Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (Russian: Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ ÐµÌ Ð¹
Ð¤ÐµÐ¾Ñ„Ð¸Ð»Ð°Ì ÐºÑ‚Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ ÐŸÐ¸Ì Ñ ÐµÐ¼Ñ ÐºÐ¸Ð¹) (March 23 [O.S.
March 11] 1821 â€" February 2 [O.S. January 21] 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.[1] "Pisemsky's
great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him
one of the best Russian novelists," according to D.S.
Mirsky.[2]Pisemsky's 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.[3] 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.[1]Aleksey Pisemsky was born at his father's
Ramenye estate in the Chukhloma province of Kostroma. His parents were
retired colonel Feofilakt Gavrilovich Pisemsky and his wife Yevdokiya
Shipova.[4] In his autobiography, Pisemsky described his family as
belonging to the ancient Russian nobility, although his more immediate
progenitors were all very poor and unable to read or
write:[3].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em
0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote
.templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}Aleksey
remained the only child in the family, four infants dying before his
birth and five after. Years later he described himself (to which other
people attested) as a weak, capricious and whimsical boy who for some
reason loved to mock clergymen and suffered from sleepwalking at one
time. Pisemsky remembered his father as a military service man in
every sense of the word, strict and duty-bound, a man of honesty in
terms of money, severe and strict. "Some of our serfs were horrified
by him, not all of them, though, only those who were foolish and lazy;
those who were smart and industrious were favoured by him," he
remarked.
Ð¤ÐµÐ¾Ñ„Ð¸Ð»Ð°Ì ÐºÑ‚Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ ÐŸÐ¸Ì Ñ ÐµÐ¼Ñ ÐºÐ¸Ð¹) (March 23 [O.S.
March 11] 1821 â€" February 2 [O.S. January 21] 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.[1] "Pisemsky's
great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him
one of the best Russian novelists," according to D.S.
Mirsky.[2]Pisemsky's 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.[3] 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.[1]Aleksey Pisemsky was born at his father's
Ramenye estate in the Chukhloma province of Kostroma. His parents were
retired colonel Feofilakt Gavrilovich Pisemsky and his wife Yevdokiya
Shipova.[4] In his autobiography, Pisemsky described his family as
belonging to the ancient Russian nobility, although his more immediate
progenitors were all very poor and unable to read or
write:[3].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em
0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote
.templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}Aleksey
remained the only child in the family, four infants dying before his
birth and five after. Years later he described himself (to which other
people attested) as a weak, capricious and whimsical boy who for some
reason loved to mock clergymen and suffered from sleepwalking at one
time. Pisemsky remembered his father as a military service man in
every sense of the word, strict and duty-bound, a man of honesty in
terms of money, severe and strict. "Some of our serfs were horrified
by him, not all of them, though, only those who were foolish and lazy;
those who were smart and industrious were favoured by him," he
remarked.
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