The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin. St. Petersburg in Gogol's Nevsky Prospekt

No Russian city has attracted such close attention from writers of different eras as St. Petersburg. He became a mystery image, a symbol image, an era image. St. Petersburg seems to beckon to itself, attracts the imagination of writers; it is impossible to resist its charm, sometimes gloomy and mystical. He is presented as a living being, as the main character, as an unbridled element that brings only death and destruction. Writers have seen and see Northern Palmyra differently. Thus, the image of St. Petersburg was interpreted differently in the works of Gogol and Pushkin.

St. Petersburg through the eyes of A. S. Pushkin

For Alexander Sergeevich, Petersburg was a stronghold of autocracy, the anthem of Peter’s reforms and a reflection of the essence of the era, its morals, orders and habits. The image of the city is vividly presented in one of the small tragedies - “The Bronze Horseman”, as well as in “The Queen of Spades”, “The Station Agent” from the cycle “Belkin’s Tale” and a number of other works.

In The Bronze Horseman, the image of St. Petersburg for Pushkin merged with the image of Peter and his political activities. The city became the embodiment of autocracy, it is the city of Peter I, the capital of the Russian state.

However, the image of St. Petersburg reflects not only the greatness and beauty of Peter’s activity, but also the defenselessness of ordinary people before its power and inevitability. Like a natural force, it sweeps the world and takes lives. Thus, the life of Eugene and his bride was destroyed by the flood.

In the tragedy, Pushkin raises the question of Peter’s reforms, which, of course, changed a lot for the better in the country, but, however, did not take into account the interests of each individual person. This contradiction remains unresolved, and the city itself becomes a symbol of this dilemma.

Gambling and soulless Petersburg

The “Queen of Spades” by A. S. Pushkin is based on a mystical plot.
The main character, Herman, is an avid gambler. He is captured by an insane passionate desire to find out the secret of the three cards, which is kept by the old countess. Pushkin vividly and in detail describes the meaningless and useless life of players who spend all their time playing cards. The entire high society - from young to old - is susceptible to this disease. The image of St. Petersburg becomes a symbol of the capital, which is immersed in absurdity and mysticism. A city that distorts people, erases personalities, disfigures judgments and ideals. Pushkin explains such a destructive effect by social reasons. The upper class of this time could not imagine their life without card games and spent all their time and money on this activity. Cards are placed on a pedestal of highest value and importance. There were cases when a nobleman lost his wife. At the same time, reflections on the role of fate and chance in a person’s fate were in vogue. This philosophy fit perfectly with the thriving gambling scene. This is clearly evident in the example of Herman, who considers the opportunity to learn the secret of the cards to be the will of providence, and considers wealth and position in society to be the highest value. This is how St. Petersburg appears in The Queen of Spades.

Pushkin paints a similar image of the capital in “The Station Agent.” A representative of the high society of St. Petersburg - officer Minsky - appears as a selfish, deceitful and cruel person. While Vyrin is a poor and defenseless, but moral person, he turns out to be a simple stationmaster who ends up in the capital solely to return his daughter.

Pushkin especially focuses on the deceitfulness of St. Petersburg. So, a decently dressed young man takes Vyrin’s money. An image is created of a city where everything is not what it seems, a city with a double bottom.

In these works, the image of Pushkin's Petersburg acquires such features as deceit, cruelty, and soullessness.

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol

Petersburg of Gogol and Pushkin has both differences and similarities. The motifs of mysticism, soullessness, power and royalty will be key in Gogol’s image of Northern Palmyra, but they are presented and depicted in a completely different way.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lived in the capital for a long time, which greatly affected his works. The theme of St. Petersburg in Gogol's works is one of the leading ones. He even wrote a series of St. Petersburg stories.

Gogol's Petersburg is a fantastic, mysterious world full of dark mysticism. A world where power and luxury rule, and a little person is worth nothing and can disappear without leaving a grain of memory about himself. Petersburg in Gogol's works is a place where people talk to themselves, noses run away from their owners and occupy a prominent place in society, and things come to life.

So, the image of St. Petersburg in Gogol’s works can be briefly described as a combination of hyperbolization, grotesque and satire.

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol had an invaluable influence on Russian literature. He showed the Russian reader not only his native Ukraine, but also St. Petersburg and the life of small county towns. And everywhere he described not only bohemian landowners and officials, but also the life of ordinary “little” people. At the same time, he tried to defeat evil in people, to “cure” them of their vices, using for this the most powerful weapon and medicine - his laughter. Gogol was admired by many, but there were also people who scolded his works, but no one fully understood the extraordinary secret of his soul with which his works are filled.

Gogol spent a significant part of his life in St. Petersburg. This could not but affect his works. Many of them contain the image of St. Petersburg. Gogol even wrote a whole series of St. Petersburg stories. And everywhere it is a mysterious magical city, full of all sorts of devilry. Here houses and things easily come to life, people walk and talk to themselves, and an ordinary nose can easily run away from its owner and drive around the city in a carriage, like an official. Vladimir Nabokov wrote: “The main city of Russia was built by a brilliant despot on a swamp and on the bones of slaves rotting in this swamp: this is the root of its strangeness - and its original vice.” Gogol's Petersburg is an unreal, despicable kingdom of ranks and things, a kingdom of luxury and power, where “little people” disappear without a trace, leaving no memory of themselves.

One of Gogol’s first works in which the image of St. Petersburg is present is the story “The Night Before Christmas,” which was included in the cycle “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” Here we see St. Petersburg through the eyes of Vakula, as if he had flown here to hell on the line. Petersburg seems like something incredible to us. Vakula is simply stunned by its radiance and thunder. Gogol shows Petersburg through sounds and light. The clatter of hooves, the sound of wheels, the trembling of bridges, the whistling of snow, the screams of cab drivers, the flight of carriages and sleighs - just incredible flashing and bustle. In this fairy-tale world, it seems to Vakula that even the houses come to life and look at him from all sides. Perhaps Gogol himself experienced similar impressions when he first arrived in St. Petersburg. About the unusually bright light that came from the lanterns, Vakula says: “My God, what a light! It’s never so light here during the day.” The palace here is simply fabulous. All the things in it are amazing: the staircase, the painting; and even castles. The people in the palace are also fabulous: everyone wears satin dresses or gold uniforms. Vakula sees one shine and nothing more. In “The Night Before Christmas” St. Petersburg is bright, dazzling, deafening and incredible in every way.

