Yakov Knyazhnin - Legacy

Legacy

Knyazhnin's contemporary success rested largely on his witty comedies The Braggart (1786) and The Cranks (1790). The latter revolves around the theme of favouritism, of the unexpectedly quick rise in rank, which was topical in Catherine's reign, and considered risqué.

He also wrote six comic operas operas and eight tragedies, which, as D.S. Mirsky put it, "breathe an almost revolutionary spirit of political freethinking". Almost everything he wrote was immediately published by the decree of Catherine the Great. Most of his plays and operas were staged at the Hermitage Theatre in St Petersburg.

Among his other works are poems and translations including works by Voltaire and Corneille. Writing his plays and opera librettos, Knyaznin often borrowed some ideas from Voltaire, Metastasio, Molière and Carlo Goldoni developing them and putting in different context. He imitated these models so extensively that Alexander Pushkin later referred to him as "Knyazhnin the Borrower" (or "derivative Knyazhnin" — «переимчивый Княжнин», see details).

Knyazhnin's last tragedy, Vadim of Novgorod (1789), was inspired by Catherine II's treatment of Vadim's revolt against Rurik in her own play From Ryurik's Life. Disputing with her, Knyazhnin depicted Vadim as a champion of Novgorod's ancient liberties who has to stab himself in the face of triumphant authoritorianism. When the play was posthumously published in 1793, the Empress had it banned as a "literary revolt". Against the background of the French Revolution, it was decided wise to burn all the copies. Vadim of Novgorod was never staged and was not reprinted in Russia until 1914.