Dostoevsky's "Russian socialism" is apparently related to French "social Christianity" and to its most famous representative F.-R. de Lamennais. At the same time Dostoevsky's sociophilosophical convictions of 1860s - 1880s remind very much Gogol's last works. A whole series of parallels between the two Russian classics are made in the article, and it is pointed out that while Dostoevsky's views are usually treated with sympathy Gogol's ideas, very similar to them, are often sharply criticized. The similarity between two writers is due to their orientation to the same currents in Western socio-philosophical thought, and first of all to the "social Christianity". Both writers shared its most essential principle: they strived for transformation of social relations on Christian basis, according to the ideal of Christian brotherhood between representatives of all classes. In spite of some researchers' opinion, this is exactly Gogol, along with Chaadaev, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who was inspired by Lamennais most of all, and not only by his "Paroles d'un Croyant" but by his other works as well. Taking this into account a well-known correspondence between Belinsky and Gogol could be qualified as polemics between representatives of socialist thought and "social Christianity".