Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) wrote his epic Taras Bulba over a period, broken by intervals, of more than nine years: from 1833 to 1842. The Ukrainian people's struggle for their independence, waged throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, stirred and inspired Gogol, a great patriot of his country. The profound ideological message of the tale, its thrilling and truthful characters, Gogol's colorful portrayal of the people's life, have immortalized Gogol's epic.

"Taras Bulba is an excerpt, an episode from the epic life of the whole people of the Ukraine in the 16th century . . . Do we not see here Cossackdom in its entirely, with its strange civilization, its gallant and riotous life, its insouciance and indolence, its indefatigability and activeness? Tell me what is missing in this picture, what is needed to make it complete! Is it not all snatched up from the very bottom of life? Does not that life throb and pulsate here?

And what a brush - broad and sweeping, quick and vivid! What bright, what dazzling colors! An what poetry - vigorous, powerful as the Zaporzhian Setch itself, where 'was the lair of men proud and strong as Lions! Hence poured freedom and Cossackdom over all the Ukraine!"

V. G. Belinsky