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Belinsky, who felt that Gogol's religious orienta-
tion betrayed the earlier value of his work. Gogol
spent the last 10 years of his life working on the
continuation to
Dead Souls
but, less than a week
before his death, burned the manuscript. With an
outstanding body of work that combines the
realism of early works, elements of surrealism,
social criticism, mysticism, and political conser-
vatism, Gogol stands apart from his contempo-
raries, transcending the labels they sought to
place on him.
Golden Horde
Drawn from the Tatar term
altun ordu
(golden
army), the Golden Horde is the name tradition-
ally given to the medieval Mongol-Tatar state
formed by
BATU KHAN
, grandson of Chinggis
(Genghis) Khan, following the
MONGOL CONQUEST
of Russia. More correctly known as the Khanate
of Kipchak, the Golden Horde comprised most of
southern Russia and western Siberia, with its
capital at
SARAI
on the lower
VOLGA RIVER
. The
majority of the northern Russian principalities
conquered between 1237 and 1240 became vas-
sals of the Mongol state and paid tribute to the
ruling khans, by traveling once a year to Sarai.
Under Khan Uzbek, Islam became the dominant
religion of the Golden Horde in the 14th century.
The Golden Horde's hold over Russia was first
challenged by grand prince of Muscovy,
DMITRII
DONSKOI
, who led Russian troops to their first vic-
tory over a Mongol force at the Battle of
KULIKOVO
in 1380. In 1395 a more serious challenge came
from the south when Timur (Tamerlane) began
his conquest of the Golden Horde. After Timur's
death, the Golden Horde broke into four inde-
pendent khanates:
ASTRAKHAN
, Crimea,
KAZAN
,
and Sibir (Siberia). This fragmentation of the
Golden Horde facilitated the rise of Muscovy as
the dominant Russian principality and challenger
to continued Mongol rule of Russia. In 1480
IVAN
III
, grand prince of Muscovy, formally ended the
practice of paying tribute to the khans, a step tra-
ditionally seen as the end of Mongol rule in Rus-
sia. Nevertheless, with the exception of the
Nikolai Gogol
(Library of Congress)
where he wrote the work regarded as his master-
piece,
Dead Souls,
published in 1842. A satirical
account of serf-owning provincial nobles, the
novel also comments on the failings of the
human condition. His short stories, particularly
“The Overcoat” (1842) and “The Nose,” intro-
duced surreal elements that would influence
later generations and bring him closer to 20th-
century themes. Gogol also wrote successfully in
the historical genre, as in
Taras Bulba,
a portrait
of life among the Zaporozhe
COSSACKS
. Increas-
ingly under the influence of a fiercely ascetic
priest, Gogol became convinced of his divine mis-
sion to bring about the moral regeneration of
Russia. After his return to Russia he clashed in a
famous exchange of letters with his former friend
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