![]() ![]() But for most modern readers, and doubtless many earlier ones, Andriy’s compassion and self-determination make him a hero rather than a traitor. From a certain point of view, his fate is a timely warning of the dangers of betraying the Slavic brotherhood and turning West. In any case, Gogol’s emphasis on their freedom undercuts their fealty to Russia. Their boozing proves ruinous, and they rampage around the countryside like a barbaric mob their grotesque anti-Semitism taints the whole story. Some bibliophiles in Kyiv claim Mykola Hohol (the Ukrainian version of his name) as their own.Īs for Taras and the Cossacks, they make pretty delinquent poster boys. “I myself don’t know what soul I have,” he told a friend. Gogol, an outsider even in his pomp, sometimes agreed. Some critics said the writer had a “double soul”, both Russian and Ukrainian. Yet neither Gogol nor “Taras Bulba” quite pull off their nationalist shtick. He became fanatical, went mad, and died in 1852. In “Dead Souls” he famously portrayed Russia as a horse-drawn troika barrelling through history. Like his protagonist’s, Gogol’s politics grew more nationalistic over time. ![]()
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