Nikolai Gogol, playwright: between Ukraine and Russia

Of all Russian writers, Gogol certainty was the most attracted by drama: as a playwright, as an inimitable reader of his own works and as a theoretician. Very early on, he was involved in two theatrical trends, Literary and popular. From his father, who wrote humorous comedies, he inherited a passion for amateur theatricals, and he starting putting on shows when he was still in high school. His dramatic works include three completed comedies: The Government Inspector (Revizor), Marriage and Gamblers. With Revizor, he gave Russia its first truly national play. This study also emphasizes a fact which has been neglected by critics. Gogol was interested in history, Ukrainian history in particular, and he wrote a heroic play, The Shaved Moustache, about Zaporozhian Cossacks; he burnt the manuscript, but took up the theme in the second version of his novel Taras Bulba.