Nationalism of Nikolai Gogol': Betwixt and Between?1, The

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Sep-Dec 2007 by Ilnytzkyj, Oleh S

This second chapter also contains a very engaging survey of how critics reacted to Evenings. It is prefaced by the observation that "the author of Evenings was taken to be a Ukrainian, rather than a Russian, writer." Bojanowska then adds: "Russian literary history has been very successful in forgetting this fact" (p. 78). She notes the reactions, among others, of V. A. Ushakov (he "locates the work within contemporary Ukrainian literature despite Gogol's use of the Russian language" [p. 79]); and Nikolai Nadezhdin (who "classifies Gogol as a Ukrainian writer and comments on Ukraine as a nation" [p. 80]). Evenings serves as an occasion (e.g., for Nikolai Polevoi) to draw comparisons between Ukrainians and Russians (cf. p. 82). We see in this chapter also the first attempts (i.e., by Stepan Shevyrev) to claim "Gogol's extraordinary talent for Russian letters" (p. 84). Gogol' earns this "promotion" (p. 84) "by virtue of his talent, originality and imperviousness to the affliction that plagues Russian literature: the imitation of European models" (p. 84). Shevyrev "encourages Gogol to depict Russian high society and to abandon the topic of Ukraine and its simple folk" (p. 84). "The de-Ukrainization of Gogolian humor began by Shevyrev was continued by Belinsky..." (p. 85). Bojanowska at this point cites other examples of how critics transformed Gogol' "from a Ukrainian to a Russian writer" (p. 86).

Chapter 3 is titled "The Politics of Writing History," a focus on "the nationalism of Gogol's historical writings" and how he "opposed the notions of official Russian historiography" (p. 89). The chapter has 80 pages (the second longest in the book) and contains nine sections, among diem: "Gogol the Professional Historian," "Teaching Universal History in the Spirit of Official Nationality," "Ancient Rome: Parallels to the Russian Empire and the Cossack Ukraine," "The Origin of the Ukrainian Nation." Overall, this is an excellent survey of Gogol's historical writings. Of particular interest is the section titled "From Ostranitsa to Mazepa: Abandoned Literary Projects," which begins with this telling statement: "While Russian history did not inspire Gogol to compose a single scholarly or fictional text, the writer's engagement with Ukrainian history produced a variety of works of both kinds" (p. 155). Here Bojanowska focuses on the unfinished novel "The Hetman" and an unpublished fragment, "Mazepa's Meditations," which I have not seen analyzed this carefully anywhere. Bojanowska characterizes the "Meditations" as "the most curious specimen in Gogol's miscellanea on Ukrainian history" (p. 161), a "piece of fiction that grew out of Gogol's historical research, rather than a scholarly note" (p. 161) as previous editors of his work believed. Bojanowska calls this one of Gogof's nationalistic "indiscretions" (p. 161) in that it "radically departs from the denunciations and personal vilification that were the staple of Mazepa's Russian image" (p. 163). Gogol' "portrays Mazepa as a statesman and a prudent politician, motivated not by greed, treachery, or revenge but by thoughts of his people's welfare. Far from a Machiavellian schemer, Gogol's Mazepa is a national leader" (p. 163). "While 'A Glance at the Making of Little Russia' was tentative and evasive on the issue of Ukrainian statehood, 'Mazepa's Meditations' unequivocally affirms it" (p. 163), says Bojanowska.