February 5

Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov was born February 5. He was a Russian literary critic, journalist, poet and revolutionary democrat.

Dobrolyubov was born in Nizhny Novgorod, where his father was a priest. He 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 the age of thirteen he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets such as Horace.In 1853 he went to St. Petersburg and entered theUniversity. 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. His heavy workload and the stress of his position had a negative effect on his health.

During his years at the University he organized an underground democratic circle, issued a manuscript newspaper, and led the student's 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 he met the influential critic Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and the publisher Nikolay Nekrasov. He soon began publishing his works in Nekrasov's popular journal The Contemporary. 

He returned to Russia in July 1861. He died in November 1861, at the age of twenty five, from acute tuberculosis. He was buried next to Vissarion Belinsky at Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg.