In 1927 he went to the Breusovsky seven-year school. In the hungry 30's his grandmother, already swollen, barely saved his life. In 1933, a 14-year-old teenager got a job as a correspondent for a district newspaper, which later sent him to the Kharkiv College of Journalism, and in 1938 Oles Honchar became a student at the Faculty of Philology at Kharkiv University. In the first year he wrote the story "Cherry Blossoms", which was published in the journal "Soviet Literature", and in 1941 for the story "Eagle" received his first prize.

     In 1959-1971 pp. Oles Honchar headed the Union of Writers of Ukraine. In 1960 he was awarded the T. Shevchenko State Prize for his novel Man and Weapons. He has published the novels Cyclone (1970), Brigantine (1973), The Coast of Love (1976), Your Star (1980), in 1989 – The Tales of the Far Flames, and Remembering the Ocean "Bullfight", "Black ravine", "Two at night".
At the session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine after the historic referendum on December 1, 1991, Oles Honchar announced the results of the will of Ukrainians to live in independent Ukraine. In 1993, the International Biographical Center in Cambridge (England) recognized A. Gonchar as the "World Intellectual of 1992-1993".

     O. Gonchar has defended Ivan Dziuba, Lina Kostenko, Ivan Chendey, Grigor Tyutyunnik and other writers who opposed the totalitarian system. "The potter protected us as best he could. And he did not look into anyone's mouth – neither Brezhnev nor Shcherbytsky. I said what I thought”, the poet Boris Oliynyk wrote.

     In 1989, representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora nominated the Cathedral for the 1990 Nobel Prize. This idea was supported by Professor Ostap Tarnavsky, Head of the Association of Ukrainian Writers in Emigration "Word", Professor Yaroslav Podokh, President of the Scientific Society. Shevchenko, Professor of New Jersey University Ivan Fizer, Professor of La Salle University in Philadelphia Leonid Rudnitsky, Prosvita Society, Professor of Kiev University. T. Shevchenko and others. In 1989, representatives of the Ukrainian Diaspora nominated the Cathedral for the 1990 Nobel Prize. This idea was supported by Professor Ostap Tarnavsky, Head of the Association of Ukrainian Writers in Emigration "Word", Professor Yaroslav Podokh, President of the Scientific Society. Shevchenko, Professor of New Jersey University Ivan Fizer, Professor of La Salle University in Philadelphia Leonid Rudnitsky, Prosvita Society, Professor of Kiev University. Shevchenko and others. Nominated three times.

     O. Gonchar's literary "brand" was considered "Prophecy". However, in the diary there is such a record of the writer: "Sichovik commanded to put in the grave - under his head - a Cossack saddle ... And what would I order? I have to put three books under my head: The Cuttings, the Cathedral and the Dawn. This kind of testament Oles Honchar made in January 1982.

     O. Gonchar died on July 14, 1995 in Kiev, buried at the Baykovo Cemetery.