The history of the creation of Gogol's poem Dead Souls for a reader's diary. The history of the creation of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Russian history literature of the 19th century century. Part 1. 1800-1830s Lebedev Yuri Vladimirovich

Creative history Gogol's poem " Dead Souls».

The plot of the poem was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin, who witnessed fraudulent transactions with “dead souls” during his exile in Chisinau. IN early XIX centuries, thousands of peasants fled from different parts of the country to the south of Russia, to Bessarabia, fleeing from cruel landowners. They were caught and brought back to their place. But cunning men found a way out: they changed their first and last names to the peasants and townspeople who died in the south. For example, it was discovered that the city of Bendery is inhabited by “immortal” people: for many years not a single death was registered there, because it was customary not to exclude the dead “from society,” and their names were given to the peasants who arrived here: the local owners received an influx of manpower was beneficial.

The plot of the poem was how a clever rogue found a dizzyingly bold way of getting rich in Russian conditions. Under serfdom, peasants were assigned to the landowners as work force and the individuals under them. Landowners paid taxes to the state for every peasant, or, as they said then, for every peasant soul. State audits of these souls were carried out rarely - once every 12-15 years, and landowners contributed money for years for long-dead peasants. On paper they still existed, but in reality they were “dead souls.”

The hero of the poem, Chichikov, decides to commit such a scam: for a cheap sum, he buys up “dead souls” from landowners, declares them resettled to the south, in the Kherson province, and pledges an imaginary estate to the state for 100 rubles per soul. He then declares them dead en masse from the epidemic and pockets the money they receive. For one thousand “dead souls” he receives a net income of 100 thousand rubles.

Gogol began work on the poem in the fall of 1835, before he began The Inspector General. In the same letter in which Gogol asks Pushkin for a plot for a comedy, he reports: “I began to write” Dead souls“. The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be funny... In this novel I want to show at least from one side all of Rus'.” In this letter, Gogol also calls “Dead Souls” a novel, specifically emphasizing that it lacks the desire to capture the fullness of Russian life with images. Gogol’s goal is different - to show only dark sides life, collecting them, as in “The Inspector General,” “in one pile.”

Before leaving abroad, Gogol introduced Pushkin to the beginning of his work: “...When I began to read to Pushkin the first chapters of “Dead Souls” in the form they were before, then Pushkin, who always laughed when I read (he was also a hunter for laughter), began to gradually become gloomier, gloomier, and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading ended, he said in a voice of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is!”

Obviously, Gogol was alarmed by Pushkin’s reaction: after all, with his criticism he wanted to have a cleansing effect on the reader’s soul. The failure with The Inspector General further strengthened Gogol in the correctness of his doubts. And abroad, the writer begins to finalize the already written chapters. In a letter to Zhukovsky in November 1836, he reports: “...I started working on Dead Souls, which I started in St. Petersburg. I redid everything I started again, thought over the whole plan and now I write it calmly, like a chronicle... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be done, then... what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it!”

According to K.V. Mochulsky, “the production of The Inspector General, perceived as a defeat, forced him to reevaluate his work. Gogol was faced with a question: why did his compatriots not understand him? Why did “entire classes” rebel against him? And he answered this: my fault. Everything he had previously written was childish: he did not take his calling as a writer seriously and was careless with laughter... Now he knows how dangerous the one-sidedness of the image is, and sets himself the goal of completeness. All of Russia should be reflected in the poem.” Now he decides to give the story of Chichikov’s journey a national scale. The plot about the tricks of the swindler and the adventurer remains, but the characters of the landowners come to the fore, recreated slowly and with epic completeness, incorporating phenomena of all-Russian significance (“Manilovschina”, “Nozdrevschina”, “Chichikovschina”). The narrative itself about them acquires a chronicle character, claiming to be a comprehensive recreation of Russian life, transferring the writer’s interest from adventurous intrigue to a deep analysis of the contradictions of Russian life in their broad historical perspective.

