Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf] ⓘ; 5 February [O.S.

His teachers in the seminary considered him a prodigy, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art.

[citation needed] 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 institute, showed his hostile attitude toward the autocracy.

In June 1857, after his graduation from the Pedagogical Institute, he joined the staff of Sovremennik and soon became head of its Book Review section.

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.