Ivan Goncharov in the context of Otechestvenniye Zapiski

Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its émigrés, and to Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different ethnic origins, including bilingual writers, such as Kyrgyz novelist Chinghiz Aitmatov. At the same time, Russian-language literature does not include works by authors from the Russian Federation who write exclusively or primarily in the native languages of the indigenous non-Russian ethnic groups in Russia, thus the famous Dagestani poet Rasul Gamzatov is omitted.

The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Early Middle Ages when Old Church Slavonic was introduced as a liturgical language and became used as a literary language. The native Russian vernacular remained the use within oral literature as well as written for decrees, laws, messages, chronicles, military tales, and so on. By the Age of Enlightenment, literature had grown in importance, and from the early 1830s, Russian literature underwent an astounding "Golden Age" in poetry, prose and drama. The Romantic movement contributed to a flowering of literary talent: poet Vasily Zhukovsky and later his protégé Alexander Pushkin came to the fore. Mikhail Lermontov was one of the most important poets and novelists. Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev wrote masterful short stories and novels. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy became internationally renowned. Other important figures were Ivan Goncharov, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and Nikolai Leskov. In the second half of the century Anton Chekhov excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century is sometimes called the Silver Age of Russian poetry. The poets most often associated with the "Silver Age" are Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolay Gumilyov, Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Marina Tsvetaeva. This era produced novelists and short-story writers, such as Aleksandr Kuprin, Nobel Prize winner Ivan Bunin, Leonid Andreyev, Fyodor Sologub, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Alexander Belyaev, Andrei Bely and Maxim Gorky.

Otechestvennye Zapiski (Russian: Отечественные записки, IPA: [ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ], variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian literary magazine published in Saint Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers known as the intelligentsia. Such major novels as Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov (1859), Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Double (1846) and The Adolescent (1875) and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's The Golovlyov Family (1880) made their first appearance in Otechestvennye Zapiski.

Founded by Pavel Svinyin in 1818, the journal was published irregularly until 1820. It was closed down in 1830 but resurfaced several years later, with Andrey Krayevsky as its publisher. The renovated magazine regularly published articles by Vissarion Belinsky and Alexander Herzen, catering to well-educated liberals. Other notable contributors included:

Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (Russian: Аполло́н Никола́евич Ма́йков, 4 June [O.S. 23 May] 1821, Moscow – 20 March [O.S. 8 March] 1897, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love for ancient Greece and Rome, which he studied for much of his life, is also reflected in his works. Maykov spent four years translating the epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign (1870) into modern Russian. He translated the folklore of Belarus, Greece, Serbia and Spain, as well as works by Heine, Adam Mickiewicz and Goethe, among others. Several of Maykov's poems were set to music by Russian composers, among them Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

Maykov was born into an artistic family and educated at home, by the writer Ivan Goncharov, among others. At the age of 15, he began writing his first poetry. After finishing his gymnasium course in just three years, he enrolled in Saint Petersburg University in 1837.

The Same Old Story (Russian: Обыкнове́нная исто́рия, romanized: Obyknovennaya istorya) is the first novel by Ivan Goncharov, written between 1844 and 1846 and published in 1847. It has also been published in English under the titles A Common Story and An Ordinary Story.

Oblomov (Russian: Обломов, pronounced [ɐˈbloməf]) is the second novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is the central character of the novel, portrayed as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant actions. Throughout the novel, he rarely leaves his room or bed. In the first 50 pages, he only manages to move from his bed to a chair.

The novel was popular when it came out, and some of its characters and devices have imprinted on Russian culture and language.

The Precipice (Russian: Обрыв, romanized: Obryv), also translated as Malinovka Heights, is the third and the last novel by Ivan Goncharov, first published in January–May 1869 issues of Vestnik Evropy magazine. The novel, conceived in 1849, took twenty years to be completed and was preceded by the publication of three extracts: "Sophja Nikolayevna Belovodova" (Sovremennik, No. 2, 1860), "Grandmother" and "Portrait" (Otechestvennye Zapiski, Nos. 1–2, 1861). The author considered it to be his most definitive work, in which he fully realized his grand artistic ambition. Less successful than its predecessor Oblomov (1859), The Precipice is still regarded as one of the classics of Russian literature.

Ulyanovsk, known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River 705 kilometers (438 mi) east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO City of Literature since 2015.

The city was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born Ulyanov), for whom it was renamed after his death in 1924; and of Alexander Kerensky, the leader of the Russian Provisional Government which Lenin overthrew during the October Revolution of 1917. It is also famous for its writers such as Ivan Goncharov, Nikolay Yazykov and Nikolay Karamzin, and for painters such as Arkady Plastov and Nikas Safronov.