The Griboyedov Prize () was a Russian literary award established in 1878 by the Society of Russian Dramatists and Opera Composers to honor

Alexander Griboyedov Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (; 15 January 179511 February 1829) was a Russian diplomat, playwright, poet, and composer. His one notable work is the 1823 verse comedy '' Woe from Wit''. He was Russia's ambassador to Qajar Persia, where he and ...

. The opening ceremony was held on 11 February (old style: 30 January), on the anniversary of the great Russian playwright's death. The prize, collected through private donations, was awarded to the best play of the year, produced 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 ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

by either Imperial Theatres or their private counterparts. Despite the fact that the Prize was launched in 1878, it was first awarded in 1883.

Laureates

* 1882/1883 — Alexander Ostrovsky, ''The Handsome Man'' * 1883/1884 — Nikolai Chayev, ''The Tsar and the Grand Prince of Rus Vasily Ivanovich Shuysky'' * 1884/1885 — Alexander Ostrovsky, ''Not of This World'' * 1885/1886 — Pyotr Nevezhin, ''Childhood Friend'' * 1886/1887 — Vladimir Tikhonov, ''The Ace'' * 1887/1888 — Pyotr Nevezhin, ''Second Youth'' * 1888/1889 — Dmitry Averkiyev, ''Teophano'' * 1889/1890 — Pyotr Gnedich, ''The Rolling Stone'' * 1890/1891 —

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko (; – 25 April 1943) was a Soviet and Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how t ...

, ''The New Business'' * 1891/1892 —

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 ...

, '' The Fruits of Enlightenment'' * 1893/1894 — joint winners: Modest Chaykosky, ''Prejudices''; Evgeny Goslavsky, ''Price to Pay''; Vasily Velichko, ''First Fly'' * 1894/1895 — Modest Chaykosky, ''Fear of Life''; Alexander Yuzhin, ''Old School'' * 1896/1897 —

, ''Price of Life'' * 1897/1898 — Modest Chaykovsky, ''Wrestlers''; Alexander Yuzhin, ''The Gentlemen'' * 1898/1899 — Ippolit Shpazhinsky, ''Two Fates'' * 1900/1901 —

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

, '' The Three Sisters'' * 1901/1902 — joint winners:

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

, ''The Philistines''; Sergey Naydyonov, ''Vanyushin's Children'' and

, ''In Dreams'' * 1902/1903 —

, ''

The Lower Depths ''The Lower Depths'' (, literally: ''At the bottom'') is a play by Russian dramatist Maxim Gorky written in 1902 and produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18, 1902, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski. It became his first ma ...

'' * 1903/1904 —

, ''

The Cherry Orchard ''The Cherry Orchard'' () is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by '' Znaniye'' (Book Two, 1904), and came out as a separate edition later that year in Saint Petersburg, via A.F. Marks Pu ...

'' * 1906/1907 — Leonid Andreyev, '' The Life of Man'' * 1909/1910 — Evtikhy Karpov, ''Brilliant Personality''; Evgeny Chirikov, ''King of Nature'' * 1911/1912 — Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik, ''Happy Woman'' * 1912/1913 — Pyotr Gnedich, ''The Assembly''; Sergey Naydyonov, ''Aunt Anya's Love Affair'' * 1913/1914 — A. Alpatin, ''The Last Bet''; Vladimir Volkenstein, ''The Wanderers'' * 1914/1915 — N.A. Grigoriev-Istomin, ''The Kedrov Sisters''; Nikolai Shklyar, ''The Tale of Bonny Prince Albert'', Alexey N. Tolstoy, ''Kasatka'' * 1915/1916 – Vladimir Vinnichenko, ''The Lie''; Sergey Naydyonov, ''The Woman Worker''Literary Prizes in the Pre-Revolutionary Russia

References

{{Reflist Awards established in 1878 Russian literary awards Russian-language literary awards