May 1, 1836
At the Alexandrinsky Theatre St. Petersburg gave the premiere of the play Nikolai Gogol's "The Inspector General".
Everything is against me. Elderly and respectable officials shout that nothing is sacred to me when I dared to speak so of public servants. The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me. Now I see what it means to be a comic writer. The slightest sign of truth – and they rise up against you, and not just one person, but entire classes. (Gogol after the premiere)
The plot of "The Inspector General" is based on real events - it is believed that Gogol shared it with Pushkin. When he finished the play and read it to the public for the first time, the poet was “rolling with laughter.”
I decided to gather together all the bad things in Russia that I knew at the time, all the injustices that were committed in those places and in those cases where justice was most required from a person, and to laugh at everything at once. (Nikolai Gogol)
Obtain the emperor's permission Nicholas I helped with the production Zhukovsky.
There's nothing sinister about the comedy. It's just a fun mockery of bad provincial officials. (Vasily Zhukovsky)
The production was prepared by the management of the Imperial Theatres and took a month and a half.
The leading role was entrusted to the actor To Nikolai Dur. Gogol was annoyed: his portrayal of Khlestakov resembled a “vaudeville prankster.”
On the day of the premiere, the writer was dissatisfied.
My creation seemed disgusting, wild, and somehow not mine. I wanted to run away from everything.
Several years later, he wrote recommendations for future theatre directors.
The greatest care must be taken not to fall into caricature. The humor will reveal itself in the very seriousness with which each character portrayed in the comedy is engaged in his or her work. (from Gogol's recommendations, 1842)
The premiere in 1836, however, was a huge success. The Emperor was present with his heir and laughed heartily. Afterward, according to legend, he declared: “Everyone got it here, but I got it the worst!” And he ordered all his ministers to watch The Inspector General.
That same year, on the approach to the district town Chembar (now in the Penza region), Nicholas I's carriage overturned on a bad road, breaking his arm. When local officials appeared before him, dressed in old, tight uniforms and armed with swords, the emperor declared that he knew them well.
"When did you deign to see them, Your Majesty?" asked the governor, knowing that the Emperor had never been to Chembar.
“In St. Petersburg, at the theater, in a very funny comedy, The Government Inspector,” he replied.
Gogol received financial subsidies from Nicholas I until the end of his life, and his play was performed dozens and hundreds of times around the world.
There are no best scenes in The Government Inspector because there are no worst ones, but all are excellent. (Vissarion Belinsky)
