Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (russian: Александр Васильевич Сухово-Кобылин) (,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

- ,

Beaulieu-sur-Mer Beaulieu-sur-Mer (; oc, Bèuluec de Mar; it, Belluogo; "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-Marit ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

), was a Russian philosopher and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

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

Evgenia Tur Evgenia Tur (russian: link=no, Евге́ния Тур; 24 August 1815 – 27 March 1892) was a Russian writer, critic, journalist and publisher. Her birth name was Elizaveta Vasilyevna Sukhovo-Kobylina. Her full married name was Countess Elizavet ...

was a popular novelist, critic and journalist and his sister

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

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 offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corr ...

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

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

. 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 works of art 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, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

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

plays ''

Scenes from the Past ''Scenes from the Past'' (or ''Pictures of the Past''; russian: Картины прошедшего, translit=Kartiny proshedshego, first published in English as ''The Trilogy of Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin''), is a trilogy of satirical plays by Alex ...

'' (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 governments ...

; 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 German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

's works and the

Theatre of the Absurd The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style o ...

English Translations

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

961 Year 961 (Roman numerals, CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoro ...

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 Russian untitled nobility Russian dramatists and playwrights Russian male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire