“...The whole Kolomna and living nature of St. Petersburg...”: “The little house at Kolomna” by A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol's short story “The portrait”

The article deals with the circumstances of A. S. Pushkin's acquaintance with N. V. Gogol, that raises a number of questions. Why did Pushkin let Gogol read first his new poem “The Little House at Kolomna”? Why did Gogol first appreciate its incomprehensible plot and the depiction of “Petersburg nature”? What did the topography of the town mean for Pushkin and Gogol? Why did they place the characters of their works into this district of the capital? The answers to these questions will help to clarify the creative relationships between two classical authors of Russian literature.