Mystical secrets of Gogol

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There are many genius names in the history of mankind, among which the great Russian writer of the 19th century Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) occupies a prominent place. The uniqueness of this personality lies in the fact that, despite a severe mental illness, he created masterpieces of literary art and retained a high intellectual potential until the end of his life.

Gogol himself, in one of his letters to the historian M. P. Pogodinu in 1840 explained the likelihood of such paradoxes as follows: "He who is created to create in the depths of his soul, to live and breathe his creations, must be strange in many ways." Nikolai Vasilievich, as you know, was a great worker. In order to give a finished look to his works and make them as perfect as possible, he reworked them several times, without pity destroying the poorly written. All his works, like the creations of other great geniuses, were created by incredible work and the exertion of all mental strength. The famous Russian literary Slavophile Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov considered his "immense creative activity" to be one of the reasons for Gogol's illness and tragic death.

Let's try once again to consider several seemingly mutually exclusive factors in Gogol's life.

HEREDITY

In the development of Gogol's mystical inclinations, heredity played an important role. According to the recollections of relatives and friends, the grandfather and grandmother on the side of Gogol's mother were superstitious, religious, believed in omens and predictions. The aunt on the mother's side (recollections of Gogol's younger sister Olga) was “weird”: for six weeks she smeared her head with a tallow candle to “prevent graying of her hair,” she was extremely sluggish and slow, she dressed for a long time, was always late at the table, “came only for the second dish "," sitting at the table, grimacing ", having dined," asked to give her a piece of bread."

One of Gogol's nephews (the son of Maria's sister), left an orphan at the age of 13 (after the death of his father in 1840 and his mother in 1844), later, according to the recollections of his relatives, “went crazy” and committed suicide. Gogol's younger sister Olga developed poorly in childhood. Until the age of 5 she walked poorly, “held on to the wall”, had a bad memory, and learned foreign languages with difficulty. In adulthood, she became religious, was afraid to die, attended church every day, where she prayed for a long time. Another sister (according to Olga's recollections) "loved to fantasize": in the middle of the night she woke up the maids, took them out into the garden and made them sing and dance.

The writer's father Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky (c. 1778 - 1825) was extremely punctual and pedantic. He had literary ability, wrote poetry, short stories, comedies, had a sense of humor. A. N. Annensky wrote about him: “Gogol's father is an unusually witty, inexhaustible joker and storyteller. He wrote a comedy for the home theater of his distant relative Dmitry Prokofievich Troshchinsky (retired Minister of Justice), and he appreciated his original mind and gift of speech."

A. N. Annensky believed that Gogol "inherited humor, love for art and theater from his father." At the same time, Vasily Afanasyevich was suspicious, “looked for various diseases in himself,” believed in miracles and destiny. His marriage was of a strange, mystic-like character. I saw my future wife in a dream at the age of 14. He had a strange, but rather vivid dream, imprinted for life. At the altar of a church, the Most Holy Theotokos showed him a girl in white robes and said that she was his betrothed. Waking up, on the same day he went to his acquaintances Kosyarovsky and saw their daughter, a very beautiful one-year-old girl Masha, a copy of the one that was lying at the altar. Since then, he named her his fiancee and waited many years to marry her. Without waiting for her majority, he proposed when she was only 14 years old. The marriage was happy. For 20 years, until the death of Vasily Afanasyevich from consumption in 1825, the spouses could not do without each other for a single day.

Gogol's mother Maria Ivanovna (1791-1868), had an unbalanced character, easily fell into despair. Dramatic mood swings were noted periodically. According to the historian V. M. Shenroku, she was impressionable and distrustful, and "her suspicion reached extreme limits and reached an almost painful state." The mood often changed for no apparent reason: from lively, cheerful and sociable she suddenly became silent, closed in on herself, “fell into a strange reverie,” sat for several hours without changing her posture, looking at one point, not responding to calls.

According to the recollections of relatives, Maria Ivanovna in everyday life was impractical, she bought unnecessary things from hawkers that had to be returned, frivolously took on risky enterprises, did not know how to commensurate income with expenses. She later wrote about herself: "My character and my husband's are cheerful, but sometimes gloomy thoughts came over me, I had a presentiment of misfortune, I believed in dreams." Despite her early marriage and a favorable attitude from her spouse, she never learned how to run a household. These strange properties, as you know, are easily recognized in the actions of such well-known Gogol artistic characters as the "historical man" Nozdryov or the Manilov couple.

