Vasili Panasovich (Afanasiyovych) Gogol-Yanovsky (* 1777 - † 1825) - was the father of the writer Nikolai Gogol. The landlord of the village of Vasylivka, Gogoleva), Mirgorod Uyezd, in Poltava oblast.
Vasili Gogol loved writing stage plays, which were successfully put on by the famous theatre patron Dmitri Troshchynsky.
According to legend, one ancestor, Ostap Gogol, was famous as a Cossack colonel and Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine. The grandfather and great grandfather of Vasily Afanasevich were Orthodox priests. Vasili attended seminary, and then studied at the Kiev Theological Academy like his father and grandfather. However, he abandoned the religious calling and served in the Imperial Russian Army as a regimental clerk. He retired with the rank of Major. Vasili Afanasyevich, was an outstanding person (knowing Russian, Latin, Greek, German and Polish), was raised to the Russian nobility in 1792 and was granted the aristocratic name "Yanovsky." His social position was further secured by an advantageous marriage. As a dowry, Gogol-Yanovsky acquired dozens of serf families, which, according to statements in 1782, totaled 268 individuals.
Having spent some time at the post service, Gogol-Yanovsky left in 1805, with the rank of Collegiate Assessor and retired to his own estate Vasilevka (Yanovschina) to devote himself to farming.
Vasili Afanasyevich was a friend of Dmitri Prokof'evich Troshchinsky, Minister of the State Council, and a distant relative. Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky was the director and actor in the Troshchinsky Home Theater between 1812 and 1825. In this capacity, he wrote several musical comedies based upon Ukrainian culture and folklore. Vasily Gogol also wrote poems in the Russian and Ukrainian languages. Alexander Danilevsky noted that Vasily Gogol was a "matchless storyteller".