The original plan to show Rus' “from one side” gives way to a more voluminous and difficult task: along with all the bad, “expose in the eyes of the people” all the good, giving hope for a future national revival. Gogol associates this revival not with social changes, but with the spiritual transformation of Russian life. He explains social vices by the spiritual death of people. The title “Dead Souls” takes on a symbolic meaning for him.

Gogol is convinced that the socio-historical life of a nation is connected by thousands of invisible threads with state of mind every person, it consists of little things. It's in the little things Everyday life, in their contradictory diversity, both positive and negative aspirations of social existence are formed, both the ideal, “straight path”, and “deviations” from it. Hence, on the pages of Dead Souls a rare combination of “fractional, detailed artistic analysis” with the scale and breadth of artistic generalizations appears.

The genre designation “novel” ceases to correspond to the nature of the developing concept, and Gogol now calls “Dead Souls” a poem. This plan is already oriented towards Dante’s “Divine Comedy” with its three-part structure: “hell”, “purgatory” and “paradise”. Accordingly, Gogol conceives the first volume of “Dead Souls” as the “hell” of modern Russian reality, which has gone astray from the straight path; the second volume outlines the exit from hell to its purification and revival (“purgatory”), and the third volume should show the triumph of bright, life-affirming began (“paradise”).

However, the assumption about the three-part construction of the concept of “Dead Souls” in Lately disputed by a number of researchers. After all, such a three-part structure does not correspond to Orthodox dogma and the Orthodox type of thinking. And in general, can a believing Christian talk about the establishment of “heavenly life” on this earth? Archimandrite Theodore (Bukharev), referring to the words of Gogol himself, argued that the poem should have ended with “Chichikov’s first breath for a true lasting life.” The rest will be reborn in the same way - “if they want.”

If earlier Gogol looked for the “fruitful grain” of Russian life in the historical past (“Taras Bulba”), now he wants to find it in the present. Gogol believes that the soul of a Russian Christian, having gone through terrible temptations and enticements, will return to the path of Orthodox truth. In the depths of his fall, at the very bottom of the abyss, a Christian will feel a righteous light igniting in his soul, the voice of conscience. One of the heroes of the unfinished second volume, addressing Chichikov, says:

“Hey, it’s not about this property, because of which people argue and cut each other, just as you can create prosperity in life here without thinking about another life. Believe me, Pavel Ivanovich, that until they give up everything for which they gnaw and eat each other on earth and think about the improvement of their spiritual property, the improvement of their earthly property will not be established. Times of hunger and poverty will come, both among all the people and separately in each... This, sir, is clear. Whatever you say, the body depends on the soul... Think not about dead souls, but about your living soul, and with God on a different path!”

In the same volume, the Governor-General, sensing the futility of the fight against bribery through administrative measures, gathers all officials provincial town and makes the following speech to them: “The fact is that it has come to us to save our land; that our land is perishing not from the invasion of twenty foreign languages, but from ourselves; that, bypassing the legal government, another government was formed, much stronger than any legal one. Their conditions were established; everything is assessed, and the prices are even made publicly known. And no ruler, even if he were wiser than all legislators and rulers, is able to correct evil, no matter how he restricts the actions of bad officials by appointing other officials as supervisors. Everything will be unsuccessful until each of us feels that just as in the era of the uprising the people armed themselves against their enemies, so they must rebel against untruth...”

The military governor’s speech to his subordinates here is reminiscent of Taras Bulba’s speech about “comradeship.” But if Gogol’s Zaporozhye hero called the people to unity and spiritual unity in the face of an external enemy, then the hero of the second volume of Dead Souls calls for general mobilization and militia against the internal enemy. It is in the spiritual perspective that opened up to Gogol that one can correctly understand the direction and pathos of the first volume of Dead Souls, which he completed in the summer of 1841.

The censorship, having recognized thirty-six passages as “doubtful”, also demanded a decisive reworking of “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” and a change in the title of the poem - instead of “Dead Souls”, “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls”. Gogol agreed to the revision, and on May 21, 1842, the first volume of the poem was published.

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Dead souls Oh, you, my Rus'! My wild, riotous, wonderful, kiss, God love you, holy land... I tremble and feel with tears in my eyes, I hear broad strength and manner when I look at these steppes that have lost their end. Gogol Peering into the continent of Russian prose, already hidden from us

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Krupchanov L. M. N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is a creation so deep in content and great in creative concept and artistic perfection of form that it alone would fill the lack of books for ten years and would appear alone

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began his painstaking and conscientious work on the poem “Dead Souls” in 1835. The writer dreamed of creating some kind of majestic and comprehensive work about Russia. He wanted to show Russia from different sides, he wanted to explain the characters and images of Russian people.

The idea for creating the poem “Dead Souls” was given to Nikolai Vasilyevich by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He told the author of the poem about a certain official who traveled around Russia and bought “dead souls.” This idea impressed Gogol so much that he immediately began writing.

When Nikolai Vasilyevich decided to read the first chapters to Alexander Sergeevich, he thought that his friend would start laughing at them. Because the author of the poem at that time thought that the novel was very funny. But after reading the first chapters of Pushkin, Gogol saw a different reaction. Alexander Sergeevich was sad and thoughtful. At that time, the poem seemed very sad to Pushkin.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol changed, corrected, and along the way made adjustments to his novel many times in order to achieve the desired result. After Pushkin's death, Gogol continued to write the poem in memory of his friend.

It took the poem six long years to reach the reader. When “Dead Souls” was written and sent to print, the censorship did not allow the work to pass. To do this, the author had to place all the blame on Chichikov himself. Although the initial version of the blame was attributed to officials.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol wanted to write a poem that would show all of Russia. I would tell you about the character, life and will of the Russian people. He almost succeeded. The author wanted to write three volumes of Dead Souls. In the first volume, he showed the very people whom he considered “dead souls.” The second volume would be a purgatory for these very souls and the third would be a rebirth. But, due to the illness of the author himself, the second volume was burned. Subsequently, he explained his action by saying that he could not find a way to revive the ideal.

In 1841, the novel “Dead Souls” was published. It's selling off the shelves bookstores at the speed of light. The people are divided into two parts: the first is on the author’s side, the second is those same landowners and officials. The second half of the people desecrated Gogol and were extremely indignant and humiliated by what the author wrote in his poem. However, it is worth noting that the poem “Dead Souls” not only showed “dead souls”, but also showed Russia from different sides. She talked about people of different backgrounds and different characters.

Picture or drawing Dead Souls history of creation

History of creation

“Dead Souls” is a poem to which Gogol devoted a significant part of his life. The author repeatedly changed the concept, rewrote and reworked the work. Initially, Gogol conceived Dead Souls as a humorous novel. However, in the end I decided to create a work that exposes the problems of Russian society and will serve its spiritual revival. This is how the POEM “Dead Souls” appeared.

Gogol wanted to create three volumes of the work. In the first, the author planned to describe the vices and decay of the serf society of that time. In the second, give its heroes hope for redemption and rebirth. And in the third I intended to describe further path Russia and its society.

However, Gogol only managed to finish the first volume, which appeared in print in 1842. Until his death, Nikolai Vasilyevich worked on the second volume. However, just before his death, the author burned the manuscript of the second volume.

The third volume of Dead Souls was never written. Gogol could not find the answer to the question of what will happen next to Russia. Or maybe I just didn’t have time to write about it.

Description of the work

One day, in the city of NN a very interesting character, who stands out greatly from the background of other old-timers of the city - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. After his arrival, he began to actively get acquainted with important persons of the city, attending feasts and dinners. A week later, the newcomer was already on friendly terms with all the representatives of the city nobility. Everyone was delighted with the new man who suddenly appeared in the city.

