Vasili Gogol-Yanovsky
Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky (, ; 1777 – 31 March (11 April) 1825) was an author of a number of theater pieces in Russian and in Ukrainian and father of the writer Nikolai Gogol. He was the landlord of the village of Vasilyevka (now Gogolevo), Poltava oblast and descendant of Ukrainian Cossack noble families of Gogol and Lizogub. Vasily Gogol loved writing comedic stage plays in Russian as well as in Ukrainian, which were successfully put on by the famous theatre patron Dmitry Troshchinsky. Biography. Vasily was a son of Afanasy Demyanovich Yanovsky (1739–1798) and Tatyana Semenovna Lizogub (1760–1826). According  to legend, one ancestor, Ostap Gogol, was famous as a Cossack colonel and Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine. The grandfather and great grandfather of Vasily were Orthodox priests. Vasily's father Afanasy Demyanovich attended seminary, and then studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy like his father and grandfather. However, he abandoned the religious calling and served in the Imperial Russian Army as a regimental clerk. He retired with the rank of Major. Afanasy Yanovsky was an outstanding person (knowing Ukrainian, Russian, Latin, Greek, German and Polish), was raised to the Russian nobility in 1792 and was granted the aristocratic name  Gogol-Yanovsky. His social position was further secured by an advantageous marriage. As a dowry, Afanasy acquired dozens of serf families, which, according to statements in 1782, totaled 268 individuals. Having spent some time at the post service, Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky left in 1805, with the rank of Collegiate Assessor and retired to his own estate Vasilyevka (Yanovshchina) to devote himself to farming. Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky was a friend of Dmitry Prokofyevich Troshchinsky, Minister of the State Council, and a distant relative. Vasily Afanasyevich was the director and actor in the Troshchinsky Home Theater between 1812 and 1825. In  this capacity, he wrote several musical comedies based upon Ukrainian culture and folklore. Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky also wrote poems in the Russian and Ukrainian languages. Alexander Danilevsky noted that Vasily was a "matchless storyteller".