Gogol's grief process
N. V. Gogol took the death of Ekaterina Mikhailovna harder than anyone else. Dr Tarasenkov noted that 'her death did not so much affect her husband and relatives as it did Gogol... Here, perhaps for the first time, he saw death face to face..." In fact, it was not the first death Gogol had to face. The writer experienced a similar mental trauma after the death of his beloved Alexander Pushkin in 1837. In 1839, literally in Gogol's arms, the young Joseph Mikhailovich Vielgorsky died, whose relationship with Gogol inspired the work Nights at the Villa. The writer had just suffered the loss of his friend N. M. Yazykov, who died on the eve of 1847. But none of the previous losses had such fatal consequences as the death of E.M. Khomyakova. Dr Tarasenkov's comparison is based on the fact that if Khomyakov could somehow restrain himself and hide his feelings, Gogol indiscriminately gave in to the feeling of grief. In recent years, the writer's fear of death had only increased, and Khomyakova's death only aggravated his earlier depression.
Khomyakova's death "somehow shook Gogol. He saw it as an omen for himself". The events since 26 January are often recounted by Gogol scholars in the form of a chronology, and their order differs slightly:
On 24 January (or 25 January) Gogol is visited by O. M. Bodiansky and finds the writer "very energetic". The friends agree to meet on the 27th at O. F. Kosheleva's for a musical evening in honour of the Malorussian song.
Saturday, 26 January. Death of E.M. Khomyakova. Gogol later confessed to the Aksakov sisters that "he was afraid to inquire about her health that day and only waited for a message from the Khomyakovs, which did not come slowly".
Monday, 28 January. The first funeral service at the Khomyakovs' house (from the words of V. I. Khitrovo) Gogol could barely stand the service until the end, trying not to look at the deceased. After the funeral he said to Khomyakov: "It's all over for me"; to S. P. Shevyryov: "Nothing can be more solemn than death. Life would not be so beautiful if there were no death". Gogol went to the Aksakov sisters to find out where E.M. Khomyakova was to be buried. When he found out that she was to be buried next to her brother N. M. Yazykov in the Danilov Convent, he "shook his head, said something about Yazykov, and thought so much that we were afraid: he seemed to be completely carried away by his thoughts there, and remained in the same position for so long that we deliberately talked about something else to interrupt his thoughts".
Tuesday, 29 January. Khomyakova's funeral at the Danilov Convent. Gogol did not attend, claiming indisposition. V. A. Voropaev suggests that it was on this day that Gogol went to the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital to see the famous yurodivy I. Y. Koreisha, and not after 7 February, as Dr. A. T. Tarasenkov wrote, because the writer found no spiritual support in anyone else, and "the desire to meet the yurodivy was perhaps more important to him than Khomyakova's funeral".
Wednesday, 30 January. Gogol held a second funeral service for Khomyakova in the church of Venerable Simeon the Stolpnik on Povarskaya, after which the writer found some mental equilibrium. To Aksakov he said: "I have calmed down now, today I served alone in my parish funeral service for Katerina Mikhailovna; I remembered and all the former friends, and she brought them all so vividly before me as if in gratitude. I was relieved. But the minute of death is terrible. — Why is it terrible?" asked Aksakovs. — Only to be sure of God's mercy for the suffering man, and then it is comforting to think of death", they objected. — Well, you have to ask those who have gone through that minute", — he replied. Apparently, in the church he had visual hallucinations with visions of the poet Yazykov, Joseph Vielgorsky and other dead people", M. I. Davidov remarks.
Friday, 1 February. After dinner in the parish church Gogol visited the Aksakovs again, and Vera Aksakova recalled that under the impression of the service of the priest Alexei Sokolov (later the provost of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour) "all his thoughts were directed to this world". The conversation turned to Alexei Stepanovich, whom Vera Sergeyevna reproached for going out into the world and "because many will say that he did not love his wife". But Gogol objected: "No, not because, but because he should have used these days for other things; <...> he should read the Psalms now, it would be a comfort to him and to his wife's soul".
Sunday, 3 February. After dinner at the Aksakovs' again, he spoke on the Psalms. "Whenever I go to see you, I pass Khomyakov's house, and every time, both day and night, I see in the window a candle warming in Katerina Mihaylovna's room — the Psalter is being read there."
Saturday, 9 February. He went to A.S. Khomyakov to console him after the loss of his wife, and plays with his godson as if to say goodbye. Gogol had not been to Khomyakov's since the first funeral of the deceased, that is, since 27 or 28 January. Every day he passed their house on his way to church, but he was not at Khomyakov's until 9 February. Vera Aksakova remarked on this occasion: "I think it was too hard for him to go to him". From the next day he did not leave the house at all.
А. S. Khomyakov recalled these days two weeks later: "The death of my wife and my grief shook Gogol to the core; he said that many people he loved with all his soul were dying for him, especially N. M. Yazykov. <...> Since then he was in a kind of nervous disorder, which took on the character of religious madness. He began to pray and starve himself, accusing himself of gluttony"[3]. Dr A. T. Tarasenkov confirms his words: "Constantly engaged in reading books of spiritual content, he liked to think about the end of life, but from that time the thought of death and preparing himself for it seems to have become his dominant thought. He still had the spirit to console the widowed husband, but from then on his inclination to solitude became noticeable; he began to pray longer, to read at his Psalter for the deceased".
Well acquainted with Gogol, P. V. Annenkov recalled: "As for the contemplation of death, it is known how his whole body was affected by the coffin of Mme. Khomyakova, which he himself soon followed into the grave". P. A. Kulish wrote that Gogol viewed Khomyakova's death from his lofty vantage point and reconciled with her only at the coffin of the deceased. "But this did not save his heart from the fatal shock: he felt that he was suffering from the same disease that had killed his father — the fear of death".
According to literary scholar K. V. Mochulsky, Gogol prophetically described his death in the story The Old World Landlords. From an early age, the writer feared the mysterious call "that inevitably follows death". Nicolai Gogol died in the same way as Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub, the hero of his story. "He suddenly heard someone behind him say in a rather clear voice: "Afanasy Ivanovich" ... "He submitted to his mental conviction that Pulcheria Ivanovna was calling him: he submitted with the will of an obedient child, dried up, coughed, melted like a candle, and finally died like her, when there was nothing left to support her poor flame". Mochulsky believes that this is an accurate diagnosis of the author's own illness: Gogol died because the dead Khomyakova called him; he too "submitted" and also "melted like a candle".
However, Gogol's historian Yu. V. Mann believes that by the beginning of February the pain of losing Khomyakova had somewhat subsided in Gogol, until there were other circumstances not directly related to Khomyakova's death, namely meetings with Matthew Konstantinovsky and arguments with him in early February about Dead Souls, which did not allow the writer to finally come out of his depression. V. A. Voropaev and N. Urakova point out that the real reason for such an unexpected reaction of Gogol to the death of E.M. Khomyakova will hardly ever be fully unravelled, but one thing remains undeniable: it was the strongest spiritual shock. A. S. Khomyakov experienced a similar spiritual shock, but on a smaller scale. V. Alexeev agrees with this opinion: "You can express your assumptions, fantasise, try to penetrate into the details of the friendship between Khomyakov and Gogol, but all this will be an assumption, the author's own vision".
