The Ghost of Gogol. Phantasmagoria. Lana Ignatieva

>The Ghost of Gogol

      Phantasmagoria

      Lana Ignatieva

      © Lana Ignatieva, 2024

      ISBN 978-5-0060-7682-2

      Created with Ridero smart publishing system

      From the Author

      You are holding unordinary book. It is possible that after reading of it your mind-set will change the way that you will perceive yourself and the environment completely different. It will interest all searchers of the truth, sincerely craving to explore the world and their place in it. Dialogs are considerable part of the book. If you feel like you are out of this world, this book is for you. It will encourage you to look inside yourself and comprehend one more facet of our common multifaceted history. Our souls have always existed and will continue to live forever.

      In my heart of hearts I feel that I am beloved daughter of God. Attaching to my best characteristics, I am full of hope and optimism. I do not only hope for pleasant results, but I do my best to achieve them. I am looking for solutions and opportunities to create harmony and to make the world a better place.

      I see protection of social justice and aspiration to improve people’s lives as my essential need. Chaos and obscurity engender a feeling of deep fear into me, so I build me life the way that gives me a perfect order in all aspects.

      It is possible to say that I am my own worst enemy and the most severe critic. I am trying to make friends with your own shadow. My insights seem supernatural from time to time, because I am gifted with talent to comprehend mysterious, hidden things and everything that is shrouded in secrecy, this quality prompts me to be an explorer, to discover the new, the unknown and to reveal the secret.

      My obsession began with heritage, which I got from my grandmother. Right before her death she told me that she keeps the most valuable thing in her library. She passed away in the morning of 12^th of April in 2021, I also thought about the day of cosmonautics. I buried her ashes in Vagankovsky cemetery, near by the grave of Vysotsky. I got an antique book by N. V. Gogol published by A. S. Panafidina in 1917 as a heritage.

      PART 1

      ACTION I

      A pleasant nighttime atmosphere dominated the room.

      I’m sitting in the kitchen, at the table, in front of the window, wearing my pyjamas, at night on January 14th, and this is my 43rd birthday.

      I see myself and the refrigerator is behind me in the reflection of the window, refrigerator has a built-in electronic clock, showing 03:33, there’s a soft light from a burning candle. Wax flows smoothly. My small black dog named Neurona is quietly dozing. The night has enveloped the city, sleep creeps up to me, my eyelids are descending, but I continue to write.

      Through the silence I hear a little voice, out of nowhere;

      “Could you fulfill my important wish?”

      Neuron growled nervously at the reflection in the window, it was a light rustle and a strange smell, like from an antique book. I seems to me there is a shadow, but maybe not, in order to understand… only because I have to answer something.

      – What is the kind of desire?

      – I had a sweet tooth, I could eat a jar of jam at one time, I loved gingerbread. I even hid in the corners so as not to share with anyone in the gymnasium.

      – And?

      – Come to my burial place and you will hear my prayer there, which played an important role in my destiny. The first time I wrote a prayer was in a great Roman cathedral of Peter and Paul, and it always helped me. I repeated it always, I almost existed with it. I was not impressed by Russian cathedrals.

      – In order for me to understand where to go, I need at least know who I’m talking to.

      – I’m the one you called when you passionately studied the antique manuscript. I was looking for a place where I can get out, now I can get out from there.

      – Yes, so it means, you are the Gogol?

      – Yes.

      – Will I find your grave?”

      – If you’re ready, you’ll be brought there.

      – And what is the main theme I can convey to the people?

      – I wasn’t mad! You can restore my satire “Something about Nizhyn” or “There’s no law for fools.”

      It was such a satire. These are Velikie Sorochintsy, Poltava. When I was in the gymnasium, then I wrote these works. I didn’t save it, because I described too vividly the leaders of the gymnasium and officials who could have exiled me in 1820 there.

      – How will Russia change in the next hundred years?

      – Russia will expand to the level of the Russian Empire, except for Constantinople, it was lost forever.

      – Why did you write the “Author’s Confession”?

      – I didn’t want to go down in history as a bastard who ridiculed Russia.

      – What is Russia for you?

      – What is a mom to you?

      – And how do you feel about the conflict in Ukraine?

      – No way. I need cemeteries to be preserved there, otherwise, everything connected with Ukraine will be destroyed. This is not a conflict, this is ignorance of history.

      – America, NATO or Russia?

      – From the side of everyone, now there is only one country and that knows the real story in summary.

      – Will we have such a ruler as Nicholas I someday?

      – In the next century there will be nominal rulers who will be simply associated with the country, but artificial intellect will lead it, it’s being created just now, it will be ready in 2035.

      – What did make you rebellious?

      – There was no such understanding of rebellion our time like you have now, our man got drunk, got into a fight and he is a rebel. Then the century was flatters, scoundrels and traitors.

      – Rumor has it that you wrote “Evenings on the Farm…” and “Viy” in a trance.

      – You can’t write this without a trance.

      – Who killed Viy?

      – Viy was not killed, he was moved to another place, he is still alive, I gave a part of “Mirgorod” to the “guy” who wrote “The Brownie’s Diary”, “The Battle of plasticine and real heroes with dark power.” Mogala Smirnova helped me abroad, she was a maid of honor of the Empress, she was there with my brother, and Mr. Tolstoy, they all supported me.

      – Do you want me to tell you how originally was called “Overcoat”?

      – Of course, I do want.

      – “The Tale of the clerk stealing overcoats.”

      “Ah, that’s interesting, I’m thinking whether it’s good or not to sit at home with the Spirits?

      – It’s not good for you, but for the writer it is.

      – How did you get the idea to write a manual mathematical encyclopaedia?

      – It wasn’t my idea, I was paid for it.

      – Is it true that you were afraid of the darkness and thunderstorms?

      – Yes, I was very afraid, as a child I was a witness of a man on a cart being killed by lightning, it was before the gymnasium.

      – Why weren’t you married? They say that you were afraid of women.

      – If you had such a first experience as I did, you would be afraid too. I had a passion to know a person, so I observed the others living in their families the way I didn’t want to.

      – How did you feel about Zhukovsky?

      – He