Chichikov: The Name of the Main Character of “Dead Souls”

One of the distinguishing features of the legacy of N. V. Gogol is the breadth and versatility of his linguistic arsenal. It is well known that Gogol as a writer enriched the Russian language by introducing Ukrainian words and phrases into it. One of the keys to understanding the concept of “Dead Souls” (1842) is the name of the protagonist of the poem, Chichikov. In the article, the Ukrainian word “chichik” is indicated as the most likely source of the hero’s name, which is found in Gogol’s handwritten collection “The Book of All sorts of Things, or the Handy Encyclopedia” (1826–1830). The word “chichik” means ‘a predatory, thievish’ cat. There exists folklore and historical-literary context corresponding to this meaning, including an extensive set of word usages associated with references to ‘wild cats’ (lions, tigers) in a number of Gogol's works. Unexpected at first glance, the ‘Ukrainian’ origin of the name of the protagonist of “Dead Souls” finds confirmation in the analysis of Gogol's satire features, equally directed both at representatives of central and northern Russia, and at the inhabitants and natives of South Russia. An appeal to the folklore materials of Gogol's “Book of all sorts of things...”, to the historiosophical studies of the writer allows us to expand the usual ideas about his poetics and to identify new reminiscences of the artistic images of Gogol's works.