The Ghost of Gogol. Phantasmagoria

© Lana Ignatieva, 2024

ISBN 978-5-0060-7682-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

From the Author

You are holding unordinary book. It is possible that after reading of it your mind-set will change the way that you will perceive yourself and the environment completely different. It will interest all searchers of the truth, sincerely craving to explore the world and their place in it. Dialogs are considerable part of the book. If you feel like you are out of this world, this book is for you. It will encourage you to look inside yourself and comprehend one more facet of our common multifaceted history. Our souls have always existed and will continue to live forever.

In my heart of hearts I feel that I am beloved daughter of God. Attaching to my best characteristics, I am full of hope and optimism. I do not only hope for pleasant results, but I do my best to achieve them. I am looking for solutions and opportunities to create harmony and to make the world a better place.

I see protection of social justice and aspiration to improve people’s lives as my essential need. Chaos and obscurity engender a feeling of deep fear into me, so I build me life the way that gives me a perfect order in all aspects.

It is possible to say that I am my own worst enemy and the most severe critic. I am trying to make friends with your own shadow. My insights seem supernatural from time to time, because I am gifted with talent to comprehend mysterious, hidden things and everything that is shrouded in secrecy, this quality prompts me to be an explorer, to discover the new, the unknown and to reveal the secret.

My obsession began with heritage, which I got from my grandmother. Right before her death she told me that she keeps the most valuable thing in her library. She passed away in the morning of 12th of April in 2021, I also thought about the day of cosmonautics. I buried her ashes in Vagankovsky cemetery, near by the grave of Vysotsky. I got an antique book by N. V. Gogol published by A. S. Panafidina in 1917 as a heritage.

PART 1

ACTION I

A pleasant nighttime atmosphere dominated the room.

I’m sitting in the kitchen, at the table, in front of the window, wearing my pyjamas, at night on January 14th, and this is my 43rd birthday.

I see myself and the refrigerator is behind me in the reflection of the window, refrigerator has a built-in electronic clock, showing 03:33, there’s a soft light from a burning candle. Wax flows smoothly. My small black dog named Neurona is quietly dozing. The night has enveloped the city, sleep creeps up to me, my eyelids are descending, but I continue to write.

Through the silence I hear a little voice, out of nowhere;

“Could you fulfill my important wish?”

Neuron growled nervously at the reflection in the window, it was a light rustle and a strange smell, like from an antique book. I seems to me there is a shadow, but maybe not, in order to understand… only because I have to answer something.

– What is the kind of desire?

– I had a sweet tooth, I could eat a jar of jam at one time, I loved gingerbread. I even hid in the corners so as not to share with anyone in the gymnasium.

– And?

– Come to my burial place and you will hear my prayer there, which played an important role in my destiny. The first time I wrote a prayer was in a great Roman cathedral of Peter and Paul, and it always helped me. I repeated it always, I almost existed with it. I was not impressed by Russian cathedrals.

– In order for me to understand where to go, I need at least know who I’m talking to.

– I’m the one you called when you passionately studied the antique manuscript. I was looking for a place where I can get out, now I can get out from there.

– Yes, so it means, you are the Gogol?

– Yes.

– Will I find your grave?”

– If you’re ready, you’ll be brought there.

– And what is the main theme I can convey to the people?

– I wasn’t mad! You can restore my satire “Something about Nizhyn” or “There’s no law for fools.”

It was such a satire. These are Velikie Sorochintsy, Poltava. When I was in the gymnasium, then I wrote these works. I didn’t save it, because I described too vividly the leaders of the gymnasium and officials who could have exiled me in 1820 there.

– How will Russia change in the next hundred years?

– Russia will expand to the level of the Russian Empire, except for Constantinople, it was lost forever.

– Why did you write the “Author’s Confession”?

– I didn’t want to go down in history as a bastard who ridiculed Russia.

– What is Russia for you?

– What is a mom to you?

– And how do you feel about the conflict in Ukraine?

– No way. I need cemeteries to be preserved there, otherwise, everything connected with Ukraine will be destroyed. This is not a conflict, this is ignorance of history.

– America, NATO or Russia?

– From the side of everyone, now there is only one country and that knows the real story in summary.

– Will we have such a ruler as Nicholas I someday?

– In the next century there will be nominal rulers who will be simply associated with the country, but artificial intellect will lead it, it’s being created just now, it will be ready in 2035.

– What did make you rebellious?

– There was no such understanding of rebellion our time like you have now, our man got drunk, got into a fight and he is a rebel. Then the century was flatters, scoundrels and traitors.

– Rumor has it that you wrote “Evenings on the Farm…” and “Viy” in a trance.

– You can’t write this without a trance.

– Who killed Viy?

– Viy was not killed, he was moved to another place, he is still alive, I gave a part of “Mirgorod” to the “guy” who wrote “The Brownie’s Diary”, “The Battle of plasticine and real heroes with dark power.” Mogala Smirnova helped me abroad, she was a maid of honor of the Empress, she was there with my brother, and Mr. Tolstoy, they all supported me.

– Do you want me to tell you how originally was called “Overcoat”?

– Of course, I do want.

– “The Tale of the clerk stealing overcoats.”

“Ah, that’s interesting, I’m thinking whether it’s good or not to sit at home with the Spirits?

– It’s not good for you, but for the writer it is.

– How did you get the idea to write a manual mathematical encyclopaedia?

– It wasn’t my idea, I was paid for it.

– Is it true that you were afraid of the darkness and thunderstorms?

– Yes, I was very afraid, as a child I was a witness of a man on a cart being killed by lightning, it was before the gymnasium.

– Why weren’t you married? They say that you were afraid of women.

– If you had such a first experience as I did, you would be afraid too. I had a passion to know a person, so I observed the others living in their families the way I didn’t want to.

– How did you feel about Zhukovsky?

– He was a dual-purpose man. He told me one thing, the other one to another person. I didn’t mean to be a weak-willed fool, I was avoiding intrigues.

– Can I finish the second tome of “Dead Souls”?

– The one who finishes the second tome will immediately die, and I didn’t want to die, so I destroyed it. I wanted to write book of five tomes. The third one should describe the children of the heroes of the second tome, it’s about fifteen characters in total. If you want to die, I’m ready to dictate to you.

– In your letters you wrote that a man would come and write in two weeks what you had been writing for five years. Who it was said about?

– A Belarusian living in your time will finish it and he’ll immediately die. Everyone who understand the meaning and read the book will die.

No one can finish it only if I dictate myself but then the man will die in agony. I wrote, rooting for the country and people.

– Is this the fate of all people?

– Anyone who starts writing will die.

– Did you burn “Dead Souls” because of your fear of death or there was another reason?

– Because I knew that I would die if I put it on the air, and everyone who reads it will die, everyone who understands the meaning of this book will die, they will die in agony.

– What did you understand over the years when you wrote “Dead Souls”?

– I did not write a humorous work, but was rooting for the country and people, I was revolutionary all in all.

– Why did Pushkin give you “Dead Souls” for writing?

– He was too busy finishing writing in France after imitating his death in a duel to get rid of his large financial debts, the only way was to move to another place, creative people do not know how to handle money.

– There is a four-tome edition of my letters an edition of Marx. It is located in two libraries, in Moscow “Leninka” and the Presidential library, there are all the answers about “Dead Souls”. There you can understand everything. Dead souls can be found everywhere. They are existing in all activities. For example, an official gets his relatives to work, none of them work, but they make money.

– What way did you see the way of Plyushkin’s redemption?

– He should become generous in the second part, he should have give everything away, then go to the monastery and there regret the things he did. But if you start writing about them, you will die.

– Where did Chichikov hide the money?

– He had a suitcase with banknotes, he also kept banknotes in the bank.

