What Gogol really was: the best brother in the world, a beloved teacher and not only

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Usually, Gogol's personal life is remembered either in the light of friendship with famous people of his time, or in the light of the strangeness of his character. But there was another side of his life outside of creativity: communication with children. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was, first of all, a teacher during his lifetime and left a memory of himself in his students, including his own sisters.

Home teacher

In St. Petersburg, for a long time, Gogol taught students at home. Acquaintances found him pupils - the poets Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnev. Nikolai Vasilievich was only twenty-two at the time, and his students, three Longinov boys, found him cute and funny. The youngest of the students, Misha, later became a famous writer in his time and left memories of Gogol.

“A short stature, a thin and crooked nose, crooked legs, a tuft of hair on the head, which was not distinguished at all by the elegance of the hairstyle, abrupt speech, incessantly interrupted by a light nasal sound twitching the face - all this was first of all striking. Add to this a costume made up of sharp opposites of panache and slovenliness - this is what Gogol was like in his youth”- this is how the young teacher looked in the eyes of the students.

By agreement, Nikolai Vasilyevich was supposed to teach the Longinov boys the Russian language, but he suddenly began to teach them science and history, saying that they already understand Russian, judging by their notebooks. However, if a student, while answering his lesson, used some hackneyed expressions, Gogol immediately stopped the responder: "Who taught you to say that?" This is how the boys learned to think about clichés in their speech, and their ability to speak Russian improved a lot. In addition, Gogol read to them the first volume of his stories about a farm near Dikanka.

Another feature of Gogol was the constant anecdotes that he adored - especially when teaching history. At that time he was trying to help Zhukovsky develop a new methodology for teaching this subject. In general, the boys liked the teacher, but did not stay because of the peculiarities of their character: after a year and a half of work, Gogol suddenly disappeared for several months, without even answering the inquiries sent to him, and then came into the house, as if nothing had happened - when already found another teacher. However, he remained a friend at home for a long time.

By the way, Pletnev arranged for Gogol as a teacher after reading his publication with considerations of teaching geography to children - yes, Gogol's first publications were devoted to pedagogy, not literature. Gogol taught at home and in other families, including working with a mentally retarded boy and showing patience, which surprised eyewitnesses.

Institute for girls

All the same Pletnev persuaded Longinov Sr. to take Gogol as a teacher at the Patriotic Institute - a school for the daughters of military personnel. Nikolai Vasilyevich was supposed to teach history and got down to business with enthusiasm. The progress of the students in this subject became so high that Gogol, against all the rules, was allowed to assign his sisters to study at the institute. Nikolai Vasilyevich himself liked it very much - in contrast to the seemingly meaningless service of a petty (the smallest, one might say) official, in which he was before.

His career was cut short by his own ambition. He decided that he could lecture at the university, and found a place for himself. But the liveliness with which he told the lectures was combined with a very shallow knowledge of the subject, even in comparison with the students, and soon Gogol became the subject of ridicule. As a result, he had not only to leave the university, but also to part with the institute for girls - he was fired. Gogol's general lack of punctuality also influenced. The entire career of a wonderful school teacher fit into four years.

However, the researchers of his pedagogical work are sure that just for the school Gogol was a wonderful teacher: a sufficient level of knowledge was combined with a thorough study of his own innovative teaching methods, with careful preparation of lessons, with a subtle understanding of the psychology of adolescents without a discount on what girls have to teach. In general, the Patriotic Institute lost a lot by firing Nikolai Vasilyevich.

The most gentle brother

Gogol's three younger sisters, Olga, Anna and Elizaveta, recalled him as unusually gentle to children for their too young age. At first, when his brother was just coming home from St. Petersburg, he brought gifts and presents to the girls and entertained them. Later, he completely took over their support and took Anna and Elizabeth to the capital, adding them to the Patriotic Institute.

Knowing the rigor of the institute, before sending the girls there, Nikolai Vasilyevich showed them the capital properly: several times he took them to the theater, menagerie and museum, as if entertaining them for future use. He was very upset when, after many years, taking his sisters, he found that they had become shy, timid, as if they were not curious and much less learned than he could think.

Then Nikolai Vasilyevich took up the girls himself. First, he took them from the institute urgently before graduation. Secondly, he thought over everything that could be bought, and traveled all over Petersburg, buying what was needed - after all, the girls had only official things, and they themselves could not figure out what they needed for life. Gogol had to delve into all the little things. True, he still forgot to buy them nightgowns - the girls had to overcome their embarrassment to explain what other piece of underwear they needed.

At first, Gogol arranged for the girls to live with their friends, but there the former schoolgirls felt uncomfortable. They refused food, so as not to be known as gluttons (which frightened the girls very much at the institute), no matter how they were treated, and clogged their stomachs to cheat hunger with cooled coals from the fireplace. Only when they came to visit their brother, they gave themselves free rein, and he watched with joyful surprise as they filled up rolls and sweets in terrible quantities.

Realizing that girls are in no way adapted to life and it is impossible to improve their education in all areas quickly, Gogol chose two subjects in which, at least, he could quickly pull up the sisters. On some days of the week they would embroider for hours, on others they would translate for hours from German articles, moreover, to encourage them, my brother praised them and assured him that they were helping him a lot. He also took them with him to literary readings, hoping to slowly, without special exercises, develop their mind and taste.

All the time that the girls lived with him, Nikolai Vasilyevich threw them a surprise with small gifts - a luxury that they did not know at the institute and that touched them to the core. Sister Liza was afraid of the dark, and every evening Gogol sat by her bed with a candle while she fell asleep, no matter how long it took - without a single mockery. If his sister entered his room, he would definitely smile at her, so that she felt that he was really glad to see her. All this greatly strengthened the mental organization of the girls, shaken by the institute. Gogol himself, after the history of the sisters' studies, completely lost faith in the institutes for girls, although in his youth he admired them.

The talented teacher Gogol was eclipsed in our eyes by the writer Gogol. "Dead Souls": How Gogol's "Funny Joke" Turned into a Gloomy "Encyclopedia of Russian Life".