This encyclopedia is the most complete (in one volume) collection of documents and materials about the life and work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. ...I see the task of this encyclopedia not as giving some kind of original interpretation of Gogol’s images and the events of his biography, but to bring together the most interesting and striking judgments and facts, all the richness and diversity of existing opinions. This will help the reader imagine Gogol in all his breadth and inconsistency and form his own opinion about the author of The Government Inspector and Dead Souls, and choose his own Gogol.