Gnedich, Petr Petrovich

Petr Gnedich was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a railway engineer; descended from a family that had long lived in Kotelva (later the settlement of the Akhtyrsky district of Kharkov province, on the border with the Poltava province), where his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-grandfather were centurions ^[2] .

He graduated from the First St. Petersburg classical gymnasium . He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (1875–1879; he did not graduate).

In 1888, he founded and edited the magazine “ North ” together with V. S. Solovyov , and in 1892 - “The Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters ”. Chairman of the St. Petersburg Literary and artistic circle (1893-1895), head of the artistic part of the theater Literary and artistic circle (later the Theater of the Literary and Art Society), head of the Alexandrinsky Theater troupe ( 1900-1908 ).

Since 1914, director of the Museum of the Society for the Promotion of Arts . After the October Revolution, he was a member of the repertoire section of the Petrograd branch of the Theater Department of the People 's Commissariat of Education ( 1918-1919 ).

Petr Petrovich Gnedich died on July 16, 1925 in the city of Leningrad.

He made his debut in print with short stories in the magazine Niva in 1877 . His first play, “The Doors Were Not Locked” (1878, published in 1883), was first staged at A. Brenko’s private theater and Pushkin Theater in Moscow under the name “On the Farm”, and in 1883 at the Alexandrinsky Theater under the name "Bird in the trap"; repeatedly put in various theaters.

From the end of the 1870s he published novels, stories, essays, feuilletons , humoresques, poems, reviews in the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti, the magazines Krugozor, Shut, Fragments and many other publications. He published collections “Tales and Stories” (1885), “Seventeen Stories” ( 1888 ), “New Stories” (Vol. 1–2, 1890 ), “Caucasian Stories” ( 1894 ), “Instant” ( 1896 ) and others, also collections of feuilletons "Pesas of the Fly" (Vol. 1-3, 1905-1909). His play “Last Minute Letters” was the first directing experience of K. S. Stanislavsky on the stage of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature (MOEL).

Author of numerous works on the history of art (published in 1885), combined in the book "History of Art from ancient times" (T. 1-3, 1897; repeatedly reprinted).

The author of the novel “Chinese shadows” (“ Russian Gazette ”, 1894; a separate edition - 1895), “Nosh of the World” (1899), “Mists” (1899), “Bathing Lights” (1900).

The performances of plays with a general liberal orientation, stage entertaining, lively dialogue “Roll over Field” ( 1889 ), “Last Minute Letters” ( 1890 ), “Winter” ( 1905 ), “Slaves” ( 1907 ), “Marsh Lights” ( 1909 ) enjoyed success. ) other. Plays published in the compilations "Six Comedies" ( 1887 ), "The Second Volume of Comedies" ( 1894 )

He translated the works of Shakespeare : " Hamlet, Prince of Denmark " (1891), " The Taming of the Shrew " (1899).

Memoirist: The Book of Life: Memories, 1855-1918 . - L .: " Surf ", 1929. - 371 p.

The words of P. P. Gnedich were written by the romance “The sweet smell of lilac” (M.C. Lippold), “The whole is wrapped up in a chadroy” (A. A. Tarutin), “My dear baby” (B.V. Grodzky), “ I remember the childhood of the gold ”(E. K. Rozenov).

• Art history from ancient times: from 430 graves. in the text . - SPb. : A.F. Marx, 1885. - 506 p.
• Chinese shadows. - SPb., 1895
• Art History. In 3 volumes. - SPb. : A.F. Marx, 1897.
• The Book of Life: Memoirs: 1855-1918 / Redakts. and note. VF Botsyanovskogo (Reprinted 1929). - M .: Agraf, 2000. - 368 p. - 2000 copies - ISBN 5-7784-0103-5 .
• Art History: painting, sculpture, architecture. - M .: Eksmo, 2005.
• Chronicle of Russian drama performances on the imperial Petersburg scene of 1881-1890 . - Petrograd, 1918. - T. 1 .

• Russian writers. 1800-1917. Biographical dictionary. - T. 1: A. — G. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1992. - p. 588-589.

• Works of P. P. Gnedich in the Moshkov Library
• Grave of P. P. Gnedich