An Unpublished Article by Medievalist Historian V.T. Sirotenko About Gogol

Abstract

Based on an authorized archival copy, an article about Gogol by medievalist historian Vasily Trofimovich Sirotenko (1915–2006), a professor at Perm, Dnepropetrovsk and Armavir universities, is being published. The article by V.T. Sirotenko, “The Early Middle Ages in the light of N.V. Gogol,” was written in 1978 and deposited in 1990 but is currently inaccessible to the reader. A professional historian notes Gogol’s extensive knowledge of the history of the European Middle Ages and evaluates the writer’s significant contribution to the study of world history. The article is a continuation of the works of numerous researchers and historians, F.A. Vitberg, S.A. Vengerov, G.P. Georgievsky, S.I. Mashinsky, M.P. Alekseev, V.F. Semenov and others, who noted, despite the cartoonish reviews of Gogol by some of his students at St. Petersburg University (in 1834–1835), the writer’s thorough historical erudition, the high scientific level of his university lectures, as well as works of art from world and national history. The publication contributes to the return into scientific circulation of an article by Professor V.T. Sirotenko, unknown to modern researchers, and can serve as a supplement to our article “The Unknown Book of N.V. Gogol 1834: Plan, Context, Reminiscences,” published in the first issue of the journal “Literary Fact” for 2022.

Keywords

• gogol
• biography
• creativity
• interpretations
• lectures
• history of the middle ages
• historiography
• scientific heritage