NIKOLAI PROKOPOVICH AND NIKOLAI GOGOL

Abstract

The article is devoted to the relations between N. Ya. Prokopovich (1810 1857) and his great namesake, when they started their adult life, in particular stories with the idyll “Hanz Küchelgarten” (1829). Only after Gogol’s death, Prokopovich announced to P. Kulish, the writer’s biographer, that he accidentally found out about the authorship of that “poem” and the annihilation of its entire circulation. However, our research suggests that it was conceived by two Nikolays, although its text was mainly written by N. Prokopovich. N. Gogol-Yanovsky took an active part in its creation, and then, believing in its success, became its publisher. After the failure, he, feeling guilty before a friend, entrusted him to edit the first edition of the comedy The Inspector General and his first Collected Works.