Pavel Ivanovich goes out of town to pay visits to noble landowners: Manilov, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdryov and Plyushkin. He is polite to every landowner and tries to find an approach to everyone. Natural resourcefulness and resourcefulness help Chichikov to gain the favor of every landowner. In addition to empty talk, Chichikov talks with the gentlemen about the peasants who died after the audit (“dead souls”) and expresses a desire to buy them. The landowners cannot understand why Chichikov needs such a deal. However, they agree to it.

As a result of his visits, Chichikov acquired more than 400 “dead souls” and was in a hurry to quickly finish his business and leave the city. The useful contacts Chichikov made upon his arrival in the city helped him resolve all issues with documents.

After some time, the landowner Korobochka let slip in the city that Chichikov was buying up “dead souls.” The whole city learned about Chichikov's affairs and was perplexed. Why would such a respected gentleman buy dead peasants? Endless rumors and speculation have a detrimental effect even on the prosecutor, and he dies of fear.

The poem ends with Chichikov hastily leaving the city. Leaving the city, Chichikov sadly recalls his plans to buy dead souls and pledge them to the treasury as living ones.

Main characters

Qualitatively new hero in Russian literature of that time. Chichikov can be called a representative of the newest class, just emerging in serf Russia - entrepreneurs, “acquirers”. The activity and activity of the hero distinguishes him favorably from other characters in the poem.

The image of Chichikov is distinguished by its incredible versatility and diversity. Even by the appearance of the hero it is difficult to immediately understand what kind of person he is and what he is like. “In the chaise sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not of bad appearance, neither too fat nor too thin, one cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young.”

It is difficult to understand and embrace the nature of the main character. He is changeable, has many faces, is able to adapt to any interlocutor, and give his face the desired expression. Thanks to these qualities, Chichikov easily finds mutual language with landowners, officials and wins the desired position in society. Ability to charm and win over the right people Chichikov uses it to achieve his goal, namely receiving and accumulating money. His father also taught Pavel Ivanovich to deal with those who are richer and to treat money with care, since only money can pave the way in life.

Chichikov did not earn money honestly: he deceived people, took bribes. Over time, Chichikov's machinations become increasingly widespread. Pavel Ivanovich strives to increase his fortune by any means, without paying attention to any moral norms and principles.

Gogol defines Chichikov as a person with a vile nature and also considers his soul dead.

In his poem Gogol describes typical images landowners of that time: “businessmen” (Sobakevich, Korobochka), as well as not serious and wasteful gentlemen (Manilov, Nozdrev).

Nikolai Vasilyevich masterfully created the image of the landowner Manilov in the work. By this one image, Gogol meant a whole class of landowners with similar features. The main qualities of these people are sentimentality, constant fantasies and lack of active activity. Landowners of this type let the economy take its course and do nothing useful. They are stupid and empty inside. This is exactly what Manilov was - not bad at heart, but a mediocre and stupid poser.

Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka

The landowner, however, differs significantly in character from Manilov. Korobochka is a good and tidy housewife, everything goes well on her estate. However, the life of the landowner revolves exclusively around her farm. The box does not develop spiritually and is not interested in anything. She understands absolutely nothing that does not concern her household. Korobochka is also one of the images by which Gogol meant a whole class of similar narrow-minded landowners who do not see anything beyond their farm.

The author clearly classifies the landowner Nozdryov as an unserious and wasteful gentleman. Unlike the sentimental Manilov, Nozdrev is full of energy. However, the landowner uses this energy not for the benefit of the farm, but for the sake of his momentary pleasures. Nozdryov is playing and wasting his money. Distinguished by its frivolity and idle attitude towards life.

Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich

The image of Sobakevich, created by Gogol, echoes the image of a bear. There is something of a large wild animal in the appearance of the landowner: clumsiness, sedateness, strength. Sobakevich is not concerned about the aesthetic beauty of the things around him, but about their reliability and durability. Behind his rough appearance and stern character lies a cunning, intelligent and resourceful person. According to the author of the poem, it will not be difficult for landowners like Sobakevich to adapt to the changes and reforms coming in Rus'.

