Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky

Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (born March 23 [March 11, Old Style], 1821, Ramenye, Kostroma province, Russia—died February 2 [January 21], 1881, Moscow) was a novelist and playwright whom many critics rank with the great masters of Russian Realism, though his Realism borders on Naturalism and he lacks the philanthropic conscience that informs the work of his great contemporaries.

Pisemsky came from an impoverished noble family, attended Moscow University, and was a civil servant in his native province when his first stories attracted attention in reviews. In 1854 he moved to St. Petersburg, where his lack of refinement, reactionary opinions, and general failure to conform to the image of a cultured liberal gentleman estranged him from literary society. His best achievements are the novel Tysyacha dush (1858; “A Thousand Souls”), a memorable portrait of a “new man,” Kalinovich, who marries, in spite of his love for another girl, the crippled heiress of “a thousand souls” (serfs) and climbs to the rank of provincial governor, a post he fills with impeccable integrity. Pisemsky’s tragedy Gorkaya sudbina (1859; “A Bitter Lot”), is one of the masterpieces of the Russian theatre. Pisemsky was further estranged from his colleagues and public by a novel satirizing the radical younger generation, Vzbalamuchennoye more (1863; “The Stormy Sea”). The critical attacks directed against him by the radicals obscured his reputation.