Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov (January 24 [February 5], 1836, Nizhny Novgorod — November 17 [29], 1861, Saint Petersburg) was a literary critic, poet, and publicist, and one of the most prominent representatives of the revolutionary-democratic movement of the 1860s. He was born and spent his youth in Nizhny Novgorod, where he received a religious education and developed his main intellectual interests, before moving to Saint Petersburg and becoming a key contributor to the journal Sovremennik ("The Contemporary"). He lived only 25 years, yet his literary-critical articles entered the history of Russian social thought and brought him fame in Russia and around the world.[1][2]

The Nizhny Novgorod Years

Dobrolyubov was born into the family of Alexander Ivanovich Dobrolyubov, a priest of the Nikolskaya Church in the Verkhny Posad district of Nizhny Novgorod.[3] He received his early education at home under the guidance of a seminarian, M. A. Kostrov, whom Chernyshevsky later called the main promoter of the development of Dobrolyubov's abilities.[2] From the age of three he recited Krylov's fables by heart, and at thirteen he was translating Horace.[1]

In 1847 he entered the final year of the fourth class of the Nizhny Novgorod Theological School directly, graduating with top marks in every subject, and then moved on to the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary (1848–1853).[3] At the seminary he kept registers of the books he had read and, from 1850, made notes and reviews of them; his books were supplied by the music critic A. D. Ulybyshev, A. I. Shchepotyev, the editor of a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, the family of Prince Trubetskoy, and the bookseller N. Ulitin.[2] Together with his classmate Mitrofan Lebedev he produced a handwritten journal, Akhineya ("Nonsense"), wrote articles for the newspaper Nizhegorodskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti ("Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Gazette"), collected local folklore — more than a thousand proverbs, sayings, songs, and legends — and compiled a dictionary of local words and a bibliography on the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate.[2][3]

In 1853 he left the seminary, obtained the Synod's permission to study at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, and departed from Nizhny Novgorod.[2]

Work at Sovremennik

Upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Dobrolyubov passed the entrance examinations at the Main Pedagogical Institute, in the Faculty of History and Philology, for which he was released from the clerical estate.[3] At the institute he organized a student circle, and in 1855 he began producing an illegal handwritten newspaper, "Rumors."[3] In 1856 he met N. G. Chernyshevsky, who drew him into collaborating with The Contemporary; his first major publication was the article "The Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word," for which Dobrolyubov received his first fee of 100 rubles.[1] In 1857 he graduated from the institute with distinction, but was denied the gold medal for his freethinking.[1]

From 1857 he headed the criticism and bibliography department of The Contemporary, and from 1859 he edited its satirical supplement, "The Whistle," where under the pseudonyms Konrad Lilienschwager, Yakov Kham, and Apollon Kapelkin he published feuilletons and verse parodies.[4] In 1858 alone he published about 75 articles and reviews, the story "The Dealer," and several poems.[3] He gained wide fame through the articles "What Is Oblomovism?" (on Goncharov's novel Oblomov), "The Dark Kingdom" and "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom" (on Ostrovsky's plays), and "When Will the Real Day Come?" (on Turgenev's novel On the Eve).[4] In a number of pieces Dobrolyubov directly called for the liberation of the homeland from autocracy; he was one of the first to use the term "realism" to denote an artistic style.[1] His last article published in his lifetime, "Downtrodden People," devoted to the work of Dostoevsky, appeared in The Contemporary in September 1861.[3]

Dobrolyubov never signed his works with his true full name; his best-known pseudonyms are "N-bov" and "N. Laybov."[1]

Illness and Death

Intense labor and an unsettled way of life undermined the critic's health: he developed consumption. In May 1860, at the insistence of his friends, he went abroad, living in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France, but no improvement followed.[4] In July 1861 he returned to St. Petersburg hopelessly ill. He died on November 17 (29), 1861, at the age of 25; in the next room N. G. Chernyshevsky sat without leaving.[1] He was buried at the Volkovo Cemetery next to Belinsky's grave; it was with his burial that the Literatorskie Mostki began to take shape.[2]

Memory in Nizhny Novgorod

In 1971, a memorial museum opened in the annex of N. A. Dobrolyubov's house on Oktyabrskaya Street.[2] In 1986, a monument was erected on Theatre Square to mark the 150th anniversary of the critic's birth.[3] The Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University bears the name of N. A. Dobrolyubov, and a street in the Nizhegorodsky District is named after him.[3] A memorial plaque has been installed on the building of the former Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary.[3]

Sources

  1. libmap.nounb.ru — Dobrolyubov Nikolay Alexandrovich (1836–1861) — Literary Map of Novgorod Region
  2. kn-pam.pskovlib.ru — A Brilliant Critic
  3. ngounb.ru — Literary Map of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
  4. names52.ru — Dobrolyubov Nikolay Alexandrovich
  5. tatarica.org — Dobrolyubov Nikolay Alexandrovich — Tatar Encyclopedia TATARICA