The family was large. The couple had 12 children. But the first children were born stillborn or died shortly after birth. Desperate to give birth to a healthy and viable child, she turns to the holy fathers and to prayer. Together with her husband, he goes to Sorochintsy to the famous doctor Trofimovsky, visits the church, where in front of the icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant he asks to send her a son and vows to name the child Nicholas. In the same year, an entry appeared in the register of the Transfiguration Church: “In the town of Sorochintsy in the month of March, on the 20th (Gogol himself celebrated his birthday on March 19), the landowner Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky had a son, Nikolai. Receiver Mikhail Trofimovsky.

From the very first days of his birth, Nikosha (as his mother called him) became the most adored creature in the family even after a year later the second son Ivan was born, and then several daughters in succession. She considered her firstborn to be sent to her by God and predicted a great future for him. She told everyone that he was a genius, did not succumb to persuasion. When he was still in his youth, she began to ascribe to him the opening of the railway, the steam engine, the authorship of literary works written by others, which caused his indignation. After the unexpected death of her husband in 1825, she began to behave inappropriately, talked to him as if he were alive, demanded to dig a grave for her and put her next to her. Then she fell into a daze: she stopped answering questions, sat without moving, looking at one point. She refused to eat, when she tried to feed, she sharply resisted, gritted her teeth, and forcefully poured broth into her mouth. This condition lasted for two weeks.

Gogol himself considered her not entirely healthy mentally. On August 12, 1839, he wrote from Rome to his sister Anna Vasilievna: "Thank God, our mama has now become healthy, I mean her mental illness." At the same time, she was distinguished by her kind-heartedness and gentleness, she was hospitable, there were always many guests in her house. Annensky wrote that Gogol "inherited from his mother a religious feeling and a desire to benefit people." Maria Ivanovna died at the age of 77 suddenly from a stroke, having outlived her son Nikolai by 16 years.

Based on information about heredity, it can be assumed that the development of mental ailments, as well as a penchant for mysticism, was partially influenced by the mental imbalance of the mother, and he inherited his literary talent from his father.

CHILDHOOD FEARS

Gogol spent his childhood in the village of Vasilyevka (Yanovshchina), Mirgorodsky district, Poltava province, not far from the historical monuments-estates of Kochubei and Mazepa and the site of the famous Poltava battle. Nikosha grew up sickly, thin, physically weak, "scrofulous". Abscesses and rashes often appeared on the body, red spots on the face; often watery eyes. According to Olga's sister, he was constantly treated with herbs, ointments, lotions, and various folk remedies. Carefully protected from colds.

The first signs of mental disorder with a mystical bias in the form of childhood fears were noticed at the age of 5 in 1814. Gogol's own story about them was recorded by his friend Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset: “I was about five years old. I was sitting alone in one of the rooms in Vasilyevka. Father and mother are gone. Only the old nanny remained with me, and she went away somewhere. Dusk fell. I pressed myself against the corner of the sofa and, in the midst of complete silence, listened to the sound of the long pendulum of an antique wall clock. My ears were buzzing. Something came and went somewhere. It seemed to me that the beat of a pendulum was the beat of time, which goes into eternity.

Suddenly the faint meowing of the cat broke the rest that weighed on me. I saw her, meowing, cautiously crept towards me. I will never forget how she walked, stretching towards me, and soft paws weakly tapped on the floorboards with claws, and her green eyes sparkled with an unkind light. I was creepy. I scrambled onto the sofa and pressed myself against the wall.

"Kitty, kitty," I called, wanting to cheer myself up. I jumped off the sofa, grabbed the cat, which easily fell into my hands, ran into the garden, where I threw it into the pond and several times, when she wanted to swim out and get out onto the shore, pushed her away with a pole. I was scared, I was trembling and at the same time I felt some kind of satisfaction, maybe it was revenge for the fact that she frightened me. But when she drowned and the last circles on the water scattered, complete peace and silence settled down, I suddenly felt terribly sorry for the cat. I felt a pang of conscience, it seemed to me that I had drowned a man. I cried terribly and calmed down only when my father whipped me."

According to the description of the biographer P. A. Kulisha, Gogol at the same 5-year-old age, walking in the garden, heard voices, apparently, of a frightening character. He was trembling, looking around fearfully, an expression of horror was on his face. Relatives regarded these first signs of mental disorder as an increased impressionability and a feature of childhood. They did not attach much importance to them, although the mother began to protect him even more carefully and pay more attention to him than other children. According to the definition of many authors, fear does not always have "a certain content and comes in the form of an unclear feeling of impending catastrophe."

