# List of Russian-language playwrights

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

## Alphabetical list

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### A

| 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 |
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### B

| 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 |
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### C

| 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 |
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### D

| 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 |
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### E

| 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 |
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### F

| 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 | | |
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### G

| 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 |
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### I

| Portrait | Person | Notable works | Illustration | Illustration |
| | Vsevolod Ivanov (1895–1963) | Armoured Train 14-69 | 1927 production of Armoured Train 14-69 | |
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### K

| 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 |
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### L

| Person | Notable works |
| Ivan Lazhechnikov (1792–1869) | Oprichnik |
| Leonid Leonov (1899–1994) | Untilovsk |
| Dmitri Lipskerov (born 1964) | |
| Lev Lunts (1901–1924) | Native Land |
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### M

| 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 |
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### N

| Person | Notable works | 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 | |
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### O

| 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 | | |
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### P

| 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. | |
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### R

| Portrait | Person | Notable works | Illustration | Illustration |
| | Edvard Radzinsky (born 1936) | | | |
| | Vyacheslav Rybakov (born 1954) | | | |
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### S

| 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. | |
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### T

| 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 |
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### U

| Portrait | Person | Notable works | Illustration | Illustration |
| | Eduard Uspensky (1937–2018) | | | |
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| Person | Notable works | 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 | |
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| Person | Notable works | 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 | |
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