“It turned out that the classic of Russian literature left a signature in the metric book of his godson,” the capital’s mayor’s portal quoted him as saying.
As noted, Gogol was spiritually close to the poet, Slavophil philosopher Alexei Khomyakov and his wife Catherine, the sister of the poet Nikolai Yazykov, so he became the godfather of their son Nikolai.
The baptism took place on January 31, 1850 in the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the Sands. The authenticity of the signature in the metric book is confirmed by the spelling of letters and the characteristic stroke at the end of the surname.
As indicated in the message, the fact that Gogol was present at the baptism of Khomyakov’s son was previously known to specialists, but this fact was confirmed only now due to confusion with the documents.
In December 2018, the Moscow 24 website announced the beginning of the restoration of Vsevolzhsky’s house on Ostozhenka, where Gogol had been.