Zagoskin, Mikhail Nikolaevich

Born July 14 (25), 1789, in the village of Ramzai in what is now Møkshan Raion, Penza Oblast; died June 23 (July 5), 1852, in Moscow. Russian writer.

Zagoskin fought in the Patriotic War of 1812. He servęd as director of various Moscow theaters and, after 1842, of the Armory in the Kremlin. He made his literary debut with the comedy The Mischief-maker (1815). His novel lurii Miloslavskii, or the Russians in 1612, published in 1829, enjoyed enormous success. Pushkin referred to the “indisputable talent” of Zagoskin and called the scenes “of ancient Russian life” created by him lively and entertaining (JPoln. sobr. soch. , vol. 7, 1958, p. 103). Belinskii also praised the novel highly. Zagoskin skillfully recreated the atmosphere of old Russia and thus to a certain extent influenced the development of the Russian historical novel. At the same time, conservative and monarchist tendencies are characteristic of Zagoskin’s work; these are especially noticeable in his novel Roslavlev, or the Russians in 1812 (1831). His later work as a novelist was not influential; it suffered from comparison to the achievements of Russian realism in the mid-1830’s.