UNKNOWN REVIEW BY ALEKSANDR NIKITENKO OF THE COMEDY THE FOREST BY ALEXANDER OSTROVSKY IN THE RECEPTIVE HISTORY OF THE PLAY

For the fi rst time, we publish an unknown review written by Aleksandr Nikitenko, a member of Imperial Academy of Sciences, of the comedy by Alexander Ostrovsky «The Forest». This review was compiled on behalf of the commission that distributed Aleksey Uvarov’s awards for the playwrights after Alexander Ostrovsky submitted his play to the competition. Review by Aleksandr Nikitenko was read at a meeting of the commission; its copy has been discovered in his personal archive. Alexander Ostrovsky participated in the competition for Aleksey Uvarov’s award for more than 15 years, but he achievedsuccess only twice: with his «The Storm» in 1860 and with the drama «Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All» in 1863. Aleksandr Nikitenko, himself a member of the academic commission, for several years was reviewing all the works that competed for theprize, and almost always gave negative conclusions about them. He reacted sharply negatively to «The Forest» as well. In the article, Aleksandr Nikitenko’s review is considered in the context of literary, critical and theatrical criticism of the comedy byAlexander Ostrovsky, which were released shortly after its publication and production. The publication was prepared on the basis of archival documents found in St. Petersburg department of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and theManuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences