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Аbstract:

The article is devoted to the study of the religious and political aspects of the famous manifesto of European romanticism, i. e. the book of the German writer and musician V.G. Wackenroder “Fantasies Concerning the Art of an Art-Loving Monk” (1814). In 1826 this book was translated into Russian and influenced the development of Russian romanticism. The article examines in detail N.V. Gogol’s attitude to the works of German romantics and traces the evolution of the writer’s views on romantic literature, starting from the 1820s, when he created his first works, namely the prose satire “Something about Nizhyn, or the Law is not Written for Fools” (1826) and the poetic poem “Hanz Küchelgarten” (1827). The author of the article shows close connection of Gogol’s images of the German artisans Schiller and Hoffmann in the story “Nevsky Prospekt” (1835) with other satirical works of the writer and gives an analysis of the reformist ideas of Wakenroder’s book, which were developed in the writings of German romantics and the events of the subsequent 20th century. In addition, the research touches upon the history of the study and perception of “Nevsky Prospekt” and notes the unexpected discovery in Soviet Russia during the Great Patriotic War of the deep, “prophetic” meaning of Gogol’s work. The corresponding judgments about Gogol’s story are given by a number of critics, writers and scientists, such as F.M. Dostoevsky, D.I. Pisarev, V.V. Rozanov, Protopresbyter Vasily Zenkovsky, A.G. Dementiev, G.P. Makogonenko. The article emphasizes immutability of Gogol’s religious and patriotic views, which were formed thanks to family upbringing and school education; and made the conclusion about the fundamental polemic of the artist with the German romantics’ religious-renovationist ideas.