– Why didn’t Pannochka eat well?

– When demons come, people don’t eat well.

– Can I continue your story “Alfred”?

– In the Museum of Great Britain, in Moscow there is an old English yard. There are books, they are under a cap in public view.

– Is this King Alfred? History play?

– Yes, a drama, a Shakespearean story.

– Was everything including looting of the monastery fictional at the beginning of this work?

– It was a real story that I heard from Ulan.

– Did the nuns really cut their faces up there?

– They did this because they wanted to put an earmark on the face, on the cheek under the eye.

– An earmark?

– Yes.

– And what for?

– An earmark means the property of the landowner. It was too harsh for the mores of the time.

– Does it make sense for me to try to finish it?

– Yes, it does, everything is fine with it, it will be interesting.

– Won’t I die?

– No.

– What do you regret?

– I regret not having children.

– So, was there no woman you could love?

– No, I had other passions – to explore a person. I gave my best to art. I felt like a miserable person and then I unleashed the conflict, leading to rebellion, a rout from humility to rebellion, this was an important internal feature for me, I used to demonstrate in my characters, but the characters were not mine.

– What was the letter to Prokopovich about?

– It was the plan of the work, he had to save it in the archives so that I could go back and finish writing, this is another “Evenings on the farm”.

– Did you enjoy living in Rome?

– Yes, it was comfortable there. Nobody approached me.

– The maid of honor Alexandra wrote: “I sold myself for six thousand souls for the brothers,” what was she talking about?

– It’s about the second tome of “Dead Souls”. She read it in pieces. She really liked this work, she began to live with this work, forced herself to live righteously.

– Do you know that she has been sad about you for thirty years after your death?

– I do know.

– Did you have feelings for her?

– No one knew how to make raspberry jam like the way she did.

– What was the letter to Pushkin on October 7, 1835 about.

I stopped at the third chapter, I’m looking for a snitch, I want to show Russia from one side?

– At that moment the bureaucracy began to run the state and stopped interacting with those they called people. So I started to mock and writing characters in grotesque manner.

– How did you manage to be so courage under the royal mode? What worth the “Inspector” had!

– I was considered a fool, I could say anything not being taken to jail.

– I felt like a miserable person in society. I demonstrated a rebellion in my heroes, an uprising, I was a revolutionary. There was a plan in one of my letters; one more “Evenings on the Farm…”

– Where is the first tome now?

– In America, in the library.

– The second tome was about alien languages, what is it about?

– Sanskrit and Russian are the only terrestrial languages, all the rest of the unearthly, were brought in.

– Were you left-handed or right-handed?

– I was left-handed at first, but retrained, could not quickly write, when one hand got tired, I began to write with the other.

– What happened to your health?

– They could not make a diagnosis, in those days there was no such

some diagnoses, something with the coronary vessels, I had an advanced bipolar disorder, had malaria since childhood.

– But I wasn’t out of my mad! They thought a lot about me. I was not going to die, I expected to live till my 98 years.

– And what are the fears about being buried alive and where are the fears

about your death come from?

– I had a meeting with Turgenev, we were talking about “between life and death”, that’s where I turn it on and fears appeared. There were only four meetings, and he

all the time freaked out and ran away from me.

– Have you really seen the Devil?

– Yes. He shook hands with me.

– What for?

– It’s better not to talk about it if we cheer up the parallel hierarchy, we now will have to finish our talk.

– And where were all your things, which had been located there, at the moment of your death?

– There was no death, I fell into a deep catalepsy, if I had stayed longer, he would have remained alive. I was sagacious, so I knew about my death. My things are in archives of Switzerland.

– Why was the act of exhumation classified?

– Then everything was classified so that there would be no uprising with various topics, because the Russian people were fair. There were different riots, I often fell into a riot, there was a strange anti-alcohol one and was some kind of salty and bread ones. I was a rebel by nature, but I did not come too close to others. My head was in place, my body was turned sideways.

– And the fact that the walls of the coffin were scratched?

– Well, that’s right, they buried me alive.

– Why haven’t you ever had your own property?

– I lived on a visit all the time, I had no time for this. The maid of honor, Smirnova, her family, Mr. Alexei Tolstoy always helped me, supported me and my way abroad. Tolstoy took care of me; I appreciate the cook of his wife. I couldn’t imagine myself as Tolstoy, as a person with a bunch of kids.

– You wrote many letters to Tolstoy. Which one is of those was important for you?

– It was the penultimate letter, I wrote it in the winter.

– What did you read?

– When I was a librarian, there was a base, I read all: biblical, secular, depraved, so I worked out my vocabulary. It was the knowledge of the initial letter in our time.

– What kind of music did you like?

– Symphonic, with timpani.

– Why didn’t you admit then that “Alov” was yours alias?

– It had to do with religion.

CEMETRY

I had my way to Novodevichie cemetery the next day, I heard the same phrase each moment: “Oh, I want something sweet so hardly”. It wasn’t difficult to find the second section, but I had to look for the 12 line, I’ve found it from the third time. The gate was open near by the grave of Gogol, it was just a huge stone and a gilded cross on it. It immediately catched the eye that many people visit and

read Gogol in our difficult times. A strange retired woman picked up with me, Tatyana from Mytishchi, she didn’t want to let me to be alone to listen to Gogol’s prayer. There were many questions from her side, for example, what is the name of Gogol.

– Why do you need Gogol?

– A friend told me that she often goes to Gogol and he helps her, I sprained my leg before the New Year. Could you guide me to Tolstoy’s grave?

I answered unwillingly all her questions, I took her to Tolstoy’s grave through a couple of rows. An interesting observation: Gogol’s grave is one of the most visited there. I was pleasantly surprised. There were flowers, lamps, and icon, something written on the tombstone, I could not see it, because there was ice on it. I placed lilies of the valley on the snow, next to the famous and mystical stone, I put uncovered jar filled with cherry jam, poured various sweets with truffles and dates.

It seemed to me Tatyana wanted to eat, she said: “What did you do this for?

Would you rather hand it out to someone?

I got a feeling that she’s about to take over all that I brought, so I stayed there until

she won’t leave. And then I went to Novodevichy and ordered forty-day memorial about the rest for Gogol

ACTION II

– Did you eat the jam that I brought you yesterday?

– I was not alone, we had a feast.

– Feast?

– Yes.

– Who else was there with you?

– Two more lie next to me, so we gathered, we figured for three.

– Was the jam tasty?

– Delicious, I would prefer dogwood one, but with cherry it also approached.

– Last time you said that many magical people come to your grave, what do they ask for?

– They solve ordinary life problems, they want someone to be punished, and vice versa. Many of those who come are suing.

– Are they suing?

– Though that is not my specialisation. But for some reason they think that it is, they pass on something to each other there.

– And what can you do then, and what is your specialisation?

– I can write.

– There are many rumors about Mikhail Bulgakov, which are true person can hardly understand. Why did Bulgakov continue his stories and after his death, he is bot with us not, but he is. He tore up and partially burned the first manuscript of “The Master and Margarita”, is it true, three times you came to Bulgakov?

– No, we talked much more often with him.

– Was Bulgakov in a trance when he spoke to you?

– No, he spoke to me in the same way as you speak to me now.

– So it means, did you came to Bulgakov yourself?

– I had no choice, because he had works and it was necessary that they would be published, it was necessary to give those plots and to write them, but I won’t tell you which ones.

– It was harder for him than for me. It was easier for me because I was a court jester, and he was not a jester.

– Is it true about the “overcoat” stone? His request to you cover him with your overcoat?

– Yes.

– And the stone that lies on the grave of Bulgakov, was it

really brought from the Crimea by Aksakov?

– Is it true.

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