In the Soviet Union, he was considered the father of Russian Realism;
now, most would consider him to be a father of Surrealism (Nabokov's
book on Gogol has been influential in this regard).
The band Gogol Bordello got its name from Nikolai Gogol.
While born with the surname of Ianovskii, the reason behind his use of the name Gogol was due to his grandfather taking this name to be able to claim a noble Cossack ancestry.