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A Bitter Fate
''A Bitter Fate'' (, ), also translated as ''A Bitter Lot'', is an 1859 realistic play by Aleksey Pisemsky.Banham (1998, 861) and Moser (1992, 273). It is a story of a peasant woman, who, while her husband was away for quitrent works, had been seduced by a young '' pomeshchik'' and had brought him a child. The four-act play tackles Russian serfdom and the social and moral divisions that it creates. With the exception of Leo Tolstoy's '' The Power of Darkness'' (1886), it is the only major play to dramatise the experiences of Russian serfs in the history of Russian realistic drama. It was started in early 1859 in St. Petersburg, finished on 19 August and first published by '' Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'' in November that year,Yeryomin, M.P.Commentaries to Горькая судьбина The Selected Works by A.F. Pisemsky. 1959 // А.Ф.Писемский. Собр. соч. в 9 томах. Том 9. Издательство "Правда" биб-ка "Огонек", Москва, ...
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Ilya Repin
Ilya Yefimovich Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is today Ukraine. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russian Empire, Russia in the 19th century. His major works include ''Barge Haulers on the Volga'' (1873), ''Religious Procession in Kursk Province'' (1880–1883), ''Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan'' (1885); and ''Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks'' (1880–1891). He is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading Russian literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship. Repin was born in Chuguev, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). Repin was of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack descent on his paternal grandfather's side. His father had served in an Uhlan#Russian Uhlans, Uhlan Regiment in the Russian army, and then sold horses. Repin began painting icons at age sixteen. He failed at his ...
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Russian Serfdom
In tsarist Russia, the term ''serf'' () meant an unfree peasant who, unlike a slave, historically could be sold only together with the land to which they were "attached". However, this stopped being a requirement by the 19th century, and serfs were practically indistinguishable from slaves. Contemporary legal documents, such as '' Russkaya Pravda'' (12th century onwards), distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. While another form of slavery in Russia, '' kholopstvo'', was ended by Peter I in 1723, serfdom () was abolished only by Alexander II's emancipation reform of 1861; nevertheless, in times past, the state allowed peasants to sue for release from serfdom under certain conditions, and also took measures against abuses of landlord power. Serfdom became the dominant form of relation between Russian peasants and nobility in the 17th century. Serfdom most commonly existed in the central and southern areas of the Tsardom of Russia and, from 1721, of the su ...
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1859 Plays
Events January–March * January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. * January 24 ( O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are united under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. It would be a principal step in forming the modern state of Romania. * January 28 – The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory of the United States of America. * February 2 – Miguel Miramón (1832–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. * February 4 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the ''Codex Sinaiticus'', a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg. * February 14 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. * February 12 – The Mek ...
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Works By Aleksey Pisemsky
Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * John D. Works (1847–1928), California senator and judge * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album), a Pink Floyd album from 1983 * ''Works'', a Gary Burton album from 1972 * ''Works'', a Status Quo album from 1983 * ''Works'', a John Abercrombie album from 1991 * ''Works'', a Pat Metheny album from 1994 * ''Works'', an Alan Parson Project album from 2002 * ''Works Volume 1'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * ''Works Volume 2'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * '' The Works'', a 1984 Queen album Other uses *Good works, a topic in Christian theology * Microsoft Works, a collection of office productivity programs created by Microsoft * IBM Works, an office suite for the IBM OS/2 operating system * Mount Works, Victoria Land, Antarctica See also * The Works (other) * Work (other) Work may refer to: * Work ( ...
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Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya
''Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'' (, ) was a Russian monthly magazine founded in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, in 1834 by Alexander Smirdin. History The magazine "of literature, sciences, arts, industry, current news and fashion" was launched in 1834 by publisher and trader Alexander Filippovich Smirdin who invited the professor of Saint Petersburg University Osip Senkovsky to edit it, for unusually high salary of 15 thousand rubles a year. For the first time in the history of Russian journalism Smirdin maintained the distinction between the publisher and editor and fixed the royalties schedule (200 rubles per list a minimum, 1000 rubles for famous authors). ''Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'' became the first ever best-selling magazine in Russia to appeal to the wide middle-class readership, not just the intellectual elite. The magazine had several regular sections: Russian Literature, Foreign Literature, Science and Arts, Industry and Agriculture, Criticism, History of Literature and ...
