For everyone who studied in high school, the question of who wrote “Taras Bulba” does not arise. Awareness in this matter, since compulsory education is available in our country, starting from the seventh grade. This heroic epic is carefully studied in it , the events of which Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol himself preferred to consider occurring in the 15th century, and literary critics on small details, for example, Taras Bulba smokes, include to the XVII century.
Confusion and anxiety
Having written and published Dikanka, N. V. Gogol begins painfully to think about his future path in literature. He has a feeling of dissatisfaction with the written. He is more acutely aware that the source of true art is genuine life.
Beginning in 1833, Gogol wants to write works that reflect contemporary times. He does not complete any of the many plans: he began a lot, tore, burned. He is tormented and doubted, worried and keenly, painfully worried: how seriously he is called to serve literature. And so 1834 becomes a turning point for Nikolai Vasilievich, when he finishes work on contemporary Petersburg. And he prepared most of the stories of Mirgorod, including Taras Bulbu. So the question of who wrote “Taras Bulba” simply disappears. After all, he had previously studied a lot of materials.
Serious historical research
In anticipation of his work on the history of Ukraine, N.V. Gogol used a large number of historical studies: he studied the famous History of Rus by Konitsky, History of the Cossacks of Zaporizhzhya by Myshetsky, Description of Ukraine by Bopland, handwritten lists of Ukrainian annals. But the most important source in Gogol’s work was Ukrainian folk songs, especially historical songs and thoughts. In the songs, his constant love, he drew plot motifs, and even whole episodes. So the question of who wrote "Taras Bulba" is at least strange and even to some extent provocative.
A new stage in the writer's work
Mirgorod is not just a continuation of Evenings. Both parts of Mirgorod are built in contrast. The vulgarity is contrasted with the poetry of a heroic deed. Gogol dreamed of finding strong heroic characters, and he finds them both in epic-heroic thoughts and in research on history. In the Cossacks brought up in the Sich, where liberty and camaraderie are the basis of life, Gogol reveals sublime passions, real people, and the originality of a national character. And most importantly, after Pushkin, he showed that the main driving force of historical events is the people. The images created by Gogol are collective. There has never been such a Taras. There was only a drawing by Taras Shevchenko on this subject. Therefore, the question of who wrote “Taras Bulba” as a literary work is a rhetorical one.
Big and serious work
Gogol was a great and very demanding artist. From 1833 to 1842 he worked on the story "Taras Bulba". During this time he created two editions. They were significantly different from each other. The work is a small masterpiece "Taras Bulba" was written by Gogol in 1835. But even having printed it in Mirgorod, he repeatedly returns to this work. He never considered her finished. Gogol constantly improved his poetic style. Therefore, according to the number of editions and drafts that are available, it is impossible even to assume that the work “Taras Bulba” was written by Shevchenko.
Taras Bulba and Taras Shevchenko have only some approximate portrait similarity, no more. But after all, they were both Ukrainians, and only national clothes, hairstyle and common features make them related to each other, and nothing more.
Edition Options
As many times as possible, Nikolai Vasilievich was ready to rewrite his work with his own hand, bringing it to perfection, which he saw with his inner gaze. In its second edition, the story has expanded significantly in volume. The first version had nine chapters, the second twelve. There are new characters, clashes, places of action. The historical and everyday panorama, on which the characters act, has expanded. The description of the Sich has changed; it has been significantly supplemented. The battles and siege of Dubno also correspond. Koshov's selections are rewritten. But most importantly, Gogol rethought the struggle of the Ukrainian Cossacks as a nationwide liberation struggle. A powerful image of a people who did not sacrifice anything for their freedom stood in the center of Taras Bulba.
And never before in Russian literature was the portrayal of the life of the people so vivid and full.
In the second edition, the image of Taras Bulba is seriously changing . In the first edition, he quarreled with his comrades due to an unequal division of production. This detail contradicted the heroic image of Taras. And in the second edition, he is already quarreling with those of his comrades who are inclined to the Warsaw side. He calls them servants of the Polish lords. If in the first edition Taras was a great lover of raids and riots, then in the second, he, always restless, became the legal defender of Orthodoxy.
The heroic and lyrical pathos of this story, which Gogol did not consider completely finished, creates a peculiar charm, which falls under the reader, who opened the book almost two hundred years after its creation.
The work carried out by Gogol is so deep and serious that the question "Who wrote" Taras Bulba "Gogol or Shevchenko?" disappears by itself.