Dead Souls Novelist Gogol is a reference to the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, who wrote the novel Dead Souls in 1842. It is considered one of the most important works of 19th-century Russian literature and is seen as a precursor to the later works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. The novel follows the protagonist, Chichikov, as he travels through the Russian countryside attempting to purchase dead souls, or deceased serfs, from landowners.