''A Profitable Position'' (''Dokhodnoye mesto'', Доходное место) is a play by

Alexander Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repe ...

. It was first published in No.1, January

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, '' Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Ja ...

issue of '' Russkaya Beseda'' and came out as a separate edition later that year. Banned from being produced at the Russian Imperial theatres, it was premiered only six years later, on September 27, 1863, in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Alexandrinsky Theatre The Alexandrinsky Theatre () or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial troupe was founded in 1756). Since 1832, the theatre ...

as a benefice for actress Elizaveta Levkeyeva. On October 14 of the same year it was performed in Maly Theatre, as actress Ekaterina Vasilieva's benefice.

History

Ostrovsky wrote ''A Profitable Position'' at his Moscow home, lying there with a broken leg after the incident during his Volga trip. Taking bribery and corruption as its themes, the play was eagerly anticipated by ''

Sovremennik ''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...

'' and its followers, but it was not a straightforward social critique. According to biographer Lakshin, Ostrovsky's approach was now different: "Is it worthwhile to wage ardent wars against certain bribe-takers when they are only part of the way of life with corruption serving as its hidden mechanism? Wouldn't it be more intriguing to try and penetrate under the skin of these people, learn how their special kind of morality works, expose the logic of their excuses?" Ostrovsky loathed tendentious drama and shied didacticism. "To pronounce a clever and honest word is not such a big deal, lots of them have been said and written. For a statement of truth to be effective and for it to make people wiser, it has to be filtered through the soul of a highest quality, that of an artist," he used to say, according to

Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (; born Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov; 28 January 1935) was a Russia, Russian and Soviet Union, Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era into the 20th century era. ...

.A.N.Ostrovsky Remembered by the Contemporaries, p. 431). Ostrovsky published ''A Profitable Position'' in ''Russkaya Beseda'' where he had some unfulfilled obligations, notably, ''Minin'', promised and never delivered.

Ivan Panaev Ivan Ivanovich Panaev (; March 27, 1812 – March 2, 1862) was a Russian writer, literary critic, journalist and magazine publisher. Early life Panaev was born into a gentry family in St Petersburg.Handbook of Russian Literature, Victor Terra ...

deplored the fact that "such a thing had been published not by ''Sovremennik''" and

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 re ...

reproached his friend for having given "such a brilliant comedy to the

raskolniks The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as (, , meaning 'split' or 'schism'), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the 1600s. It was triggered by the reforms of Patria ...

' journal".

Nikolai Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky ( – ) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the N ...

greeted the play warmly in his ''Magazines review'', comparing it favourably to the ''Family Affair''. ''A Profitable Position''s premiere was scheduled on December 20, 1857, but the show was cancelled at the eleventh hour, censors labeling it "an opus poking fun at state officials." The real reason, according to

Vasily Botkin Vasily Petrovich Botkin (; – ) was a Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist. Early life Vasily was born in Moscow, the son of Alexandra Antonovna (Baranova) and Petr Kononovich Botkin, a wealthy tea merc ...

, was that "it examined the thin line between honesty and corruption," showing bribery to be not an isolated vice but part of a serious social malaise.

Reception

Leo Tolstoy rated ''A Profitable Position'' exceptionally high. "This is a colossal thing in terms of depth, power and relevance and in particular for this impeccably credible character of Yusov," he wrote in a letter. Both liberal and radical critics were unhappy with the finale, the former expecting a Zhadov's triumph, the latter eager to see him fall. "It is possible that the optimistic finale was meant to avoid the anticipated censorial troubles," Lakshin wrote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Profitable Position 1857 plays Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky