The role of Ukrainian motives in the works of N. Gogol

The Ukrainian theme in Gogol' s creativity was conditioned by the two factors: on the one hand, by the Little Russian origin, a deep knowledge of the national life (living, morals, customs, folklore), on the other hand, by the influence of romanticism, which was trendy in that era, and one of the postulates of which was nationality, understood as ethnographism as well. But Gogol not only refused to make a choice between the «Great Russian» and the «Little Russian» national traditions, but also negatively assessed «ethnographism». We can say, Gogol was a purely Russian writer.