Location: Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia
Cause of Death: Starvation
Photo taken by: David Conway
Buy books by Nikolai Gogol
Russian writer, who is remembered for Dead Souls, which is considered by many to be the first modern Russian novel. He spent several difficult years producing the second volume of Dead Souls until he became heavily influenced by a priest who told Gogol that his work was an abomination that must be destroyed. He carried out the wishes of the priest and burnt the completed second part and then took to his bed refusing to eat. He died nine days later.
He was originally buried at the Donskoy Monastery, but that was demolished in 1931, so his remains were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery. When his coffin was opened it was discovered that his body was laying face down, which started speculation that he had been buried alive. A piece of his original gravestone from Donskoy Monastery was used on the grave of Mikhail Bulgakov.
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