Daniil Charms, born Daniil Yuvachev on 30 December 1905 (O.S. 17 December) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, was a prominent Russian absurdist writer, poet, and dramatist, often regarded as one of the most significant avant-garde figures of the early Soviet era. His life was marked by tragedy, as he faced repression from the Soviet regime and was permitted to publish only children's literature. Charms was arrested twice and ultimately died from starvation at the age of 36 in a prison mental hospital. He was posthumously rehabilitated in July 1960. By the early to mid-1990s, his works gained widespread recognition and were published extensively in Russia and internationally, translated into English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Irish, and other languages.

Charms began his literary career in the early 1920s, adopting the pseudonym Kharms along with numerous others, including Ххармс, Хаармсъ, Чармс, Шардам, Дандан, Карл Иванович Шустерлинг, and Иван Топорышкин. His early works from 1924 to 1926 were influenced by the "Zaum" futurists, notably Velimir Chlebnikov and Aleksej Kručenych. In 1927, he co-founded the underground group OBeRIu (the "Union of Real Art") alongside Alexander Vvedensky. This collective, which included members such as Nikolay Zabolotsky, Konstantin Vaginov, Nikolay Oleynikov, and Igor Bakhterev, primarily organized public performances and readings. Shortly thereafter, Samuil Marshak and Boris Zhitkov assisted Charms in publishing children's literature, which became the only suitable outlet for his eccentric writing style. Between 1928 and 1931, he published nine illustrated children's books and collaborated extensively with popular magazines. In December 1931, Charms, Vvedensky, and Bakhterev were arrested for their involvement in an anti-Soviet writers' club, leading to the dissolution of OBeRIu. Charms was sentenced to four months of penal transportation in Kursk, returning to Leningrad by October 1932.

In August 1941, Charms was arrested again for criticizing the Communist Party in the context of the war against Germany, a charge that fell under martial law and was deemed treasonous. He narrowly escaped execution by feigning insanity and was subsequently incarcerated in a psychiatric ward at the infamous "Kresty" prison, where he died from starvation in February 1942. His manuscripts were salvaged by his second wife, Marina Malich (1909–2002), and a close friend from his abandoned apartment.

Around 1965, Charms' first "adult" works began to surface in Soviet literary magazines, with more extensive compilations appearing in "samizdat." Notable collections include one published by George Gibian at Cornell University in 1974 and a four-volume edition released by Mikhail Meilakh and Vladimir Erl in Bremen, Germany, between 1978 and 1988. Gibian was among the first to translate Charms' work into English, followed by Neil Cornwell in Great Britain. In 1988, a Master's thesis titled Problematics of "funny" in OBeRIu art by Anna Gerasimova (who is also recognized as rock musician Umka) became the first academic study of Charms in the USSR. Since then, his work has been the subject of extensive analysis, influencing contemporary Russian culture, including the fairy tales of Yuriy Koval and the postmodern literature of Viktor Pelevin and Vladimir Sorokin, as well as the music of Boris Grebenshikov and the band NOM. Charms' legacy also extends to various artists, such as Icelandic composer Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Belgian artist Peter Vermeersch, and the Dutch new music ensemble De Kift, which produced an experimental opera inspired by his work. In 2003, saxophonist Ted Milton and laptop musician Sam Britton performed Kharm's Way, and in 2015, US rapper Billy Woods titled his album Today, I Wrote Nothing after one of Kharms' books.