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 A.M.GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Povarskaya 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia
fedor@dostmirkult.ru

ISSN 2619-0311 (Print)
ISSN 2712-8512 (Online)

An Unattributed Review by N.V. Gogol of A.G. Obodovsky's Book A Guide to Pedagogy, or the Science of Education... On the 190th Anniversary of the First Russian Textbook on Pedagogy

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  • Author: Igor A. Vinogradov
  • Information about the author:

    DSc in Philology, Director of Research, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9151-4554

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • For citation:

    Vinogradov, I.A. "An Unattributed Review by N.V. Gogol of A.G. Obodovsky's Book A Guide to Pedagogy, or the Science of Education... On the 190th Anniversary of the First Russian Textbook on Pedagogy." Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 3 (35), 2026, pp. 273-321. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-3-273-321 
  • Received: 31 Mar. 2026
  • Approved after reviewing: 12 June 2026
  • Published: 25 Sept. 2026
  • Issue: 2026 no. 3 (35)
  • Department: DOSTOEVSKY: HIS READINGS
  • Pages: 273–321
  • DOI: Visit Website
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/AEMSFD
  • UDK: 821.161.1.0+82.2
  • BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • Keywords: Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin, journalism, reviewing, pedagogy, education, methodology, fiction, spiritual education
  • Abstract: This article proposes a new attribution for one of Gogol's untitled reviews, written in 1836 for the newly founded Pushkin magazine Sovremennik, to the bibliographic section "New Books." Instead of two anonymous children's books,identified in 1896 as the likely subject of Gogol's review by the editor of the 10th edition of Gogol's works, V.I. Shenrok (supported by commentators of the Complete Academic Collection of Gogol's Works, 1937-1952), it puts forward a more significant publication in the literature of the time-the work of the renowned educator and writer A.G. Obodovsky, "A Guide to Pedagogy, or the Science of Education..."the first Russian textbook on pedagogy. It is emphasized that for Gogol, a history teacher at the Women's Patriotic Institute and an adjunct professor at the Imperial University, the publication of the first Russian pedagogy manual (a revised version of the German educator A.G. Niemeyer's Fundamentals of Education and Training) was so significant that he could not ignore this book, which is included in the journal's bibliography. Obodovsky's textbook shares with Gogol's review the common nature of the issues raised, as well as the equal involvement of the reviewer and translator in Russian education. The article explores the parallels between Gogol's review and the Obodovsky-Niemeyer manual, as well as the motives behind Gogol's critical assessment of the new book and the reflection of the review's content in the writer's work. The article provides additional facts for the attribution of another text from the "New Books" section of Pushkin's journal - an afterword beginning with the words "Here are the books that came out during the first quarter of this year." The long-standing debate among researchers about who wrote this note, Pushkin or Gogol, has not led to a definitive conclusion. The article proves that the note was written by Gogol. The work consists of eight sections: 1. Gogol's review: the problem of attribution; 2. The genre of the book under review; 3. The style and content of the publication; 4. Spiritual problems of scholasticism; 5. "Pushkin" in the review for Pushkin's journal; 6. Pedagogy and literature; 7. Gogol, Pushkin, Pletnev: pedagogy and statehood; 8. Afterword of the "New Books" section: the problem of authorship.

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