Taras Bulba

This historical novella tells the story of the old Cossack Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap, who after their studies at Kiev Academy return home. The father and his sons decide to set out on an epic journey to Zaporizhian Sich located in Southern Ukraine, where they join other Cossacks and go to war against Poland. The main character Taras is based on several historical personalities, but was principally inspired by the legend of the Cossack Sava Chaly, whose execution was ordered by his own father for the betrayal of an Ukrainian cause.

The novella was first published in 1835 as part of a story collection. However, due to the strong Ukrainian contexts of the story, critics in the Russian government considered Taras Bulba to be too Ukrainian and so Gogol had to revise the work. The 1842 edition was edited to include Russian nationalist themes, which were popular with the tsarist ideology of the time. The changes included three new chapters and a new ending, all included in this edition.

Translated by C.J. Hogarth. This story has all 12 chapters featured on this site, containing a total of 46,598 words.