Here he edited a students' manuscript magazine called
the Star, and later founded a students' theatre, for which
he was both manager and actor. It achieved such success
that it was patronized by the general public.

In 1829 Gogol went to St. Petersburg, where he
thought of becoming an actor, but he finally gave up the
idea and took a position as a subordinate government
clerk. His real literary career began in 1830 with the
publication of a series of stories of Little Russian country
life called Nights on a Farm near Dikanka. In 1831
he became acquainted with Pushkin and Zhukovsky, who
introduced the "shy Khokhol" (nickname for "Little
Russian"), as he was called, to the house of Madame
O. A. Smirnov, the centre of "an intimate circle of literary
men and the flower of intellectual society." The
same year he obtained a position as instructor of history
at the Patriotic Institute, and in 1834 was made professor
of history at the University of St. Petersburg.
Though his lectures were marked by originality and
vivid presentation, he seems on the whole not to have
been successful as a professor, and he resigned in
1835.

During this period he kept up his literary activity
uninterruptedly, and in 1835 published his collection of
stories, Mirgorod, containing How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled
with Ivan Nikiforovich, Taras Bulba, and others.
This collection firmly established his position as a leading
author. At the same time he was at work on several