Gogol liked to repeat that his images would not be alive if every reader did not feel that they were taken "from the same body that we are from." This property of Gogol's images - a certain recognizability, closeness to the soul of each of us - was already noted by the writer's contemporaries. "Aren't all of us after our youth, one way or another, leading one of the lives of Gogol's heroes? - Herzen reflected in his diary in July 1842. "One of us remains with Manilov's dull reverie, the other - rages a la Nosdreff, the third - Plyushkin...". "Each of us," Belinsky wrote in the article "Answer to the Moskvityanin", " no matter how good a person he may be, if he delves into himself with the impartiality with which he delves into others,- then it will certainly find in itself, to a greater or lesser extent, many of the elements of many of Gogol's heroes" (Belinsky V. G. Sobr. soch.: In 12 vols. Moscow, 1982. Vol. 8. p. 312; further - only volume and page).

In Orthodox asceticism, there is a concept of the presence of any sin in a person; if he turns to his soul, he will see everything... and in the midst of everything, something predominant. It is generally accepted that the defining feature of Gogol's types is vulgarity. But what is vulgarity? In the old, original meaning, now lost, vulgar - ordinary, ordinary, unremarkable. At the beginning of the sixth chapter of Dead Souls, Gogol uses this word in exactly this sense. The author says that earlier, in the years of his youth, he happened to drive up to some new place and it presented itself to him with its " not vulgar appearance."

According to the writer himself, the main feature of his talent was defined by Pushkin: "He always told me that no writer has ever had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so vividly, to be able to outline the vulgarity of a vulgar person in such force that all the little things that escape the eyes would flash large in everyone's eyes" (Gogol N. V. Sobr. soch.: In 9 vols. Moscow, 1994. Vol. 6. p. 77; further-only volume and page). Belinsky challenged Pushkin's definition of Gogol's "gift". The peculiarity of his talent, the critic argued, " consists not only in an exceptional gift to paint vividly the vulgarity of life, but to penetrate

page 10

into the fullness and reality of the phenomena of life. (...) He was given not a vulgar person, but a person in general, as he is, not decorated and not idealized " (8, 313).

However, how does a vulgar person differ from a non-vulgar one? The same Belinsky wrote that "a decent person does not differ from the vulgar in that he is completely alien to all vulgarity, but in that he sees and knows that there is something vulgar in him, whereas a vulgar person does not even suspect this in relation to himself; on the contrary, it seems to him more than anyone else, that he is the true perfection "(8: 312-313). Gogol's heroes are vulgar, because they are spiritually dead. Therefore, the original key to the meaning of the poem is its name.

First of all, it has a literal meaning related to the plot. Dead souls are the" goods " that Chichikov buys, namely, the souls of dead peasants who, according to Revision fairy tales, are listed as alive. (Revizskaya skazka - a personal list of serfs compiled during the census, i.e. revision. The audit was carried out every seven to ten years to calculate the poll tax, which was levied according to the number of male serfs. The peasants included in the list were called "audit souls". Their number remained unchanged until the next census.) No wonder Korobochka complains to Chichikov: "The people are dead, but pay as if they were alive." Gogol puts in the mouths of Chichikov and other heroes of the poem in relation to acquired souls the word "dead" instead of the "lost" accepted in official documents. In this connection, Pogodin wrote to him on May 6, 1847:" There are no 'Dead souls' in the Russian language. There are audit souls, attributed souls, lost souls, lost souls." Gogol wanted to give these words a special meaning not only to Chichikov's scam, but also to the entire work (Correspondence of N. V. Gogol: In 2 volumes, Moscow, 1988, Vol. 1, p. 417).

Much more important than the literal - the allegorical, metaphorical meaning of the poem's title. The dead souls are landlords and officials, Chichikov himself. This meaning was already obvious to the first readers of Gogol. So, Herzen wrote in his diary in 1842: "... not the revizskys - dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and tutti quanti (all the others. - V. V.) - here are dead souls, and we meet them at every step."

But there is also a deep spiritual meaning in the title of the book. It is revealed by Gogol in a suicide note: "Be not dead, but living souls. There is no other door than that indicated by Jesus Christ, and everyone who opens it otherwise is a thief and a robber "(6: 392). Let us point out the original biblical source that inspired the writer: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up the indus, the same is a thief and a robber..." (John 10: 1).

