Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE WORLD OF NIKOLAI GOGOL
Although Taras Shevchenko is the greatest literary figure within Ukraine, one of the
best-known Ukrainian writers outside the country's borders must be Nikolai Gogol.
He was born in 1809 to impoverished parents in the Cossack village of Sorochyntsi
near Poltava. It was here, in deepest rural Ukraine, that Gogol spent his formative
years before leaving for St Petersburg in 1828.
Often claimed as a great Russian writer, Gogol was Ukrainian through and
through. Many of his stories set in Ukraine are inspired by the supernatural world
and the rural superstitions and folk tales of his youth in the Poltavshchina. His tales
are set in a land of sun-drenched fields and blue skies, where faded nobles nap in
the afternoon heat, Cossacks gulp down bowls of borshch,kitchen gardens over-
flow with tobacco and sunflowers, and shy Ukrainian beauties fall in love under
star-dusted skies. Gogol's short novel Taras Bulbais a rollicking Cossack tale flush
with romantic nationalism, adventure and derring-do.
During his years in St Petersburg, where he was employed in the civil service, his
mood changed and his later stories such as The Nose,Nevsky Prospektand The
Inspector Generalare darker, gloomier, and riddled with ill health, crime and vice.
In fact, the capital had such a bad effect on Gogol that he died in 1852 after burning
the second half of his last novel, Dead Souls,in a fit of madness.
Gogol is an inspirational companion to pack into your rucksack on long train
journeys across the snowbound steppe or midsummer bus trips through Ukraine's
endless landscapes.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Dubno
03656 / POP 38,100
Some 50km southeast of Lutsk, Dubno is one of several towns in the region with a
castle
(vul Zamkova 7A; admission 10uah; 8am-5pm Apr-Oct, to 7pm Nov-Mar)
, making it a
relatively interesting stopover. This is where Andry, the son of Cossack Taras Bulba, falls
in love with a Polish princess in Gogol's famous story,
Taras Bulba,
and crosses over to
join the princess and her fellow Poles, while his Cossack brothers are busy trying to
starve these enemies into submission. There's not that much to see inside, but the views
of the sluggish Ikva River from the ramparts are pretty enough. Dubno's only other at-
traction is the crumbling 1630
Church of St Nicholas
(vul D Halytskoho)
, whose telltale
plain interior suggests it was used for secular purposes during the decades of Soviet com-
munism.
