Gogol's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery. The mystery of Gogol's grave

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

One of the most mystical personalities in Russian literature is N. V. Gogol. During his lifetime, he was a secretive person and took with him many secrets. But he left brilliant works in which fantasy and reality are intertwined, beautiful and repulsive, funny and tragic.

Here witches fly on a broomstick, couples and pannochkas fall in love with each other, an imaginary auditor assumes a pompous look, Viy lifts his leaden eyelids and runs away from Major Kovalev Nos. And the writer unexpectedly says goodbye to us, leaving us in admiration and bewilderment. Today we will talk about his last charade, left to posterity - the secret of Gogol's grave.

Writer's childhood

Gogol was born in the Poltava province on March 1, 1809. Before him, two dead boys had already been born in the family, so the parents prayed to Nicholas the Wonderworker for the birth of the third and named the first-born in his honor. Gogol was a sickly child, they shook him a lot and loved him more than other children.

FromHis mother gave him religiosity and premonitions. From the father - suspiciousness and love for the theater. The boy was attracted by secrets, scary stories, prophetic dreams.

At the age of 10, he and his younger brother Ivan were sent to the Poltava School. But the training did not last long. The brother died, which greatly shocked little Nikolai. He was transferred to the Nizhyn gymnasium. Among his peers, the boy was distinguished by his love for practical jokes and secrecy, for which he was called the Mysterious Carlo. So the writer Gogol grew up. His work and personal life were largely determined by his first childhood impressions.

Gogol's artistic world - the creation of a crazy genius?

The writer's works surprise with their phantasmagorism. Terrifying sorcerers ("Terrible Revenge") come to life on their pages, witches rise at night, led by the monster Viy. But along with evil spirits, caricature pictures of modern society await us. A new auditor arrives in the city, dead souls are bought by Chichikov, Russian life is shown with the utmost honesty. And next - the absurdity of "Nevsky Prospekt" and the famous "Nose". How were these images born in the head of the writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol?

Creativity researchers are still at a loss. Many theories are connected with the madness of the writer. It is known that he suffered from painful conditions, during which there were mood swings, extreme despair, fainting. Perhaps it was disturbed thinking that prompted Gogol to write such vivid, unusual works? After all, after sufferingthere were periods of creative inspiration.

However, psychiatrists who have studied Gogol's work find no signs of insanity. According to them, the writer suffered from depression. Hopeless sadness, a special sensitivity are characteristic of many brilliant personalities. This is what helps them to become more aware of the surrounding reality, to show it from unexpected angles, striking the reader.

Gogol: interesting facts from life and death

The writer was a shy and closed person. In addition, he had a good sense of humor and loved practical jokes. All this gave rise to many legends about him. So, excessive religiosity suggests that Gogol could be a member of a sect.

Even more speculation is the fact that the writer was not married. There is a legend that in the 1840s he proposed to Countess A. M. Villegorskaya, but was refused. There was also a rumor about the platonic love of Nikolai Vasilyevich for the married lady A. O. Smirnova-Rosset. But these are all rumors. As well as talk about Gogol's homosexual inclinations, which he allegedly tried to get rid of with the help of austerities and prayers.

Many questions are caused by the death of the writer. Gloomy thoughts and forebodings overcame him after finishing the second volume of Dead Souls in 1852. In those days he talked with his confessor Matvey Konstantinovsky. The latter urged Gogol to give up sinful literary activity and devote more time to spiritual quests.

A week before Lent, the writer subjects himself to the most severe austerity. He hardly eats or sleeps, which negatively affects his he alth. On the night of February 12he burns papers in the fireplace (presumably the second volume of "Dead Souls"). Since February 18, Gogol has not gotten out of bed and is preparing for death. On February 20, doctors decide to start compulsory treatment. On the morning of February 21, the writer dies.

