M.A. Maksimovich as the Addresse of N.V. Gogol's Letters (From the Commentary)

The article is devoted to the relationship between N.V. Gogol and M.A. Maksimovich (1804–1873), his fellow countryman from the Poltava region. In his family there were writers and professors, they were proud of it, and Maksimovich himself from childhood dreamed of becoming a professor of botany in Moscow, but became a professor of Russian literature in Kiev and as a philologist and historian lived a fruitful scientific life. With Gogol he was brought together by his love for Little Russian songs. For the famous collection of songs by Maksimovich, Gogol offered several of his recordings and took part in its publication. Both were enthusiastic about the unrealized project to occupy university departments in Kiev together and turn it into a “new Athens,” launching an extensive educational program there. Their relations, invariably warm, were almost in absentia, until the autumn of 1849, when at the end of October Maksimovich arrived in Moscow, where Gogol then lived, and remained there for more than six months. In June they went together to their native lands, and in August 1850 Maksimovich visited Gogol in his village of Vasilyevka. Botany classes during the trip gave Gogol knowledge about Russia, important for the continuation of “Dead Souls.” Maksimovich, in his turn, left a portrait of the writer marked by professional observation and at the same time sympathetic understanding.