In 1957, a bust of the famous Russian writer and publicist Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was installed at the intersection of Narodny Boulevard and the 50th Anniversary of Belgorod Oblast Street. The monument is located next to a sundial.

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was born in 1828 in Saratov to a priest's family and graduated from a theological seminary. From 1846 to 1850, he studied at the historical and philological department of St. Petersburg University. His worldview was significantly influenced by French socialist philosophers Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier.

In 1853, Chernyshevsky moved from Saratov to St. Petersburg, where he began his career as a publicist. He quickly became well-known through his work in the magazine "Sovremennik," to which he was invited by N. A. Nekrasov. In 1855, Chernyshevsky defended his dissertation "Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality," in which he rejected the search for beauty in the abstract realms of "pure art," asserting that "the beautiful is life."

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, he actively published, seizing every opportunity to express his views while anticipating a peasant uprising after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Due to revolutionary agitation, the magazine "Sovremennik" was closed. After this, the authorities intercepted a letter from A. I. Herzen, who was in exile. Upon learning of the magazine's closure, Herzen suggested that N. L. Serno-Solovyovich continue the publication abroad. This letter became the reason for the arrest of Chernyshevsky and Serno-Solovyovich on July 7, 1862, after which they were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In May 1864, Chernyshevsky was found guilty and sentenced to seven years of hard labor and lifelong exile in Siberia. While the investigation was ongoing, Chernyshevsky wrote his main novel "What Is to Be Done" in prison. It was not until 1883 that he was allowed to settle in Astrakhan. By that time, he was already elderly and ill. In 1889, Chernyshevsky was transferred to Saratov, where he soon passed away.