Ivan Fyodorovich Gorbunov (russian: Ива́н Фёдорович Горбуно́в, 22 September 1831 — 5 January 1896) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

writer and

stage actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

, considered to be a forefather for the "literary theatre" subgenre in his county.Горбунов, Иван Федорович
at Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary

Career

Born in

Ivanteyevka Ivanteyevka (russian: Ивантеевка) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities * Ivanteyevka, Moscow Oblast, a town in Moscow Oblast; administratively incorporated as a town under oblast jurisdiction ;Rural ...

in the

Moscow Governorate Moscow Governorate (russian: Московская губерния; pre-reform Russian: ), or the Government of Moscow, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR, which ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, as a writer, Gorbunov started out in 1853, as a contributor of stories and sketches to ''

Moskvityanin ''Moskvityanin'' (Москвитянин, "The Muscovite") was a monthly literary review published by Mikhail Pogodin in Moscow between 1841 and 1856., , , , It was the mouthpiece of the Official Nationality theory espoused by Count Sergey Uvar ...

'', and later ''

Otechestvennye Zapiski ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lite ...

''. In 1854 he debuted on stage the Moscow

Maly Theatre The Maly Theatre, or Mali Theatre, may refer to one of several different theatres: * The Maly Theatre (Moscow), also known as The State Academic Maly Theatre of Russia, in Moscow (founded in 1756 and given its own building in 1824) * The Maly Thea ...

in Moscow. Two years later he moved north to the

Alexandrinka The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) 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 trou ...

with which he stayed till the end of his life. In the course of forty years he played 54 parts, most of them in plays by

Alexander Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 origina ...

(most memorably, Kudryash in '' The Storm'', Pyotr in '' The Forest'' and Afonya in '' Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All''), his friend for whom he occasionally worked as a secretary. In the 1850s Gorbunov started to introduce the audiences to his own original repertoire of dramatized short stories under the heading of ''Scenes from the People's Life'' (Сцены из народного быта), satirizing all strata of the Russian society, particularly petty state officials. They earned him praise from

Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, who found there "...a lot of astute observations and the deep understanding of the nature of Russian people." Famous across Russia, Gorbunov was equally loved by peasants and the last of the three Russian Tsars. The humour of his stories "spread all through the country in the form of proverbs, and folk jokes," according to

Alexey Pleshcheyev Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Никола́евич Плеще́ев; 8 October 1893) was a radical Russian poetry, Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member of the Petrashevsky Circle. Pleshcheyev's ...

. Later in his life Gorbunov acquired the reputation of a credible Russian theatre historian. He was the founder of the first ever museum of theatre in his country. Gorbunov, who attended art college and

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

(which he never graduated) and had the profound knowledge of Russian history, culture and folklore, was a self-taught folklore scholar. It was him who introduced

Modest Musorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...

to the folk song "Iskhodila mladyuoshenka" (Исходила младёшенька) which the latter used in his ''

Khovanshchina ''Khovanshchina'' ( rus, Хованщина, , xɐˈvanʲɕːɪnə, Ru-Khovanshchina_version.ogg, sometimes rendered ''The Khovansky Affair'') is an opera (subtitled a 'national music drama') in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was writte ...

'' opera, as "Marfa's Song". Gorbunov died in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

on 5 January 1896. The Collected Works by I.F. Gorbunov in three volumes came out in 1902–1907.Alexander Kugel. Literary memoirs. Petrograd, 1924. Pp. 156—157.

Career

References

Further reading