List of Russian-language playwrights

Notable authors who have written dramatic works in the Russian language include:

The Moscow Art Theatre

Alphabetical list

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Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Alexander Ablesimov
(1742–1783)
The Miller
Alexander Afinogenov
(1904–1941)
Fear
Crank
A Far Place
  Leonid Andreyev
(1871–1919)
Anathema
The Life of Man
He Who Gets Slapped
 
Margalo Gillmore (Consuelo) & Richard Bennett (He) in He Who Gets Slapped, 1922.
 
Richard Bennett (He, left) & Louis Calvert (Baron Regnart, right) in He Who Gets Slapped, 1922.
  Maria Arbatova
(born 1957)
On the Road to Ourselves
 
Maria Arbatova in 2009
Aleksei Arbuzov
(1908–1986)
Tanya
A Long Road
  Mikhail Artsybashev
(1878–1927)
War
 
Artsybashev with the actress Yavorskaya, 1915
 
Drawing of Artsybashev
  Arkady Averchenko
(1881–1925)
 
Drawing of Averchenko
 
Averchenko, c. 1920
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Isaac Babel
(1894–1940)
Maria
Sunset
  Andrei Bely
(1880–1934)
Petersburg
Moscow
  Pyotr Boborykin
(1836–1921)
The Scale
 
Vera Komissarzhevskaya in The Scale
Oleg Bogayev
(born 1970)
  Mikhail Bulgakov
(1891–1940)
Flight
Zoyka's Apartment
Adam and Eve
The Days of the Turbins
 
1926 production of The Days of the Turbins
 
2011 production of Zoyka's Apartment
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Catherine the Great
(1729–1796)
Fevey
 
Portrait of Catherine, 1745
 
Portrait, 1794
  Nikolai Chayev
(1824—1914)
Svat Faddeyich
  Anton Chekhov
(1860–1904)
The Seagull
Uncle Vanya
Three Sisters
The Cherry Orchard
 
Konstantin Stanislavski as Vershinin in Three Sisters
 
Chekhov's wife Olga Knipper, who played Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard
  Evgeny Chirikov
(1864–1932)
The Peasant
 
At his desk, 1904
 
Portrait by Repin, 1906
  Ada Chumachenko
(1887 – 1954)
The Snow Queen
A Man from the Moon
  Grand Duke Constantine
(1858–1915)
King of Judea
 
The Grand Duke in military dress, 1891
 
With his wife Elizaveta, 1894
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Grigoriy Demidovtsev
(born 1960)
 
Certificate of membership in the Union of Russian Writers
 
Demidovtsev in 2007
Victor Denisov
(born 1944)
Six Specters of Lenin on a Piano
 
V. Denisov and a San Francisco director V.Zavarina, 1994
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Nikolai Erdman
(1900–1970)
The Mandate
The Suicide
  Nikolai Evreinov
(1879–1953)
A Merry Death
The Chief Thing
The Presentation of Love
The Storming of the Winter Palace
 
Drawing of Evreinov, 1921
 
Memorial plaque in Paris
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Denis Fonvizin
(1744/45–1792)
The Minor
 
Statue of Fonvizin, part of the Millennium of Russia monument
 
The Fonvizin Family Coat of Arms
Olga Forsh
(1873–1961)
The Substitute Lecturer
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
Alexander Galich
(1918–1977)
  Zinaida Gippius
(1869–1945)
The Green Ring
 
Portrait of Gippius by Ilya Repin, 1894
 
Portrait by Léon Bakst, 1906
  Nikolai Gogol
(1809–1852)
Marriage
The Government Inspector
The Gamblers
 
Fyodor Paramonov as Anton Antonovich in The Government Inspector
 
Cover of the first edition of The Government Inspector, 1836
  Dmitry Gorchakov
(1758–1824)
King for a Day
Grigori Gorin
(1940–2000)
  Maxim Gorky
(1868–1936)
The Philistines
The Lower Depths
Summerfolk
Children of the Sun
 
Konstantin Stanislavski as Satin in The Lower Depths
 
1905 production of Children of the Sun by the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre
  Aleksandr Griboyedov
(1795–1829)
Woe from Wit
 
Stanislavski as Famusov in Woe from Wit
 
Title page of Griboyedov's manuscript of Woe from Wit, 1824
  Isabella Grinevskaya
(1864–1944)
  Elena Guro
(1887–1913)
The Hurdy-Gurdy
 
Guro's self-portrait
 
Elena and Mikhail Matyushin
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Vsevolod Ivanov
(1895–1963)
Armoured Train 14-69
 
1927 production of Armoured Train 14-69
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Vasily Kapnist
(1758–1823)
Chicane
 
Postcard featuring Kapnist
Valentin Kataev
(1897–1986)
Quadrature of the Circle
 
Kataev's brother, the writer Yevgeni Petrov
  Pavel Katenin
(1792–1853)
Andromache
Yevgeny Kharitonov
(1941–1981)
Under House Arrest
  Daniil Kharms
(1905–1942)
Elizaveta Bam
 
Caricature of Kharms by Antonovsky
  Mikhail Kheraskov
(1733–1807)
Vladimir Kirshon
(1902–1938)
Bread
The Miraculous Alloy
 
Layout of scenery for the play based on the play by V. Kirshon The Court
  Fyodor Kokoshkin
(1775–1838)
Little Demon on Vacation
 
Kokoshkin's grave at the Donskoy Monastery's necropolis in Moscow
  Nikolay Kolyada
(born 1957)
A Tale About the Dead Tsarina
Oginski Polonaise
Persian Lilac
Playing Forfeits
Slingshot
 
in the Sverdlovsk Regional Universal Scientific Library Vissarion Belinsky
 
Kolyada Theater in Yekaterinburg
  Yakov Knyazhnin
(1740/42–1791)
Olga
The Cranks
The Braggart
Vadim the Bold
  Eugene Kozlovsky
(born 1946)
Valentin Krasnogorov
(born 1934)
Let's Have Sex!
Pelicans of the Wilderness
The Delights of Adultery
The Dog
The Fall of Don Juan
  Ivan Krylov
(1769–1844)
Philomela
The Cat and the Сook
The Fox and the Crane
The Quartet
The Wolf and the Lamb
 
Monument to Krylov in St Petersburg
 
Illustration The Cat and the Сook by Sergei Gribkov
  Nestor Kukolnik
(1809–1868)
A Life for the Tsar
 
Title page from one of Kukolnik's dramas, 1834
 
Plaque for Kukolnik in Taganrog
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Ivan Lazhechnikov
(1792–1869)
Oprichnik
  Leonid Leonov
(1899–1994)
Untilovsk
Dmitri Lipskerov
(born 1964)
  Lev Lunts
(1901–1924)
Native Land
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Anatoly Marienhof
(1897–1962)
 
With the poet Sergei Yesenin, 1915
Samuil Marshak
(1887–1964)
Smart Things
The Twelve Months
 
Soviet stamp featuring Marshak
Mikhail Matinsky
(1760–c. 1820)
Regeneration
Saint-Petersburg's Trade Stalls
  Vladimir Mayakovsky
(1893–1930)
The Bedbug
The Bathhouse
Mystery-Bouffe
 
A young Mayakovsky
 
Soviet stamp featuring Mayakovsky
  Sergey Mikhalkov
(1913–2009)
Three Plus Two
 
Mikhailov receiving an award from Vladimir Putin in 2003
 
Talking with Vladimir Putin in 2003
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Vladimir Nabokov
(1899–1977)
The Waltz Invention
 
Nabokov's first published work
Löb Nevakhovich
(1776/78–1831)
  Alexander Neverov
(1886–1923)
Baba
Hunger
 
Drawing of Neverov
  Nikolai Nikolev
(1758–1815)
Osip Notovich
(1849–1914)
Shady Business
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Alexander Ostrovsky
(1823–1886)
The Storm
The Poor Bride
Poverty is No Vice
Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man
The Snow Maiden
 
Stanislavski (left) and Vasily Kachalov in Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man
 
Monument to Osrovsky at the Maly Theatre in Moscow
Valentin Ovechkin
(1904–1968)
A Time to Reap
  Vladislav Ozerov
(1769–1816)
Dmitry Donskoy
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
Vera Panova
(1905–1973)
Ivan Kosogor
In Old Moscow
 
Plaque for Panova in St. Petersburg
  Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
(born 1938)
 
Petrushevskaya in 2009
 
At a booksigning in New York with Keith Gessen, 2009
  Aleksey Pisemsky
(1821–1881)
A Bitter Fate
The Hypochondriac
Lieutenant Gladkov
The Financial Genius
 
A Bitter Fate. Lizaveta. Picture by Ilya Repin.
 
