Tarasenkov, Alexey Terentevich

Origin and education

Alexey Tarasenkov came from the family of a Moscow fur trader. His date of birth is not exactly established. “ Russian Biographical Dictionary ” by A. A. Polovtsov calls 1818, “The Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron ” indicates 1813. Some modern scholars, in particular M. D. Artamonov , the compiler of the reference book “Moscow Necropolis”, consider, apparently based on grave inscriptions, the year of birth of 1816 ^[8] .

In the early 1830s, Alexey graduated from three classes of the First Moscow Gymnasium , but without completing his education, he was identified by his father as a clerk in one of the Moscow tea shops in the Shopping arcade ^[9] , since his father considered the three classes to be a sufficient education for the merchant’s son. The inspector of the 1st gymnasium P.N. Pogorelsky , having seen his student in the Knife line of the Upper Trading Rows , personally went to Alexei’s father and tried to convince him not to prevent his son from continuing his gymnasium education, as Alexey was distinguished by outstanding abilities and diligence ^{[10 ] [11] [12]} . According to another version, the boy grew up in a poor family without a father and was raised by his mother. The mother was ill, and to help her, Alexei left the gymnasium, but was rescued by P.N. Pogorelsky , who helped to recover and finish her ^[13] in 1833 ^[14] .

Beginning of medical practice

At the end of the gymnasium, Alex entered the medical faculty of Moscow University . One of Tarasenkov’s university teachers was Professor F. I. Inozemtsev ^[15] , together with whom Tarasenkov later had to treat N. V. Gogol. Among students, Tarasenkov was distinguished by his excellent knowledge of Latin. He was easily given the translation of Latin classics, colloquial speech, Alex knew a lot of Latin sayings, riddles and sayings of Latin authors. Thanks to his knowledge of Latin, he became known in an educated society, he began to be invited to wealthy families as a home teacher. So, as a student, Alexei Terentyevich prepared in Latin for admission to Moscow University P.L. Chebyshev , the future famous mathematician and mechanic, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . Thanks to a medical student, Chebyshev successfully passed the Latin exam ^[9] .

After completing university education in 1838, Tarasenkov received the degree of first-degree doctor . He began medical practice in 1840, when he became a doctor at the Moscow palace office, simultaneously in 1842-1843. He served as the resident of the Moscow Children's Hospital, without receiving a salary for combining duties. The following 1844, he was awarded the title of headquarters doctor for his dissertation "On the Signs of Head Inflammation in General and arachoiditis in Particular". The medical service continued in 1845, when he was appointed the doctor of the Moscow hospital for laborers (Moscow Catherine, or otherwise the Old Catherine Hospital , now the hospital named after Professor A. I. Babukhin ), where, among other things, he worked as a pathologist ^[5] . In 1853-1858, Tarasenkov served as the chief physician of this hospital ^[6] .

Head Physician, Sheremetev Hospital

In 1858, Tarasenkov was approved as the chief physician of the Sheremetev Hospital ( D. N. Sheremetev's “Stranger's House”). At the same time, he was in charge of the Police Detention Hospital ^[6] . Alexei Terentyevich led the Sheremetev hospital for fifteen years. As a result of Tarasenkov’s leadership, the formulation of the hospital case was significantly improved: the outdated prescription of medicines was changed, their prescription and acquisition were taken under control, bypassing patients was made regular. Count D.N. Sheremetev, the trustee of the Hospice, was invited to open a free outpatient clinic - “The incoming department”. An auxiliary health insurance fund was also proposed, the purpose of which was to issue severance pay to patients at discharge, this initiative was also carried out by Tarasenkov ^[16] . D. N. Sheremetev allocated a special fund for these purposes, and since then, a memorial service was served at the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity at the Strannopriimny House according to Dr. Tarasenkov ^[17] .

When the 50th anniversary of the Sheremetev hospital was celebrated in 1859, A. T. Tarasenkov, at the request of D. N. Sheremetev, wrote a book about the history of the Hospice. The book was published at the expense of Count D. N. Sheremetev ^[18] . With the proceeds from the sale of this book, money was purchased at the Trinity Church at the House of Odd Acceptance for silver communion for the sick (stolen in 1879) ^[17] .

Subsequently, the Sheremetev Hospital was to some extent obliged by its authority named after A.T. Tarasenkov. Professor A. I. Over wrote about it to D. N. Sheremetev in 1860: “Now, after Alexey Terentyevich Tarasenkov’s two-year ministry at the institution, I can testify with even greater confidence that this choice is most favorable. His vigilant efforts in the hospital, a lot was corrected and put in due order. The purity of his intentions, truthfulness and extraordinary zeal are known not only to me ” ^[19] .

In addition, A.T. Tarasenkov was a doctor at the Moscow school; in 1860 he also became a doctor of guardianship of the poor in the first Tver precinct. In addition, Alexei Terentyevich was the secretary of the inspector of civilian hospitals, whose duties he had to fulfill during his absence. In the hospitals where Tarasenkov served as chief physician, he introduced all kinds of improvements. The treatment of N.V. Gogol in 1852 and the acquaintance of Tarasenkov with the famous writer on this occasion was widely known. About these meetings, about the futile attempts to cure a sick writer, about his premature death, Tarasenkov subsequently wrote widely known memoirs, “The Last Days of N. V. Gogol's Life,” which are of particular interest. They were published in St. Petersburg in 1857 and have since been repeatedly reprinted ^[6] . Less familiar is the acquaintance of Tarasenkov with the writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov ^[19] .

Alexey Terentyevich was engaged not only in medical practice and the organization of medical care. He wrote medical reviews and essays on the history of Moscow hospitals; he wrote several articles in medical journals and individual publications: “Report on the temporary (typhoid) department of the Moscow hospital for laborers” (1857); "A historical note on the state and activities of the Physico-Medical Society for the first 50 years" (1856). Based on the materials of his own medical practice, A. T. Tarasenkov wrote the following works: “About how diseases are cured and what is called a medicine” (1850); "Crazy of the mind after cholera " (1854); "Remarks about the prevailing intermittent fevers " (1854); "Epidemic diphtheria toad" (1854); "The case of the transition of acute rheumatism to cholera" (1857); “The patient himself treats a hydrocoele with an awl prick” (1859); “The look of a doctor on female education” (1859); “Something About Hospitals” (1859); “Materials for the biography of A. N. Bakhmetev , trustee of the Moscow school district” (1861); "On the device of medical benefits in the villages" (1862); “On the diseases that preceded cholera this year” (1866); "On the sanitary institutions of Parisian public charity" (1870) ^[8] .

Since 1854, Tarasenkov’s social activities have been involved in the affairs of the Physico-Medical Society, of which he was an honorary member ^[13] , and since 1858, the Society of Russian Doctors in Moscow. In 1863, Tarasenkov was elected to the Moscow City Duma ^[20] (vowel of the Duma from the estate of personal nobles) ^[21] . The title of Doctor of Medicine, which Alexey Terentyevich acquired over the years, corresponded to the sixth grade of the ranking table or the rank of college adviser ^[20] .

Alexei Terentyevich died on May 13, 1873 ^[6] and was buried in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow ^[8] . In 2009, Natalia Bondarchuk 's feature film Gogol. Nearest ”, where the role of Alexei Tarasenkov was played by actor Leonid Mozgova ^[22] .

"The Last Days of N.V. Gogol's Life"

The episode with the illness and death of Gogol was described in detail by Tarasenkov in the book “The Last Days of N.V. Gogol's Life”. The first publication of memoirs appeared in the December issue of the journal " Domestic Notes " for 1856 with the signature of Dr. A. T. Tv . The following year, in St. Petersburg, memoirs were issued as a separate publication with the full name of the author. The first printed version of the memoirs contained many gaps made for censorship or other reasons. So some names of the participants in the events were hidden by the initials ^[3] .

When reprinting the memoirs in the fourth volume of “Materials for Gogol’s Biography” in 1897, the publisher V. I. Shenrok used the draft manuscript of A. T. Tarasenkov handed over to Shenrok by the son of Tarasenkov, all the names were disclosed here and there were previously unknown facts, but this the text suffered from flaws, as it was draft ^[3] .

When preparing to reprint the book in 1902 (the second edition is indicated on the cover, but actually the third), the publishers took into account the miscalculations of the first editions and issued a book with a consolidated text from a draft and a printed text. Subsequently, all publications of Tarasenkov’s memoirs were made using this publication, but the book was not printed in its entirety; in Soviet times and in post-Soviet times, Tarasenkov’s memoirs were published in extracts ^[3] .

Tarasenkov was the only physician who treated Gogol, leaving a detailed analytical description of the writer’s illness. Literary scholars call his work different “first of all, factual reliability” ^[3] . The book’s credibility was ensured by the scientist’s integrity and the fact that the memoirs were composed, according to the author, “shortly after the death of Gogol; their main foundations are recorded on the very day of his death. I left them almost in the same form as they came out of my pen in 1852. ” His book represents both his own impressions of his meetings with Gogol and the stories about Gogol that he heard from other people, mainly from Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy ^[1] . So, in his memoirs about Gogol (and only in them) there is an episode about the mysterious trip of Gogol on the eve of his death to the well-known holy fool I. Ya. Koreish ^[23] .

The memoirist left a detailed portrait description of N.V. Gogol in the winter of 1852. In his memoirs relating to the period before the onset of Gogol’s illness, Tarasenkov also talked about how Gogol avoided meeting with his other famous contemporary, Dr. F. P. Gaaz , about the work on “Dead Souls” and “Divine Liturgy”, about his the inexpressible gift of a reader and storyteller of literary works, about the writer’s attitude to theatrical productions of his “ Marriage ”, about the “Provincial Girl” by I. S. Turgenev and much more. In a conversation with Gogol, Tarasenkov touched upon a subject professionally close to him:

Rejoicing that Gogol became more talkative, I tried so that the conversation would not deviate from literary objects and, among other things, started talking about Notes of a Madman . Having told me that I constantly observe psychopaths and even have their genuine notes, I wanted to know from him: had he read such notes before writing this essay. He replied: "I read, but after." - “But how did you come so close to naturalness?” I asked him. “It's easy: it's worth imagining ...”

- A. T. Tarasenkov, “The Last Days of N.V. Gogol's Life”. In: N.V. Gogol, “Reflections on the Divine Liturgy” / M., 2006, p. 782

Thanks to Tarasenkov’s memoirs, literary criticism knows the circumstances of Gogol’s burning of the second volume of “ Dead Souls ”, Gogol’s disputes with the priest MA Konstantinovsky and the failed transfer of manuscripts to Metropolitan Filaret , other dying orders and preparations ^[24] .

He highly appreciated the memoirs of A. T. Tarasenkov, N. G. Chernyshevsky , calling them a document “precious for the history of our literature” ^[25] .

Gogol's Treatment

Among medical historians, it is sometimes believed that N. V. Gogol was treated by A. T. Tarasenkov in the Sheremetev hospital ^[2] . In fact, in 1852 Tarasenkov had not yet worked in the House of Reception, he headed it only in 1858, and at that time he served in the Old Catherine Hospital (Moscow hospital for laborers). In fact, Gogol was undergoing treatment at home with Count A.P. Tolstoy , where he lived during his last visit to Moscow, and Gogol was never treated at the Sheremetevskaya Hospital ^[26] .

The second misconception is that Tarasenkov was Gogol's family doctor. In fact, Tarasenkov and Gogol were barely familiar before his illness. Tarasenkov was the family doctor of Count A.P. Tolstoy. The architect and academician of painting V. I. Sherwood recalled Tarasenkov as follows: “He was, by the way, Dr. Tolstoy and recently monitored Gogol’s disease, which he described in the pamphlet and where, by the way, he told me some facts” ^[23] .

Earlier, Gogol turned for medical help to Professor F. I. Inozemtsev , Tarasenkov’s university mentor, because he, according to Tarasenkov, was “an old acquaintance of Gogol.” This time, too, they turned to Inozemtsev, and the famous surgeon diagnosed the catarrh of the intestines with the writer and prescribed treatment, which, however, Gogol did not adhere to. Inozemtsev had been observing Gogol for some time, and he did not have a definite opinion on the nature of the disease. Tarasenkov writes that Inozemtsev did not even rule out typhus , but by the time Gogol’s condition worsened, Inozemtsev was ill himself, and Count A. P. Tolstoy was forced to turn to other specialists ^[24] .

The doctor and writer met in January 1852 ^[27] . The very first meeting between Tarasenkov and Gogol took place about a month before the death of the writer, when he was outwardly full of strength and energy, and nothing foreshadowed an early outcome. They met at the dining table by Count Tolstoy. When the thirty-four-year-old E.M. Khomyakova , the wife of A.S. Khomyakova , pregnant with the tenth child , and the sister of N.M. Yazykov , died suddenly on the 26th of January, the writer was depressed. On February 5, at Maslenitsa , he began to speak , although there was still a week before Lent , he ate almost nothing, gradually stopped leaving the house and spent all his time in prayers, refusing from literary work. By February 12, he was completely weak, but all this time Tarasenkov did not know anything about Gogol’s condition. Due to Inozemtsev’s illness, Tolstoy turned to Tarasenkov and other recognized Moscow luminaries only on February 13, but Gogol agreed to accept Tarasenkov only on February 16 ^[23] .

At the first meeting with a sick writer, Gogol seemed to Tarasenkov “dead at first sight”. The patient showed no interest in his illness and cure for it. His condition excited the doctor so much that, leaving Gogol with nothing, Tarasenkov, after some time, begged the servant to let him in again to the patient in the hope of eloquently acting on the will of the writer and arousing his interest in life. Despite all Tarasenkov’s exhortations, “his expression didn’t change at all: it was as calm and as gloomy as before: no shade, no grief, no surprise, no doubt and no shadow. He watched as a person for whom all tasks were solved, all feelings fell silent, all words were in vain, hesitation in solving was impossible ” ^[24] .

