Images of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the Story “Taras Bulba” by M. Gogol (1835)

Abstract

The theme of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Cossackdom is one of the main themes in the work of M. Gogol. For him, this theme was very important in the context of his family. It is known that Gogol’s ancestors on his mother’s side were Cossacks. For example, the writer’s distant ancestor Ostap Gogol was a hetman of the Right-Bank Ukraine at the beginning of the 17th century. However, the subject of Ukraine also interested Gogol as a historian and artist. In the early 1830s Gogol was deeply researching the history of Europe in the Middle Ages and wrote several historical articles. In particular, he wrote a lot about medieval knights.