Petersburg looks completely different in the comedy “The Inspector General”. Here it is much more real. It does not have the fabulousness that is present in “The Night Before Christmas”; it is almost a real city in which rank and money decide everything. In “The Inspector General” we meet two stories about St. Petersburg - Osin and Khlestakov. In the first case, this is a story about normal Petersburg, which is seen by the servant of a minor official. He does not describe any incredible luxury, but speaks of real entertainment available to him and his master: theaters, dancing dogs and cab rides. Well, what he likes most is the fact that all people talk very politely: “Haberdashery, damn it, treatment!” Khlestakov paints us a completely different Petersburg. This is no longer St. Petersburg with merchants and dancing dogs, but St. Petersburg with respect for rank and unimaginable luxury. This is the St. Petersburg of the dreams of a petty official who wants to become a general and live in grand style. If at first he simply assigns himself a higher rank, then by the end of his story he is practically a field marshal, and his exaggerations reach truly incredible proportions: soup that arrived by boat from Paris, a seven-hundred-ruble watermelon. In general, St. Petersburg in Khlestakov’s dreams is a city where he has a lot of money and a high rank, so he lives in luxury and everyone fears and reveres him.

Petersburg is depicted somewhat differently in the story “The Overcoat”. This is a city where “little people” disappear without a trace. In it there are simultaneously streets where it is as bright as day at night, with generals living on them, and streets where slop is poured directly from the windows, where shoemakers live. Gogol depicted the transition from one street to another through their lighting and the overcoats of officials: if on poor streets the lighting is “skinny” and the collar on a marten overcoat is rare, then the closer to the rich areas, the brighter the light of the lanterns becomes and the more often beaver collars come across. “The Overcoat” describes the free time of petty officials and other poor people. So, some went to the theater or on the street, others for the evening, and still others to play cards and drink tea with some other official. The courtyards and “all sorts” of people sat in small shops in the evenings, spending time chatting and gossiping. Gogol talks about all this in contrast to Akaki Akakievich, whose entire entertainment consisted in copying papers. Rich people also go to the theater, walk the streets, play cards, but they buy more expensive tickets, dress better and, while playing cards, drink not only tea, but also champagne.

It's like two worlds of one city. They are very similar, but at the same time there are no less differences between them. These two worlds meet in the office of a significant person as Akaki Akakievich and the most significant person. And during this meeting, a significant person with his very appearance and voice almost killed the unfortunate Akaki Akakievich. So the rich part of the city, with the help of their money, completely subjugates the poor. The poor part of St. Petersburg is like a shadow of the second, rich part. They have similar outlines, but the shadow is gray and not colorful, while the rich city itself shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow.

Gogol depicted the most incredible Petersburg in “Dead Souls”. This is an absolutely unreal devilish city. Here the bridges, like devils, hang in the air without touching the ground. Curtains and curtains bite. This, as the postmaster says, is the fabulous Scheherazade. This St. Petersburg is like the center of the earth: it’s as if all the countries of the world have gathered here. The postmaster calls the carpets Persia, not Persian. In the waiting room, Kopeikin is afraid to nudge America or India with his elbow: the postmaster, however, says that these are vases, but they have never made porcelain vases in either America or India. The captain is having lunch in London. The people here are also different: Russians, French, and English. Everything around is surrounded by luxury: mirrors, marble, vases, silver dishes, a watermelon for a hundred rubles. There is some kind of devilish accumulation of people and things all around. And the postmaster himself compares Kopeikin to an owl, a poodle, and the devil. Even the doorman here looks like a walrus. From all this one gets the impression that St. Petersburg is a devilish city, in which the “boss” is the rightful ruler, although there is a “higher authority.” In his waiting room sit not only poor people like Kopeikin, but also “epaulets” and “agilles.”

Petersburg of “Dead Souls” is a strange ghost of a real city, this is exactly the city on bones that Nabokov wrote about. In it, things are as alive as people. St. Petersburg is an extraordinary city. On the one hand, it is a cold, gloomy stone city, but on the other hand, it is a cultural center. St. Petersburg was often flooded by the Neva, as if washing away accumulated vices.

Not everyone can see the inner world of St. Petersburg, but only a few, special people. One of these people was Gogol. He saw in this city something that the people living here had not noticed for centuries. Nabokov wrote: “Petersburg revealed all its quirkiness when the most bizarre person in all of Russia began to walk along its streets.”

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The image of St. Petersburg in the works of N.V. Gogol

For a significant part of his life, N.V. Gogol spent in St. Petersburg. N.V. Gogol arrived in St. Petersburg as a nineteen-year-old youth in December 1828, and left it as a famous writer and playwright in December 1836. Subsequently, he came here only very briefly in 1838, 1841, 1842 and 1848. N.V. Gogol spent “one of the freshest and most impressionable eras of his life” in St. Petersburg, according to V.G. Belinsky.

Young N. Gogol passionately strives for St. Petersburg. He dreams, of course, of a new interesting life, which must certainly begin here. He dreams of a rented apartment overlooking the beautiful Neva. But you first have to settle in a modest area in the house of the pharmacist Trut near the Kokushkin Bridge, next to the Ascension Cathedral; soon on the fourth floor of house No. 39 on Bolshaya Meshchanskaya Street, to the house of the carriage maker Jochim. Gogol spoke about Meshchanskaya Street as follows: “The street of tobacco shops, German artisans and Chukhon nymphs.” It is curious that the euphemism “Chukhon nymphs” was invented by Gogol. Like all apartment buildings, the “House of Joachim” was densely populated by people of various classes. In one of his letters home, Gogol reports: “... the house in which I find myself contains two tailors, one marchand de fashion, a shoemaker, a hosiery manufacturer who glues broken dishes, a decater and a dyer, a confectionery, a small shop, a savings store a winter dress, a tobacco shop and, finally, a privileged midwife.” It's possible that you're lazy

By the time Gogol appeared in St. Petersburg, the formation of the main architectural ensembles of the city was completed. Thanks to the works of the largest architects of the late 18th – early 19th centuries. – K.I. Rossi, D. Quarenghi, A. Voronikhin, A. Zakharova. St. Petersburg acquired that “strict, slender look” that was glorified by A.S. Pushkin. The “sovereign flow” of the Neva, the “hulks of palaces and towers,” the spaces of majestic squares fascinated the young N.V. Gogol, with its austere beauty, reminded of the significant events that unfolded here. The Narva Gate, erected by D. Quarenghi for the ceremonial meeting of the Russian Guard, evoked the victories of the Patriotic War of 1812-1814, Senate Square - the suppression of the “December rebellion” of 1825.

St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg reality, communication with A.S. Pushkin and the writers of his circle, with outstanding cultural figures, formed Gogol the writer. Most of his works were conceived and written here. The St. Petersburg stories “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Nose”, “Overcoat”, “Portrait” reflected the unique originality of the city’s appearance. The comedies “The Inspector General” and “Marriage” were staged for the first time at the Alexandrinsky Theater. In articles and letters from writers devoted to issues of art and architecture in particular, in “Petersburg Notes of 1836”

N.V. Gogol, through the image of St. Petersburg, reflects on the fate of Russia, on the possible path of its development.

St. Petersburg made a stunning impression on the young N.V. Gogol with its majestic cold beauty. Of course, the city could not help but be reflected in his works. Moreover, St. Petersburg becomes not just a backdrop for the plots of N.V.’s works. Gogol, but an independent literary character, a literary hero.

St. Petersburg near N.V. Gogol has many faces and is changeable. If in “The Night Before Christmas” the city looks rather fairy-tale, magical, then in “The Overcoat” and “The Inspector General” the image of the city appears quite realistic, full of contrasts. In many ways, the same way A.S. Pushkin saw it earlier:

“The city is lush, the city is poor, The spirit of bondage, the slender appearance, The vault of heaven is green and pale, Boredom, cold and granite.”

Gogol depicted the most incredible Petersburg in Dead Souls. This is an absolutely unreal devilish city. Here the bridges, like devils, hang in the air without touching the ground. Curtains and curtains bite. There is some kind of devilish accumulation of people and things all around. From all this one gets the impression that St. Petersburg is a devilish city in which the “boss” is the rightful ruler, although there is a “higher authority.” In his waiting room sit not only poor people like Kopeikin, but also “epaulettes” and “aiguillettes”

One of Gogol’s first works in which the image of St. Petersburg is present is the story “The Night Before Christmas,” which was included in the cycle “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” Here we see St. Petersburg through the eyes of Vakula. St. Petersburg seems something incredible to Vakula. Vakula is simply stunned by its radiance and thunder. Gogol shows Petersburg through sounds and light. The clatter of hooves, the sound of wheels, the trembling of bridges, the whistling of snow, the screams of cab drivers, the flight of carriages and sleighs - just incredible flashing and bustle. In this fairy-tale world, it seems to Vakula that even the houses come to life and look at him from all sides. Perhaps Gogol himself experienced similar impressions when he first arrived in St. Petersburg. About the unusually bright light that came from the lanterns, Vakula says: “My God, what a light! It’s never so light here during the day.”

The palace here is simply fabulous. All the things in it are amazing: the staircase, the painting; and even castles. The people in the palace are also fabulous: everyone wears satin dresses or gold uniforms. Vakula sees one shine and nothing more. In The Night Before Christmas, St. Petersburg is bright, dazzling, deafening and incredible in every way.

Petersburg looks completely different in the comedy “The Government Inspector”. Here it is much more real. It does not have the fabulousness that is present in “The Night Before Christmas”; it is almost a real city in which rank and money decide everything. In The Inspector General we encounter two stories about St. Petersburg: the story of Osip and the story of Khlestakov. In the first case, this is a story about normal Petersburg, which is seen by the servant of a minor official. He does not describe any incredible luxury, but speaks of real entertainment available to him and his master: theaters, dancing dogs and cab rides. Well, what he likes most is the fact that all people talk very politely: “Haberdashery, damn it, treatment!”

Khlestakov paints us a different Petersburg. This is St. Petersburg with veneration and unimaginable luxury. This is the St. Petersburg of the dreams of a petty official who wants to become a general and live in grand style. If at first he simply assigns himself a higher rank, then by the end of his story he is practically a field marshal, and his exaggerations reach truly incredible proportions: soup that arrived by boat from Paris, a seven-hundred-ruble watermelon. In general, St. Petersburg in Khlestakov’s dreams is a city where he has a lot of money and a high rank, so he lives in luxury and everyone fears and reveres him.

Gogol depicted the transition from one street to another through their lighting and the overcoats of officials. If on poor streets the lighting is “skinny” and a collar on an overcoat made of marten is rare, then the closer you get to rich areas, the brighter the light of the lanterns becomes and the more often you come across beaver collars.

“The Overcoat” describes the free time of petty officials and other poor people. So, some went to the theater or on the street, others for the evening, and still others to play cards and drink tea with some other official. The courtyard servants and “all sorts” of people sat in small shops in the evenings, spending time chatting and gossiping. Gogol talks about all this in contrast to Akaki Akakievich, whose entire entertainment consisted in copying papers. Rich people also go to the theater, walk the streets, play cards, but they buy more expensive tickets, dress better and, while playing cards, drink not only tea, but also champagne.

The most popular place in St. Petersburg was Nevsky Prospekt. Developing along with the growth of St. Petersburg, Nevsky, its main communication, at the beginning of the 19th century was finally established as the front part of the city, as a favorite place for festivities of St. Petersburg residents. There are a huge number of images of Nevsky Prospekt! Among the most reliable portraits of Nevsky Prospekt is the famous panorama of V.S. Sadovnikova, which immediately after its first release in 1830, gained enormous popularity. It was bought both to decorate interiors and as a gift to friends. The most careful rendering of the architecture of the buildings and the multitude of everyday details and staff figures (portraits of the residents of the avenue) made this panorama a most valuable document of the era. It is known that in 1836 N.V. Gogol sent this image of the avenue to his mother in Ukraine.

N.V. also created a panorama of life on Nevsky Prospekt and its inhabitants. Gogol in the story “Nevsky Prospekt”. The main street of the Nicholas Empire was adopted by N.V. Gogol as a kind of “mirror” in which “the whole of St. Petersburg” was reflected. “There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt, at least in St. Petersburg; for him he is everything. Why doesn’t this beautiful street of our capital shine?” - the writer exclaims at the beginning of his story. “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect!.. Everything is a deception, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems!” - he concluded. The external splendor of the avenue did not obscure the sharp

the writer’s view of the contradictions “at all times” of the motley “noble, bureaucratic, merchant, lackey crowd” that fills it. It is no coincidence that the tragedy of the dreamy artist Piskarev, who could not withstand the collision of his idea of the ideal with the terrible reality, ensues here. Retired Major Kovalev rushes along Nevsky Prospekt in a strange environment of the real and the fantastic, chasing his own nose.

The pathos of the narrative, replete with enthusiastic emotional exclamations, constantly includes the author’s mockingly ironic reflections on the “wonderful” mustache, “not depicted by any pen or brush,” and on women’s waists, “no thicker than a bottle neck.” “God, what wonderful positions and services there are! How they elevate and delight the soul!” - the author exclaims, seemingly in complete delight, about officials who serve on a foreign board and are “distinguished by the nobility of their occupations and habits.” However, the author immediately adds: “But, alas! I do not serve and am deprived of the pleasure of seeing the subtle treatment of my superiors.” This author's irony becomes more and more frank, his admiration takes on a sarcastic character. Speaking about the “extraordinary nobility” and “self-esteem” of people walking along Nevsky Prospect, the author concludes: “Here you will meet a thousand incomprehensible characters and phenomena. Creator! What strange characters one meets on Nevsky Prospekt! There are many such people who, having met you, will certainly look at your boots, and if you pass, they will turn back to look at your coattails. I still can't understand why this happens. At first I thought that they were shoemakers, but, however, it didn’t happen at all: they mostly serve in different departments, many of them can write an excellent report from one government place to another; or, people engaged in walks, reading newspapers in pastry shops - in a word, for the most part, all decent people.” These “decent people” are actually idle slackers and hypocrites!

The small, timid official Akaki Akakievich, the main character of the story “The Overcoat,” had a dream in his life, for the sake of which he zealously served in one department. His dream is to buy an overcoat. He succeeded. But he did not have long to rejoice at his happiness. “Some people with mustaches” took his treasure in an endless square. The dark night of St. Petersburg in its boundless expanses destroyed the little man.

“Our poor story unexpectedly takes on a fantastic ending.” Near the Kalinin Bridge, a dead man, in the form of an official, was looking for the stolen overcoat and took it from passers-by. This seems true; You can read it in the newspaper - in the diary of incidents. However, the timid Akaki Akakievich is turned into a ghost by this ending. Gogol created the image of a victim of a huge and cold city, indifferent to the small joys and sufferings of its inhabitants.

Pushkin already posed this problem. But he affirmed the truth of the “non-human personality”, its great mission - to lead the Empire. Insignificant before her is the “rebellious slave” who boldly raised his hand against the Bronze Horseman: “He is already a miraculous builder!”

In Gogol we thus find the same theme, but the motive of “rebellion” is absent. This shows the complete humility of the little man. And his sympathies leaned entirely towards the victim. Gogol does not care about the big life of the providential city, which, for the sake of its unknown goals, depersonalizes its inhabitants, destroys them, like those in power. The theme put forward by Pushkin was revised by Gogol, and the city was condemned.

In the middle of the 19th century, a controversy arose between St. Petersburg and Moscow about the role and significance of these cities in the life of Russia. The dispute was essentially about the ways of development of the country as a whole. N.V. also took part in the controversy. Gogol. In the “St. Petersburg Notes of 1836,” written specifically for Pushkin’s Sovremennik, there are a number of statements that were included in the golden fund of St. Petersburg phraseology. For example:

“Moscow is feminine, St. Petersburg is masculine,” “In Moscow there are all brides, in St. Petersburg there are grooms,” “Russia needs Moscow, St. Petersburg needs Russia,”

“What a difference between the two of them! She still has a Russian beard, and he is already a neat German.” And everything here has exclamation marks, and “German” here is not a derogatory concept, but, on the contrary, complimentary. “A neat German” for the 19th and 20th centuries is a synonym for neatness, good quality, solidity, correctness, efficiency, and well-being. From Pushkin:

“And the baker, a neat German, in a paper cap, has already opened his vasisdas more than once.”

In articles and letters from writers devoted to issues of art and architecture (collection “Arabesques”) N.V. Gogol, through the image of St. Petersburg, reflects on the fate of Russia, on possible ways of its development. In the articles of N.V. Gogol, dedicated to issues of architecture, the appearance of the city of the Nicholas era is very recognizable.

Gogol loves the era of the Middle Ages, as if he yearns for its past beauty, which his contemporaries do not understand. He considers the classical architecture of his time boring and exclaims in his article “On the architecture of the present time”: “There was an extraordinary architecture, Christian, national for all of Europe - and we left it, forgot it, as if it was alien, neglected it as clumsy and barbaric.”

Gogol did not like the architecture of classicism; no architectural structure of this style aroused in Gogol not only admiring, but even positive assessment. “All city buildings began to be given a completely flat, simple shape. They tried to make the houses as similar to each other as possible; but they looked more like barns or barracks than the cheerful dwellings of people.”

N.V. Gogol emphasizes the utilitarianism of his contemporary architecture. According to the writer, in the appearance of buildings there should be combustion, light, expressed in the very architecture of the building, like a medieval temple, the building of which “flew to the sky; narrow windows, pillars, vaults stretched endlessly into the heights; narrow windows, pillars, vaults stretched endlessly into the heights; a transparent, almost lacy spitz, like smoke, shone over them.”

The writer was also not satisfied with modern “temple building”. He especially accused architects of petty imitation of antiquity and Western art, when they cannot grasp the whole idea, but only grasp at the particulars.

“A creative architect must have deep knowledge of all types of architecture. He should least of all neglect the taste of those peoples whom we despise in regard to the arts. It must be comprehensive, study and accommodate all their countless changes. But the most important thing is that he must study everything in the idea, and not in the petty external form and parts. But in order to study an idea, he needs to be a genius and a poet,” this is the writer’s credo.

Petersburg N.V. Gogol is in many ways different from Pushkin’s Petersburg, “The Bronze Horseman” and “The Queen of Spades”, with its strict straightness of streets and squares, the grandeur and beauty of the city, built by the daring will of the transformer of Russia, Peter I.

Gogol shows Petersburg of petty officials and “significant persons”, bureaucratic offices and gloomy apartment buildings, the gloomy inhumanity of the capital, which the brilliant but “lying exhibition” of Nevsky Prospect cannot cover up. This is a city of “boiling commercialism”, parades, officials.

In a letter to his mother dated April 30, 1829, Gogol wrote about the alien, non-national character of the capital: “Petersburg is not at all like other European capitals or Moscow. Each capital is generally characterized by its people, who cast the stamp of nationality on it, but St. Petersburg has no character at all: the foreigners who settled here have settled down and are not at all like foreigners, and the Russians, in turn, have become more common and have become neither one nor the other.”

It was against this inner world of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, disfiguring human souls, bureaucratic-nationalless, coldly dispassionate, subordinating all life functions to rank, “mercantilism,” that the writer spoke out in his works, written in defense of the “simple” little man from an insignificant, barren life, to which the city condemned the departments and the power of money.

Petersburg "Dead Souls"

Throughout his entire writing career, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s attitude towards Northern Palmyra changed. But, even gradually transforming, the image of St. Petersburg in Gogol’s works retained its main features. "Dead Souls" serves as the clearest illustration of these changes.

In each chapter of the poem, Gogol mentions St. Petersburg, not forgetting to say some witticism about it. So, as soon as Chichikov approaches the tavern, the author ironically mentions the oddities of the diet of the St. Petersburg gentlemen. Or take, say, the governor's ball. Gogol notes that many of those gathered here are very similar to the inhabitants of the capital. On the pages of the poem, one often encounters the author’s sarcastic remark about the high ranks of St. Petersburg with awards and noble appearance, from whom one should expect only the most vile nasty things.

As already noted, the theme of St. Petersburg in Gogol’s work is key. And in “Dead Souls” it manifested itself most clearly in the story about Captain Kopeikin. This is a story about a hero of the War of 1812, a disabled person who comes to St. Petersburg in the hope of royal mercy. However, they refuse to help him. The city appears before us as a decorous and soulless stronghold of the sovereign’s power, where there is no place for the poor and suffering. Moreover, he is unfair, cruel and merciless towards the little man.

St. Petersburg in “Dead Souls” is a city on bones, a ghost of a real city. Things and people in it are equally alive. It is like the center of the earth, where the whole world is gathered. The authorities here have the right to dispose of people as they please. There is no truth or protection to be found here, only the cold shine of luxury and the indifference and callousness of officials.

Big Beysug

The theme of the city is one of the main themes in Gogol's work. In his works we meet different types of cities: the capital - St. Petersburg - in “The Overcoat”, “Dead Souls”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”; district in “The Inspector General”, provincial in “Dead Souls”.

For Gogol, the status of the city is not important; it shows us that life in all Russian cities is the same, and it does not matter whether it is St. Petersburg or the provincial city of N. The city for Gogol is a strange, illogical world, devoid of any meaning. City life is empty and meaningless. Gogol wrote about the city in connection with the poem “Dead Souls”: “The idea of the city. Arising to the highest degree. Emptiness. Idle talk... Death strikes an unmoved world. Meanwhile, the reader should imagine the dead insensibility of life even more strongly. This idea is expressed especially clearly by Gogol in the image of Petersburg, created in a number of his works. For Russian literature of the 18th - 19th centuries, the topic of St. Petersburg is presented as a complex problem. The contradictions with which the emergence and development of St. Petersburg were associated served as a source of myths about St. Petersburg. There are two myths opposed to each other, and both are associated with the assessment of Peter as a being endowed with a superhuman nature. In one myth, Peter is the Antichrist, a fiend of hell, Satan, and in another, he is godlike, a godlike king-reformer.

Echoes of these myths are heard in many works of Russian literature, including in the works of N.V. Gogol.

Let's analyze the image of St. Petersburg in the works of N.V. Gogol. In Gogol's early romantic work, The Night Before Christmas, St. Petersburg is described in the spirit of a folk tale. St. Petersburg appears before us as a beautiful, fairy-tale city, where the majestic and powerful empress lives. It seems that the image of St. Petersburg is based on the people’s faith in a good, just king. But still, in the image of St. Petersburg there are some signs of something unnatural, which will be further developed in Gogol’s later works. In “Night...” St. Petersburg is not yet a city of hell, but a fantastic city, alien to Vakula. Having arrived on the line, having seen sorcerers, sorceresses, and evil spirits along the way, Vakula, having arrived in St. Petersburg, is very surprised. For him, St. Petersburg is a city where all wishes can come true. Everything is unusual and new for him: “... knocking, thunder, shine; on both sides are piled four-story walls, the clatter of horse hooves, the sound of a wheel... houses grew... bridges trembled; the carriages were flying, the cab drivers were shouting.” There are motifs of disorderly movement and chaos here. It is characteristic that the devil feels quite natural in St. Petersburg.

In “The Overcoat,” the image of St. Petersburg is created by describing dirty streets, damp courtyards, squalid apartments, stinking staircases, “permeated through and through with that “alcoholic smell that eats the eyes,” gray nondescript houses from the windows of which slops pour out. Gogol’s elements also play an important role in revealing the image of St. Petersburg: winter lasts almost all year round, a constant wind blows, a chilling, fantastic, incessant cold shackles everything. In Gogol, a subjective feeling turns into an objective reality, time seems to stop, and the cold begins to be perceived as an enduring state of St. Petersburg. Something similar happens with the wind, which, “according to St. Petersburg custom,” blows “from all sides” at once. The motif of cold, as S. G. Bocharov notes, easily passes from the physical world into the “moral space of St. Petersburg stories.” This also happens in “The Overcoat” itself, where the death of the hero in the cold and darkness of an endless winter is correlated with the cold of soullessness that surrounded him all his life. This philosophy of general indifference, indifference to man, the power of money and ranks that reign in St. Petersburg, turns people into “small” and unnoticed, dooms them to a gray life and death. St. Petersburg makes people moral cripples, and then kills them. For Gogol, Petersburg is a city of crime, violence, darkness, a city of hell, where human life means nothing at all. This is a city that looks like a bad dream.

In the description of St. Petersburg, Gogol's fantasy and grotesque play an important role. The image of a hellish city is achieved by reviving inanimate elements: frost that lasts for almost a year, wind that blows from four directions at once.

In “Dead Souls”, in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” Gogol continues the theme of Petersburg, the “little” man, the theme of revenge. Petersburg appears as a city in which all human evil is concentrated. In the police chief's story, details flash that bring Petersburg closer to the biblical city of Babylon, mired in sins, debauchery, doomed to death. Associations with the Babylonian confusion of languages can also be caused by the accumulation of national symbols in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”: “... so as not to elbow some America or India,” “on the sidewalk, he sees some slender Englishwoman walking...”. The image of Babylon appears quite clearly in the phrase: “... the bridges there hang like a devil... Semiramis, sir, that’s enough!” (The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were located in Babylon).

Petersburg in “Dead Souls” is an inharmonious city, a city of the devil. Gogol continues the theme of an artificial city built by Satan. In “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” the theme of future retribution is visible. St. Petersburg not only leads to the death of people, but also turns them into criminals. So, from Captain Kopeikin, the defender of the fatherland, who gave an arm and a leg for him, Petersburg turned into a robber. The theme of resentment and the theme of revenge are the main ones in “The Tale ...” and in “The Overcoat”. Gogol said that the measure of revenge always exceeds the measure of the offense inflicted.

In “The Inspector General” a district city is depicted, but even here it cannot do without St. Petersburg. In “The Inspector General” we again find the theme of the “little man”. Gogol shows that Petersburg completely crushed Khlestakov as a person, blinded him with the metropolitan splendor, and made him absolutely empty. After all, Khlestakov was mistaken for an auditor only because he was from St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg casts a shadow over the whole of Russia. It seemed that life in it was outwardly in full swing, but this life is illusory, it is not activity, but empty vanity: there are many people who are all doing something, fussing, running back and forth, it is not clear what all this is for.

If in Gogol’s early works Petersburg is a fairy-tale city, then in his mature works it is a gloomy, scary, incomprehensible, abnormal city, putting pressure on the individual and killing him, a city of spiritually dead people.

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"Petersburg Tales"

The image of St. Petersburg in Gogol’s works was largely formed on the basis of the impressions that the writer received while living in the capital. It was then that he wrote a number of stories (“Nevsky Prospekt”, “The Nose”, “Portrait”, “Overcoat”, “Notes of a Madman”), which made up the cycle “Petersburg Tales”. These works are connected by a number of commonalities, such as:

Ideological pathos contained in the depiction of the power of money, which corrupts people, and the exposure of a social system full of lies and injustice.
A problematic that reflects the destructiveness and impunity of the power of money and officials.
The main character of all works is the “little man”.

St. Petersburg in Gogol's stories is a city with social contradictions and public problems.

Works of the period

A number of stories and short stories were created by Gogol in St. Petersburg. The message will be incomplete without mentioning the miniatures painted during the years of the writer’s stay in the capital. The famous “Dead Souls”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, the comedy “The Inspector General”, the collection “Mirgorod” and the cycle “Petersburg Tales” came out of the hands of Nikolai Vasilyevich precisely when he lived in the city on the Neva. It is interesting that the image of Northern Palmyra appears to the reader’s eye in each literary work somewhat differently, sparkling with one of its facets.

Thus, St. Petersburg is beautiful and brilliant in “Evenings on the Farm” from the collection “Sorochinskaya Fair”. The city is depicted only from the side of the palace, filled with the sounds of music, the clinking of glasses and the light wigs and outfits of the ladies-in-waiting and courtiers of Empress Catherine. The blacksmith Vakula, who flew to the capital on horseback right at the edge, is blinded by the city and its inhabitants.

The writer depicts the city of Petrov in a completely different way on the pages of “Notes of a Madman.” Thus, a minor official, Aksentiy Poprishchin, is losing his mind due to dissatisfaction with his position and the lack of his true place in life. Here the city is personified by its inhabitants in the person of the bureaucratic apparatus, who to a large extent contributed to what happened to the main character. In “Portrait,” the young painter Chartkov becomes a victim of the devil’s bonds due to lack of money. Gold in the work is shown as an evil for the sake of which the hero is ready to give up even his calling.

Another short story from the St. Petersburg series “The Nose” brings to the surface the emptiness of the concepts of image and status, which often replace the inner content of a person. As in “The Overcoat,” Gogol raises burning eternal themes in the story, exposing the structure of society and the vices of humanity. Among the hundreds of opuses of the capital period, the author’s main ideas resonate and are designated as:

the soullessness and inner emptiness of bureaucrats;
a poor man's tragedy;
the duality of the capital's image;
deceit and sycophancy in the depths of the bureaucratic system.

Walk along Nevsky Prospekt

The main street and symbol of St. Petersburg is Nevsky Prospekt, which reflects the entire essence of Northern Palmyra.
They are literally inseparable from each other. It is perfectly possible to trace how the image of the main street and the image of St. Petersburg are connected in Gogol’s work based on the story “Nevsky Prospekt”. This is what we will talk about next. St. Petersburg in Gogol's Nevsky Prospekt is depicted as drowning in luxury and splendor of lights, jubilant and beautiful. But behind this lies the indifference, composure and emptiness that most characterize the true Nevsky Prospect. Gogol continues to endow the image of St. Petersburg with the same illusory and deceitful features as Pushkin. Finally, two great writers agreed on a common opinion. Here the Petersburg of Gogol and Pushkin becomes incredibly similar. Pushkin's motifs from The Station Agent continue to live in Nevsky Prospekt.

Deceitful, vicious and envious people inhabit Nevsky Prospekt. Gogol paints the image of St. Petersburg like a picture within a picture. Beneath the top layer of bright, motley and alluring colors lie the gloomy dark tones of an unsightly and soulless city.

The image of St. Petersburg in Gogol’s works appears fantastic and half-crazy. Nevsky Prospekt serves as a mask, a guise that this city puts on in order to further confuse and deceive its residents.

“Nevsky Prospekt” serves as a prelude, a prologue to the entire cycle. The work depicts the external side of St. Petersburg, and its essence will appear in subsequent stories.

Other “Petersburg stories”: “The Nose”, “Overcoat”, “Portrait”

Gogol in the story “The Nose” depicts an absurd situation - his nose runs away from Major Kovalev, which was considered the only distinguishing feature of the hero, since it had a pimple.
Using grotesque, hyperbole and fantasy, Gogol depicts and ridicules the power of ranks and veneration of rank. The writer critically depicts contemporary life in all its absurdity and absurdity. Moreover, the nose not only ran away from its owner, but also turned into a state councilor and began to walk around St. Petersburg. And Kovalev was forced to bow to him, since his rank was lower, and in the world of a major, regalia decides everything. The conclusion from this story was that the most important thing for a metropolitan person is his nose, and without it they become nothing, an empty place. But the latter, having put on a uniform, can become more important than his owner.

