Dead living souls in the poem. Essay on the topic Living and dead souls in the poem N

Already at the very beginning of the work, the author shows two worlds: the real world, where actor Chichikov, and perfect world lyrical digressions, where the main character is the narrator. The real world of the poem is ugly and scary. All Gogol's landowners have bright, individual, and memorable characters. But with all their external diversity, the essence remains unchanged: while possessing living souls, they themselves turned into dead souls. We do not see the true movements of a living soul either in the empty dreamer Manilov, or in the strong-minded housewife Korobochka, or in the “cheerful boor” Nozdrev, or in the bear-like landowner-fist Sobakevich.The author seeks to answer the main question: what are the causes of “deadness”? One of the main ones is that people have forgotten their intended purpose. The landowners forgot about their responsibilities, starting with Manilov, who does not even remember how many peasants he has. He is not a father or a master to his peasants. But according to the ideas of Christian Russia, a real landowner should serve moral example for their children, peasants.Korobochka, like a caring housewife, keeps records of all her “merchandise” and knows well that “eighteen” of her workers have died. Confirmation that peasants are the same object of purchase and sale for her as honey and hemp is the reasoning that she “has never happened... to sell dead people.” And Nozdryov squandered the money for everything “whatever they brought from the village.” and lost at the fair. Sobakevich is “in harmony” with the men who are “under his authority,” because otherwise “it will be worse for him.” For Plyushkin, in three years, “the damned fever wiped out... a hefty sum of men”Gogol shows the reason for the death of the human soul using the example of the formation of the character of the main character Chichikov. A joyless childhood, deprived parental love and the affection, service and example of bribe-taking officials formed a scoundrel who behaves like those around him. His happiness is based only on money. Calculation crowded out all human feelings from him and made him a “dead” soul.City officials NN even more impersonal than the landowners. The whole interest of life is focused on gossip, gossip, and envy. They differ from each other only in the size of the bribe, they are all slackers, they are also “dead souls.”But behind the “dead” souls of Chichikov, officials and landowners, Gogol discerned the living souls of the peasants, the strength of national character. IN real world « Dead souls"A dead soul is a common occurrence. In the episode of the prosecutor’s death, those around him realized that he “had a real soul” only when all that was left of him was “only a soulless body.” Gogol portrays landowners and officials with evil irony. These are not people, but only a pale, ugly semblance of people.The peasants, whose lists Chichikov looks through, “worked, plowed, drank, drove, cheated the bar, and maybe they were just good men. And the carpenter Stepan Probka was a hero who “would have been fit for the guard”, he went with an ax in his belt all over the province, eating a penny of bread and two dried fish” and earning “one hundred rubles.” Wherever his death “tidies up”, there will always be someone who will continue his work and, “tied with a rope,” will climb into his place. Maxim Telyatnikov was “a miracle, not a shoemaker,” but he ended up “going to drink and wallowing in the streets” because of the hopelessness of his lot, when he couldn’t live honestly and didn’t learn how to deceive. Grigory If you get there, you won’t get there, most likely he lived as a driver and “gave his soul to God” on the road. The runaway peasants of Plyushkin can “walk through the forests”, and sit in prison, and pester other gentlemen, and walk in the “burlat gang”. The talent of the people is revealed in the dexterity of the coachman Mikheev, the carpenter Stepan Probka, the brickmaker Milushkin and others.The deadening reality of serfdom destroys the good inclinations in a person and destroys the people. Against the backdrop of the majestic endless expanses of Rus' real pictures Russian life seems especially bitter. This is how Gogol shows in his poem two Russias: living and dead.

In Gogol's work one can discern both good and bad sides in Russia. The author positions dead souls not as dead people, but as officials and ordinary people, whose souls have hardened from callousness and indifference to others.

One of the main characters of the poem was Chichikov, who visited five landowner estates. And in this series of trips, Chichikov concludes that each of the landowners is the owner of a nasty and dirty soul. At the beginning it may seem that Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, Korobochka are completely different, but nevertheless they are connected by ordinary worthlessness, which reflects the entire landowner foundation in Russia.

The author himself appears in this work like a prophet, who describes these terrible events in the life of Rus', and then outlines a way out to a distant but bright future. The very essence of human ugliness is described in the poem at the moment when the landowners are discussing how to deal with “dead souls”, make an exchange or profitable sale, or maybe even give it to someone as a gift.

And despite the fact that the author describes a rather stormy and active life cities, at their core, are just empty vanity. The worst thing is that a dead soul is an everyday occurrence. Gogol also unites all the officials of the city into one faceless face, which differs only in the presence of warts on it.

So, from the words of Soba-kevich, you can see that everyone around is swindlers, sellers of Christ, that each of them pleases and covers up the other, for the sake of their own benefit and well-being. And above all this stench rose pure and bright Rus', which the author hopes will definitely be reborn.

According to Gogol, only the people have living souls. Who, under all this pressure of serfdom, preserved the living Russian soul. And she lives in the word of the people, in their deeds, in their sharp mind. IN lyrical digression the author created the very image of ideal Rus' and its heroic people.

Gogol himself does not know which path Rus' will choose, but he hopes that it will not contain such characters as Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Nozdryov, Korobochka. And only with understanding and insight, all this without spirituality, can the Russian people rise from their knees, recreating an ideal spiritual and pure world.

Option 2

The great Russian writer N.V. Gogol worked in difficult time For Russia. Failed rebellion Decembrists suppressed. There are trials and repressions throughout the country. Poem " Dead Souls" - a portrait of modernity. The plot of the poem is simple, the characters are written simply and are easy to read. But in everything written there is a sense of sadness.

In Gogol, the concept of “dead souls” has two meanings. Dead souls are dead serfs and landowners with dead souls. The writer considered slavery to be a great evil in Russia serfdom, which contributed to the extinction of peasants and the destruction of the country’s culture and economy. Speaking about the landowners' dead souls, Nikolai Vasilyevich embodied autocratic power in them. Describing his heroes, he hopes for the revival of Rus', for warm human souls.

Russia is revealed in the work through the eyes of the main character Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich. The landowners are described in the poem not as the support of the state, but as a decaying part of the state, dead souls that cannot be relied upon. Plyushkin's bread is dying, without benefit to people. Manilov carefreely manages an abandoned estate. Nozdryov, having brought the farm into complete disrepair, plays cards and gets drunk. In these images the writer shows what is happening in modern Russia. Gogol contrasts the “dead souls”, the oppressors, with ordinary Russian people. People deprived of all rights who can be bought and sold. They appear in the form of “living souls.”

Gogol writes with great warmth and love about the abilities of the peasants, about their hard work and talents.

The carpenter Cork, a healthy hero, traveled almost all over Russia and built many houses. Beautiful and durable carriages are made by carriage maker Mityai. Stove maker Milushkin builds high-quality stoves. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov could make boots from any material. Gogol's serfs are shown as conscientious workers who are passionate about their work.

Gogol fervently believes in the bright future of his Russia, in huge, but for the time being hidden talents people. He hopes that a ray of happiness and goodness will break through even into the dead souls of the landowners. His main character Chichikov P.I. remembers his mother's love and his childhood. This gives the author hope that even callous people have something human left in their souls.

Gogol's works are funny and sad at the same time. Reading them, you can laugh at the shortcomings of the heroes, but at the same time think about what can be changed. Gogol's poem - shining example the author's negative attitude towards serfdom.

Several interesting essays

• The image and characteristics of Akaki Akakievich in Gogol's story The Overcoat, essay

  In Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s story “The Overcoat,” the main character is Akaki Akakievich, a minor official. The man Akaki Akakievich is very modest, even downtrodden, everyone makes fun of him and mocks him

• Essay on Komarov's painting Flood for 5th grade

  The hare, hoping to escape the water, climbed onto a branch hanging from an old tree. He's incredibly scared. His dark round eyes sparkle with fear. He presses his yellowish-brown fur against the trunk

• The image and characteristics of the lady in Gogol's story Taras Bulba essay

  The work “Taras Bulba” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most famous creations of the writer. Rewritten by N.Ya. Prokopovich published the text in the second edition and became known to the public.

• The image and characterization of Betsy Tverskaya in Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina essay

  Betsy Tverskaya is one of minor characters works "Anna Karenina". Betsy is a member of family ties with Anna Karenina and is her close friend.

• Characteristics and image of Lydia Mikhailovna in Rasputin's story French lessons essay

  Lidia Mikhailovna is one of the key characters in V. Rasputin’s story. A young, twenty-five-year-old French teacher with slightly squinting eyes turns out to be a kind of guardian angel for the main character of the story.

A short essay-discussion on literature on the topic: Peasant Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls” for 9th grade. The image of the people in the poem

When we hear a mention of Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” the “acquirer” Chichikov and the galaxy of vicious landowners trailing behind him involuntarily appear before our eyes. And this is a correct association, because these images were the most frequent topics for reflection; it is not for nothing that the poem is called “Dead Souls.” But how many people have tried to find on what pages Gogol hid living souls, bright images in which the author’s hope for the future of Russia is felt? Are they there at all? Maybe the writer saved these heroes for two other volumes, which he was never able to finish? And, in the end, do these “living souls” exist at all, or is there only evil hidden in us, inherited from those very landowners?

I want to immediately dispel doubts: Gogol has living souls in store for the inquisitive reader! You just have to look carefully at the text. The writer only mentions them in passing, either not wanting to show these images ahead of time, or strictly observing the concept of the work, according to which there were only supposed to be dead souls. We see these images on the pages of the “revision tales” that Sobakevich wrote about his dead peasants in the hope of selling them at a higher price. Stepan Probka was listed as “a hero who would be fit for the guard,” Maxim Telyatnikov was “a miracle, not a shoemaker,” Eremey Sorokoplekhin was the one who “brought five hundred rubles per rent.” Also, some of Plyushkin’s runaway peasants were awarded mini-biographies. For example, Abakum Fyrov, a free barge hauler, pulling his weight “to one endless song, like Rus'.” All these people flash only once, few even stop at their names upon first reading, but it is with the help of their stories that Gogol creates an even greater contrast between the “dead and the living” in the poem. It turns out to be a double oxymoron: on the one hand, living people are presented in the poem as “dead,” hopeless, vulgar, and people who have passed on to another world seem to us more “alive” and brighter. Is this not a hint that Gogol sees only decline in the country, where worthy people, the foundation on which the state stands, “go into the ground,” and “dead” landowners continue to get rich and profit from honest workers?

The writer expresses his idea that all the greatness of the country does not rest on the vile landowners, who do not bring any benefit to the Fatherland, but, on the contrary, only breed its poverty, going crazy, destroying their serfs. All the author’s hope lies with the Russian people, ordinary people, who are oppressed and offended in every possible way, but who do not give up, truly loving their country and with their own efforts paving the right path for the “three bird”.