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol-Yanovsky did not differ in development from his peers, except that at the age of 3 he learned the alphabet and began to write letters with chalk. He was taught to read and write by one seminarian, first at home with his younger brother Ivan, and then for one academic year (1818-1819) in the Higher Department of the 1st class of the Poltava Povet School. At the age of 10, he suffered a severe mental shock: during the summer holidays in 1819, his 9-year-old brother Ivan fell ill and died a few days later. Nikosha, who was very friendly with his brother, sobbed for a long time, kneeling at his grave. He was brought home after persuasion. This family misfortune left a deep mark on the soul of the child. Later, as a high school student, he often remembered his brother, wrote the ballad "Two Fish" about his friendship with him.

According to the recollections of Gogol himself, in childhood he was "distinguished by increased impressionability."Mother often talked about the goblin, demons, about the afterlife, about the last judgment for sinners, about the benefits for the virtuous and righteous people. The child's imagination vividly painted a picture of hell, in which “sinners were tormented by torment,” and a picture of paradise, where righteous people were in bliss and contentment.

Later, Gogol wrote: "She so terribly described the eternal torment of sinners that it shocked me and awakened the highest thoughts." Undoubtedly, these stories influenced the emergence of childhood fears and painful nightmares. At the same age, he periodically began to experience bouts of lethargy, when he stopped answering questions, sat motionless, looking at one point. In this regard, the mother began to express more often concern about his neuropsychic health.

Gogol's literary talent was first noticed by the writer V. V. Kapnist. Visiting Gogol's parents and listening to the poems of 5-year-old Nikosha, he said that "he will be a great talent."

MYSTERIOUS NATURE

Much in Gogol's life was unusual, even his birth after prayer in the church at the icon of Nicholas the Pleasant. Unusual, and at times mysterious, was his behavior in the gymnasium, about which he himself wrote to his family: “I am considered a mystery for everyone. Nobody has figured out me completely."

In May 1821, 12-year-old Nikolai Gogol-Yanovsky was assigned to the first grade of the Nizhyn gymnasium of higher sciences, for a 7-year course of study. This prestigious educational institution was intended for boys from wealthy families (aristocrats and nobles). The living conditions were not bad. Each of the 50 pupils had a separate room. Many were on full board.

Because of his secrecy and mysteriousness, the gymnasium students called him "the mysterious Karla", and due to the fact that sometimes during a conversation he suddenly fell silent and did not finish the phrase he had begun, they began to call him "a man of dead thought" ("congestion of thought", by A. V. Snezhnevsky, one of the symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia). Sometimes his behavior seemed incomprehensible to the pupils. One of the pupils of the gymnasium, in the future poet I. V. Lyubich-Romanovich (1805-1888) recalled: “Gogol sometimes forgot that he was a man. It used to be that he cried like a goat, walking around his room, then he sings like a rooster in the middle of the night, then he grunts like a pig. " To the bewilderment of the high school students, he usually answered: "I prefer to be in the company of pigs than people."

Gogol often walked with his head bowed. According to the memoirs of the same Lyubich-Romanovich, he “gave the impression of a person deeply engaged in something, or a stern subject who neglects all people. He considered our behavior to be arrogance of aristocrats and did not want to know us."

It was also incomprehensible to them his attitude to insulting attacks against him. He ignored them, declaring: "I do not consider myself deserving of insults and do not take them upon myself." This angered his persecutors, and they continued to be sophisticated in their cruel jokes and mockery. Once a deputation was sent to him, which solemnly presented him with a huge honey gingerbread. He threw it in the face of the deputies, left the class and did not appear for two weeks.

His rare talent, the transformation of an ordinary person into a genius, was also a mystery. This was not a mystery only for his mother, who almost from early childhood considered him a genius. His lonely wandering life in different countries and cities was a mystery. The movement of his soul was also a mystery, now filled with a joyful, enthusiastic perception of the world, now immersed in a deep and gloomy melancholy, which he called "blues." Later, one of the teachers of the Nizhyn gymnasium, who taught French, wrote about the mysteriousness of Gogol's transformation into a genius writer: “He was very lazy. Neglected language learning, especially in my subject. He mimicked and copied everyone, branded with nicknames. But he was kind and did it not out of a desire to offend anyone, but out of passion. He loved drawing and literature. But it would be too ridiculous to think that Gogol-Yanovsky would be the famous writer Gogol. Strange, really strange."

