Cathy Young writes in the WSJ about the tug-of-war going on between Russia and Ukraine over who can claim nationality of the famously gifted writer Nikolai Gogol:

Gogol once wrote that he could never decide whether his soul was Russian or Ukrainian. In an era when Ukrainian aspirations for nationhood were dormant, he did not see the two as contradictory; for him, Ukraine and Russia were inseparable parts of a greater whole. Unsurprisingly, many Russian politicians and pundits have seized on this theme, making the bicentennial an occasion to affirm Russian-Ukrainian unity — and snipe at Ukrainians who are less than fond of the idea. Lyubov Slizka, Russian parliament speaker and deputy chairwoman of the ruling United Russia party, has dismissed Ukraine’s attempts to claim Gogol’s legacy as “petty squabbles” that, she warns, are “dangerous to both Russian and Ukrainian citizens.” (…)