Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin, best known for Dead Souls, The Government Inspector, and the stories "The Nose" and "The Overcoat." His early Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka drew on Ukrainian folklore and his upbringing, while his later work turned a satirical eye on corruption in contemporary Russia. Writers as different as Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Nabokov have acknowledged his influence on their own work.