Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov was a Russian novelist best known as the author of Oblomov . Ivan Goncharov was born in Simbirsk ; his father was a wealthy grain merchant and respected official who was elected mayor of Simbirsk several times. The Goncharovs' big stone manor in the town center occupied a vast territory and had all the characteristics of a rural manor, with huge barns and numerous stables. His father, Aleksander Ivanovich Goncharov, died when the boy was seven years old. First his mother Avdotya Matveevna, then his godfather Nikolay Nikolayevich Tregubov, a nobleman and a former... Navy officer, took it upon themselves to give a boy a good education. Tregubov, described as man of liberal views and member of the secret masonic lodge, who knew personally some of the Decemberists, and who was one of the most popular men amongst Simbirsk intelligentsia, was later cited as the major early influence on Goncharov, especially with his sea travel stories.
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