"Mikhail Gnessin. The following plays utilize a dramaturgical structure similar to ""The Government Inspector"": English translation by Thomas Seltzer The Government Inspector The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General (, ""Revizor"", literally: ""Inspector""), is a satirical play by the Russian and Ukrainian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition. Based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, satirizing human greed, stupidity, and the extensive political corruption of Imperial Russia. According to D. S. Mirsky, the play ""is not only"
"Konstantin Aksakov Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov () (10 April 1817, Novo-Aksakov, Orenburg Governorate – 19 December 1860, Zakynthos, US of the Ionian Islands) was a Russian critic and writer, one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles. He wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order. His father Sergey Aksakov and his sister Vera Aksakova were writers, and his younger brother, Ivan Aksakov, was a journalist. Konstantin was the first to publish an analysis of Gogol's ""Dead Souls"", comparing the Russian author with Homer (1842). After Tsar Alexander II's accession to the throne, he sent him a"
"until the Perestroika era. Even the comparatively orthodox Moscow Satire Theatre (inaugurated in 1924 with the production of Erdman's review ""Moscow from the Point of View..."") failed to have their version of ""The Suicide"" approved by the Soviet censors. Nikolai Erdman Nikolay Robertovich Erdman (; , Moscow — 10 August 1970) was a Soviet dramatist and screenwriter primarily remembered for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1920s. His plays, notably ""The Suicide"" (1928), form a link in Russian literary history between the satirical drama of Nikolai Gogol and the post-World War II Theatre of the Absurd. Born to parents"
"had real life prototypes, members of the Petrashevsky and Durov's circles (Rudkovsky as Durov, Slobodin as Fyodor Dostoyevsky). Palm's dramas ""Old Landlord"" (1873) and ""Our Friend Neklyuzhev"" (1879), staged by the Aleksandrinsky and Maly Theaters respectively, proved to be very popular with the public. Contemporary critics dismissed them, but in retrospect Russian literary historians see Palm's plays as superior to his prose and poetry. Alexander Palm Alexander Ivanovich Palm (Александр Иванович Пальм, 2 February [o.s. 21 January] 1822, Krasnoslobodsk, Penza Governorate, Russian Empire, - 22 [o.s. 10] November 1885, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright,"
"Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (31 March 1809 – 4 March 1852) was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian origin. Although Gogol was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in his work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of surrealism and the grotesque (""The Nose"", ""Viy"", ""The Overcoat"", ""Nevsky Prospekt""). His early works, such as ""Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"", were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing, Ukrainian culture and folklore. His later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire (""The Government Inspector"","
"of ""Dead Souls"", Gogol's contemporaries came to regard him as a great satirist who lampooned the unseemly sides of Imperial Russia. Little did they know that ""Dead Souls"" was but the first part of a planned modern-day counterpart to the ""Divine Comedy"" of Dante. The first part represented the ""Inferno""; the second part would depict the gradual purification and transformation of the rogue Chichikov under the influence of virtuous publicans and governors – ""Purgatory"". In April 1848 Gogol returned to Russia from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and passed his last years in restless movement throughout the country. While visiting the"
"play in front of the censorship board of the Central Committee of the Communist Party as a framing device, adapted and directed by Ben Naylor. Suhayla El-Bushra adapted the play for the modern day bring it into an urban British setting. Directed by Nadia Fall, it was performed at the National Theatre in London in 2016. The Suicide (play) The Suicide is a 1928 play by the Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman. Its performance was proscribed during the Stalinist era and it was only produced in Russia several years after the death of its writer. Today it is regarded as one"
"Committee. Khrushchev had to intervene, allegedly saying: ""The Tsar hadn't banned Gogol's ""Revizor"", how can we then ban Korneychuk's ""Wings""?"" Korniychuk's works of the 1960s showed less ideological fervour and more psychological depth, dealing with the Soviet people's moral dilemmas in the post-War Soviet Russia. Olexandr Korniychuk died on May 14, 1972, in Kiev. He was buried at the Baikove Cemetery. Oleksandr Korniychuk Oleksandr Yevdokymovych Korniychuk (, , May 25 [12 o.s.], 1905 – May 14, 1972) was a Ukrainian playwright, literary critic and state official (a Soviet Foreign Minister’s first deputy in 1943–1945). His most notable works were plays"
"2003 he joined the United Russia party. Currently he is an art director of the Moscow Theater 'Et Cetera'. Alexander Kalyagin Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kalyagin (; born 25 May 1942) is a Soviet/Russian actor and director, member of the Public Chamber of Russia, People's Artist of Russia (1983), Laureate of the State Prizes for his works in the theatre and the cinema. He is best known for his roles in the films ""Hello, I'm Your Aunt!"" (1975) and ""Dead Souls"" (1984). In 1965 Kalyagin graduated from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute and later worked in Moscow Art Theatre and some other"
"Viktor Burenin Viktor Petrovich Burenin (, March 6 [February 22, o.s.], 1841 in Moscow, Russian Empire – August 15, 1926 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) was a Russian literary and theatre critic, publicist, novelist, dramatist, translator and satirical poet notorious for his confrontational articles and satirical poems, mostly targeting leftist writers. He was the author of several popular plays (some co-authored by Alexey Suvorin), novels and opera librettos (Chaykovsky's ""Mazepa""; Cui's ""Angelo""). Viktor Burenin was born in Moscow, the twelfth child in the family of architect Pyotr Petrovich Burenin. As a student of the Moscow College of Architecture (1852-1859), he became"
"Arkady Arkanov Arkady Mikhailovich Arkanov (; 7 June 1933 – 22 March 2015) was a Russian writer, playwright and stand-up comedian. Arkanov was born Arkady Mikhailovich Steinbock in Kiev, Ukraine. At the onset of World War II in 1941, he was evacuated to Siberia, together with his mother and younger brother. In April 1943, the family was reunited with their father in Moscow. In 1957, Arkanov graduated from the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and before becoming a writer worked as a family doctor. Between 1963 and 1967, he was a satirist at the journal ""Yunost"". In 1966,"
"translated the comedy ""The Churchwoman"" by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, and the same author's ""Fables and Tales"", as well as ""The Republic of the Scientists"" by S. Fayard. He died in St Petersburg. His creative output also included comedies, opera librettos, and even music set to them. His operas ""Regeneration"" (""Перерождение"", 1777), and ""Saint-Petersburg's Trade Stalls"" (""Санкт Петербургский Гостный Двор"") had considerable success. The second one, a scathing satire to the government officials and their thievish behaviour, is one of the first examples of Russian comic opera. It was staged on December 26, 1779 at the Knipper Theatre in St Petersburg"
"the title People's Artist of Russia and awarded the Order of Honour. Arkady Arkanov Arkady Mikhailovich Arkanov (; 7 June 1933 – 22 March 2015) was a Russian writer, playwright and stand-up comedian. Arkanov was born Arkady Mikhailovich Steinbock in Kiev, Ukraine. At the onset of World War II in 1941, he was evacuated to Siberia, together with his mother and younger brother. In April 1943, the family was reunited with their father in Moscow. In 1957, Arkanov graduated from the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and before becoming a writer worked as a family doctor. Between 1963"
"Konstantin Varlamov Konstantin Alexandrovich Varlamov (, 23 May 1848 – 15 August 1915) was a Russian stage actor associated with the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Konstantin Varlamov was born in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia, to the composer Alexander Varlamov. In the course of his thirty-year career with the Alexandrinsky Theatre, he played more than one thousand parts (640 of them leads); among his best-remembered roles were Varravin (""The Case"", by Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin), Yaichnitsa (""The Marriage""), Lyapkin-Tyapkin (""Revizor"") and Chichikov (""Dead Souls""), all by Nikolai Gogol; Bolshov (""Family Affair""), Yusov (""A Profitable Position""), Rusakov (""Stay in Your Own Sled""), Krutitsky (""Enough Stupidity in"
"""Fear"" (Страх, 1931) and ""A Far Place"" (Далекое, 1935) were very popular with audiences; ""he is distinguished among Soviet playwrights for his interest in personal psychological problems."" Alexander Afinogenov Alexander Nikolayevich Afinogenov () (, Skopin - 29 October 1941, Moscow) was a Russian playwright. Alexander was born in the town of Skopin, in Ryazan Oblast. He joined the CPSU in 1922. He obtained a degree in journalism in 1924, the year that he published his first play. In the 1920s he was a member and later director of the Proletkult's theatre. He turned away from the Proletkult in the late"
"specific emotions and characters. (Stanislavski was also at odds with Method acting, because like Meyerhold, his approach was psychophysical.) Meyerhold gave initial boosts to the stage careers of some of the most distinguished comic actors of the USSR, including Sergey Martinson, Igor Ilyinsky and Erast Garin. His landmark production of Nikolai Gogol's ""The Government Inspector"" (1926) was described as the following: Energetic, mischievous, charming Ilyinsky left his post to the nervous, fragile, suddenly freezing, grotesquely anxious Garin. Energy was replaced by trance, the dynamic with the static, happy jesting humour with bitter and glum satire. Meyerhold also gave a start"
"Mikhail Bakunin, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, the novelist Ivan Turgenev and Herzen, whose character dominates the plays. Alexander Herzen Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen (also Aleksandr Ivanovič Gercen; ; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the ""father of Russian socialism"" and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party). With his writings, many composed while exiled in London, he attempted to influence the situation in Russia, contributing to a political climate that led to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. He published"
"Dmitry Averkiyev Dmitry Vasilyevich Averkiyev (, (November 23, 1836, Yekaterinodar, Russian Empire, — January 20, 1905, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian playwright, theatre critic, novelist, publicist and translator. He is the author of the Russian libretto to ""Rogneda"" by Alexander Serov. Averkiyev's best known plays were ""Frol Skorbeyev"" (Фрол Скорбеев, 1869) and ""Old Times in Kashira"" (Каширская старина, 1872); both continued to be produced into the Soviet times. He was also an acclaimed theatre critic who contributed to ""Epokha"", ""Moskovskiye Vedomosti"", ""Novoye Vremya"" and ""Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya"" (where he was the head of the literary section, in 1869-1871). Averkiyev's"
"Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (; ; 11 November 18219 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include ""Crime and Punishment"" (1866), ""The Idiot"" (1869), ""Demons"" (1872) and ""The Brothers Karamazov"" (1880). Dostoevsky's oeuvre consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world"
"play that was greatly popular in Soviet theaters. He was executed in 1939 during the Great Purge, and some sources claim that as the wife of an ""enemy of the people"" she was arrested and sent to the gulag, released only after the death of Joseph Stalin. Other sources state that she remained free and living in Moscow, aiding the war effort. It was in that city that she died. Lidiia Seifullina Lidiia (sometimes transcribed as Lydia or Lidia) Nikolaevna Seifullina (March 23, 1889 – April 25, 1954) was a Soviet journalist, playwright, novelist, and short story writer. Born near"
"next year he was executed at Butyrka prison in Moscow. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1955 and his plays performed again. Vladimir Kirshon Vladimir Mikhailovich Kirshon () ( - July 28, 1938) was a Soviet playwright. Born in Nalchik in the Caucasus into the family of a lawyer, Kirshon served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and in 1920 joined the Communist Party, which sent him to the Sverdlov Communist University. As a young idealist, he was upset by the New Economic Policy, and this is reflected in his early plays. He was an organizer of the"
"Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Boris Godunov (play) Boris Godunov (, Borís Godunóv; variant title: ""Драматическая повесть, Комедия o настоящей беде Московскому государству, o царе Борисе и о Гришке Отрепьеве"", ""A Dramatic Tale, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev"") is a closet play by Alexander Pushkin. It was written in 1825, published in 1831, but not approved for performance by the censor until 1866 . Its subject is the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar from 1598 to 1605. It consists of 25 scenes and is written predominantly"
"made shows mostly in industrial districts. In 1912, for his revolutionary activity, he was exiled to Astrakhan by the Tsarist authorities. In 1912-1916, he made several shows in cities along Volga River, Tiflis, Erivan, and various towns in Iran and Turkey. His most classical role was the character of Isgandar in ""The Dead Men"" (""Ölülər"") satirical comedy by Jalil Mammadguluzade, performed in Baku in 1916. After the Sovietization of Azerbaijan, M. A. Aliyev organized the ""Free Critical and Promotional Theatre"" in Baku, and from 1924 till the end of his life worked at the Azerbaijani State Dramatical Theatre. Aliyev was"
"Oleksandr Korniychuk Oleksandr Yevdokymovych Korniychuk (, , May 25 [12 o.s.], 1905 – May 14, 1972) was a Ukrainian playwright, literary critic and state official (a Soviet Foreign Minister’s first deputy in 1943–1945). His most notable works were plays such as ""Zahybel eskadry"" (""The Death of the Squadron"") (1933), ""Platon Krechet"" (1934), ""Bohdan Khmelnytsky"" (1938), his pro-collectivization comedy ""In the Steppes of Ukraine"" (1940), and ""The Front"" (1942). Korniychuk was a five-time Stalin Prize laureate (1941, 1942, 1943, 1949, 1951) and is regarded as a major proponent of Socialist Realism in Soviet drama. Korniychuk was the member of the Central"
"Nikolai Erdman Nikolay Robertovich Erdman (; , Moscow — 10 August 1970) was a Soviet dramatist and screenwriter primarily remembered for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1920s. His plays, notably ""The Suicide"" (1928), form a link in Russian literary history between the satirical drama of Nikolai Gogol and the post-World War II Theatre of the Absurd. Born to parents of Baltic German descent, Erdman was reared in Moscow. His brother Boris Erdman (1899–1960) was a stage designer who introduced him to the literary and theatrical milieu of Moscow. Young Erdman was particularly impressed by the grotesquely satirical poetry"
"Alexander Palm Alexander Ivanovich Palm (Александр Иванович Пальм, 2 February [o.s. 21 January] 1822, Krasnoslobodsk, Penza Governorate, Russian Empire, - 22 [o.s. 10] November 1885, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, who also used the pseudonym P. Alminsky. A member of the Petrashevsky Circle, Palm in 1847 was arrested, spent 8 months in the Petropavlovsk Fortress, had his death sentence changed to deportation and served 7 years in the Russian Army. Among his best known works are ""Alexey Slobodin. The History of One Family"" (1874, novel) and ""Our Friend Neklyuzhev"" (1879, drama). Alexander Ivanovich Palm"
"were his plays for children, some of which came out in the 1898 ""Dyuzhinka"" (Дюжинка, Little Dozen) collection. Some of Shiglev's work has never appeared in print in Russia. The play ""Zarnitsy"" (Зарницы, Heat Lightning) came out abroad, under the pseudonym ""Startseva"". The satirical vaudeville ""Feskina kramola"" (Феськина крамола, Feska's Sedition), lampooning Russian secret police, was a hit with amateur underground theatre troupes of his time. Vladimir Shchiglev Vladimir Romanovich Shchiglev (, 1840–1903) was a Russian satirical poet and playwright, who occasionally used the pseudonyms ""Shchigrov"" (for his plays) and ""Romanych"" (for poetry, as well as journalistic miscellaneous work). Shchiglev,"
"the KGB. In order to preserve his writings, his friends broke in and stole whatever manuscripts they could, but most were later recovered by the KGB. Yevgeny Kharitonov (poet) Yevgeny Vladimirovich Kharitonov (; 11 July 1941 – 29 July 1981) was a Russian writer, poet, playwright, and theater director. Born in Novosibirsk, he graduated from the acting department of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. After a brief career as an actor, he returned to university to study filmmaking as a graduate student, defending his graduate thesis on pantomime. He wrote and directed a play, ""The Enchanted Island"", for the Mimics"
"in Novodevichy Cemetery. Konstantin Varlamov Konstantin Alexandrovich Varlamov (, 23 May 1848 – 15 August 1915) was a Russian stage actor associated with the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Konstantin Varlamov was born in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia, to the composer Alexander Varlamov. In the course of his thirty-year career with the Alexandrinsky Theatre, he played more than one thousand parts (640 of them leads); among his best-remembered roles were Varravin (""The Case"", by Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin), Yaichnitsa (""The Marriage""), Lyapkin-Tyapkin (""Revizor"") and Chichikov (""Dead Souls""), all by Nikolai Gogol; Bolshov (""Family Affair""), Yusov (""A Profitable Position""), Rusakov (""Stay in Your Own Sled""), Krutitsky"
"Arkady Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko (; March 27, 1881, Sevastopol – March 12, 1925, Prague) was a Russian playwright and satirist. He published his stories in the journal ""Satyricon"", of which he was also an editor, in the series of ""New Satyricon"", and other publications. He published a total of around 20 books. Averchenko's satirical writings can be described as liberal. After the Russian Civil War, he emigrated to Central Europe and died in Prague. Averchenko was born on 27 March 1881 in Sevastopol. He was the son of a poor merchant, Timofey Petrovich Averchenko. Averchenko completed only two courses"
"Georgy Burdzhalov Georgy Sergeyevich Burdzhalov (, born ""Бурджалян"", Бурджалян; 14 April 1869, Astrakhan, Russian Empire, — 10 December 1924, Moscow, Soviet Union) was an Armenian Russian stage actor and theatre director, associated with Moscow Art Theatre, where he played, in all, 38 parts, including the acclaimed Mikhaylo Golovin (""Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich"", A.K. Tolstoy, 1898), The Wood Demon (""The Sunken Bell"", Gerhart Hauptmann, 1898), Launcelot Gobbo (""The Merchant of Venice"", William Shakespeare, 1898), Kadushkin (""Men Above the Law"", Alexey Pisemsky, 1898), Tatishchev (""The Death of Ivan the Terrible"", A.K. Tolstoy, 1899). Konstantin Stanislavski praised Burdzhalov for his artistic gifts, but, first"
"were as Dobchinsky in Gogol's ""The Government Inspector"" and as the footman Petrushka in Griboyedov's ""Woe from Wit"". He came to greater attention in the role of Lariosik in Bulgakov's ""Days of the Turbins"", and thereafter began to receive work in other theaters. From 1934 to 1939 he was artistic director of the Moscow Theatre of the Forest Industry; from 1937 to 1941 he directed the Romen Theatre; and from 1950 to 1963 he was chief director of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre. In 1963 Yanshin was criticized by the Soviet ministry of culture, which disapproved of"
"on 29 September in Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg. Rafail Zotov Rafail Mikhaylovich Zotov (, 1795, — September 29, 1871) was a Russian playwright, novelist, journalist, translator and theatre critic. The playwright Vladimir Zotov was his son. Born in Pskov, Zotov started his literary career in 1814. He has written more than one hundred plays some of which (""Jealous Wife"", 1816; ""Bohemian Forests' Outlaw"", 1830) enjoyed long runs at the Imperial Theatres and popular success, even if evoking scathing criticism from Vissarion Belinsky. Zotov translated ten Russian plays into German and compiled the official biography of Tsar Alexander I, in French. Highly"