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Writer, poet, playwright, teacher. Born in the Cossack village of Sorochyntsi in the Ukraine (1809) in the family of Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky (1777–1825) and Maria Kosyarovskaya (1791–1868). Studied at the Poltava School (1818–21) and the Nizhyn Lyceum (1821–28). Lived in St Petersburg (1827–36), where he befriended Alexander Pushkin (1831). Worked for the Department of the Economy and the Department of Crown Lands (1828–30), taught at the Patriotic Institute (from 1831). Published Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831–32), Myrhorod (1835) and The Government Inspector (1836). Assistant professor of history at St Petersburg University (1834), resigned to devote himself to literature (1835). Wrote a series of St Petersburg Tales, including Nevsky Prospekt (1835), The Nose (1836) and The Overcoat (1842). Lived mostly in Italy (1836–48), where he wrote Dead Souls (1836–41). Published a four-volume collection of compositions (1842) and Extracts from Correspondence with my Friends (1847). Died in Moscow and buried at the Danilov Monastery (1852), reburied at the Novodevichy Cemetery (1931).