The Russian Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), who originated from Ukraine, worked on his three-part novel "Dead Souls" in the early 1840s, in which the author satirically addressed Russian rural life, particularly the landed gentry. The first part of the work was published in 1842. Gogol presumably burned the second part, which was largely completed, in a psychotic episode shortly before his death on February 21, 1852; only a few fragments remain.