THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF THE LATER TRAGEDIES OF A. P. SUMAROKOV

Abstract

The article examines the three later tragedies of Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov: “Yaropolk and Dimiza” (1768), “Vysheslav” (1768) and “Mstislav” (1772). All of them were little known and not highly appreciated by contemporaries and critics, who pointed out that the events described in them were far from being historically reliable. 20th-century scholars developed the thesis about the pseudohistorical nature of these tragedies by Sumarokov. Nevertheless, the analysis of the events and the names of the heroes shows that with each further tragedy, Sumarokov was striving to comply with the principle of historical reliability. Sumarokov’s likely sources of information for his late tragedies consisted not only of I. Gizel’s “Synopsis” (1674), which researchers have already indicated, but also of M. V. Lomonosov’s “Ancient Russian History” (1766). In addition, the very desire for historical accuracy could have been stimulated by the German translation of Shakespeare’s works by K. V. von Bork and K. M. Wieland (1762–1764).