170 years ago, Nikolai Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls. tells why the writer did this work and what was left of it for the next generations. In 1835, in a famous letter to Pushkin, Gogol not only asked the poet for a “plot for a comedy,” from which, as is commonly believed, the Inspector General grew, but also spoke about his future poem. By that time, the writer had already prepared three chapters of the “pre-long novel” and, most importantly, the name “Dead Souls” was invented.

“I’m looking for a good call-to-letter with whom I can get along briefly. I want to show in this novel, at least from one side, all of Russia,” wrote Gogol.

In 1842, the first copies of Dead Souls were published. The continuation of the story of the retired official Chichikov was eagerly awaited - and Gogol himself set a high bar for himself, promising several volumes at once. Gogol tortured the second volume for 10 years, but he never saw the light of day: on February 24, 1852, the writer destroyed the manuscript, and 10 days later he died of physical exhaustion.

Why Gogol burned the second volume

There are several versions of why Gogol burned the manuscript. Often this act is associated with the mental problems of the writer: in addition to the second volume of "Dead Souls", Gogol tried to destroy the poem "Hanz Kühelgarten" and burned the story "The Brothers Tverdislavichi", because these works seemed to him unworthy to demonstrate to others.

Ekaterina Dmitrieva, a senior researcher at the IMLI RAS, professor at the Department of Comparative History of Literature at the Institute of Physics, Russian State Humanitarian University, noted that Gogol was critical of his work. However, she considered it inappropriate to bring to the issue of the writer's mental health.

“When it comes to mental health or ill health, this is a very fluid line. Gogol was really very reverent and strict about his works. For example, his very first poem "Hanz Kühelgarten" managed to come out, and then he bought up and destroyed all the copies, so very few of them survived. Gogol had the idea that when a manuscript physically disappears, it comes to life in the mind: there is a breakthrough,” said Dmitrieva.

According to another version, Gogol burned the second volume by mistake, confusing it with other papers. This, in particular, was told by a contemporary of the writer Mikhail Pogodin in his obituary “The Death of Gogol. True, the author, in turn, referred to the playwright, Count Alexander Tolstoy, with whom Gogol lived in recent years. The day after the burning of the manuscript, the writer allegedly came to Tolstoy and said: “Imagine how strong the evil spirit is! I wanted to burn papers that had already been determined for a long time, but I burned the chapters of Dead Souls, which I wanted to leave for friends as a souvenir after my death.

It is possible that Gogol deliberately destroyed the manuscript. As the writer's servant Semyon recalled, at that moment Gogol, when asked about what he was doing, allegedly replied: "It's none of your business."

According to the literary critic Ekaterina Dmitrieva, each of the versions has the right to exist, because "by and large, nothing is known."

“We know the main thing from the story of his servant. He realized that he was a carrier of important information, but each new testimony was overgrown with new details, ”she said.

The surviving five chapters of the second volume of "Dead Souls" are not from the last, but one of the early editions of the work. As Dmitrieva said, while preparing the second volume of the poem for academic publication, she noticed a strange discrepancy in the protocol of the examination of the writer's room: for some reason, the draft edition was not immediately found.

“After Gogol's death, his room was sealed. According to the protocol, neither the briefcase nor the manuscript appeared in his room at that time. Six months later, as expected, the seal was removed - from the policeman and in front of witnesses. But there was also nothing. And literally two days later, a [preserved] manuscript was suddenly found in the room. According to one version, she fell behind a closet, according to another, she was somewhere in a briefcase. There is a version by Sergei Durylin (literary critic and writer - approx.) that someone's benevolent hand hid the briefcase for a while. Most likely, it was Count Tolstoy, ”the researcher shared.

What is the second volume of "Dead Souls" about

It is believed that Gogol planned to embody "Dead Souls" in a three-volume set by analogy with the plot of "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. Literary critic Ekaterina Dmitrieva clarified that Gogol really put the idea of ​​​​rebirth into the work, but that he tried to embody it according to Dante is “just a beautiful legend.”

“Why did the legend arose that Gogol was going to make Dead Souls according to the model of Dante? According to this hypothesis, the second volume would have become purgatory, which is not confirmed. These are the assumptions of the critics, who eventually went into the world as a beautiful legend,” Dmitrieva continued. “He really wanted to reinvent the characters. True, judging by the remaining chapters, the rebirth is not very successful.However, in the first and second volumes of Dead Souls, the characters of the characters really differ. For example, in the first volume, the landowner Manilov seems to be a rather pleasant person. It soon turns out that behind the illusion of decency lies spiritual emptiness and parasitism - something that will eventually grow into a whole phenomenon - "Manilovism".

The main "scoundrel" Chichikov in the second volume is given the idea to create his own household and family, but ends up in prison for fraud. In the same place, Chichikov promises Murazov to take the right path, and it seems that he is already ready to repent, but then he receives a more profitable "dishonest" offer, and he refuses this idea.

“In fact, in the second volume, Chichikov is even more sinful than in the first. At first, he simply buys up dead souls, does nothing wrong, and partly even helps someone. And in the next volume, he is engaged in a real fraud, arranges a trick with the will of the old woman. In the second volume there are indeed positive heroes - both Muzarov and the Governor-General, but I would not say that about the rest. True, perhaps Gogol really believed that some of them could be reborn, ”explained Dmitrieva.

Probably, the second volume of "Dead Souls" was supposed to record the beginning of the reincarnation of heroes. The writer himself spoke about the fact that the central character can still come to virtue. True, this should have happened already in the third volume.

“Gogol, as if with joy, confirmed that this would certainly happen, and the tsar himself would serve to revive him, and the poem must end with Chichikov’s first breath for a true lasting life,” the philosopher Alexander Bukharev recalled about his conversation with Gogol.

To the question whether the other companions of the hero would “come to life”, the writer replied: “If they want to.”

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