Faiko, Aleksei

Faiko, Aleksei Mikhailovich 

Born Sept. 7 (19), 1893, in Moscow; died there Jan. 25, 1978. Soviet Russian playwright.

Faiko graduated from the faculty of history and philology of Moscow University in 1917. He made his debut as a playwright in 1921 with the comedy Dilemma. His melodrama Lake Liul’ (staged 1923), the comedy Bubus the Teacher (staged 1925), and the drama Evgraf the Adventure-seeker (staged 1926) combined a conventional plot with elements of everyday life. The drama Man With a Portfolio, (1928, first staged at the Moscow Theater of the Revolution) heralded the transition of Soviet theater to a strictly realistic style and was one of the first Soviet plays that profoundly and seriously dealt with the theme of the intelligentsia and the Revolution. Faiko also wrote the plays Concert (1936), Captain Kostrov (1946), and Thou Shalt Not Make to Thyself Any Graven Image (1956, first staged at the Leningrad Theater of Comedy). Faiko translated plays by dramatists of the other peoples of the USSR.

Faiko was awarded three orders.

WORKS

P’esy. Moscow, 1935.
Dramy i komedii. Moscow, 1958.
Teatr, p’esy, vospominaniia. (Afterword by N. R. Voitkevich.) Moscow, 1971.

REFERENCES

Alpers, B. “Krushenie individualizma: Tvorcheskii portret A. Faiko.” Teatr i dramaturgiia, 1935, no. 12.
Surkov, E. “Udar po cheloveku s portfelem.” Teatr, 1957, no. 6.
Voitkevich, N. “Master komedii: K 80-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Faiko.” Teatr, 1973, no. 11.

B. IARANTSEV