In Ukraine, why is Gogol's former home boarded up?
The Odessa home where Nikolai Gogol wrote the second part of 'Dead Souls' is abandoned, with grass growing on the stairs and a padlock on the front door.
The Odessa house where Gogol wrote the second part of 'Dead Souls,' located on Gogol Street, has been unoccupied for years.
Julie Masis
Odessa, Ukraine
The 19th-century building where Nikolai Gogol wrote the second part of 鈥淒ead Souls鈥� 鈥� widely considered one of the greatest works of 19th-century Russian literature 鈥� is abandoned. The house, located on Gogol Street, has been unoccupied for years. The windows are boarded up, paint peels from the walls, and grass grows on the stairs. A padlock hangs on the front door. 聽
Only the two memorial plaques on the facade 鈥� one in Russian, the other in Ukrainian 鈥� inform passersby that 鈥淗ere, between 1850 and 1851, lived the great Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol.鈥�
Gogol鈥檚 lengthy sojourn in the home was not entirely by choice. Passport problems and bad weather kept him there months longer than he had planned 鈥� giving him perhaps more time than he had wanted to wrestle with the second half of 鈥淒ead Souls鈥� (a section he later destroyed).
According to Andrey Shelugin, chief of Odessa鈥檚 Cultural Heritage Protection Department, the home is privately owned and the city can鈥檛 do anything about the state that it is in. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥榃e will do it, but now we have financial problems,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Shelugin said.
Gogol鈥檚 home is hardly the only writer鈥檚 house to weather tough times. According to Anne Trubek, author of 鈥淎 Skeptic鈥檚 Guide to Writers鈥� Houses,鈥� the homes of favorite authors, turned into tourist sites, are 鈥渙ften obscure, undervisited, quiet, and dark.鈥�
In the United States, for example, the former cottages of Edgar Allan Poe in both Baltimore and the Bronx, a borough in New York City, have suffered from neglect. In Cleveland, Langston Hughes鈥檚 home was rescued from destruction at a sheriff鈥檚 sale. Even Mark Twain鈥檚 historical home in Hartford, Conn, has recently been threatened with closure because of financial woes.
It doesn鈥檛 necessarily matter how famous a writer is, says Ms. Trubek. 鈥淥ne can make no sense of why some houses attract more visitors than others, or even why people decide to visit them.鈥�
In Gogol鈥檚 case, there is no shortage of museums at his former homes: There are three in Ukraine, one in Moscow, and one in Rome.
Yet despite the other museums, Odessa literature lovers say it鈥檚 important to preserve 11 Gogol Street where the great writer once toiled over his master work. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our history; it鈥檚 our culture,鈥� said Tatiana Rybnikova, a guide at the Odessa Literary Museum. 鈥淎 person who doesn鈥檛 know his or her history has no future.鈥�
A longer version of this article originally appeared in the January/February issue of magazine.