Nikolai Gogol was born on 31 March 1809 in Velyki Sorochyntsi. A Russian writer of Ukrainian origin, Gogol was born in the Poltava region of Ukraine and moved to St Petersburg as a young man. He first drew attention with folklore-inspired stories in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, then wrote the satirical play The Government Inspector and short stories such as The Nose and The Overcoat. His novel Dead Souls, published in 1842, tells of a swindler who travels the Russian provinces buying the names of dead serfs, and is regarded as a masterpiece of satire. Later in life he suffered a religious crisis, and shortly before his death he burned the manuscript of the second part of Dead Souls. He strongly influenced later Russian writers.
Before and after
- 19 January 1809Birth of Edgar Allan Poe
- 3 February 1809Birth of Felix Mendelssohn
- 12 February 1809Birth of Charles Darwin
- 12 February 1809Birth of Abraham Lincoln
- 31 March 1809Birth of Nikolai Gogol
- from 10 April 1809 to 14 October 1809War of the Fifth Coalition
- 8 May 1809Battle of Piave River
- 31 May 1809Death of Joseph Haydn
- 14 June 1809Battle of Raab
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1792Publication of Dream of the Red Chamber
- 18 September 1851Founding of The New York Times
- 1857Rise of Symbolism
- 1890Rise of Art Nouveau
- 28 December 1895The Lumiere brothers hold the first public film screening
- 1909Rise of Futurism
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.