Who wrote "Taras Bulba"? History of the book
Everyone who studied in secondary school, the question,who wrote "Taras Bulba", does not arise. Awareness in this matter, since in our country compulsory education, is available, starting from the seventh grade. He carefully studied this heroic epic, which events Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol preferred to consider as occurring in the XV century, and literary critics on small details, for example, Taras Bulba smokes, relate to the XVII century.
Confusion and anxiety
Having written and published "Dikanka", N.V. Gogol begins to ponder painfully about his future path in literature. He has a feeling of dissatisfaction with what he has written. He is acutely aware that the source of true art is real life.
Serious historical research
NV Gogol, anticipating his work on the history of Ukraine, used a large number of historical studies: he studied the famous "History of the Rus'" Konitsky, "The History of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye" Myshetsky, "Description of Ukraine" by Boplan, handwritten lists of Ukrainian chronicles. But the most important source in Gogol's work was Ukrainian folk songs, in particular historical songs and dumas. In songs, his unchanging love, he drew subject motifs, and even whole episodes. So the question who wrote "Taras Bulba" is at least strange and even provocative to some extent.
A new stage in the writer's work
"Mirgorod" is not just a continuation of "Evenings". Both parts of Mirgorod are built in contrast. Platitudes are contrasted with the poetry of the heroic deed. Gogol wanted to find 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 partnership are the basis of life, Gogol reveals both sublime passions, and real people, and the uniqueness of the national character. And most importantly, after Pushkin, he showed that the main driving force of historical events is the people. Images created by Gogol collective. There was never exactly such a Taras. There was only a picture of Taras Shevchenko on this subject. Therefore, the question who wrote "Taras Bulba" as a literary work is rhetorical.
Great and serious work
Gogol was a big and very demandingartist. From 1833 to 1842 he worked on the story "Taras Bulba". During this time, they created two editions. They differed significantly. The work-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 it complete. Gogol constantly improved his poetic style. Therefore, for the number of editions and drafts that are available, it is impossible even to assume that the work "Taras Bulba" was written by Shevchenko.
Editions
How many times did Nikolai Vasilyevich have been readywith his own hand, to rewrite his work, bringing it to perfection, which he sees with his inner gaze. In its second edition, the story has significantly expanded in volume. In the first version there were nine chapters, in the second - twelve. There were new actors, clashes, places of action. The historical and everyday panorama, on which the characters operate, has expanded. The description of Sich has changed, it has considerably been supplemented. The battles and siege of Dubno also correspond. The election of the cat was written anew. But most importantly, Gogol rethought the struggle of the Ukrainian Cossacks as a national liberation struggle. The center of "Taras Bulba" was a powerful image of the people, who will not give up anything for their freedom.
The second edition seriously changes the image of TarasBulba. In the first edition he quarreled with his comrades because of the unequal division of the booty. This detail contradicted the heroic image of Taras. And in the second edition he already quarrels with those of his comrades who are inclined towards the Warsaw side. He calls them the servants of the Polish pans. If in the first edition Taras was a great lover of raids and riots, then in the second edition, he was forever restless, became a legitimate defender of Orthodoxy.
The heroic and lyrical pathos of this story,which Gogol did not consider quite complete, creates a kind of fascination, to which the reader finds himself, who opened the book almost two hundred years after its creation.