Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol-Yanovsky (Russian: Николай Васильевич Гоголь-Яновский, Romanized: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol-Yanovskiy; April 1, 1809 - March 4, 1852), a Ukrainian-Russian writer, was born into a Cossack family in what is now Veliky Sorochintsi, Ukraine. He was fond of literature since childhood and was deeply influenced by the Enlightenment Movement. He was praised by Alexander Pushkin for his "Nights in the Countryside of Dekonka" published in 1831. In 1836, his satirical comedy "The Imperial Envoy" was staged. In this work, he used humorous writing and powerful satirical techniques, which brought about a major turning point in Russian comedy art. When "Dead Souls" was published in 1842, it "shocked the whole of Russia" and became an important symbol of the originality and national character of Russian literature. Belinsky called him the "leader of the literary world" and "the leader of poets" after Alexander Pushkin. The entire 1840s was also called the "Gogol period" by Chernyshevsky. In 1847, he published "Selected Letters to Friends", publicly expressing his repentance for all his previous works. He died in 1852 of severe Orthodox fanaticism. Gogol is one of the founders of Russian realist literature and the founder of "Naturalism".