Gorbunov, Ivan Fedorovich

Born Sept. 10 (22), 1831, at the Kopninsk Factory, Moscow Province; died Dec. 24, 1895 (Jan. 5, 1896), in St. Petersburg. Russian writer and actor. Born into the family of a house servant; his mother was a serf.

Gorbunov studied at a Moscow Gymnasium. He was a tutor (in the family of the actor P. M. Sadovskii, among others). In 1854 he became an actor at the Malyi Theater in Moscow, and in 1855, at the Alexandrine Theater in St. Petersburg. Gorbunov was a master of telling stories (subsequently published) from the life of the petite bourgeoisie. The stories were distinguished by colorful dialogue, popular humor, and their exposure of the bourgeoisie’s faults (the character of the petty tyrant, the retired general Ditiatin). He wrote articles on the history of the Russian theater.