Bazhenov, Aleksandr

Born Aug. 23 (Sept. 9), 1835, in Gorodishche, Penza Province; died Sept. 30 (Oct. 12), 1867, in Moscow. Russian theater critic and translator. Graduated from the philology division of Moscow University (1859).

Bazhenov regularly published articles and reviews on the Moscow theater in periodicals published in St. Petersburg (from 1859) and Moscow (from 1861). In 1864 he established the theatrical newspaper Entr’acte in Moscow; he continued to edit it until his death. Bazhenov fought to clear the Russian stage of translated bourgeois melodrama and to establish on it the best plays of Russian playwrights and the great classics (especially the works of W. Shakespeare). His works touched on various aspects of the theater, but the center of his critical attention was the actor (critiques of the performances of A. E. Martynov, P. M. Sadovskii, S. V. Shumskii, V. I. Zhivokin, V. V. Samoilov, G. N. Fedotova, and others). He translated and published works of G. E. Lessing, J. W. Goethe, Aristotle, G. Gervinus, and other authors on the theater. His activity helped elevate the general cultural level of the Russian theater.