For Gogol

myminifactory

Very little information is available about this work of art, including who created it or its exact location on Vasilevsky Island in St. Petersburg. The most details that can be gathered come from the inscription on the cylindrical part and the flag at the rear of the sculpture. These inscriptions read "For Gogol" on the flag, and "Taras Bulba" on the main body. This suggests the piece was created as a tribute to Nikolai Gogol, author of the romanticized historical novella Taras Bulba. Gogol was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian descent whose work is characterized by its romantic sensibility, occasionally bordering on the surreal and grotesque. His early works drew inspiration from his Ukrainian upbringing, featuring Ukrainian culture and folklore, while his later writing satirized the corruption of the Russian empire. The novella this piece refers to tells a romanticized historical story about the life of a Zaporozhian Cossack leader named Taras Bulba and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. The original story was deemed too Ukrainian by Russian authorities, leading Gogol to rewrite it with more Russian nationalist themes in a second edition.