He informed Count Tolstoy of his disappointing conclusions, and Tolstoy suggested that the doctor come in two days later and find out the further course of the disease. Tarasenkov’s situation was complicated by the fact that he was not a treating doctor, but only a consulting doctor. “Uncertain relations between doctors did not allow me to get involved in medical orders, especially since Gogol was in the hands of his friend Inozemtsev” ^[24] . A.P. Tolstoy needed Tarasenkov, among other things, for psychotherapeutic help, since rumors about the madness of the writer began in connection with Gogol’s illness among Gogol’s circle ^{[28] [comm. 1]} . Tarasenkov met with Gogol as a doctor only three times: on February 16, 19 and 20, and on February 21 the writer was gone ^[23] .

Tarasenkov notes that during his first visit, Gogol was fully conscious, and the next two days, when he was not, according to the stories of others, Gogol, in spite of all his weakness, was in his right mind and full memory. On February 18-19, various doctors came: Professor A. I. Over , Professor A. A. Alfonsky ; they expressed different opinions, but there was no real treatment, and the writer slowly faded away. Over, "probably because of medical delicacy, <...> did not advise anything else but to give him the wine that the patient often asked." Alfonsky "proposed magnetization to subdue his will and force him to eat food." On February 19, Dr. K. I. Sokologorsky arrived to conduct a hypnosis session, but when he began to committhe passes , Gogol, previously apparently indifferent, opposed hypnosis and asked everyone to leave him ^[24] .

On February 19, Tarasenkov himself arrived at Gogol. By this time, the patient was already completely unhindered. Gogol did not sit as before, but finally lay down. The patient no longer answered the doctor’s questions, only resisted aloud when the doctor tried to probe his pulse ^[24] .

Tarasenkov notes that the complexity of Gogol’s disease was that the writer needed medical assistance urgently, but no one had a clear understanding of the nature of the disease, since there was no intelligible diagnosis. First of all, it was necessary to decide what to deal with somatic or mental illness : “Medicine does not give rules on how to act in such uncertain circumstances and for such an exceptional person” ^[29] . By external signs (pulse, temperature, tongue, breathing, etc.) Gogol did not give any reason for concern. Tarasenkov calls constipation the only obvious deviation. At the same time, Gogol’s behavior suggested that doctors were dealing with a mental disorder: “It was difficult to do something with a person who, in full consciousness, rejects any treatment” ^[23] . Somatic patients rarely refuse any treatment without any reason whatsoever. Nevertheless, Tarasenkov was inclined to believe that Gogol had a somatic rather than a mental illness ^[24] .

Late in the evening, Professor Klimenkov arrived, who struck Tarasenkov with the insolence of his treatment of the sick writer: “He began to shout with him, as with a deaf and unconscious, he began to forcefully hold his hand, trying to get pain. “Does your head hurt?” - “No.” - “Under the spoon?” - “No”, etc. It was evident that the patient was losing patience and was annoyed. Finally, he again said in an imploring voice: “Leave me alone!” He turned and hid his hand. ” Despite the resistance of the writer, he was given a candle to eliminate constipation ^[24] .

In the absence of Inozemtsev, the initiative was taken by Professor A. I. Over. Notifying Inozemtsev, Over appointed a consultation on February 20. The consultation was attended by Professor A. I. Over , Professor A. E. Evenius , Professor S. I. Klimenkov , Dr. K. I. Sokologorsky , Dr. A. T. Tarasenkov. Professor I.V. Varvinsky was late for the consultation and appeared later. At the suggestion of A. I. Overe, the council approved a new diagnosis: this time, meningitis . The main question now was how to treat the writer? Leave without treatment, as requested by the patient, or apply forced treatment as a person who no longer owns himself? The prescribed intensive therapy consisted of hirudotherapy , cold pouring of the head in a warm bath, ice on the head, mustard plasters on the extremities, etc. The latecomer Varvinsky suggested another diagnosis - gastroenteritis , he doubted the feasibility of leeches and baths, but no one listened to him ^{[ 24]} .

The consultation parted, and treatment began. Tarasenkov wrote that he had left the patient, "so as not to be a witness to the suffering of the sufferer." In his absence, the patient was given a bath, eight leeches were placed on his nose. According to Tarsenkov, the treatment of Gogol was inexorable: “they disposed of them as if they were crazy, they shouted in front of him, like in front of a corpse. Klimenkov molested him, wrinkled, tossed and turned, poured some caustic alcohol on his head, and when the patient moaned from this, the doctor asked, continuing to water ”. In another place, Tarasenkov calls Klimenkov a medical executioner. All prescriptions of the consultation were entrusted to the physician M. L. Nazimov . When Gogol's body began to cool, at his suggestion, the patient began to be wrapped in hot bread. Klimenkov gave Gogol a calomel . But despite treatment or as a result, Gogol became worse ^[23] . Toward night on February 20, Tarasenkov noted Gogol’s weak pulse, twilight state , verbal hallucinosis , thirst, and breathing became hoarse. Tarasenkov left the watch near Gogol at night, and when he returned in the morning, Gogol was dead ^[7] .

In his memoirs, Tarasenkov assigned to himself the passive role of an observer at the final stage of Gogol's disease. He regretted that he had missed the time from February 17 to February 18, when he was not there, and when he “could still somehow work to save him” ^[29] .

Criticism of Tarasenkov's book

Gogolovedov XIX and XX centuries often turned to the memoirs of Dr. Tarasenkov because of their detailed and extremely conscientious nature ^[30] , as not in doubt ^[1] . Such are the works of V.I. Shenrok , V.V. Veresaev , V.V. Gippius , K.V. Mochulsky , S.I. Mashinsky , Yu. V. Mann , I.P. Zolotussky and many others. etc. At the same time, the memories themselves were not subjected to critical analysis until recently.

Opinion of V. A. Voropaev

In the 21st century, the Russian literary critic V.A. Voropaev, in several works devoted to the last days of Gogol, referring to Tarasenkov's memoirs as unique and reliable evidence of a contemporary documentary, in some cases casts doubt on the correctness of the analysis of the causes of Gogol's disease. Tarasenkov writes about Gogol the following ^[23] :

I abstained from food to excessiveness, at dinner I ate a few spoons of cabbage brine or oat soup on the water ... one can easily imagine that with such a sudden change in lifestyle he really became ill.

Voropaev objected to this consideration as follows: Gogol, being an Orthodox person, did not radically change his lifestyle. He had experience of govning even before that, therefore, the last govnition did not carry, in the opinion of the literary critic, anything extraordinary. At the same time, he refers to the opinion of the historian of the Gogol family: “ V. A. Chagovets , the most authoritative specialist of the early XX century. on Gogol’s family affairs, he writes that Nikolai Vasilievich did not surpass the piety of his relatives and only held a slightly different look with respect to fasting ... “What is this post when everyone eats even worse than on ordinary days?” he said, pushing away a dish with some tempting lean food ... ” ^[23] .

Voropaev’s doubts also touched on Tarasenkov’s arguments about the effect of lean food on Gogol’s health and on health in general. From the memoirs of Tarasenkov about Gogol it follows that:

he could not change the property and quantity of food without harm to his health: according to his own assurance, with lean food, he felt weak and unhealthy. “Often I began to eat fasting on posts (he told me), but I could not stand it: after several days of veneration, I felt ill every time and made sure that I needed nutritious food.” (These words were a response to my confession that I am becoming incapable of performing my duties well if I eat lean food for a while).

According to V.A. Voropaev, “from the words of Tarasenkov with certainty it follows only that he himself did not fast on the days determined for this by the Church . With regard to Gogol, his judgment cannot be mistaken for truth. ” Voropaev further writes that the death of Gogol gave rise to many rumors, in particular, it was widely believed that the writer had starved himself. "N. G. Chernyshevsky insisted on this on the basis of the memoirs of Dr. Tarasenkov." Voropaev consistently objected to this by saying that “Gogol understood fasting in the church spirit,” as evidenced by Gogol's extracts from the church fathers: “For fasting to be real, abstinence from food alone is not enough. We will fast fasting benign. "True fasting is abstinence from vices, curbing the tongue, taming anger and passions, putting aside slander, lies, deceit, abstinence from this is true fasting." Keeping this commandment of St. Basil the Great and the likes of Ephraim the Syrian , Hieronymus the Blessed, cannot cause a person’s death, says the Googologist ^[23] .

Even before Voropaev, Tarasenkov’s argument about lean food was disputed by Natalya Urakova. She expressed doubt about the reliability of Dr. Tarasenkov’s transmission of Gogol’s words about fasting. They are refuted, in her opinion, by the memoirs of Countess A. G. Tolstoy - the wife of A. P. Tolstoy: “Gogol liked to eat a prison. We often ate a jail. ” N. Urakova believes that a person who does not fast will not eat (much less love) such a purely lean dish ^[31] .

According to V.A. Voropaev, Tarasenkov also misinterpreted Gogol’s habit of sleeping while sitting, rather than lying down. According to Tarasenkov, Gogol avoided sleeping lying out of fear that "the bed would be his deathbed." Voropaev believes that Gogol adopted the habit of sleeping while sitting with the monks. Gogol, in his opinion, was a monk in the world. He acquired the habit of sleeping while still in Rome . And “imitating the monastic custom of spending a night's rest not on the bed, but on a chair, that is, sitting at all” does not contain anything unusual ^[23] .

