The mystery of Gogol's death still hauntsa huge number of scientists and researchers, and ordinary people, among whom - even those who are far from the world of literature. Probably, it was such a general interest and widespread discussion with a lot of different assumptions that served as the reason that so many legends arose around the writer's death.
A few facts from the biography of Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich lived a short life.He was born in 1809 in Poltava province. The death of Gogol fell on February 21, 1852. He was buried in Moscow, in a cemetery located on the territory of the Danilov Monastery.
He studied at the prestigious gymnasium (Nezhino), howeverthere, as he believed with his friends, the students were not getting enough knowledge. Therefore, the future writer carefully studied self-education. At the same time, Nikolai Vasilievich already tried his hand at writing, however, he worked mainly in verse form. Gogol showed interest in the theater, especially his comic works attracted: already in his school years he possessed an unsurpassed sense of humor.
According to experts, contrary to the establishedopinion, Gogol did not have schizophrenia. However, he suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. The disease manifested itself in different ways, but its most powerful manifestation was that Gogol was afraid of panicking that he would be buried alive. He did not even go to bed: he spent the nights and hours of day rest in armchairs. This fact overgrew with a huge amount of conjecture, which is why many people thought that it was exactly what happened: the writer supposedly fell asleep in a lethargic sleep and was buried. But this is not so. The official version for a long time is that Gogol's death took place before his burial.
In 1931, it was decided to dig a grave, so thatto refute the rumors that spread then. However, the surface again popped up false information. It was said that Gogol's body was in an unnatural position, and the inner covering of the coffin was scratched with fingernails. The one who is able to analyze the situation at least a little, of course, will doubt this. The fact is that for 80 years the coffin with the body, if not completely decomposed in the ground, it certainly would not have retained any marks and scratches.
The mystery is the immediate death of Gogol.The last few weeks of life the writer felt very bad. No doctor at that time could explain what the reason for the rapid withering was. Because of excessive religiousness, which was especially aggravated in the last years of life, in 1852 Gogol began his tenure ten days before the due date. At the same time, he reduced the consumption of food and water to an absolute minimum, thus bringing himself to the point of exhaustion. Even the persuasion of friends, begging him to return to a normal way of life, did not affect Gogol.
Even after so many years, Gogol, whose death for many has become a real shock, remains one of the most read writers, not only in the post-Soviet space, but throughout the world.