The life of a St. Petersburg official is thus portrayed as aimless, empty and illusory.

St. Petersburg “Overcoats” is a city where a person’s existence directly depends on his financial and social status. A city where there are two worlds: the first, filled with bright lights, where high officials live, and the second, where slop can be poured on the head of a passer-by, where “little people” live, whose existence ends unnoticed, and life passes in poverty and fear. Gogol took his hero from this second world. Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, a representative of the “little people,” is a poor, servile man who dreams of only one thing - a new overcoat. And in order to order it, he is forced to save on everything: from soles to candles and food.

Akakiy Akakievich is a spiritually poor man. His only occupation in life is service, and his cherished dream is a new overcoat. But Gogol portrays this unfortunate official in such a way that he evokes compassion, pity and sympathy. And this harmless person, who never touched anyone, dies tragically.

And at the moment of his death, a desire is born in the heart of the “little man” to rebel against such a world order. Against the social mechanism that grinds people down. Gogol gives this little downtrodden person the ability to protest and resist the injustice and mercilessness of the surrounding reality.

In the story “Portrait” there is a theme of creativity, consonant with the theme of madness. Petersburg here appears as a monster, crippling the souls of people. So, having achieved what he wanted - to get rich and engage only in drawing, the main character, Chartkov, finds himself besotted with the power of gold. He becomes a famous artist, his wealth increases, but his talent decreases in proportion to it.

Realizing that he has irretrievably lost his abilities, Chartkov spends his fortune on destroying objects of art. Gradually he becomes more and more mad, and in the end he dies in agony and delirium.

Gogol N. V. — The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol (page 1 of 2)

Gogol spent a significant part of his life in St. Petersburg. This could not but affect his works. Many of them contain the image of St. Petersburg. Gogol

even wrote a whole series of St. Petersburg stories. And everywhere it is a mysterious magical city, full of all sorts of devilry. Here houses and things easily come to life, people walk

and talk to themselves, and an ordinary nose can easily run away from

his master and drive around the city in a carriage, like an official. Vladimir Nabokov

wrote: “The main city of Russia was built by a brilliant despot on a swamp and on bones

slaves rotting in this swamp: this is the root of its strangeness - and its original vice.” Gogol's Petersburg is an unreal, despicable kingdom of ranks and things, a kingdom of luxury and power, where “little people” disappear without a trace, leaving no trace of themselves

no memory.

which came from the lanterns, Vakula says: “My God, what light! We don't have during the day

it can be so light.” The palace here is simply fabulous. All the things in it are amazing: and

staircase, and painting; and even castles. The people in the palace are also fabulous: everyone is in satin

dresses or gold uniforms. Vakula sees one shine and nothing more. In "The Night Before"

Merry Christmas” St. Petersburg is bright, dazzling, deafening and incredible in

everyone.

damn it, treatment!” Khlestakov paints us a completely different Petersburg. This is no longer

Petersburg with merchants and dancing dogs, and Petersburg with veneration and

unimaginable luxury. This is the St. Petersburg of the dreams of a petty official who wants

become a general and live large. If at first he simply assigns himself a rank

taller, then at the end of his story he is practically a field marshal, and his exaggerations

reach truly incredible proportions: soup that arrived by boat from Paris,

seven-hundred-ruble watermelon. In general, St. Petersburg in Khlestakov’s dreams is a city where he has

a lot of money and a high rank, so he lives in luxury and everyone fears and reveres him.

Petersburg is depicted somewhat differently in the story “The Overcoat”. This is a city where “little people” disappear without a trace. In it there are simultaneously streets where it is as bright as day at night, with generals living on them, and streets where slop is poured directly from the windows, where shoemakers live. Gogol depicted the transition from one street to another through their lighting and the overcoats of officials: if on poor streets the lighting is “skinny” and the collar on a marten overcoat is rare, then the closer to the rich areas, the brighter the light of the lanterns becomes and the more often beaver collars come across. “The Overcoat” describes the free time of petty officials and other poor people. So, some went to the theater or on the street, others for the evening, and still others to play cards and drink tea with some other official. House servants and “all sorts” of people sat in small shops in the evenings, passing the time

for chatter and gossip. Gogol talks about all this in contrast

Akaki Akakievich, whose entire entertainment was rewriting

papers Rich people also go to the theater, walk the streets, play cards, but

they buy more expensive tickets, dress better and, while playing cards, drink not only tea,

but also champagne.

The rich part of the city, with the help of their money, completely subjugates the poor. Poor

part of St. Petersburg is like a shadow of the second, rich part. They have similar outlines,

but the shadow is gray and not colorful, while the rich city itself shimmers with all colors

rainbows.

the postmaster calls Persia, not Persian. Kopeikin is afraid in the waiting room

elbow America or India: the postmaster, however, says that these are vases,

but for a long time they never made porcelain vases either in America or in India. The captain is having lunch at

"London". The people here are also different: Russians, French, and English. Everything is around

drowning in luxury: mirrors, marble, vases, silverware, a watermelon for a hundred rubles.

There is some kind of devilish accumulation of people and things all around. And Kopeikin himself

the postmaster compares him to an owl, a poodle, and the devil. Even the doorman here looks like a walrus. From all this one gets the impression that St. Petersburg is a devilish city, in which the “boss” is the rightful ruler, although there is a “higher

superiors." In his waiting room sit not only poor people like Kopeikin, but also “epaulets” and “agilles.”

