was the question.

Marxists call Gogol the founder of realism and thus, put him as a beacon of socialist realism.

Literary critics compared "live souls" of dead serfs with "dead souls" of live noble men. Dead serfs look alive. They achieved, produced, left a trace on earth, etc. They are the hope of Russia etc.
It is a spin, but there is some truth to it. Descriptions of dead serfs in Gogol are very poetic.

The second point was "The Tale of captain Kopeikin" -- real winners of the Napoleon war -- are Russian people. From that point you can start talking about Russian renaissance/resurrection of dead souls etc. and go straight to revolution ...