Lukin, Vladimir Ignatevich

Lukin, Vladimir Ignat’evich 

Born July 8(19), 1737, in St. Petersburg; died there July 9 (20), 1794. Russian dramatist and translator.

Lukin was the son of a court footman. His first employment was that of a copyist at the Senate. From 1764 to 1774 he was the secretary of cabinet minister I. P. Elagin. In the 1760’s he made his debut as the author of numerous free translations and adaptations of plays of French authors of the 17th and 18th centuries. In reworking foreign plays, Lukin sought to adapt them as much as possible to Russian conditions: he replaced the names of characters with Russian names, deleted episodes foreign to Russian life, and introduced elements of Russian everyday life. Lukin’s best comedies (The Haberdasher, Constancy Rewarded, The Windbag) played an important role in the development of Russian national drama of the 1760’s. Lukin’s only original work, The Spendthrift by Love Reformed (1765), marked the beginning of sentimentalism in Russian drama.

WORKS

Sochineniia i perevody, parts 1-2. St. Petersburg, 1765.
“Shchepetil’nik.” In Russkaia komediia i komicheskaia opera 18 veka. Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.
“Mot, liuboviiu ispravlennyi.” “In Russkaia literatura XVIII veka. Compiled by G. P. Makogonenko. Leningrad, 1970.

REFERENCE

Berkov, P. N. V. I. Lukin. Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.