This is not a rule, but in life it often happens that cruel and heartless people who insult and humiliate the dignity of others end up looking weaker and more insignificant than their victims. Democritus once said that “he who commits injustice is more unhappy than the one who suffers unjustly.” The same impression of spiritual meagerness and fragility from the offenders of the petty official Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin remains with us after reading Gogol’s story “The Overcoat”, from which, in the figurative expression of Dostoevsky, all Russian literature came. “No, I can’t stand it anymore! What are they doing to me!.. They don’t understand, don’t see, don’t listen to me...” Many of the great writers responded to this plea of the hero of Gogol’s story, in their own way comprehended and developed the image of the “little man” in their work. This image, discovered by Pushkin, after the appearance of “The Overcoat” became one of the central ones in the literature of the 40s. The topic opened the way for the depiction of Akaki Akakievich’s “followers” in the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Bunin, Chekhov, Andreev. Many of them tried to see in the “little man” their little hero, “their brother” with his inherent feelings of kindness, gratitude and nobility. What is a “little man”? In what sense is “small”? This person is small precisely in social terms, since he occupies one of the lower steps of the hierarchical ladder. His place in society is little or not noticeable. This man is also “small” because the world of his spiritual life and human aspirations is also extremely narrowed, impoverished, surrounded by all kinds of prohibitions and taboos. For him, for example, there are no historical and philosophical problems. He remains in a narrow and closed circle of his life interests. Gogol characterizes the main character of his story as a poor, mediocre, insignificant and unnoticed person. In life, he was assigned an insignificant role as a copyist of departmental documents. Brought up in an atmosphere of unquestioning submission and execution of orders from his superiors, Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin was not used to reflecting on the content and meaning of his work. That is why, when he is offered tasks that require the manifestation of elementary intelligence, he begins to worry, worry and ultimately comes to the conclusion: “No, it’s better to let me rewrite something.” Bashmachkin's spiritual life is in tune with his inner aspirations. Collecting money to purchase an overcoat becomes for him the goal and meaning of life, filling it with happiness in anticipation of the fulfillment of his cherished desire. The theft of an overcoat, acquired through such great hardships and suffering, becomes truly a disaster for him. Those around him only laughed at his misfortune, but no one helped him. The “significant person” shouted at him so much that the poor fellow lost consciousness. Almost no one noticed the death of Akaki Akakievich, which followed shortly after his illness. Despite the “uniqueness” of the image of Bashmachkin created by Gogol, he does not look lonely in the reader’s mind, and we imagine that there were a great many of the same small, humiliated people sharing the lot of Akaki Akakievich. This generalization of the image of the “little man” reflected the genius of the writer, who satirically presented society itself, which gives rise to arbitrariness and violence. In this environment, the cruelty and indifference of people to each other is increasing more and more. Gogol was one of the first who spoke openly and loudly about the tragedy of the “little man,” respect for whom depended not on his spiritual qualities, not on his education and intelligence, but on his position in society. The writer with compassion showed the injustice and despotism of society towards the “little man” and for the first time called on him to pay attention to these inconspicuous, pitiful and funny people, as it seemed at first glance. “There can be no close relationship between us. Judging by the buttons on your uniform, you must serve in another department.” This is how the attitude towards a person is determined immediately and forever by the buttons of a uniform and other external signs. This is how the human personality is “trampled.” She loses her dignity, because a person not only evaluates others by wealth and nobility, but also himself. Gogol called on society to look at the “little man” with understanding and pity. “Mother, save your poor son!” - the author will write. And indeed, some of Akaki Akakievich’s offenders suddenly realized this and began to experience pangs of conscience. One young employee, who, like everyone else, decided to make fun of Bashmachkin, stopped, amazed by his words: “Leave me alone, why are you offending me?” And the young man shuddered when he saw “how much inhumanity there is in man, how much hidden ferocious rudeness…”. Calling for justice, the author raises the question of the need to punish the inhumanity of society. As revenge and compensation for the humiliations and insults suffered during his life, Akaki Akakievich, who rose from the grave in the epilogue, appears as a passer-by and takes away their overcoats and fur coats. He calms down only when he takes away the overcoat from a “significant person” who played a tragic role in the life of a little official. The meaning of the fantastic episode of the resurrection of Akaki Akakievich and his meeting with a “significant person” is that even in the life of the most seemingly insignificant person there are moments when he can become a person in the highest sense of the word. Tearing off the greatcoat from a dignitary, Bashmachkin becomes, in his own eyes and in the eyes of millions of humiliated and insulted people like him, a hero, capable of standing up for himself and responding to the inhumanity and injustice of the world around him. In this form the revenge of the “little man” on the bureaucratic Petersburg was expressed. The talented depiction in poetry, literature, as well as in other forms of art, of the life of the “little man” revealed to a wide range of readers and viewers that simple, but close truth that the life and “twists” of the souls of “ordinary people” are no less more interesting than the lives of outstanding personalities. Penetrating into this life, Gogol and his followers, in turn, discovered new facets of human character and the spiritual world of man. The democratization of the artist’s approach to the depicted reality led to the fact that the heroes he created could become on a par with the most significant personalities at critical moments in their lives. In his story, Gogol concentrated his main attention on the fate of the personality of the “little man,” but this was done with such skill and insight that, empathizing with Bashmachkin, the reader involuntarily thinks about his attitude towards the entire world around him, and, first of all, about his sense of dignity and respect that every person should arouse towards himself, regardless of his social and financial status, but only taking into account his personal qualities and merits.

Dostoevsky is a successor of the Gogol tradition

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Dostoevsky is almost the same. Fyodor Mikhailovich continued to portray the city as indifferent to the suffering of others, full of madness and maddening, grinding unprotected “little people”.

Dostoevsky enriched the Gogol tradition of describing St. Petersburg. And on the basis created by his predecessors he created his own myth about the city. He managed to learn more than anyone about the destructive force of St. Petersburg that affects the psyche of its inhabitants.

Gogol's grotesque and fantastic nature of St. Petersburg manifested itself in Dostoevsky's work through the visions and dreams of the main characters, through the mysticism of events. Thanks to this incredible coincidence of circumstances, the writer’s realism was called “mystical.”

Dostoevsky also turns to the images of “little people”. But if it was typical for Gogol to be ironic and to depict even tragedy satirically, Fyodor Mikhailovich focuses precisely on the suffering of the heroes, on their destinies. Such are all members of the Marmeladov family, such is Raskolnikov himself in Crime and Punishment. In this novel, the city becomes one of the main characters of the story. And this Petersburg depicted by Dostoevsky is close to the Petersburg of Akaki Akakievich.

In Dostoevsky’s works, only the dark, gloomy part of the city remains, no longer covered by Gogol’s and Pushkin’s lights and colors. The writer explores the stench and dirt of its nooks and crannies, the irregular broken corners of the rooms, the dust of the pavements. All this puts pressure on a person, drives him crazy, cripples him.