Nikolai Gogol and the journal Christian reading: the role of patristics in the making of a writer (1820s)

The little-studied problem of the influence of spiritual literature on N. V. Gogol during his studies at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn is investigated. Contrary to traditional ideas, that the writer turned to the patristic heritage only in his mature years, allegedly changing his beliefs in the 1840s, it is shown that he received a systematic religious education in school. Already then, in 1825-1828, during the lessons of the Law of God, the future writer became acquainted with the articles of the most authoritative Russian religious journal, Christian Reading . It is indicated that the main content of the Christian Reading in those years was the articles of the well-known patristic collection of works on the prayerful and contemplative experience of monastic life, The Philokalia , periodically published in new translations. It is noted that the patristic instructions on observing the mind, on the struggle with thoughts, which dominate for this collection, were already reflected in the early works of the writer. They found their most striking embodiment in the first edition of the story Portrait (1834) - Gogol's recognized aesthetic manifesto. It is emphasized that the merit of counteracting the influence of non-confessional Western mysticism, the ideas of the so-called “universal Christianity”, which dominated at that time in society and in educational institutions, belongs to the Nizhyn cleric Fr. Pavel Volynsky, who chose the journal as the main conductor of patristic traditions. In the 1840s Gogol turned again to the articles of Christian Reading , which had determined his spiritual education at school. A new look at the history of the writer's compilation of the later collection of extracts “Selected Passages from the Works of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church” allows us to once again indicate the unity of his creative path and conclude that, despite the spiritually dubious trends of the era, the religious education received by Gogol at school was quite traditional and ecclesiastical. An introduction at the lessons of Fr. Pavel Volynsky to the works of the Holy Fathers and the foundations of the Philokalia protected the writer from the common misconceptions of his time.