According to Gogol, the souls of his heroes did not completely die. In them, as in every human being, lies the true life-the image of God, and at the same time the hope of rebirth. About what is the life and death of the soul, go-

page 11

One of the great teachers of the Church, the Monk Simeon the New Theologian, says: "Christ comes, and by His coming raises up a dead soul, and gives it life, and gives it the grace to see how He Himself rises in it and raises it up. This is the law of the new life in Christ Jesus, that Christ the Lord, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, comes to us and raises up our dead souls, and gives them life, and gives eyes to see Himself, immortal and incorruptible, living in us. But before the soul is united with God, before it sees, knows, and feels that it is truly united with Him, it is completely dead, blind, and unfeeling; but for all that it is dead, it is still by its very nature immortal "(The Words of St. Simeon the New Theologian, Moscow, 1890, p. 257).

In the Explanatory Dictionary of Vladimir Dahl, one of the meanings of the word "dead" is"an unregenerate, unspiritual, carnal or sensual person." This meaning is close to the one in which Gogol uses this word. For example, Manilov leads an exclusively material life (carnal, sensual), so there is no real life (i.e., spiritual) in him: he is dead, like other landowners, like Chichikov himself.

It was Gogol who gave the expression "dead souls" the specific meaning in which we still use it today. However, the writer here went from the gospel tradition, to which the understanding of the "dead" soul as spiritually dead goes back. Gogol's idea is in tune with the Christian moral law formulated by the Holy Apostle Paul: "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15: 22). Related to this is the main idea of "Dead Souls" - the idea of the spiritual resurrection of fallen man. It should have been embodied first of all by the main character of the poem. "And maybe in this same Chichikov (...) there is something that will then bring a person to dust and to his knees before the wisdom of heaven, " the writer predicts in the XI chapter of "Dead Souls" the coming rebirth of his hero, that is, the revival of his soul.

There is reason to believe that a hint of the upcoming moral rebirth of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is contained in his very name. In Gogol's worldview, the epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul, who "instructs all and leads them to a straight path" (from Gogol's letter to his sister dated January 20, 1847), occupy an extremely important place. As you know, the Apostle Paul was one of the persecutors of Christ, and then became the distributor of Christianity throughout the world.

It would be wrong, however, to think that in the subsequent volumes Gogol intended to make Chichikov a "virtuous man." Gogol's statements on this subject, as well as the surviving chapters of the second volume, do not give grounds for such a conclusion. Alexander

page 12

Matveyevich Bukharev (as a monk, Archimandrite Theodore), who often talked with Gogol about his work, in a later note to his book "Three Letters to N. V. Gogol, written in 1848", says:: "I remember that when I read something to Gogol from my analysis of Dead Souls, and only wanted to introduce him to my way of considering this poem, I asked him directly what exactly this poem should end with. He reflected, and expressed his difficulty in stating this in detail. I replied that I only needed to know if Pavel Ivanovich would come to life properly. Gogol seemed happy to confirm that this would certainly happen and that the Tsar himself would serve to revive it, and that Chichikov's first breath for a true solid life should end with the poem."

In all probability. Gogol wanted to lead his hero through the crucible of trials and sufferings, as a result of which he would have to realize the unrighteousness of his path. This internal upheaval, from which Chichikov would have emerged as a different person, was apparently what the "Dead Souls"were supposed to end. It is significant that just as in The Revizor, the real Revizor appears at the behest of the Tsar, so in the poem, the Sovereign himself had to take part in the resurrection of the hero.

Not only Chichikov, but also other heroes - even Plyushkin, perhaps the most "dead" of all-had to be reborn in their souls. In the letter "Objects for a lyric poet in the present time", addressed to N. M. Yazykov, Gogol exclaimed: "Oh, if you could tell him (a beautiful, but dormant person. - V. V.) what my Plyushkin should say if I get to the third volume... " (6, 64-65). To Archimandrite Theodore's question whether the other characters in the first volume will be resurrected. Gogol answered with a smile:"If they want to." Spiritual rebirth is one of the highest abilities granted to man, and, according to Gogol, this path is open to all. And this rebirth was to take place on the basis of "our indigenous nature, which we have forgotten", and serve as an example not only for our compatriots, but for all mankind. This was one of the "super-tasks" of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls".

Permanent link to this publication: