Monument to Nikolai Gogol was decided to install in Leningrad in 1952, the centenary of the writer's death. On Manezhnaya square was installed a Foundation stone. But none of the projects of the future monument presented to the competition satisfied the authorities, so the opening of the monument was delayed.
In 1996, when it was decided to turn Malaya Konyushennaya street into a pedestrian zone, the public Association "Nevsky prospect Club "proposed to erect a monument to Gogol here. The creation of the monument was entrusted to the sculptor M. V. Belov, who presented his project of the monument, approved by the Association and the city authorities. Architect V. S. Vasilkovsky.