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Drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the Epic poetry, epic and the Lyric poetry, lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's ''Poetics (Aristotle), Poetics'' ()—the earliest work of dramatic theory. The term "drama" comes from a Ancient Greek, Greek word meaning "deed" or "Action (philosophy), act" (Classical Greek: , ''drâma''), which is derived from "I do" (Classical Greek: , ''dráō''). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional Genre, generic division between Comedy (drama), comedy and tragedy. In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the word ''Play (theatre), play'' or ''game'' (translating the Old English, Anglo-Saxon ''pleġan'' or Latin ''ludus'') wa ...
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The Power Of Darkness
''The Power of Darkness'' (, Vlast′ t′my) is a five- act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play's production was banned in Russia until 1902, mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. In spite of the ban, the play was unofficially produced and read numerous times. Overview A peasant, Nikita, a farmhand of another wealthy peasant seduces a young orphan girl and abandons her for the wife of his master, Anisya, who poisons her already sick husband to marry Nikita. At the same time he has an affair with Anisya's daughter and eventually impregnates her (i.e., his new stepdaughter). Under his wife's and mother's influence, he murders the newborn. On the day of his stepdaughter's marriage, he surrenders himself and confesses to the police. Production history French theatre pioneer André Antoine staged ''La Puissance des Ténèbres''—a French translation of the play, by Pavlovsky and Oscar Méténier—in Paris at the Théâtre Montparnasse on 10 Febru ...
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Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution reform, pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic family, Tolstoy achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Childhood (Tolstoy novel), Childhood'', ''Boyhood (novel), Boyhood'' and ''Youth (Tolstoy novel), Youth'' (1852–1856), and with ''Sevastopol Sketches'' (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His ''War and Peace'' (1869), ''Anna Karenina'' (1878), and ''Resurrection (Tolstoy novel), Resurrection'' (1899), which is based on his youthful sins, are often cited as pinnacles of Literary realism, realist fiction and three of th ...
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Pomeshchik
In the history of Russia pomeshchiks () were the class of Russian nobility who owned a ''pomestye'' (), i.e., an estate. The term ''pomeshchik'' is commonly translated in English as "landlord". History It terms of land ownership there used to be two major categories of land ownership. In , a sovereign (tsar or ''knyaz'') could grant a piece of state-owned land to a person for his service (usually military) into personal ownership, for the term of the service or for life. Its temporary and conditional character constituted the differencer from the '' votchina'' system, whereby land ownership was hereditary. Over time the two systems blended into one under the term ''pomestye ownership''. This was finalized by Peter the Great in his 1714 , whose main rule of law was inheritance of the real estate regardless its type by a single son, hence the name. The "single inheritance" clause was amended in 1730 by Empress Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna a ...
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Polina Strepetova
Polina (Pelageya) Antipyevna Strepetova (; 17 October 1850 – 17 October 1903) was a Russian stage actress, renowned for her tragic parts, who provided a deep and expressive portrayal of "a suffering, protesting Russian woman."Ekaterina Yudins biography at the Krugosvet Online Arts Encyclopedia Biography Born in Nizhny Novgorod, she was a foundling, raised and brought up by a city theatre barber Antip Grigoryevich Strepetov, who'd literally found the infant at his own doorstep. She's never been able to establish her biological parents' identities and accepted the day she'd been found as her birthday. Her foster mother Elizaveta Ivanovna was an amateur actress and singer who worked at the popular Shepelev Theatre, and from an early age Polina made up her mind that she'd follow her footsteps. Strepetova started to perform at the Nizhny City theatre from age seven and was recognized as an exceptionally gifted child, but failed to receive any formal education. She made her major deb ...
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Quitrent
Quit rent, quit-rent, or quitrent is a tax or land tax imposed on occupants of freehold or leased land in lieu of services to a higher landowning authority, usually a government or its assigns. Under English feudal law, the payment of quit rent (Latin ''Quietus Redditus'', pl. ''Redditus Quieti'') freed the tenant of a holding from the obligation to perform such other services as were obligatory under feudal tenure, or freed the occupier of the land from the burden of having others use their own distinct rights that affected the land (e.g. hunting rights which would have hindered farming). Thus, it was a payment for distinct rights that were connected with the full enjoyment of the land but not parcelled up in the ownership of the land. Formally, it was a sort of buy-back rather than a tax. A tax can be varied by the taxer; and if not paid there are penalties that can be varied by the taxer without formal limit. In contrast, the only sanction for not paying a feudal quit rent wa ...
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Tragedy
A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain [that] awakens pleasure,” for the audience. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term ''tragedy'' often refers to a specific Poetic tradition, tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture, Western civilization. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Classical Athens, Greeks and the Elizabethan era, Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenistic civilization, Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it. Originating in the theatre of ancient Greece ...
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