Ivan Goncharov
Russian novelist and official (1812-1891) · Russia · On the map · Writers · Died at 79
Russian novelist whose 1859 work Oblomov gave the world a name for inertia itself - a character so perfectly paralyzed by indecision that he became shorthand for a national temperament, and a universal one.
Ivan Goncharov is read about 553 times a day, in 60 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 11 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.
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In their own words 2
, [Oblomov:] "Picture a thief or a fallen woman or a cheated fool, if you like, but do not forget the rest of mankind. What about humanity, pray?
To this day the Russian, though surrounded by a stern, unimaginative world of reality, loves to believe the seductive tales of antiquity.
About this person
Born in 1812 into a wealthy merchant family in Simbirsk that had been elevated to nobility, Goncharov studied at Moscow State University before settling into government work in Saint Petersburg - translator by day, tutor and writer by night. His first novel, The Same Old Story, appeared in Sovremennik in 1847. Oblomov followed in 1859, published in Otechestvennye zapiski, and became the book that outlasted him. His third novel, The Precipice, came a decade later in Vestnik Evropy. He also worked as censor, critic, and - late in life - paranoid accuser: in a bitter memoir called An Uncommon Story, published decades after his 1891 death, he charged Ivan Turgenev and others with plagiarism and sabotage. Dostoevsky admired him; Chekhov called him "ten heads above me in talent."
