.

After moving to St Petersburg, Gogol published the poem Hanz Küchelgarten under the pseudonym V. Alov. Critics panned it, so the young author bought up the remaining copies and burned them — a habit of destroying unsuccessful work that stayed with him all his life.

Key dates

Ukraine in Gogol's works

• Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831–1832). Stories supposedly told by the beekeeper Rudy Panko: The Fair at Sorochyntsi, Christmas Eve, May Night, or the Drowned Maiden. Ukrainian carols, fairs, songs and folk demonology brought the author his first fame.
• Mirgorod (1835). A collection including Old-World Landowners, Taras Bulba and Viy. Gogol substantially reworked Taras Bulba; the second edition appeared in 1842.
• Viy. The author claimed he was retelling a folk legend, but scholars have never found an exact folk source. Most likely the story is his own blend of various motifs.

Gogol did more than borrow Ukrainian colour: he collected folk songs, studied Ukrainian history and in 1834 hoped to be given the chair of history at the newly opened Kyiv University. He did not get it, but his friendship with the university's first rector, Mykhailo Maksymovych, lasted for many years.

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Interesting facts from contemporaries' memoirs

• A sweet tooth. Friends recalled that Gogol always carried sweets and gingerbread in his pockets and would collect sugar from the table to nibble while working.
• A keen cook. He liked treating friends to Ukrainian dishes, and in Moscow he cooked Italian-style pasta for guests — a taste he picked up in Rome.
• Handicrafts. According to memoirs, he could cut and sew, making his own neckerchiefs and waistcoats and even dresses for his sisters.
• Shyness. Among strangers Gogol was often silent or left, but with friends he was a brilliant storyteller and a superb reader of his own work.
• A lecturer. In 1834–1835 he was an adjunct professor of general history at St Petersburg University.
• A traveller. Gogol spent more than ten years abroad, mostly in Rome, where he wrote much of Dead Souls.

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Dead Souls and the burned manuscript

The first volume of Dead Souls came out in 1842. Gogol worked on the second for about ten years, rewriting and destroying drafts. In autumn 1850 in Odesa he read chapters to friends and seemed full of energy.

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In his final months his condition declined sharply: he fasted strictly, almost stopped eating and went through a deep spiritual crisis. On the night of 11–12 (23–24) February 1852 in Moscow, Gogol burned his manuscripts in the stove. Traditionally, the fair copy of the second volume is believed to have been among them; only draft chapters survive. Nine days later, on 21 February (4 March) 1852, he died.

Myths about Gogol

• "Gogol was buried alive." A popular legend that grew up around his reburial in 1931. There is no documentary evidence for it.
• "His skull went missing from the grave." Another legend from the same time, based on retellings rather than reliable documents.
• "Gogol deliberately distorted his looks in portraits." His portraits do differ, but there is no evidence he asked artists to confuse future biographers.

A real and well-documented fact involves Mikhail Bulgakov, who regarded Gogol as his teacher: Bulgakov's grave bears the "Golgotha" stone that once stood on Gogol's original grave.

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Gogol's places in Ukraine

• Velyki Sorochyntsi — his birthplace, the Transfiguration Church where he was baptised, and the traditional Sorochyntsi Fair.
• Hoholeve (formerly Vasylivka) — the National Gogol Museum-Reserve on the family estate.
• Nizhyn — the building of his old gymnasium, now Nizhyn University.
• Dykanka — a village the whole world knows thanks to the writer.

Gogol's Ukraine is also blossoming orchards, hollyhocks by white cottages and wreaths of wild flowers. Read about the plants that became national symbols in Ukrainian plant symbols, and about floral patterns on traditional clothing in our article on the vyshyvanka. For another story of a remarkable Ukrainian, see Anne of Kyiv, Queen of France.

FAQ

Where was Gogol born?

In Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava region, on 1 April 1809.

What language did Gogol write in?

His fiction was written in Russian, but full of Ukrainian words, songs and details of Ukrainian life. His father wrote comedies in Ukrainian.

Which of Gogol's works are about Ukraine?

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (including The Fair at Sorochyntsi and Christmas Eve) and the Mirgorod collection with Taras Bulba and Viy.

Did Gogol really burn the second volume of Dead Souls?

On the night of 11–12 (23–24) February 1852 he burned his manuscripts. The second volume is believed to have been among them; only draft chapters survive.

Was Gogol buried alive?

No, that is a legend with no documentary evidence.

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Author: Maria Svitlovir

Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.