Who is this Chichikov? In search of an answer to the main question of the poem N.In.Gogol's "Dead souls"

The article is dedicated to Nikolai Gogol's poem "Dead Souls", in particular, it puts the main, in the author's opinion, the question of the whole work, to which the answer was subsequently given. In his most famous work Gogol not only reproduces the image of contemporary Russia with all its problems and troubles: he embodies the whole of Russia in one character, which was destined to become one of the most recognizable in Russian literature.