In addition to the medical aspect, Voropaev also refers to the historical and literary side of Tarasenkov’s memoirs. According to the literary critic, thanks to Tarasenkov, the myth about the burning of the second volume of “Dead Souls” was spread in gogoology: “Dr. Tarasenkov speaks of the second volume of the completed manuscript:“ The Liturgy and Dead Souls were rewritten by him (Gogol. - V. V.) very good handwriting. " This message is essentially the only argument in favor of the claim that Gogol burned the finished second volume. It is referred to, for example, by commentators of an academic publication. ” According to Voropaev, Tarasenkov, like other contemporaries who were not part of Gogol’s close acquaintances, could rely only on the oral stories of Count Alexander Tolstoy, since he personally could not see the manuscripts of the second volume and since he had visited Gogol on February 16, five days after them burning. Meanwhile, "Gogol carefully guarded his papers from prying eyes." What actually burned Gogol remains unknown ^[23] .

Voropaev also touched on the personality of priest John Nikolsky, rector of the church of St. Savva the Sanctified on the Maiden’s Field, the confessor of Gogol. A.T. Tarasenkov in his book noted that the confessor of Gogol, apparently, did not understand him at all. V.A. Voropaev writes that Tarasenkov did not cite the facts confirming this judgment. Voropaev contrasts Tarasenkov’s judgment with the remarks made by M.P. Pogodin that “Gogol was very fond of the old man (father John Nikolsky)” and the daughter of M.P. Pogodin A.M. Zederholm that Gogol had been in the last two years of his life often asked to send to him a priest from the Savvinsky church near which Pogodins lived ^[32] .

But far from all the opinions of A. T. Tarasenkov, V. A. Voropaev casts doubt. In those cases where Tarasenkov describes the events where he was a direct witness, Voropaev prefers the information of Tarasenkov, rather than Pogodin or other memoirists. In particular, M.P. Pogodin in the obituary of the Moskvityanina quotes Gogol's dying words about the mill. V.A. Voropaev in this case casts doubt on the reliability of Pogodin’s information, since the historian was not at the bedside of the dying writer, and insists on the authenticity of the notes of the eyewitness, A. T. Tarasenkov, who testifies that the writer's dying words were “Ladder, soon, give the ladder! ... ”, which, according to Voropaev, is completely consistent with Tarasenkov’s other testimony about Gogol’s veneration of John Climacus ’s book“ Climacus ”. This is dedicated to the work of V. A. Voropaev and I. A. Vinogradov, “A Ladder Raising to Heaven” ^[32] .

Opinion of M.I. Davidov

According to Professor N. N. Bazhenov , a psychiatrist, “It’s sad to admit this, but one of the reasons for Gogol’s death is to consider inept and irrational medical measures ... He died during an attack of periodic melancholy from exhaustion and acute anemia of the brain, caused by the very form of the disease, “The accompanying fasting and the rapid decline in nutrition and strength associated with it, and the wrong, weakening treatment, especially bloodletting.” But the first to blame the participants in the consultation was one of the participants, Dr. Tarasenkov himself, who also made a mistake in the diagnosis and thereby shared the guilt of the consultation, said doctor M. I. Davidov, assistant professor at the Perm Medical Academy ^[33] .

Davidov calls Tarasenkov a thoughtful and talented doctor who, due to his youth and obscurity, could not withstand the more experienced and eminent Moscow medical authorities Overa and Klimenkov. Davidov writes that Aleksey Terentyevich, as “defending his thesis on arachnoiditis (inflammation of the arachnoid membrane of the brain), obviously knew nervous diseases better than other participants in the council. He understood that Gogol most likely did not have inflammation of the meninges. However, he did not oppose the diagnosis of meningitis. Obviously, there wasn’t enough courage. Moreover, judging by the memoirs of Alexei Terentyevich, he didn’t have a definite, clear opinion about the diagnosis and assumed that the patient had a sharp loss of appetite and, accordingly, exhaustion from some kind of bodily (not mental) illness. ” And even a few years later, when Tarasenkov wrote his memoirs, he was at a loss with a definite diagnosis. Criticizing the actions of Over and Klimenkov, he could not contrast them with his understanding of the disease, “retrospectively did not make a definite diagnosis and, despite the fact that he was also a member of the consultation, as if he had relieved himself of responsibility for the decisions made” ^[33] .

The complexity of forced feeding, according to David, consisted of the following: “For violent feeding, high-calorie, most quick-moving foods were needed: meat broth, cream, milk, eggs, etc. There was Great Lent. Therefore, many suggest that Auver, and others like him, Klimenkov and Sokologorsky were frightened of the stern condemnation of the clergy and pious friends of Gogol. But even Metropolitan Filaret himself, learning about Gogol’s starvation, allowed him to feed the patient with any products and told him that “he asks implicitly to fulfill medical appointments in full”! The most devout friend of Nikolai Vasilievich, the future chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count A.P. Tolstoy, wanted to feed him the most nutritious foods in order to save the writer. It turns out that atheist doctors proved themselves more severely than the servants of Christ. They wanted to follow the letter, and not the spirit of the Holy Scripture! ”Thus, the physician Davidov, like the Orthodox literary critic VA Voropaev, takes into account not only the medical aspect of the treatment and death of Gogol, but also the religious factor ^[33] .

