Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin () (,

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 ...

– ,

Beaulieu-sur-Mer Beaulieu-sur-Mer (; ; ; "Beautiful Place on the Sea"), commonly referred to simply as Beaulieu, is a seaside commune on the French Riviera between Nice and the Principality of Monaco. Located in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence- ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was a Russian philosopher and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, chiefly known for his satirical plays criticizing Russian imperial bureaucracy. His sister

Evgenia Tur Evgeniia Tur (; 24 August 1815 – 27 March 1892) was a Russian writer, children's writer, critic, editor, journalist, publisher, salon hostess, and translator. Evgeniia Tur was the penname for Elizaveta Vasilyevna Sukhovo-Kobylina, who became Co ...

was a popular novelist, critic and journalist and his sister

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

was a painter of some note.

Biography

A rich aristocrat who often travelled, Sukhovo-Kobylin was arrested, prosecuted and tried for seven years in Russia for the murder of his French mistress Louise-Simone Dimanche, a crime of which he is nowadays generally believed to have been innocent. He only managed to achieve acquittal by means of giving enormous

bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

s to court officials and by using all of his contacts in the Russian

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

. According to his own version as well as the generally accepted view today, he was targeted precisely because he had the financial capabilities to give such bribes. Based on his personal experiences, Sukhovo-Kobylin wrote a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

plays ''

Scenes from the Past ''Scenes from the Past'' (or ''Pictures of the Past''; , first published in English as ''The Trilogy of Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin'') is a trilogy of satirical plays by Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin, written from 1854 to 1869. The first play, ''Krechin ...

'' (1854–1869) about the prevalence of bribery and other corrupt practices in the absurd bureaucratical system of Russian Empire. First work of the trilogy, '' Krechinsky's Wedding'' had immediate success and became one of Russia's most frequently performed plays. The trilogy in its entirety was published in 1869. Attempts to stage the last two plays, ''The Trial'' (or ''The Case'') and ''Tarelkin's Death'', ran into difficulties with

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

; in particular, ''Tarelkin's Death'' was only staged in 1899. Russian literary critic Varvara Babitskaya thinks that ''Tarelkin's Death'' anticipates

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

's works and the Theatre of the Absurd. AlexanderSukhovo-Kobylin

English Translations

*'' Krechinsky's Wedding: A Comedy in Three Acts'', University of Michigan Press,

961 Year 961 ( CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoros II Phokas capture and pillage Chandax after an 8 ...

Translated by Robert Magidoff. *''The Trilogy of Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin'', Dutton, 1969. (''Krechinsky's Wedding'', ''The Case'', and ''The Death of Tarelkin''). Translated by Harold B. Segel.

References

Sources

* ''Гроссман Л. П.'' Театр Сухово-Кобылина. — Москва; Ленинград, 1940. * ''Рудницкий К. Л.'' А. В. Сухово-Кобылин: Очерк жизни и творчества. — Москва, 1974. * ''Старосельская Н. Д.'' Сухово-Кобылин. — Москва: Молодая гвардия, 2003. — 336 с. — (Жизнь замечательных людей.)

External links

*
Sukhovo-Kobylin's compositions online (in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sukhovo-Kobylin, Aleksandr 1817 births 1903 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Podolsky Uyezd Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire