The manuscript of the second volume of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" was, as is known, burned by the author in 1852. Of the 11 chapters, only chapter 1, part of chapter 2, chapter 3 and fragments of chapters 4 survived. th and final. The surviving parts of the text, as well as the memories of contemporaries who were lucky enough to be present when Gogol read individual chapters of the volume being prepared for publication, made it possible to speculate about what exactly should have happened on the pages of the second volume of Dead Souls.

"We were faced with an unusually difficult task - to recreate the text of the second volume of Dead Souls, carefully preserving both the style and language of the author of the immortal work; using fragments of the original text as much as possible and relying on the memories of Gogol's friends... Today we can say , that the book has been recreated. Seven of its chapters have been written anew, those that were not spared by the fire. The missing fragments of the second, fourth and final eleventh chapters have been completed, and Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is again ready to meet you, dear reader."Yuri Avakyan< /p>