How did Nikolay Gogol begin his career as a government employee?

Nikolay Gogol arrived in St. Petersburg in 1828 with the intention of entering the civil service, but he initially struggled to establish himself due to a lack of money and connections. After an unsuccessful attempt to become an actor and a failed, self-funded effort to achieve fame as a poet, he traveled briefly to Germany. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, he eventually secured an ill-paid government post.1