Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, a recognized classic of Russian literature, was also the author of prayers and a religious thinker. He repeatedly visited Optina Pustyn and wanted to enter a monastery, but did not do so, deciding that he was called to literary “service.” The Christian worldview was clearly manifested in the writer’s work. The collection contains stories whose main themes are spiritual wealth and poverty, human destiny, true love for the homeland.