Литературный факт (Mar 2019)
N.V. Gogol in Odessa. Forgotten testimonies of his contemporaries (archpriest Anatoly Korochansky’s letter and N.I. Savich’s memoirs)
Abstract
Two important sources of biographical information about Gogol are introduced for scientific use. Both documents has to do with Gogol’s stay in Odessa in the winter of 1850-51, and were published in the beginning of the XXth century in periodicals by the historian L. S. Matseevich, but remained unnoticed by Gogol's biographers. The first one is archpriest Anatoly Fedorovich Korochansky’s letter to Matseevich dated April 10, 1891. Rev. Anatoly Korochansky, a former psalmreader of Princess V.A. Repnina-Volkonskaya’s home church, conveys a number of important details about Gogol’s spiritual strivings and area of interests. Until now, this letter was known to Gogol’s biographers only in from hearsay, and the author’s name was distorted (“Karchevsky” instead of “Korochansky”). Biographical information about the author of the letter is given in he paper. Archpriest A.F. Korochansky’s letter adds to the wide circle of Gogol’s contacts in Odessa during the fall of 1850 — spring of 1851, two more people belonging to clergy - Gogol's old friend St. Innokenty (Borisov), Archbishop of Kherson and Tarvia, and Rev. Michael Dievsky, the priest (later Archpriest) of Princess Repnina-Volkonskaya’s home church in Odessa. The second source of biographical information about Gogol that has to do with his stay in Odessa in 1850-51 is left by N.I. Savich, a graduate of Kharkov University, retired lieutenant, involved in the case of the separatist Ukrainian-Slavic society. Savich’s memories were recorded by Matseyevich in 1889. Being a friend of Rev. Michael Dievsky, Savich attended a dinner, given in honor of Gogol in 1850 by his Odessa admirers. A new evidence of the «Little Russian» (Ukrainian) sources of the images in the Dead Souls is given; an achetype of a character from the second volume of Dead Souls is discovered. The article replenishes recently published seven-volume Annals of N.V. Gogol’s Life and Work.
Keywords
