Nikolai Gogol and Jan Kollar’s theory of Slavic unity

An Kollar and Nikolai Gogol - Slavic writers, their fame has gone far beyond the Russian or Slavic cultural space. Their books are interesting throughout life, every time they manage to find a new face, almost new content. Gogol opened Russia to the whole world, first of all its funny, sad, dramatic side. Gogol created the books that were genuine discovery in the artistic culture, had a great influence on the development of Russian literature and art in general. Despite Kollar´s negative attitude to the idea of Slovak literary language, separated from the Czech language and his sharp criticism of Štúr´s language reform, his literary, cultural and patriotic activities helped Štúr´s group to find a new way to solve the question of the place of Slovaks in the family of the Slavic people and the Slovak language in the group of Slavic languages. Gogol and Kollar believed in the power of artistic expression that is likely to provide a path to moral revival of the Slavs in our days.