How were Aleksandr Pushkin and Nikolay Gogol connected?

Aleksandr Pushkin and Nikolay Gogol shared a significant literary and personal connection. Pushkin was one of the first to recognize and admire the young Gogol’s talent, and the two authors maintained a close friendship in which Gogol deeply valued Pushkin’s taste and critical feedback.1

Their professional relationship was particularly influential for Russian literature: Pushkin provided Gogol with the foundational themes for his two most important works, the play The Government Inspector and the epic novel Dead Souls. Additionally, Gogol published some of his satirical stories, such as "The Coach" and "The Nose," in Pushkin’s periodical, Sovremennik ("The Contemporary"). Following Pushkin’s death in 1837, Gogol was widely regarded as his successor and the new head of Russian literature.12