In 2009 Russia marked 200 years since the birth of Russian classic Nikolai Gogol. Russian publishers, theater figures and filmmakers are getting ready for the jubilee.

Gogol Museum Moscow -By Kerry Kubilius, About.com
Gogol Museum Commemorates Contentious Author:
Nikolai Gogol, a Ukrainian-born writer who wrote in Russian, is claimed by both Ukraine and Russia as a their own. Whatever country Gogol would have ultimately associated himself with, we do know that he spent time in Moscow, most notably his last months, during which he destroyed one of his manuscripts. The rooms in which Gogol passed his final hours have been turned into a museum.

Refurbishment of the Gogol Museum: The Gogol Museum, or the Gogol House (Dom Gogolya), underwent refurbishment in honor of the 200th anniversary of Gogol's birthday on April 1, 2009. Visitors to the museum can see the fireplace in which Gogol threw his manuscript for Dead Souls, a clock which shows the hour Gogol destroyed the manuscript (3 o'clock in the morning), and the parlor in which Gogol entertained his contemporaries.

Gogol Museum Contact Information:
7 Nikitsky Boulevard - Moscow - Website: www.domgogolya.ru

Nikolai Gogol museum opens in Moscow

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - A museum devoted to Nikolai Gogol opened in Moscow on Friday in the building where the writer spent the last four years of his life. The museum includes a mock fireplace in the parlor, where the writer burnt the second volume of his satirical novel Dead Souls hours before his death.

The clock on the mantle shows 3 a.m., the time when the novel is believed to have been destroyed. The published first volume of Dead Souls spotlighted the unseemly sides of the 19th-century Russia, while the second volume reputedly showed the good side of life.

In the parlor, frequented by many literary dignitaries during Gogol's lifetime, the writer also read his play The Inspector General, a violent satire of Russian provincial bureaucracy, to actors from the Maly Theater.

The decor was restored by museum creators based on the reminiscences of the writer's contemporaries, as few of Gogol's belongings have survived.

Exhibits in the six-room exposition feature a recently discovered original portrait of Gogol, as well as hand-written copies and printed editions of his writings.

The museum was unveiled ahead of the 200th anniversary, on April 1, of the Ukrainian-born Russian writer's birthday.

Gogol's other well-known works include satirical short stories Nose (1835-1836), which tells of an official whose nose leaves his face and lives its own life, and Overcoat (1842), a story of the life and death of an impoverished clerk extremely dedicated to his job.