GOGOL, NIKOLAY (VASILYEVICH)

born March 19 [March 31, New Style], 1809, Sorochintsy, near Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire [now in Ukraine] died Feb. 21 , 1852, Moscow, Russia Ukrainian-born Russian humorist, dramatist, and novelist, whose novel Myortvye dushi (Dead Souls) and whose short story Shinel (The Overcoat) are considered the foundations of the great 19th-century tradition of Russian realism.