“Saving Your Soul, without Leaving the State”: N. V. Gogol’s Program of Social Christianity

Abstract

Aim. To reconstruct the “program” of Nikolai Gogol’s social Christianity based on the idea of “salvation in the state” in accordance with the commandment to “serve one’s land.”
Methodology. This article attempts to examine Gogol’s work “Selected Passages from Correspondence with His Friends” (1847) as the most consistent part of his preaching. A historical and political science approach to the study of journalistic and epistolary texts serves as a methodological basis for this study.
Results. It is shown that Gogol was the founder of the tradition of social Christianity in Russian literature, which was later taken up by both Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Gogol was convinced that no external reforms or changes in the state structure could improve people’s situation, and that there was only one way to save Russia that was the “improvement of souls.” The article reconstructs a program for the “improvement of souls,” which envisions, in the first stage, the moral rebirth of Gogol’s reader, who, ideally, should become a monk while remaining “in the very heart of the state,” i.e., without leaving his place of service. In the second stage, he should study the people within his circle of influence. In the third, he should begin to directly influence them through his example and wise advice. Service and the transformative influence on others thus become the primary spiritual achievement of people for whom “Russia is their monastery.”
Research implications. The facts presented in the article contribute to the development of historical and political science in Russia. The conclusions and results of the analysis can be used in the creation of scholarly articles and monographs on the history of Russian social and political thought, as well as in the educational process.