«What is Gogol? Gogol is a shot glass. The glass is remarkable because it is spring, a leaf that does not know withering. When a hand touches a glass, it involuntarily makes an ode, a hymn or a toast, it becomes absolutely sincere»

Nikolai Gogol's Hand

The film is based on a video made by Sergey Lando on the Petersburg Recording Studio at the end of March 2009, before the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Gogol. Next day, Oleg Karavaichuk took the footage and assembled film. It was first shown on April 1, 2009 in Gogol's birthday at a concert "Diary of a Madman" in Culture House "Lensovet" in St. Petersburg. This film is not about Gogol, but is dedicated to him: in the intervals of playing the piano, the composer talks about the true roots of the writer's work, about the common fate of the greatest people of art, about the synthesis of music and literature, about eternity and paradoxes.