Memories of Gogol’s Meeting with I. I. Dmitriev in Moscow: Reliability Issue

Abstract

The well-known reports of T. G. Pashchenko and A. A. Iovsky about I. I. Dmitriev’s meeting with N. V. Gogol in the summer of 1832 in Moscow are considered. An attempt is made to overestimate the text of T. G. Pashchenko’s memoirs, which is considered unreliable, and to show that the information contained there about the first acquaintance of these writers in its main part is consistently combined with the data of other sources that do not raise doubts. It echoes, first of all, with the record of A. A. Iovsky, recently attributed by S. I. Panov, about Gogol’s visit to Dmitriev’s house, as well as with the memoirs of S. T. Aksakov. Memory errors in T. G. Pashchenko’s story can be explained by the temporal remoteness of events and the indirect transmission of information through the retelling of several persons. Separately, it is proposed to consider another significant episode from T. G. Pashchenko’s memoirs — the scene of the author’s reading of the comedy “Marriage”, which supposedly took place at Dmitriev’s. This scene requires new understanding and temporary localization, regardless of I. I. Dmitriev and his meeting with Gogol.