The most unusual representative of the landowner class in Gogol's poem. The old man is distinguished by his extreme stinginess. Moreover, Plyushkin is greedy not only in relation to his peasants, but also in relation to himself. However, such savings make Plyushkin a truly poor man. After all, it is his stinginess that does not allow him to find a family.

Bureaucracy

Gogol's work contains a description of several city officials. However, the author in his work does not significantly differentiate them from each other. All officials in “Dead Souls” are a gang of thieves, crooks and embezzlers. These people really only care about their enrichment. Gogol literally describes in a few outlines the image of a typical official of that time, rewarding him with the most unflattering qualities.

Analysis of the work

The plot of “Dead Souls” is based on an adventure conceived by Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. At first glance, Chichikov's plan seems incredible. However, if you look at it, the Russian reality of those times, with its rules and laws, provided opportunities for all sorts of fraud associated with serfs.

The fact is that after 1718 in Russian Empire A capitation census of peasants was introduced. For every male serf, the master had to pay a tax. However, the census was carried out quite rarely - once every 12-15 years. And if one of the peasants ran away or died, the landowner was still forced to pay a tax for him. Dead or escaped peasants became a burden for the master. This created fertile ground for various types of fraud. Chichikov himself hoped to carry out this kind of scam.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol knew perfectly well how it worked Russian society with its serf system. And the whole tragedy of his poem lies in the fact that Chichikov’s scam absolutely did not contradict the current Russian legislation. Gogol exposes the distorted relationships of man with man, as well as man with the state, and talks about the absurd laws in force at that time. Because of such distortions, they become possible events, which contradict common sense.

"Dead Souls" - classic, which, like no other, is written in the style of Gogol. Quite often, Nikolai Vasilyevich based his work on some kind of anecdote or comical situation. And the more ridiculous and unusual the situation, the more tragic the real state of affairs seems.

Work on the poem began in 1835. From Gogol’s “Author’s Confession,” his letters, and from the memoirs of his contemporaries, it is known that the plot of this work, as well as the plot of “The Inspector General,” was suggested to him by Pushkin. Pushkin, who was the first to unravel the originality and uniqueness of Gogol’s talent, which consisted in the ability to “guess a person and present him with a few features as if he were alive,” advised Gogol to take on a large and serious essay. He told him about one rather clever swindler (whom he himself heard from someone) who was trying to get rich by pawning the dead souls he had bought as living souls in the guardianship council.

There are many stories about real buyers of dead souls, in particular about Ukrainian landowners of the first third of the 19th century, who quite often resorted to such an “operation” in order to acquire the qualification for the right to distill alcohol. Even one distant relative of Gogol was named among this kind of buyer. The purchase and sale of living revision souls was an everyday, everyday, ordinary fact. The plot of the poem turned out to be quite realistic.

In October 1835, Gogol informed Pushkin: “I began to write Dead Souls.” The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny.<...>In this novel I want to show at least from one side the whole of “Rus”.

From this letter one can see the task set by the writer. The plot of the conceived “pre-long novel” was mainly built, apparently, more on positions than on characters, with a predominance of a comic, humorous tone, rather than a satirical one.

Gogol read the first chapters of his work to Pushkin. He expected that the monsters coming from his pen would make the poet laugh. In fact, they made a completely different impression on him. “Dead Souls” revealed to Pushkin a new world, previously unknown to him, and horrified him with the impenetrable quagmire that provincial Russian life was at that time. It is not surprising that as he read, Gogol says, Pushkin became more and more gloomy, “finally becoming completely gloomy.” When the reading was over, he said in a voice of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is!” Pushkin’s exclamation amazed Gogol, forced him to look more carefully and seriously at his plan, to reconsider artistic method processing of living material. He began to think “how to soften the painful impression” that “Dead Souls” could make, how to avoid the “frightening absence of light” in his “very long and funny novel.” Contemplating further work, Gogol, reproducing the dark sides of Russian life, interspersing funny phenomena with touching ones, wants to create “a complete work, where there would be more than one thing to laugh at.”

