Odessa: On Gogol Street
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Nikolai Gogol, master of the short story, was born in 1809 in Ukraine, at that time part of Tsarist Russia. He spent a considerable part of his adult life in St Petersburg and Moscow, and this, coupled with the fact that he wrote in Russian, has made him the object of a literary tug-of-war between Russia and Ukraine. Modern Ukrainian novelist Vladimir Yavorivsky once said that if Gogol were a tree, 'the crown was in Russia but the roots were in Ukraine.'
Gogol visited Odessa several times, including periods of a few months at 11 and 15 vul Gogolya (Gogol Street), Odessa. Number 11 is marked by a statue of Gogol's head that sprouts from the exterior wall between boarded windows.
Vul Gogolya also contains some of Odessa's most interesting and eccentric buildings. The architecture blends Classicism, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance; it is as if the diversity of this dynamic city were woven into the very fabric of the buildings. A stroll down this street with a craned neck and a camera is one of the great pleasures of a quiet Odessan afternoon.
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