Davidov writes that none of the participants in the consultation was a qualified psychiatrist , including Tarasenkov, so they could not correctly evaluate the refusal of food and medicine and establish the correct diagnosis. And the correct diagnosis in Davidov’s understanding is manic-depressive psychosis , depressive phase. According to Davidov, A. T. Tarasenkov was the closest to the correct understanding of the disease, insisting on forced feeding, but no one listened to his opinion, he, Evenius and Varvinsky could not convince Over, Klimenkov and Sokologorsky of the erroneousness of their diagnosis ^{[ 33]} .

The author of the article about A. T. Tarasenkov in the Gogol encyclopedia (2003), the literary critic Boris Sokolov, calls another possible diagnosis of Gogol’s disease, although without specifying a source for his information: “The symptoms described by T. <arasenkov> suggest that the immediate cause of Gogol’s death was peritonitis , which developed as a result of many days of constipation ” ^[24] .

In 1852, Alexei Terentyevich married the sister of his former student - Elizabeth Lvovna Chebysheva (1819-1888). As a dowry, she received the family estate of her father "Chebushov Garden." Nowadays “Chebushov Garden” is a tract near the village of Renevka, Stanovlyansky district , Lipetsk region , north of the city of Yelets ; at that time “Chebushov Garden” belonged to the Ephraim district of the Tula province ^[10] .

The marriage of Tarasenkov, the former home teacher of the Chebyshevs, with Elizaveta Lvovna, according to the noble concepts of that time, was an obvious misalliance . This opinion was not even shaken by the fact that Aleksey Terentyevich eventually became the head of the Sheremetev hospital and glorified his name as a prominent public figure, memoirist and doctor who treated Gogol ^[9] . Having made friends with the Chebyshevs, Tarasenkov subsequently willingly and often accepted P.L. Chebyshev in his estate and maintained a warm relationship with him for life ^{[34] [comm. 2]} . Alexei Terentyevich, married to Elizabeth Lvovna, left behind him three sons and three daughters ^[9] .

• Alexey (1852-1912) - caretaker of the Mariinsky Institute on Sophia Embankment in Moscow.
• Elizabeth (1853–1895) - Honored Teacher, in the marriage of Mikulin.
• Sergey (1856-1897).
• Anna (1857-1919), in the marriage of Podchinennov.
• Peter (1860-1924) - Moscow scholar, the last owner of the estate in Renevka - "Chebushova Sad", a member of the Society of Old Moscow Lovers.