In these statements, although in embryo, one can already discern the author’s intention, along with the dark sides of life, to give bright, positive ones. But this did not mean at all that the writer necessarily wanted to find the bright, positive aspects of life in the world of landowner and bureaucratic Russia. Apparently, in the chapters read to Pushkin for Gogol, the author’s personal attitude to the depicted had not yet been clearly defined; the work was not yet permeated with the spirit of subjectivity due to the lack of a clear ideological and aesthetic concept.

“Dead Souls” was written abroad (mostly in Rome), where Gogol went after the production of “The Inspector General” in the spring of 1836 in the most dejected and painful state. The waves of muddy and malicious hatred that fell upon the author of “The Inspector General” from many critics and journalists made a stunning impression on him. It seemed to Gogol that the comedy aroused an unfriendly attitude among all layers of Russian society. Feeling lonely, not appreciated by his compatriots for his good intentions to serve them in exposing untruths, he went abroad.

Gogol's letters suggest that he left home country not in order to relive his insult, but to “think about his responsibilities as an author, his future creations” and create “with great reflection.” Being far from his homeland, Gogol was connected with Russia in his heart, thought about it, sought to learn about everything that was happening there, turned to friends and acquaintances with a request to inform him about everything that was happening in the country. “My eyes,” he writes, “most often look only at Russia and there is no measure of my love for her.” Immense love for the fatherland inspired Gogol and guided him in his work on “ Dead souls" In the name of prosperity native land the writer intended, with the full force of his civil indignation, to brand the evil, self-interest and untruth that were so deeply rooted in Russia. Gogol was aware that “new classes and many different masters” would rise up against him, but convinced that Russia needed his flagellating satire, he worked a lot, intensely, persistently on his creation.

Soon after leaving abroad, Gogol wrote to Zhukovsky: “The dead flow alive... and it completely seems to me as if I were in Russia.”<...>.. I’m completely immersed in Dead Souls.”

If in a letter to Pushkin dated October 7, 1835, Gogol defined “Dead Souls” as a basically comic and humorous novel, then the further the writer’s work on the work went, the broader and deeper his plan became. 12 November 1836, he informs Zhukovsky: “I redid everything I started again, thought more over the whole plan and now I am writing it calmly, like a chronicle... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be done, then... what a huge, what an original plot ! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it!<...>My creation is enormously great and its end will not come soon.”

So, the genre definition of the work is a poem, its hero is all of Rus'. After 16 days, Gogol informs Pogodin: “The thing that I am sitting and working on now and which I have been thinking about for a long time, and which I will think about for a long time, is not like either a story or a novel.”<...>If God helps me complete my poem as it should, then this will be my first decent creation: all of Rus' will respond to it.” Here the title of the new work, already given in the letter to Pushkin, is confirmed, and again it is said that this is a poem that will cover all of Rus'. He also says in 1842 in a letter to Pletnev that Gogol wants to give a single complex image of Rus', wants his homeland to appear “in all its enormity.” The definition of the genre of the future work - a poem - indisputably testified that it was based on a “all-Russian scale”, that Gogol thought in national categories. Hence the many common signs that carry a generalizing semantic function, the appearance of such statements as “U us in Rus'" .... "y us not that" ..., "in our opinion custom" ..., "what we have there are common rooms,” etc.

So gradually, in the course of work, “Dead Souls” turned from a novel into a poem about Russian life, where the focus was on the “personality” of Russia, embraced from all sides at once, “in full scope” and holistically.

The heaviest blow for Gogol was the death of Pushkin. “My life, my highest pleasure died with him,” we read in his letter to Pogodin. “I didn’t do anything, didn’t write anything without his advice.” He took an oath from me to write.” From now on, Gogol considers the work on “Dead Souls” to be the fulfillment of Pushkin’s will: “I must continue the great work I began, which Pushkin took the word from me to write, whose thought is his creation and which has since become a sacred testament for me.”