Engraving of Pisemsky
  Andrei Platonov
(1899–1951)
The Hurdy Gurdy
Fourteen Little Red Huts
  Pyotr Polevoy
(1839–1902)
Princess Sophia
Nikolai Pogodin
(1900–1962)
Aristocrats
Mikhail Popov
(1742–1790)
Anyuta
Alexander Preys
(1905–1942)
Iosif Prut
(1900–1996)
  Alexander Pushkin
(1799–1837)
Boris Godunov
The Stone Guest
Mozart and Salieri
The Covetous Knight
 
The Stone Guest. Don Juan and Doña Ana. Picture by Ilya Repin.


Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Edvard Radzinsky
(born 1936)
  Vyacheslav Rybakov
(born 1954)
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin
(1826–1889)
The Death of Pazukhin
Natalya Sats
(1903–1993)
  Alexander Shakhovskoy
(1777–1846)
Ladies' Joke
The New Stern
 
 
  Shchepkina-Kupernik
(1874–1952)
Summer Picture
Evgeny Shvarts
(1896–1958)
The Dragon
  Vassily Sigarev
(born 1977)
Plasticine
Black Milk
  Fyodor Sologub
(1863–1927)
The Triumph of Death
 
Portrait by Konstantin Somov
  Ksenya Stepanycheva
(born 1978)
Pink Bow
 
Stepanycheva in 2009
  Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin
(1817–1903)
Pictures of the Past
 
Prov Sadovsky as Rasplyuyev in Krechinsky's Wedding (first part of Pictures of the Past).
 
Cover of the first edition of Pictures of the Past.
  Alexander Sumarokov
(1717–1777)
Khorev
 
Portrait of Sumarokov by Fedor Rokotov.
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya
(1891–1968)
By the Pike's Wish
 
Tarakhovskaya's birth house in Taganrog
  Modest Tchaikovsky
(1850–1916)
 
Tchaikovsky's brother, the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Nadezhda Teffi
(1872–1952)
The Woman Question
Viktoriya Tokareva
(born 1937)
  Aleksey K. Tolstoy
(1817–1875)
The Death of Ivan the Terrible
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich
Tsar Boris
Don Juan
 
Ivan the Terrible. Picture by Viktor Vasnetsov.
 
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich
  Aleksey N. Tolstoy
(1883–1945)
 
Stamp featuring Tolstoy
  Leo Tolstoy
(1828–1910)
The Power of Darkness
The Fruits of Enlightenment
The Living Corpse
 
Stanislavski as Zvezdintsev in The Fruits of Enlightenment, 1891
 
Stanislavski as Prince Abrezhov in The Living Corpse, 1911
Sergei Tretyakov
(1892–1937)
I Want a Baby
  Ivan Turgenev
(1818–1883)
A Provincial Lady
A Month in the Country
 
Stanislavski and Knipper in A Month in the Country, 1909
 
A scene from A Month in the Country
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Eduard Uspensky
(1937–2018)
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
Alexander Vampilov
(1937–1972)
Elder Son
Alexander Vvedensky
(1904–1941)
Christmas at the Ivanovs
 
Vvedensky after arrest in 1941
  Anastasiya Verbitskaya
(1861–1928)
Mirages
 
Verbitskaya in 1898
Vsevolod Vishnevsky
(1900–1951)
Optimistic Tragedy
Portrait Person Notable works Illustration Illustration
  Mark Zakharov
(1933–2019)
 
Zakharov with Dmitry Medvedev in 2008
  Boris Zaytsev
(1881–1972)
Yevgeny Zamyatin
(1884–1937)
  Aleksey Zhemchuzhnikov
(1821–1908)
  Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal
(1866–1907)
  Rafail Zotov
(1795–1871)
Jealous Wife

See also

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