The character of Taras Bulba, the main hero of this novel is a composite of several historical personalities. It might be based on the real family history of an ancestor of Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay cossak ataman Okhrim Makukha from Starodub who killed his son, Nazar for switching to the Polish side during Khmelnytsky Uprising. Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay's uncle, Grigory Illich Miklouho-Maclay studied together with Gogol in Nizhyn Gymnasium and probably told the family legend to Gogol.  Another possible inspiration was the hero of the folk song "The deeds of Sava Chaly" published by Mykhaylo Maksymovych about Cossack captain Sava Chaly (executed in 1741 after serving as a colonel in the private army of a Polish noble), whose killing was ordered by his own father for betraying the Ukrainian cause.
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