From the diary of A.I. Turgenev it is known that when Gogol was with him in Paris in 1838, he read “excerpts from his novel “Dead Souls.” Faithful, living picture in Russia, our bureaucratic, noble life, our statehood... It’s funny and painful.” In Rome in the same year 1838, Gogol reads to Zhukovsky, Shevyrev, and Pogodin who arrived there, chapters about Chichikov’s arrival in the city of N, about Manilov, and Korobochka.

On September 13, 1839, Gogol came to Russia and read four chapters of the manuscript in St. Petersburg from N. Ya. Prokopovich; in February-April 1840, he read a number of chapters in Moscow from S. T. Aksakov, with whose family by this time he had developed friendly relations relationship. Moscow friends enthusiastically greeted the new work and gave a lot of advice. The writer, taking them into account, again began to redo, “re-clean” the already completed edition of the book.

In the spring and summer of 1840 in Rome, Gogol, rewriting the revised text of Dead Souls, again made changes and corrections to the manuscript. Repetitions and lengths are removed, whole new pages, scenes, additional characteristics appear, lyrical digressions, individual words and phrases are replaced. Work on the work testifies to the enormous tension and rise of the writer’s creative powers: “everything further appeared clearer and more majestic for him.”

In the fall of 1841, Gogol came to Moscow and, while the first six chapters were being whitewashed, read the remaining five chapters of the first book to the Aksakov family and M. Pogodin. Friends now with particular insistence pointed out the one-sided, negative character depictions of Russian life, noted that the poem gives only “half the girth, and not the whole girth” of the Russian world. They demanded to see another one, positive side life of Russia. Gogol, apparently, heeded this advice and made important insertions into the completely rewritten volume. In one of them, Chichikov takes up arms against the tailcoats and balls that came from the West, from France, and are contrary to the Russian spirit and Russian nature. In another, a solemn promise is made that in the future “a formidable blizzard of inspiration will rise and the majestic thunder of other speeches will be heard.

The ideological turning point in Gogol’s consciousness, which began to emerge in the second half of the 30s, led to the fact that the writer decided to serve his fatherland not only by exposing “to general ridicule” everything that desecrated and obscured the ideal to which a Russian could and should strive man, but also showing this ideal itself. Gogol now saw the book in three volumes. The first volume was supposed to capture the shortcomings of Russian life, the people hindering its development; the second and third are to indicate the path to the resurrection of “dead souls,” even such as Chichikov or Plyushkin. “Dead Souls” turned out to be a work in which pictures of a broad and objective display of Russian life would serve as a direct means of promoting high moral principles. The realist writer became a preacher-moralist.

Of his enormous plan, Gogol managed to fully implement only the first part.

At the beginning of December 1841, the manuscript of the first volume of Dead Souls was submitted to the Moscow censorship committee for consideration. But rumors that reached Gogol about unfavorable rumors among the committee members prompted him to take the manuscript back. In an effort to get “Dead Souls” through the St. Petersburg censorship, he sent the manuscript with Belinsky, who arrived in Moscow at that time, but the St. Petersburg censorship was in no hurry to review the poem. Gogol waited, full of anxiety and confusion. Finally, in mid-February 1842, permission was received to print Dead Souls. However, the censorship changed the title of the work, demanding that it be called “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” and thereby trying to divert the reader’s attention from the social issues of the poem, focusing his attention mainly on the adventures of the rogue Chichikov.

Censorship categorically banned The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. Gogol, who valued it very much and wanted to preserve “The Tale...” at all costs, was forced to remake it and place all the blame for the disasters of Captain Kopeikin on Kopeikin himself, and not on someone indifferent to fate ordinary people the tsar's minister, as it was originally.

On May 21, 1842, the first copies of the poem were received, and two days later an announcement appeared in the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper that the book had gone on sale.