Cause of death

How the writer Gogol died is still guessing. He was only 42 years old. Despite the poor he alth of late, no one expected such an outcome. Doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis. All this gave rise to many rumors. Consider some of them:

1. Suicide. Before his death, Gogol of his own free will refused to eat and prayed instead of sleeping. He deliberately prepared for death, forbade himself to be treated, did not listen to the exhortations of his friends. Perhaps he passed away of his own free will? However, for a religious person who is afraid of hell and the devil, this is not possible.
2. Mental illness. Perhaps the reason for this behavior of Gogol was a clouding of reason? Shortly before the tragic events, Ekaterina Khomyakova, the sister of a close friend of the writer, to whom he was attached, died. On February 8-9, Nikolai Vasilyevich dreamed of his own death. All this could shake his unstable psyche and lead to unnecessarily severe asceticism, the consequences of which were terrifying.
3. Wrong treatment. Gogol could not be diagnosed for a long time, suspecting either enteric fever or inflammation of the stomach. Finally, a council of doctors decided that the patient had meningitis, and subjected him to bloodletting, warmbaths, cold douches. All this undermined the body, already weakened by a long abstinence from food. The writer died of heart failure.
4. Poisoning. According to other sources, doctors could provoke intoxication of the body by prescribing calomel to Gogol three times. This was due to the fact that various specialists were invited to the writer, who did not know about other appointments. As a result, the patient died from an overdose.

Funeral

Be that as it may, but on February 24, the burial took place. It was public, although the writer's friends objected to this. Gogol's grave was originally located in Moscow on the territory of the St. Danilov Monastery. The coffin was brought here in their arms after the funeral service in the church of the martyr Titiana.

According to eyewitnesses, a black cat suddenly appeared at the place where Gogol's grave is located. This caused a lot of buzz. Assumptions spread that the writer's soul moved into a mystical animal. After the burial, the cat disappeared without a trace.

Nikolai Vasilyevich forbade erecting a monument on his grave, so a cross was erected with a quote from the Bible: "I will laugh at my bitter word." Its basis was a granite stone brought from the Crimea by K. Aksakov ("Golgotha"). In 1909, in honor of the centenary of the writer's birth, the grave was restored. A cast-iron fence was installed, as well as a sarcophagus.

Opening Gogol's grave

In 1930, the Danilovsky Monastery was closed. In its place, it was decided to arrange a receiver-distributorfor juvenile delinquents. The cemetery was urgently reconstructed. In 1931, the graves of such prominent people as Gogol, Khomyakov, Yazykov and others were opened and moved to the Novodevichy Cemetery.

It happened in the presence of representatives of the cultural intelligentsia. According to the memoirs of the writer V. Lidin, they arrived at the place where Gogol was buried on May 31. The work took all day, since the coffin was deep and inserted into the crypt through a special side hole. The remains were discovered at dusk, so no photographs were taken. The NKVD archives contain an autopsy report, which does not contain anything unusual.

However, according to rumors, this was done in order not to make a fuss. The picture that was revealed to those present shocked everyone. A terrible rumor immediately spread around Moscow. What did the people who were present at the Danilovsky cemetery that day see?

Buried Alive

In oral conversations, V. Lidin said that Gogol lay in the grave with his head turned to one side. In addition, the lining of the coffin was scratched from the inside. All this gave rise to terrible speculation. What if the writer fell into a lethargic sleep and was buried alive? Perhaps he woke up trying to get out of the grave?

The interest was fueled by the fact that Gogol suffered from tofephobia - the fear of being buried alive. In 1839, in Rome, he suffered severe malaria, which led to brain damage. Since then, the writer has experienced fainting, turning into a long sleep. Hehe was very afraid that in such a state he would be mistaken for dead and buried ahead of time. Therefore, he stopped sleeping in bed, preferring to doze half-sitting on a sofa or in an armchair.

In his will, Gogol ordered not to bury him until there were obvious signs of death. So is it possible that the writer's will was not carried out? Is it true that Gogol turned over in his grave? Experts say that this is impossible. As evidence, they point to the following facts:

• Gogol's death was recorded by five of the best doctors of the time.
• Nikolai Ramazanov, who removed the death mask from the great namesake, knew about his fears. In his memoirs, he states: the writer, unfortunately, slept forever.
• The skull may have been rotated due to the displacement of the coffin lid, which often happens over time, or while being carried by hand to the burial site.
• It was impossible to see the scratches on the upholstery that had decayed over 80 years. This is too long.
• V. Lidin's oral stories contradict his written memoirs. Indeed, according to the latter, Gogol's body was found without a skull. Only a skeleton in a frock coat lay in the coffin.

