Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (March 23, 1821 – February 2, 1881) was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the late 1850s, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline after his fall-out with Sovremennik magazine in the early 1860s. A realistic playwright, along with Aleksandr Ostrovsky he was responsible for the first dramatization of ordinary people in the history of Russian theatre. D.S. Mirsky said: "Pisemsky's great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him one of the best Russian novelists."
His first novel Boyarschina (1847, published 1858) was originally forbidden for its unflattering description of the Russian nobility. His principal novels are The Simpleton (1850), One Thousand Souls (1858), which is considered his best work of the kind, and Troubled Seas, which gives a picture of the excited state of Russian society around the year 1862. He also wrote plays, including A Bitter Fate (also translated as "A Hard Lot"), which depicts the dark side of the Russian peasantry. The play has been called the first Russian realistic tragedy; it won the Uvarov Prize of the Russian Academy.
Ludwig Minkus, also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus was born this day. He was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher.
ReplyDeletePisemsky's early works exhibited profound disbelief in the higher qualities of humanity, and a disdain for the opposite sex, although he appeared to have been attached to a particularly devoted and sensible wife. Reflecting upon possible reasons for this, Skabichevsky pointed at those first years spent in Kostroma when the young Pisemsky had lost sight of whatever lofty ideals he might have been exposed to while studying in the capital. Pisemsky himself thought little of his provincial life experience. "With my success as Podkolesin my scientific and aesthetic life ended. What lie ahead was only grief and the need to find work. My father was dead already, my mother, shocked by his death, was paralyzed and lost her speech, my means were meagre. With this in mind I returned to the country and gave myself to melancholy and hypochondria," Pisemsky wrote in his autobiography. On the other hand, it was his continuous official errand trips throughout the Kostroma governorate that provided Pisemsky with the priceless material he used in his future literary work.
ReplyDeleteAlexander Yurievich Selivanov (born March 23, 1971 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a former professional ice hockey left winger who has played in the NHL and also in various European leagues. He quit playing after season 2011-2012. He is currently coaching HYS The Hague of the Eredivisie.
ReplyDeletePrince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (March 23, 1887, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – September 27, 1967, Paris, France), was best known for participating in the assassination of Grigori Rasputin, the faith healer who was said to have influenced decisions of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.
ReplyDelete