Rafail Mikhaylovich Zotov (russian: Рафаил Михайлович Зотов, 1795, — September 29, 1871) was a Russian

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 ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

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and theatre critic. The playwright

Vladimir Zotov Vladimir Rafailovich Zotov (russian: Владимир Рафаилович Зотов, July 4, 1821, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, — February 18, 1896, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian writer, playwright, journalist and editor. The writer an ...

was his son. Born in

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...

, Zotov started his literary career in 1814. He has written more than one hundred plays some of which (''Jealous Wife'', 1816; ''Bohemian Forests' Outlaw'', 1830) enjoyed long runs at the Imperial Theatres and popular success, even if evoking scathing criticism from Vissarion Belinsky. Zotov translated ten Russian plays into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and compiled the official biography of Tsar Alexander I, in

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. Highly popular were his historical novels (''Leonid or the Selected Scenes from the Life of Napoleon I'', Леонид или Некоторые черты из жизни Наполеона I, 1832; ''Mysterious Monk'', Таинственный монах, 1843, among them). The final one, posthumously published ''The Last Descendant of Genghis Khan'' (Последний потомок Чингисхана, 1881) dealt with the life and possible circumstances of death of his father, Mikhail Zotov, a direct descendant from Şahin Giray who, then a colonel in Prince Prozorovsky's Moldavian Army, mysteriously disappeared in 1809. Rafail Zotov also authored the acclaimed ''Theatre Memoirs'' (Театральные воспоминания, 1859). ''The Notes by R. M. Zotov'' were published by ''Illyustrirovanny Vestnik'', 1874, Nos. 3–8.Театральная энциклопедия
Russian Theatre Encyclopedia. Zotov died on 29 September in Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg.

References

Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire 1795 births 1871 deaths Journalists from the Russian Empire Russian male journalists Male writers from the Russian Empire Theatre critics from the Russian Empire Russian male novelists People from Pskov 19th-century translators from the Russian Empire {{playwright-stub