The famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was terrified of being buried alive. In his work-testament "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends" he asked: "Do not bury my body until there are obvious signs of decay." Meanwhile, it is known that Gogol practically forced himself to die.
How did this happen and why did the writer decide to end his life in less than 43 years?
Prophetic dreams
The memoirs of a friend of Gogol, a literary classic, a pharmacist Boris Yablonsky, who mentioned in his diaries that "Nikolai Vasilyevich has prophetic dreams" are preserved. And in these dreams, the writer saw that he was being buried alive, and when he woke up, he imagined how those around him, considering him dead, were laid in a coffin and buried deep in the ground. And he, waking up and realizing what happened, begins to call for help in the coffin, beat his hands on the lid and really dies, because the oxygen runs out. The pharmacist Yablonsky, after listening to the writer's depressing thoughts, recommended that he take sedatives and not think about death. However, in 1931, when the reburial of the remains of the classic from the cemetery of the St. Danilov Monastery on Novodevichye and the coffin of Nikolai Gogol was opened, all those present noted the unusual position of his body. Maybe,the writer's dreams did come true, and on that fateful day for himself, he did not die, but only fell into a coma. What really happened?
An agonizing disease
In 1839, while traveling in Italy, Gogol contracted malaria. Obviously, the disease spilled over into malarial encephalitis, which is characterized by seizures and fainting, as well as drowsiness, a strong decrease in pressure, respiratory failure and a decrease in body temperature. In "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends", the classic mentioned that during his illness, he found moments of vital numbness, his heart and pulse stopped beating. Servants noted frequent fainting in the writer. One of the late symptoms of the disease is severe headaches and inability for intellectual activity. Realizing that he could no longer create and suffering from terrible pain, Gogol fell into a deep depression. It is known that for a long time he refused to eat and lay motionless, wishing his own death, but immediate and painless. But were these torments the result of an infectious disease, and not of mental disorders, for example, associated with a loss of faith in religious ideals?
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Religious fanatic
Testimonies of contemporaries have survived, which say that Nikolai Gogol, who was initially not particularly religious, at some point in his life began to constantly talk about the Apocalypse. It turns out that the writer met some members of the Christian club-order "Martyrs of Hell", who professed their own methods of addressing the powers of heaven. To do this, they tormented themselves with hunger and round-the-clock prayers to reach the state of hallucinations, while the "Martyrs of Hell" did not disdain various "mind-blowing" drinks in order to communicate in this way "with the angels and the Mother of God." In one of these revelations, they were told that the end of the world is coming soon, in order to save their soul, it is necessary to meet it in the Holy Land, in Jerusalem, at the Holy Sepulcher. In an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, the writer collected money for the trip and in February 1848, along with other members of the order, ended up in Jerusalem. Only the Apocalypse did not happen, but the leaders of the "Martyrs of Hell" disappeared, and with all the money. To this day, vague assumptions of the writer and other members of the order, abandoned in a foreign country to the mercy of fate, have survived, that at the time of the "end of the world" the whole group drank poison. But only the tincture was alcohol, and instant death turned into long stomach pains, which the deceived "martyrs" suffered, by hook or by crook getting money for the way back. To this day, vague assumptions of the writer and other members of the order, abandoned in a foreign country to the mercy of fate, have survived, that at the time of the "end of the world" the whole group drank poison. But only the tincture was alcohol, and instant death turned into long stomach pains, which the deceived "martyrs" suffered, by hook or by crook getting money for the way back. To this day, vague assumptions of the writer and other members of the order, abandoned in a foreign country to the mercy of fate, have survived, that at the time of the "end of the world" the whole group drank poison. But only the tincture was alcohol, and instant death turned into long stomach pains, which the deceived "martyrs" suffered, by hook or by crook getting money for the way back.
But this fact only brought the writer into a state of deep depression even more. Returning to Moscow, he ceased to be interested in life and his own work, and soon announced to those around him that he intended to die. But he died only four years later.