• About how diseases are cured and what is called a medicine. // M., 1850
• Crazy mind after cholera. // Moscow Medical Journal, 1854, No. 1.
• Remarks of prevailing intermittent fevers. // Moscow Medical Journal, 1854.
• Epidemic diphtheria toad. // Moscow Medical Journal, 1854.
• Historical note on the state and activities of the Physico-Medical Society for the first 50 years. // Moscow Medical Journal, 1856, No. 2.
• Historical note on the composition and activities of the Physico-Medical Society, established at the Imperial Moscow University, for the first 50th anniversary of its existence, (1805–1855). // M .: University printing house, 1856, S. 51.
• Medical report on the Temporary (typhoid) department of the Hospital for the unskilled class of people in Moscow for the entire period of the Department’s existence / Comp. A. Tarasenkov. // M .: University printing house, 1857, p. 75.
• A case of transition of acute rheumatism to cholera. // Protocols of the Moscow Society of Russian Doctors, St. Petersburg. 1857.
• The historical description of the Hospital of the host house of Count Sheremetev in Moscow, compiled by the head doctor of the institution, Alexei Tarasenkov. // M .: printing house of Vedomosti of the Moscow City Police, 1859, p. 23.
• Historical note on the host house of Count Sheremetev in Moscow, compiled on behalf of the trustee of Count Dmitry Nikolayevich Sheremetev for the fiftieth anniversary of this institution, Dr. A. Tarasenkov. // M .: Katkov and Co. ° printing house, 1860, p. 134, 1 p. plan.
• Medical and statistical conclusions from the statements of the Moscow hospital for laborers for 1844-1858, from the beginning of their existence. // Protocol of the Physico-Medical Society, 1859, January 26.
• Something about hospitals. // Moscow Gazette , 1859, No. 29.
• Doctor's view on female education. // Moscow Medical Newspaper, No. 48.
• The patient himself treats hydrocoele with an awl prick. // Moscow Medical Newspaper, 1859, No. 59.
• Report on operations in Moscow civilian hospitals in 1858 // Protocol of the Physico-Medical Society, 1859, November 2.
• Materials for the biography of A. N. Bakhmetev, collected by A. Tarasenkov. // M .: printing house of M.P. Zakharov, 1861, p. 24.
• Overview of patients in Moscow hospitals of the civilian department, since the opening of each of them. / [Op.] By Alexei Tarasenkov. // M .: Katkov and Co. ° Printing House, 1862, p. 23.
• On the device of medical benefits in the villages. // Moscow Medical Newspaper, 1862, No. 50;
• Medical and statistical data from the reports of all hospitals of the civil department to the medical inspector for 1858-1863 // Protocol of the Physico-Medical Society, 1859-1864.
• About the diseases that preceded this year cholera. // Protocols of the Moscow Society of Russian Doctors, 1866.
• On the movement of patients, mainly typhoid, from January to May 1868 // Protocol of the Physico-Medical Society, 1868.
• On the sanitary facilities of Parisian public charity, read at a meeting of the Society of Russian Doctors. // Moscow Medical Newspaper, 1870, No. 7.
• Medical and statistical information on the hostage house of Count Sheremetev in Moscow 1810-1870 / Comp. Alexei Tarasenkov. // [M.]: printing house of Moscow University, [1871] p. 24, 10 p. tab.
• Memories of the Sheremetev hospital. // M .: typolithography of N.I. Kumanin, 1899, p. 27.
• Dr. A. T. T-in the last days of the life of N. V. Gogol. // Domestic notes, 1856, December, S. 402.
• The last days of the life of N.V. Gogol. // St. Petersburg: Korolev & Co. Printing House, 1857, p. 33.
• The last days of the life of N.V. Gogol. [Manuscript of notes by Dr. A. T. Tarasenkov] // in the book: V. Shenrok, “Materials for Gogol's Biography”. M., 1897.T. IV. S. 850-865.
• The last days of the life of N.V. Gogol. Notes by his contemporary Dr. A. Tarasenkov. // M.: The typography of A. A. Levenson, 1902 (Vol. 2, supplemented by the manuscript). S. 33.
• The last days of the life of N.V. Gogol. [Excerpts] // in the book. Gogol in the memoirs of contemporaries / Text edition, foreword and comments by S.I. Mashinsky. - M .: State. publishing house lit., 1952.- 718 p. - (Ser. Lit. Memoirs / Under the general editorship of N. L. Brodsky , F. V. Gladkov , F. M. Golovenchenko , N. K. Gudziya ). S. 511-525.
• The last days of the life of N.V. Gogol. [In abbreviation] // in the book. Gogol N.V., Reflections on the Divine Liturgy: Collection / M .: Eksmo, 2006. - 800 p. S. 779-795. The circulation of 4,000 copies. - ("Anthology of Thought").
• GIM. F. 380. hr 1. L. 7 (manuscript of notes by Dr. A. T. Tarasenkov).

• Tarasenkov, Alexey Terentyevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Pokrovsky, Victor - “Alexey Terentyevich Tarasenkov, senior doctor of the hospital of the host house of Count Sheremetev”: (Obituary) / [Op.] Holy. Victor Pokrovsky. // Moscow, 1873, 8 pp.
• Obituary. - Moscow Medical Newspaper, 1873, No. 10.
• Obituary. - Moscow Gazette, 1873, May 17.
• Obituary. - Moscow diocesan sheets, 1873, No. 23.
• Obituary. - Minutes of the meeting of the Society of Russian Doctors in Moscow, May 18, 1873
• Obituary. - Citizen , 1874, No. 3.
• Zmeev L.F. , “Russian Writers”, St. Petersburg. 1886, tetr. 2, p. 126; tetr. 3, p. 69.
• Historical Bulletin , 1902, June. S. 1081.
• Meziere A. V. , “Russian literature from the 9th to the 19th century”, St. Petersburg. 1902, part II. S. 56, No. 5681.
• Mezhov V. I. , “The Literature of Russian History for 6 Years,” 1859-1864, St. Petersburg. 1866, vol. I. S. 163, No. 2566.
• Sokolov B.V. - Gogol: an encyclopedia. - M .: Algorithm, 2003 .-- 544 p. - (Encyclopedia of great writers). - ISBN 5-9265-0001-2 .
• Davidov M.I. - The Secret of Gogol's Death. Another version // Ural . 2005, No. 1.

• Tarasenkov A.T. The last days of Gogol's life (Neopr.) . Fundamental electronic library . Date of treatment July 28, 2017.
• A.T. Tarasenkov in the electronic catalog of the Russian State Library (Neopr.) . Russian State Library. The official site . Date of treatment July 28, 2017.