Russian literary critic, journalist, poet and revolutionary democrat. He was noted for being a radical Russian utilitarian critic who rejected traditional and Romantic literature, and was an ideological adversary of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Dobrolyubov, the son of a priest, attended school at a seminary from 1848 to 1853. He was considered a prodigy by his teachers in the seminary, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art. By age 13 he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets. In 1853 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the university there. Following the deaths of both of his parents in 1854, he assumed responsibility for his brothers and sisters. He worked as a tutor and translator in order to support his family and continue his studies, but it took a toll on his health.
During his years at the university he organized an underground democratic circle, issued a manuscript newspaper and led the student struggle against the reactionary university administration. His poems On the 50th Birthday of N.I. Grech (1854), and Ode on the Death of Nicholas I (1855), copies of which were distributed outside the university, showed his hostile attitude toward the autocracy.
In 1856 Dobrolyubov met the influential critic Nikolay Chernyshevsky and the publisher Nikolay Nekrasov. He soon began publishing his works in Nekrasov's popular journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).
In 1857, after graduation Dobrolyubov joined the staff of Sovremennik as head of the critical department. Over the next four years he produced several volumes of important critical essays. One of his best known works was his essay “What is Oblomovism?” The essay deals with the phenomenon represented by the character Oblomov in Ivan Goncharov’s novel of that name. It established the term Oblomovism as a name for the superfluous man of Russian life and literature.
In May 1860 he went abroad in an effort to treat incipient tuberculosis, which had been exacerbated by overwork. He lived in Germany, Switzerland, France and, for more than six months, in Italy, where the national liberation movement, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, was taking place. The situation in Italy provided him with material for a series of articles.
Dobrolyubov returned to Russia in July 1861. He died in November 1861, at age 25, from acute tuberculosis.
Dobrolyubov's grave site was a focal point for radical students yearning to change Imperial Russia, and in 1886, on the 25th anniversary of his death, at least 1,000 students attempted to make a pilgrimage into Volkovo Cemetery to honor Dobrolyubov. They were stopped by police, who prevented their entry. As the students walked toward Nevsky Prospect they were surrounded by Cossacks on horseback, harassed and detained for several hours in cold conditions. Several were arrested.
This response by authorities is seen by many as the final straw that pushed a group of radical students, including Alexander Ulyanov, to begin to make plans for an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III the following year. Ulyanov, the brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, later Vladimir Lenin, the future Bolshevik and Soviet leader, was executed for his role in the "Second March First Conspiracy." Vladimir became increasingly radicalized as a result of his brother's death at the hands of the Russian government.
Dobrolyubov, the son of a priest, attended school at a seminary from 1848 to 1853. He was considered a prodigy by his teachers in the seminary, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art. By age 13 he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets. In 1853 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the university there. Following the deaths of both of his parents in 1854, he assumed responsibility for his brothers and sisters. He worked as a tutor and translator in order to support his family and continue his studies, but it took a toll on his health.
During his years at the university he organized an underground democratic circle, issued a manuscript newspaper and led the student struggle against the reactionary university administration. His poems On the 50th Birthday of N.I. Grech (1854), and Ode on the Death of Nicholas I (1855), copies of which were distributed outside the university, showed his hostile attitude toward the autocracy.
In 1856 Dobrolyubov met the influential critic Nikolay Chernyshevsky and the publisher Nikolay Nekrasov. He soon began publishing his works in Nekrasov's popular journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).
In 1857, after graduation Dobrolyubov joined the staff of Sovremennik as head of the critical department. Over the next four years he produced several volumes of important critical essays. One of his best known works was his essay “What is Oblomovism?” The essay deals with the phenomenon represented by the character Oblomov in Ivan Goncharov’s novel of that name. It established the term Oblomovism as a name for the superfluous man of Russian life and literature.
In May 1860 he went abroad in an effort to treat incipient tuberculosis, which had been exacerbated by overwork. He lived in Germany, Switzerland, France and, for more than six months, in Italy, where the national liberation movement, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, was taking place. The situation in Italy provided him with material for a series of articles.
Dobrolyubov returned to Russia in July 1861. He died in November 1861, at age 25, from acute tuberculosis.
Dobrolyubov's grave site was a focal point for radical students yearning to change Imperial Russia, and in 1886, on the 25th anniversary of his death, at least 1,000 students attempted to make a pilgrimage into Volkovo Cemetery to honor Dobrolyubov. They were stopped by police, who prevented their entry. As the students walked toward Nevsky Prospect they were surrounded by Cossacks on horseback, harassed and detained for several hours in cold conditions. Several were arrested.
This response by authorities is seen by many as the final straw that pushed a group of radical students, including Alexander Ulyanov, to begin to make plans for an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III the following year. Ulyanov, the brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, later Vladimir Lenin, the future Bolshevik and Soviet leader, was executed for his role in the "Second March First Conspiracy." Vladimir became increasingly radicalized as a result of his brother's death at the hands of the Russian government.
Russian literary critic, journalist, poet and revolutionary democrat. He was noted for being a radical Russian utilitarian critic who rejected traditional and Romantic literature, and was an ideological adversary of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Dobrolyubov, the son of a priest, attended school at a seminary from 1848 to 1853. He was considered a prodigy by his teachers in the seminary, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art. By age 13 he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets. In 1853 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the university there. Following the deaths of both of his parents in 1854, he assumed responsibility for his brothers and sisters. He worked as a tutor and translator in order to support his family and continue his studies, but it took a toll on his health.
During his years at the university he organized an underground democratic circle, issued a manuscript newspaper and led the student struggle against the reactionary university administration. His poems On the 50th Birthday of N.I. Grech (1854), and Ode on the Death of Nicholas I (1855), copies of which were distributed outside the university, showed his hostile attitude toward the autocracy.
In 1856 Dobrolyubov met the influential critic Nikolay Chernyshevsky and the publisher Nikolay Nekrasov. He soon began publishing his works in Nekrasov's popular journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).
In 1857, after graduation Dobrolyubov joined the staff of Sovremennik as head of the critical department. Over the next four years he produced several volumes of important critical essays. One of his best known works was his essay “What is Oblomovism?” The essay deals with the phenomenon represented by the character Oblomov in Ivan Goncharov’s novel of that name. It established the term Oblomovism as a name for the superfluous man of Russian life and literature.
In May 1860 he went abroad in an effort to treat incipient tuberculosis, which had been exacerbated by overwork. He lived in Germany, Switzerland, France and, for more than six months, in Italy, where the national liberation movement, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, was taking place. The situation in Italy provided him with material for a series of articles.
Dobrolyubov returned to Russia in July 1861. He died in November 1861, at age 25, from acute tuberculosis.
Dobrolyubov's grave site was a focal point for radical students yearning to change Imperial Russia, and in 1886, on the 25th anniversary of his death, at least 1,000 students attempted to make a pilgrimage into Volkovo Cemetery to honor Dobrolyubov. They were stopped by police, who prevented their entry. As the students walked toward Nevsky Prospect they were surrounded by Cossacks on horseback, harassed and detained for several hours in cold conditions. Several were arrested.
This response by authorities is seen by many as the final straw that pushed a group of radical students, including Alexander Ulyanov, to begin to make plans for an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III the following year. Ulyanov, the brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, later Vladimir Lenin, the future Bolshevik and Soviet leader, was executed for his role in the "Second March First Conspiracy." Vladimir became increasingly radicalized as a result of his brother's death at the hands of the Russian government.
Dobrolyubov, the son of a priest, attended school at a seminary from 1848 to 1853. He was considered a prodigy by his teachers in the seminary, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art. By age 13 he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets. In 1853 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the university there. Following the deaths of both of his parents in 1854, he assumed responsibility for his brothers and sisters. He worked as a tutor and translator in order to support his family and continue his studies, but it took a toll on his health.
During his years at the university he organized an underground democratic circle, issued a manuscript newspaper and led the student struggle against the reactionary university administration. His poems On the 50th Birthday of N.I. Grech (1854), and Ode on the Death of Nicholas I (1855), copies of which were distributed outside the university, showed his hostile attitude toward the autocracy.
In 1856 Dobrolyubov met the influential critic Nikolay Chernyshevsky and the publisher Nikolay Nekrasov. He soon began publishing his works in Nekrasov's popular journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary).
In 1857, after graduation Dobrolyubov joined the staff of Sovremennik as head of the critical department. Over the next four years he produced several volumes of important critical essays. One of his best known works was his essay “What is Oblomovism?” The essay deals with the phenomenon represented by the character Oblomov in Ivan Goncharov’s novel of that name. It established the term Oblomovism as a name for the superfluous man of Russian life and literature.
In May 1860 he went abroad in an effort to treat incipient tuberculosis, which had been exacerbated by overwork. He lived in Germany, Switzerland, France and, for more than six months, in Italy, where the national liberation movement, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, was taking place. The situation in Italy provided him with material for a series of articles.
Dobrolyubov returned to Russia in July 1861. He died in November 1861, at age 25, from acute tuberculosis.
Dobrolyubov's grave site was a focal point for radical students yearning to change Imperial Russia, and in 1886, on the 25th anniversary of his death, at least 1,000 students attempted to make a pilgrimage into Volkovo Cemetery to honor Dobrolyubov. They were stopped by police, who prevented their entry. As the students walked toward Nevsky Prospect they were surrounded by Cossacks on horseback, harassed and detained for several hours in cold conditions. Several were arrested.
This response by authorities is seen by many as the final straw that pushed a group of radical students, including Alexander Ulyanov, to begin to make plans for an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III the following year. Ulyanov, the brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, later Vladimir Lenin, the future Bolshevik and Soviet leader, was executed for his role in the "Second March First Conspiracy." Vladimir became increasingly radicalized as a result of his brother's death at the hands of the Russian government.
Bio by: Carolina Cotton
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Russian literary critic
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