Arkady N. Dolgikh

Associate Professor, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor of the Department of National and Universal History

Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University

(Lipetsk, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-1-78-89

Abstract. This article attempts to analyze the socio-political views of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809 – 1852), the great Russian writer, gives a brief overview of the historiography of the issue, and identifies the main knots of contradictions in the literature on this issue. It is also worth noting the periodic changes in approaches in literature to the N. V. Gogol’s work. In Soviet times, however, emphasis was placed on the critical aspects of Gogol's satire in The Inspector and Dead Souls, while his passages about serfdom in Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends were often left aside. Today, the pendulum of historiography has swung towards his predominantly conservative views, despite the desire of many authors to protect the good reputation of the great writer. At the same time, the author of the article gives his understanding of the origin of these disputes. The article also considers in detail different aspects of N. V. Gogol's worldview, revealed in his correspondence, in his journalism and in artistic works of different types - prose and drama. Along with his views on autocracy and religion, the article considers his attitude to the solution of the peasant question - the most important issue of social and political life in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. At the same time, it is worth noting his dominant conservatism in this respect (also manifested in other areas of his worldview), which contradicts the traditional ideas of the mass consciousness in our country. A great writer is not always a great and progressive thinker - this is the conclusion of the author of the article.
Keywords: N. V. Gogol, worldview, conservatism, autocracy, peasant question, religion, Orthodoxy, serfdom.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Dolgikh, AN 2024, ‘The Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Serfdom Issue in Nikolai V. Gogol's Socio-political Views’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 1 (17), pp. 78–89, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-1-78-89 (in Russ.)

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