The texts of the letters for this volume were prepared and commented on by A. N. Mikhailova, with the exception of letters to V. G. Belinsky (NoNo 178, 200), a letter to V. A. Zhukovsky (No 28) and one letter to Y. F. Samarin (No 36), prepared and commented on by G. M. Friedlander.

The dates of Gogol's life for 1846–1847 were compiled by A. N. Mikhailova.

Abbreviations for archive repositories

State Library of the USSR named after V. I. Lenin. Moscow — LB

State Historical Museum. Moscow — IM

Central State Literary Archive. Moscow — Central State Archive of Culture

Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Leningrad — PD

State Public Library named after M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Leningrad (formerly Imp. Public Library) - PBL

Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Kyiv — KAB

Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Kyiv — KIL

Dates of Gogol's life, 1846-1847

1846.

January – May 5 (new style).

Gogol in Rome. He complains of a painful condition. Nevertheless, he resumes work on the second volume of Dead Souls. Letters NoNo 1-27.

January 3 (New Style).

The beginning of Gogol's correspondence with Y. F. Samarin. Gogol rereads "Tarantas" by V. A. Sollogub. Letters NoNo 2–4.

Early January (New Style).

Translated into German by F. Löbenstein and published in Leipzig, "Dead Souls" was published with a preface by the translator, who called it "The Russian People's Book". "Literaturnyi Vestnik" 1902, vol. III, No 4, p. 374; "Russkaya Starina" 1896, No 12, p. 641.

January 8 (New Style).

Gogol expresses dissatisfaction with the translation of the first volume of "Dead Souls" into German (for fear that foreigners may mistake the book "for a portrait of Russia"). Letter No 6.