Legend of the Lost Skull

The headless body of Gogol, except for V. Lidin, is mentioned by the archaeologist A. Smirnov, who was present at the autopsy, and also V. Ivanov. But should you trust them? After all, the historian M. Baranovskaya, who was standing next to them, saw not only the skull, but also the light brown hair preserved on it. And the writer S. Solovyov did not see either the coffin or the ashes, but he found in the cryptventilation pipes in case the deceased is resurrected and needs something to breathe.

Nevertheless, the story of the missing skull was so "in the spirit" of the author Viy that it was developed. According to legend, in 1909, during the restoration of Gogol's grave, the collector A. Bakhrushin persuaded the monks of the Danilovsky Monastery to steal the head of the writer. For a good reward, they sawed off the skull, and he took his place in the theater museum of the new owner.

He kept it secretly, in the pathologist's bag, among the medical instruments. Having passed away in 1929, Bakhrushin took with him the secret of the location of Gogol's skull. However, could the story of the great phantasmagoric, which was Nikolai Vasilyevich, end there? Of course, she came up with a sequel worthy of the pen of the master himself.

Ghost Train

One day, Gogol's great-nephew, Fleet Lieutenant Yanovsky, came to Bakhrushin. He heard about the stolen skull and, threatening with a loaded weapon, demanded that it be returned to his family. Bakhrushin gave the relic. Yanovsky decided to bury the skull in Italy, which Gogol loved very much and considered his second home.

In 1911, ships from Rome arrived in Sevastopol. Their goal was to take the remains of compatriots who died during the Crimean campaign. Yanovsky persuaded the captain of one of the ships, Borgose, to take with him a chest with a skull and hand it over to the Russian ambassador in Italy. He was supposed to bury him according to the Orthodox rite.

However, Borgose did not have time to meet with the ambassadorand went on another voyage, leaving an unusual chest in his house. The captain's younger brother, a student at the University of Rome, discovered the skull and planned to scare his friends. He was to ride in a cheerful company through the longest tunnel of that time on the Rome Express. The young rake took the skull with him. Before the train entered the mountains, he opened the chest.

Immediately, an unusual fog enveloped the train, panic began among those present. Borgose Jr. and another passenger jumped off the train at full speed. The rest disappeared along with the Roman Express and Gogol's skull. The search for the composition was unsuccessful, they hastened to wall up the tunnel. But in subsequent years, the train was seen in different countries, including Poltava, the writer's homeland, and Crimea.

Is it possible that where Gogol was buried, there is only his ashes? While the writer's spirit wanders the world in a ghost train, never finding peace?

Last resting place

Gogol himself wanted to be laid to rest in peace. Therefore, let's leave the legends to science fiction lovers and move on to the Novodevichy cemetery, where the remains of the writer were reburied on June 1, 1931. It is known that before the next burial, admirers of the talent of Nikolai Vasilyevich stole pieces of the coat, shoes and even the bones of the deceased “as a keepsake”. V. Lidin admitted that he personally took a piece of clothing and placed it in the binding of "Dead Souls" of the first edition. All this, of course, is terrible.

Together with the coffin, a fence was moved to the Novodevichy cemeteryand the stone "Golgotha", which served as the basis for the cross. The cross itself was not installed in a new place, since the Soviet government was far from religion. Where he is now is unknown. Moreover, in 1952, a bust of Gogol by N. V. Tomsky was erected at the site of the grave. This was done contrary to the will of the writer, who, as a believer, urged not to honor his ashes, but to pray for the soul.

Golgotha was sent to the lapidary workshop. There, the widow of Mikhail Bulgakov found the stone. Her husband considered himself a student of Gogol. In difficult moments, he often went to his monument and repeated: "Teacher, cover me with your cast-iron overcoat." The woman decided to place a stone on Bulgakov's grave so that Gogol would invisibly protect him even after his death.

In 2009, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Vasilyevich, it was decided to return the place of his burial to its original appearance. The monument was dismantled and transferred to the Historical Museum. A black stone with a bronze cross was again installed on Gogol's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery. How to find this place to honor the memory of the great writer? The grave is located in the old part of the cemetery. From the central alley, turn right and find the 12th row, section No. 2.

Gogol's grave, as well as his work, is fraught with many secrets. It is unlikely that it will be possible to solve them all, and is it necessary? The writer left a covenant to his loved ones: do not mourn for him, do not associate him with the ashes that worms gnaw, do not worry about the burial place. He wanted to immortalize himself not in a granite monument, but in his work.