Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a Russian writer and dramatist. He was born in the Ukraine in 1809 and trained as a painter before finding success as a writer. He soon became famous for his plays and short fiction, notably "The Diary of a Madman" (1834), "The Nose" (1836), and "The Overcoat" (1842). His novel, Dead Souls, was published in 1842.
