''Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All'' (''Grekh da beda na kovo ne zhiviot'', Грех да беда на кого не живёт) is a four-act drama by
Alexander Ostrovsky, written in 1862 and published on the No. 1,
1863
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims t ...
issue of ''
Vremya'' magazine, edited by the
Dostoyevsky brothers. It premiered in the
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 Theat ...
in
Moscow, on 21 January 1863, as a benefit for director Alexander Bogdanov. Later that year, Ostrovsky was awarded the
Uvarov Prize
Count Aleksey Sergeyevich Uvarov (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Уваров; 28 February 1825 – 29 December 1884) was a Russian archaeologist often considered to be the founder of the study of the prehistory of Russia.
Biography
...
for it.
Background
In mid-1862, Ostrovsky returned from his European voyage which, according to biographer Vladimir Lakshin, made him "more enlightened and wise," giving even more poignancy to "his love-hate relations with the Russian
ationalcharacter... Love for all of our generosity, impracticality, tolerance, openness to goodness. Hatred for backwardness, moral ignorance, samodurstvo
omestic tyrannyand the eagerness to succumb for the darkest of passions."
History
Ostrovsky started working on the new play on 25 October 1862, in his house at Nikolo-Vorobin Lane. One of his friends Goryachev, a young merchant and a theatre fan, whom the dramatist admired for his energy, moral strength and physical power, told him the story of his life, which served as a base for this drama's plot. "This is the true
ussiannature, not samodurstvo. This man doesn't want things by halves," wrote Fyodor Dostoyevsky of the play's main hero Lev Krasnov. According to biographer Vladimir Lakshin, Rogozhin in Dostoyevsky's ''
The Idiot'' bore similarities to Krasnov.
The play premiered at the Moscow's Maly Theatre on 21 January 1853, with
Prov Sadovsky as Lev Krasnov. On 23 January it was performed in
Saint Petersburg's
Alexandrinsky Theatre, with Pavel Vasilyev. Both actors provided high quality, inspirational work, and several Russian critics were so impressed as to compare Ostrovsky to
Shakespeare.
[Koni, Alexander. Things Long Gone. 100 Years of Maly Theatre'. 1824-1924. Moscow, 1924, p. 92.]
Ostrovsky's intention was to keep loyal to ''
Sovremennik
''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...
'', but since his return from Europe
Nikolai Chernyshevsky has been imprisoned and Nekrasov's magazine got closed for eight months. That was the reason why ''Sin and Grief Are Common to All'' was published by ''Vremya'' (No. 1, 1863).
References
{{Alexander Ostrovsky
1863 plays
Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky