Religious Motifs of N. V. Gogol’s Creative Work in D. S. Merezhkovsky’s Understanding
The study aims to determine specific nature of D. S. Merezhkovsky’s understanding of religious motifs in N. V. Gogol’s works. The article examines Merezhkovsky’s work “Gogol. Creative Work, Life and Religion”. Scientific novelty of the research lies in describing Merezhkovsky’s interpretation of Gogol’s Christian beliefs reflected in his creative work and way of life. The research findings have shown that Merezhkovsky, having extrapolated his own ideas about Christianity to Gogol’s theological views, found intuitive feel for universal Christianity in his creative work and, for this reason, did not accept Gogol’s decision to leave literature, having considered it as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which led Gogol to self-destruction, responsibility for which the critic placed upon the Church.