The impression of Gogol's mysteriousness was given by his secrecy. Later he recalled: “I didn’t confide my secret thoughts to anyone, didn’t do anything that could reveal the depths of my soul. And to whom and why I would have expressed myself, so that they would laugh at my extravagance, so that they would be considered an ardent dreamer and an empty person. " As an adult and independent person, Gogol wrote to Professor S. P. Shevyrev (historian): "I am hidden for fear of letting up whole clouds of misunderstanding."

But the case of Gogol's inappropriate behavior, which stirred up the entire gymnasium, seemed especially strange and incomprehensible. On this day, they wanted to punish Gogol for painting a picture during the service, without listening to prayer. Seeing the executor summoned to him, Gogol screamed so piercingly that he frightened everyone. A pupil of the gymnasium T. G. Pashchenko described this episode as follows: “Suddenly there was a terrible alarm in all departments:“Gogol went mad”! We came running and saw: Gogol's face was terribly distorted, his eyes sparkled with a wild shine, his hair was wrinkled, gritting his teeth, foam comes out of his mouth, beats furniture, falls to the floor and beats. Orlai (the director of the gymnasium) came running, gently touched his shoulders. Gogol grabbed a chair and swung it. Four ministers grabbed him and took him to a special department of the local hospital, where he was for two months, perfectly playing the role of a rabid."

According to other inmates, Gogol was in the hospital for only two weeks. The high school students who attended him did not believe that it was an attack of illness. One of them wrote: "Gogol pretended so skillfully that he convinced everyone of his insanity." This was the reaction of his protest, expressed in violent psychomotor agitation. She resembled catatonic excitement with hysterical components (information about his stay in the hospital and the conclusion of doctors in the available sources could not be found). After his return from the hospital, the gymnasium students looked at him with apprehension and avoided him.

Gogol did not particularly care about his appearance. In his youth, he was careless in his clothes. Educator P. A. Arseniev wrote: “Gogol's appearance is unattractive. Who would have thought that under this ugly shell lies the personality of a genius writer, of whom Russia is proud? His behavior remained incomprehensible and mysterious to many when, in 1839, 30-year-old Gogol sat for days at the bedside of the dying young man Joseph Vielgorsky. He wrote to his former student Balabina: “I live him for dying days. He smells like a grave. A dull, audible voice whispers to me that this is for a short time. It is sweet for me to sit next to him and look at him. With what joy I would take upon myself his illness if it helped restore his health. " M. P. For a moment, Gogol wrote that he sits day and night at the bedside of Vielgorsky and "does not feel tired." Some even suspected Gogol of homosexuality. Until the end of his days, Gogol remained an unusual and mysterious person for many of his friends and acquaintances, and even for researchers of his work.

IMMERSION IN RELIGION

“I hardly know myself how I came to Christ, seeing in him the key to the human soul,” Gogol wrote in The Author's Confession. As a child, according to his recollections, despite the religiosity of his parents, he was indifferent to religion, did not really like to attend church and listen to long services. “I went to church because they were ordered, stood and saw nothing but the priest’s robe, and heard nothing but the disgusting singing of the clerks, I was baptized because everyone was baptized,” he later recalled.

As a high school student, according to the recollections of friends, he was not baptized and did not bow down. The first indications of Gogol himself about religious feelings are in his letter to his mother in 1825 after the death of his father, when he was on the verge of suicide: "I bless you, sacred faith, only in you I find consolation and satisfaction of my grief."Religion became dominant in his life in the early 1840s. But the thought that there is some kind of higher power in the world that helps him create works of genius came to him at the age of 26. These were the most productive years in his work.

With the deepening and complication of mental disorders, Gogol began to turn more often to religion and prayer. In 1847 he wrote to V. A. Zhukovsky: "My health is so sickly and at times it is so hard that without God it is impossible to endure." He told his friend Alexander Danilevsky that he wanted to find “the freshness that embraces my soul,” and he himself “is ready to follow the path drawn from above. One must humbly accept ailments, believing that they are useful. I can’t find words how to thank the heavenly Provider for my illness”.

With the further development of painful phenomena, his religiosity also increases. He says to his friends that now without prayer he does not start "any business."

