Oblomov in the context of Otechestvenniye Zapiski

Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov (/ˈɡɒntʃərɒf/ GON-chə-rof, US also /-rɔːf/ -⁠rawf; Russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, IPA: [ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof]; 18 June [O.S. 6 June] 1812 – 27 September [O.S. 15 September] 1891) was a Russian novelist best known for his novels The Same Old Story (1847, also translated as A Common Story), Oblomov (1859), and The Precipice (1869, also translated as Malinovka Heights). He also served in many official capacities, including the position of censor.

Goncharov was born in Simbirsk into the family of a wealthy merchant; as a reward for his grandfather's military service, they were elevated to Russian nobility status. He was educated at a boarding school, then the Moscow College of Commerce, and finally at Moscow State University. After graduating, he served for a short time in the office of the Governor of Simbirsk, before moving to Saint Petersburg where he worked as government translator and private tutor, while publishing poetry and fiction in private almanacs. Goncharov's first novel, The Same Old Story, was published in Sovremennik in 1847.

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:

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.