It is difficult to understand who is truly a “dead soul” and who is not, because in Gogol this is not so clear and is understood after repeated reading. " A real book You can’t read it at all—you can only re-read it,” Nabokov said, and this is definitely about “Dead Souls.” There are many unresolved questions in this poem, but also the same number of answers given by the author about what our country and the people in it are, who is the great evil on Russia’s path to prosperity, and who, not knowing the greatness of their everyday small deeds, is all still leads her to well-being and success.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is one of best works world literature. The writer worked on the creation of this poem for 17 years, but never completed his plan. “Dead Souls” is the result of many years of Gogol’s observations and reflections on human destinies, the fate of Russia.
The title of the work – “Dead Souls” – contains its main meaning. This poem describes both the dead revision souls of the serfs and the dead souls of the landowners, buried under the insignificant interests of life. But it is interesting that the first, formally dead, souls turn out to be more alive than the breathing and talking landowners.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, carrying out his brilliant scam, visits the estates of the provincial nobility. This gives us the opportunity to see the “living dead” “in all its glory.”
The first person Chichikov pays a visit to is the landowner Manilov. Behind the outward pleasantness, even sweetness of this master, lies meaningless daydreaming, inactivity, idle talk, false love for family and peasants. Manilov considers himself well-mannered, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A dusty book that has been open on the same page for two years.
There is always something missing in Manilov's house. Thus, in the office only part of the furniture is covered with silk, and two chairs are covered with matting. The farm is managed by a “skillful” clerk who ruins both Manilov and his peasants. This landowner is characterized by idle daydreaming, inactivity, and narrow-mindedness. mental abilities and life interests. And this despite the fact that Manilov seems to be an intelligent and cultured person.
The second estate that Chichikov visited was the estate of the landowner Korobochka. This is also a "dead soul". The callousness of this woman lies in the amazingly small vital interests. Apart from the prices of hemp and honey, Korobochka doesn’t care about much. Even in the sale of dead souls, the landowner is only afraid of selling herself too cheap. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. She tells Chichikov that she doesn’t know any Sobakevich, and, therefore, he doesn’t exist in the world.
While searching for the landowner Sobakevich, Chichikov runs into Nozdrev. Gogol writes about this “merry fellow” that he was gifted with all possible “enthusiasm.” At first glance, Nozdryov seems to be a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be completely empty. His amazing energy is directed only towards carousing and senseless extravagance. Added to this is a passion for lying. But the lowest and most disgusting thing about this hero is “the passion to spoil his neighbor.” This is the type of people “who will start with satin and end with shit.” But Nozdryov, one of the few landowners, even evokes sympathy and pity. It’s only a pity that he directs his indomitable energy and love of life into an “empty” channel.
The next landowner on Chichikov's path finally turns out to be Sobakevich. He seemed to Pavel Ivanovich “very similar to average size bear." Sobakevich is a kind of “fist” whom nature “simply chopped from all over the shoulder.” Everything in the appearance of the hero and his house is thorough, detailed and large-scale. The furniture in a landowner's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich’s objects seems to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!”
Sobakevich is a zealous owner, he is prudent and prosperous. But he does everything only for himself, only in the name of his interests. For their sake, Sobakevich will commit any fraud or other crime. All his talent went only into the material, completely forgetting about the soul.
The gallery of landowner “dead souls” is completed by Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Gogol tells us the background story of this hero. Once upon a time, Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn “stingy wisdom.” But after the death of his wife, the hero’s suspicion and stinginess increased to the highest degree.
This landowner has accumulated huge reserves of “goods”. Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walks around his village every day and collects all kinds of garbage, which he puts in his room. Senseless hoarding led Plyushkin to the point that he himself feeds on scraps, and his peasants “die like flies” or run away.
The gallery of “dead souls” in the poem is continued by the images of officials of the city of N. Gogol portrays them as a single faceless mass, mired in bribes and corruption. Sobakevich gives officials an evil but very accurate description: “The swindler sits on the swindler and drives the swindler.” Officials mess around, cheat, steal, offend the weak and tremble before the strong.
At the news of the appointment of a new governor-general, the inspector of the medical board thinks feverishly about the patients who have died in significant numbers from fever, against which proper measures were not taken. The Chairman of the House turns pale at the thought that he has made a deed for the dead peasant souls. And the prosecutor actually came home and suddenly died. What sins were behind his soul that he was so afraid?
Gogol shows us that the life of officials is empty and meaningless. They are simply air smokers who have wasted their precious lives on meanness and fraud.
Near " dead souls“The poem contains bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom, and talent. These are images of dead and runaway peasants, primarily Sobakevich’s men: the miracle master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove maker Milushkin. This is also the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebel villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovki and Zadirailova.
It was the people, according to Gogol, who retained within themselves “ living soul", national and human identity. Therefore, it is with the people that he connects the future of Russia. The writer planned to write about this in the continuation of his work. but I couldn’t, I didn’t have time. We can only guess about his thoughts.

Explaining the concept of “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote that the images of the poem “are not at all portraits with worthless people, on the contrary, they contain the features of those who consider themselves better than others." "Dead souls" are representatives of the dominant social strata at that time. The poem is structured as the adventure of the "acquirer" Chichikov, who buys the actually dead, but legally alive, i.e. . not deleted from the revision lists, souls. The central place in the first volume is occupied by five “portrait” chapters. These chapters, built according to the same plan, show how they developed on the basis of serfdom. different types serfdom and how serfdom in the 20-30s of the 19th century, in connection with the growth of capitalist forces, led the landowner class to economic decline. Gogol gives these chapters in a certain order:

The mismanaged landowner Manilov is replaced by the petty Korobochka, the careless waster of life Nozdryov by the tight-fisted Sobakevich. This gallery of landowners is completed by Plyushkin, a miser who brought his estate and peasants to complete ruin. The “portrait” chapters provide a picture of the decline of the landowner class with great expressiveness. Gogol leads us from an idle dreamer living in the world of his dreams, Manilov, to the “club-headed” Korobochka, from her to the reckless spendthrift, liar and cheater Nozdryov, then to the brutalized fist “a hole in humanity” Plyushkin, showing an ever greater moral decline and decomposition. representatives of the landowner world. The poem turns into a brilliant denunciation of serfdom, the class that is the arbiter of the destinies of the state. The gallery of portraits of landowners opens with the image of Manilov

The image of Manilov captures the type of idle dreamer, “romantic” slacker. The landowner's economy is in complete decline. “The master’s house stood on the south, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds that might blow...” The housekeeper steals, “stupidly and uselessly preparing in the kitchen,” “the pantry is empty,” “the servants are unclean and drunkards.” Meanwhile, a “gazebo with a flat green dome, wooden columns and the inscription: “Temple of Solitary Reflection” was erected.” Manilov’s dreams are absurd and absurd. “Sometimes... he talked about how nice it would be if suddenly there was an underground passage from the house or build a stone bridge across the pond..." Gogol shows that Manilov is vulgar and empty, he has no real spiritual interests. "In his office there was always some kind of book, bookmarked on page fourteen, which he had been constantly reading for two years." Gogol with stunning artistic power it shows the deadness of Manilov, the worthlessness of his life. Behind his external attractiveness lies a spiritual emptiness.

The image of the hoarder Korobochka is already devoid of those “attractive” features that distinguish Manilov. And again we have a type in front of us - “one of those mothers, small landowners who... little by little collect money into colorful bags placed in dresser drawers.” Korobochka's interests are entirely concentrated on farming. “Strong-browed” and “club-headed” Nastasya Petrovna is afraid to sell herself off by selling “dead souls” to Chichikov. The “silent scene” that appears in this chapter is curious. We find similar scenes in almost all chapters showing the conclusion of Chichikov’s deal with another landowner. This allows us to show with particular clarity the spiritual emptiness of Pavel Ivanovich and his interlocutors. At the end of the third chapter, Gogol talks about the typicality of the image of Korobochka, the insignificant difference between her and another aristocratic lady.

Nozdryov continues the gallery of “dead souls” in the poem. Like other landowners, he does not develop internally and does not change depending on age. “Nozdryov at thirty-five was exactly the same as he was at eighteen and twenty: a lover of a walk.” The portrait of a dashing reveler is satirical and sarcastic at the same time. “He was of average height, a very well-built fellow with full rosy cheeks... Health seemed to be dripping from his face.” However, Chichikov notices that one of Nozdryov’s sideburns was smaller and not as thick as the other (the result of another fight). Passion for lies and card game largely explains the fact that not a single meeting where Nozdryov was present was complete without history. The life of a landowner is absolutely soulless. In the office “there were no noticeable traces of what happens in offices, that is, books or papers; only a saber and two guns were hanging...” Of course, Nozdryov’s household was in ruins. Even lunch consists of dishes that are burnt, or, on the contrary, not cooked.

Chichikov's attempt to buy dead souls from Nozdryov is a fatal mistake. It is Nozdryov who spills the secret at the governor’s ball. The arrival of Korobochka in the city, who wanted to find out “how much dead souls walk,” confirms the words of the dashing “talker.”

The image of Nozdryov is no less typical than the image of Manilov or Korobochka. Gogol writes: “Nozdryov will not be removed from the world for a long time. He is everywhere among us and, perhaps, only walks around in a different caftan; but people are frivolously undiscerning, and a person in a different caftan seems to them a different person.”

Typification techniques are also used by Gogol to describe the image of Sobakevich. The village and the landowner's economy indicate a certain prosperity. “The yard was surrounded by a strong and excessively thick wooden lattice. The landowner seemed to be concerned a lot about the strength... Village huts the peasants were also cut down marvelously... everything was fitted tightly and properly." Describing Sobakevich's appearance, Gogol resorts to a zoological comparison (comparing a landowner with a bear). In his judgments about food, Sobakevich rises to a kind of "gastronomic" pathos: "For me, when it’s pork, put the whole pig on the table, mutton, bring the whole ram, goose, the whole goose!” However, Sobakevich (this is how he differs from Plyushkin and most other landowners) has a certain economic streak (he doesn’t ruin his own serfs, he achieves a certain order in the economy , sells profitably Chichikov is dead souls, knows business and human qualities their peasants).

The extreme degree of human degradation was captured by Gogol in the image of the richest landowner in the province (more than a thousand serfs) Plyushkin. The character's biography allows us to trace the path from a "thrifty" owner to a half-crazy miser. “But there was a time when he... was married and a family man, and a neighbor stopped by for dinner... two pretty daughters came out to meet him... his son ran out... The owner himself appeared at the table in a frock coat... But the good hostess died, some of the keys, and with them "Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy." Soon the family completely fell apart, and unprecedented pettiness and suspicion developed in Plyushkin: “... he himself finally turned into some kind of hole in humanity.” So, not at all social conditions led the landowner to the last line of moral decline. The tragedy of loneliness is playing out before us, developing into a nightmarish picture of lonely old age.

In the village of Plyushkina, Chichikov notices “some kind of special disrepair.” Entering the house, Chichikov sees a strange pile of furniture and some kind of street trash. Plyushkin is an insignificant slave of his own things. He lives worse than “the last shepherd of Sobakevich.” Countless riches are wasted in vain... Gogol’s words sound warning: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, nastyness a person could condescend! He could change so much!.. Anything can happen to a person.”

Thus, the landowners in Dead Souls are united common features: inhumanity, idleness, vulgarity, spiritual emptiness.

Officials in the poem are shown satirically. For the author, like the landowners, they are “dead souls.” Symbolic meaning The title of the work also refers to officials. Talking about them, Gogol skillfully displays the individual qualities of the governor, prosecutor, postmaster and others and at the same time creates collective image bureaucracy. They rob both the state and the petitioners. Embezzlement, bribery, robbery of the population are everyday and completely natural phenomena. The police chief “only has to blink when passing a fish row or a cellar” for balyki and excellent wines to appear on his table. No request is considered without a bribe. The chairman of the chamber warns Chichikov: “...don’t give anything to the officials... My friends shouldn’t pay.” Monstrous immorality is revealed in these words of a high-ranking official. He calls everything by its proper name, without even trying to hide his general corruption. All officials use their official position for personal interests. In bureaucratic Russia this has become an unwritten law. There is no significant difference in the actions and views of officials, in their way of life. Gogol creates a group portrait of people connected by mutual responsibility. When Chichikov’s scam was revealed, the officials were confused and everyone “suddenly found ... sins in themselves.” The tragicomic situation in which the “owners of the city” found themselves was created as a result of their criminal activities.

The entire gallery of images given in the first volume of “Dead Souls” convincingly reveals the internal squalor and the inert, musty appearance of the serf-owners - soul owners. The “dead souls” of the poem are contrasted with the “living” - talented, hardworking, long-suffering people. Gogol saw the lack of rights of the peasantry, its humiliated position and the dullness and savagery that were the result of serfdom. Such are Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, the serf girl Pelageya, who did not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra, downtrodden to the extreme. But even in this social depression, Gogol saw the living soul of the “lively people” and the quickness of the Yaroslavl peasant. He speaks with admiration and love about the people’s ability, courage and daring, endurance and thirst for freedom. Serf hero, carpenter Cork “would be fit for the guard.” He set out with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders throughout the province. The carriage maker Mikhei created carriages of extraordinary strength and beauty. Stove maker Milushkin could install a stove in any house. Talented shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov “whatever pricks with an awl, so will the boots; whatever the boots, then thank you.” And Eremey Sorokoplekhin “brought five hundred rubles per quitrent!” Here is Plyushkin’s runaway serf Abakum Fyrov, his soul could not withstand the oppression of captivity, he was drawn to the wide Volga expanse, he “walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier, having made a contract with the merchants.” But it’s not easy for him to walk with the barge haulers, “dragging the strap to one endless song, like Rus'.” In the songs of barge haulers, Gogol heard the expression of longing and the people’s desire for a different life, for a wonderful future. Ardent faith in the hidden but immense strength of the entire people, love for the homeland, allowed Gogol to brilliantly foresee its great future.

How during a thunderstorm the clouds thicken and fill with lead, tension in the atmosphere grows, how in “Dead Souls” the colors gradually darken. Just as detente occurs during a thunderstorm, so in the poem Chichikov’s private history imperceptibly turns into a discussion about the fate of Rus', the “brisk, irresistible troika” which is the main manpower, which is able to fight with carrion and defeat it. In other words - in the words of Herzen - “a daring, full of strength nationality, in which everything is motley, bright, animated, must resist the “dead souls.”