In 1842, on a religious basis, Gogol met the pious old woman Nadezhda Nikolaevna Sheremeteva, a distant relative of the most famous count family. After learning that Gogol often attends church, reads church books, helps poor people, she was imbued with respect for him. They found a common language and corresponded until her death. In 1843, 34-year-old Gogol wrote to his friends: "The deeper I look into my life, the better I see the wonderful participation of the Higher Power in everything that concerns me."

Gogol's piety deepened over the years. In 1843, his friend Smirnova noticed that he was "so immersed in prayer that he did not notice anything around." He began to assert that "God created him and did not hide my purpose from me." Then he wrote a strange letter from Dresden to Yazykov, with omissions and incomplete phrases, something like an incantation: “There is something wonderful and incomprehensible. But sobs and tears are deeply inspired. I pray in the depths of my soul that this will not happen to you, that dark doubt will fly away from you, may there be more often on your soul the grace that I am embraced this minute."

Since 1844, he began to talk about the influence of "evil spirits". He writes to Aksakov: “Your excitement is the devil’s business. Hit this brute in the face and don't be embarrassed. The devil boasted to own the whole world, but God did not give power. " In another letter, he advises Aksakov “to read the Imitation of Christ every day, and after reading, indulge in meditation”. In the letters, more and more the instructive tone of the preacher sounds. The Bible came to be considered "the highest creation of the mind, the teacher of life and wisdom." He began to carry a prayer book with him everywhere, he was afraid of a thunderstorm, considering it "God's punishment." Once, while visiting Smirnova, I read a chapter from the second volume of Dead Souls, and at that time a thunderstorm suddenly burst out. “It is impossible to imagine what happened to Gogol,” Smirnova recalled. "He was shaking all over, stopped reading, and later explained that thunder is the wrath of God, who threatened him from heaven for reading an unfinished work."

Coming to Russia from abroad, Gogol always visited Optina Pustyn. I got to know the bishop, the rector and the brethren. He began to fear that God would punish him for "blasphemous works." This idea was supported by the priest Matthew, who suggested that in the afterlife he would face a terrible punishment for such compositions. In 1846, one of Gogol's acquaintances, Sturdza, saw him in one of the churches in Rome. He prayed fervently, bowed down. “I found him tempted by the fire of mental and physical suffering and striving for God with all the forces and methods of his mind and heart,” the stunned witness wrote in his memoirs.

Despite the fear of God's punishment, Gogol continues to work on the second volume of Dead Souls. While abroad in 1845, 36-year-old Gogol received notification of his acceptance on March 29 as an honorary member of Moscow University: “The Imperial Moscow University, respecting Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's distinction in academic light and merits in literary work in Russian literature, recognizes him as honorary a member with full confidence in assisting Moscow University in everything that can contribute to the success of the sciences. " In this important act for him, Gogol also saw the "providence of God."

Since the mid-40s, Gogol began to find many vices in himself. In 1846, he compiled a prayer for himself: “Lord, bless this coming year, turn it all into fruit and labor of great benefit and wholesome, all for serving you, all for the salvation of the soul. Autumn with your higher light and insight of the prophecy of your great miracles. May the Holy Spirit descend on me and move my mouth and destroy in me my sinfulness, uncleanness and vileness and turn me into a worthy temple. Lord, do not leave me."

In order to cleanse himself from sins, Gogol made a trip to Jerusalem in early 1848. Before the trip, he visited Optina Pustyn and asked the priest, abbot and brethren to pray for him, sent money to Priest Matthew so that he “pray for his physical and mental health” for the entire duration of his trip. In Optina Pustyn, he turned to Elder Filaret: “For Christ's sake, pray for me. Ask the abbot and all the brethren to pray. My path is difficult."

Before going to the holy places in Jerusalem, Gogol wrote an incantation for himself in the form of an appeal to God: “Fill his soul with a gracious thought throughout his journey. Remove from him the spirit of hesitation, the spirit of superstition, the spirit of rebellious thoughts and exciting empty signs, the spirit of timidity and fear. " From that time on, he developed ideas of self-accusation and self-abasement, under the influence of which he wrote a message to his compatriots: “In 1848, heavenly mercy withdrew the hand of death from me. I am almost healthy, but weakness heralds that life is in the balance. I know that I have afflicted many, and turned others against myself. My haste was the reason that my works appeared in an imperfect form. For everything that is offensive in them, I ask you to forgive me with the magnanimity with which only the Russian soul can forgive. There was a lot of unpleasant and repulsive in my communication with people. This was partly due to petty pride. I ask you to forgive compatriot writers for my disrespect for them. I apologize to the readers if there is anything uncomfortable in the book. I ask you to expose all my shortcomings, which are in the book, my lack of understanding, thoughtlessness and arrogance. I ask everyone in Russia to pray for me. I will pray for all my compatriots at the Holy Sepulcher."

