Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Born in 1809 in Sorochintsy, in present-day Ukraine, he became one of the most influential writers working in Russian in the 19th century. After moving to St. Petersburg, he found early success with Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, a collection that drew on Ukrainian settings and folklore.

He went on to write some of his best-known works, including The Government Inspector, Dead Souls, and the story The Overcoat. His writing mixes satire, absurdity, and close observation of everyday life, and it had a lasting impact on later literature.

His later years were marked by religious struggle and creative difficulty, and he died in Moscow in 1852. Even so, his work remains central to world literature for its humor, oddness, and deep sympathy for human weakness.