At the same time, Gogol writes a testamentary order of the following content: “Being in the full presence of memory and in sound mind, I expound my last will. I ask you to pray for my soul, to treat the poor with dinner. I will not put any monuments over my grave. I bequeath to no one to mourn for me. Sin will be taken by the one who will regard my death as a significant loss. Please do not bury me until the signs of decay appear. I mention this because during my illness they find moments of vital numbness on me, my heart and pulse stop beating. I bequeathed to my compatriots my book called "The Farewell Tale". She was the source of tears that no one could see. It is not for me, the worst of all, suffering from the grave illness of my own imperfection, to make such speeches."

Upon his return from Jerusalem, he wrote a letter to Zhukovsky: “I was honored to spend the night at the Savior’s tomb and partaken of the“holy mysteries,”but I didn’t get better.” In May 1848 he went to his relatives in Vasilyevka. In the words of Olga's sister, "I came with a mournful face, brought a bag of consecrated ground, icons, prayer books, a carnelian cross." Being with relatives, he was not interested in anything, except for prayers, and attended church. He wrote to his friends that after visiting Jerusalem he saw even more vices in himself. “At the Holy Sepulcher I was as if to feel how much coldness of my heart, selfishness and self-conceit was in me”.

Returning to Moscow, in September 1848 he visited S. T. Aksakov, who noticed a sharp change in him: “Insecurity in everything. Not that Gogol. " On days like this, when, in his words, "refreshment was coming," he wrote the second volume of Dead Souls. He burned the first version of the book in 1845 in order to write the best one. At the same time he explained: "To be resurrected, one must die." By 1850, he had written 11 chapters of the already updated second volume. Although he considered his book "sinful", he did not hide that he had material considerations: "there are many debts to Moscow writers", with which he wanted to pay off.

At the end of 1850, he undertook a trip to Odessa, as he did not endure the winter in Moscow well. But in Odessa I didn’t feel in the best way either. At times there were bouts of melancholy, continued to express ideas of self-accusation and delusions of sinfulness. He was absent-minded, thoughtful, prayed fervently, talked about the "last judgment" behind the grave. At night, sighs and whispers were heard from his room: "Lord, have mercy." Pletnev from Odessa wrote that he "does not work and does not live." I began to limit myself to food. I lost weight, looked bad. Once he came to Lev Pushkin, who had guests who were struck by his emaciated appearance, and the child among them, seeing Gogol, burst into tears.

From Odessa in May 1851, Gogol went to Vasilyevka. According to the recollections of relatives, during his stay with them he was not interested in anything, except for prayers, read religious books every day, carried a prayer book with him. According to his sister Elizabeth, he was withdrawn, focused on his thoughts, "became cold and indifferent to us."

The ideas of sinfulness became more and more entrenched in his mind. I stopped believing in the possibility of cleansing from sins and in forgiveness from God. At times he became anxious, waited for death, slept badly at night, changed rooms, said that the light interfered with him. He often prayed on his knees. At the same time, he corresponded with friends. Apparently, he was obsessed with "evil spirits", as he wrote to one of his friends: "The devil is closer to a person, he unceremoniously sits on top of him and controls, forcing him to do tomfoolery after tomfoolery."

From the end of 1851 until his death, Gogol did not leave Moscow. He lived on Nikitsky Boulevard in Talyzin's house in the apartment of Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy. He was completely at the mercy of religious feelings, repeated incantations written by him back in 1848: "Lord, drive away all the seductions of the evil spirit, save the poor people, do not let the evil one rejoice and take over us, do not let the enemy mock us." For religious reasons, he began to fast not even on fast days, he ate very little. I read only religious literature. I corresponded with the priest Matthew, who called him to repentance and to prepare for the afterlife. After the death of Khomyakova (sister of his deceased friend Yazykov), he began to say that he was preparing for a "terrible moment": "It's all over for me." From that time on, he began to humbly wait for the end of his life.