Background
Dmitry Vasilyevich Averkiyev was born on October 12, 1836 in Krasnodar, Russian Federation. He comes from a patriarchal merchant family.
novelist playwright publicist translator theatre critic
Dmitry Vasilyevich Averkiyev was born on October 12, 1836 in Krasnodar, Russian Federation. He comes from a patriarchal merchant family.
In 1854, Dmitry Vasilyevich graduated from the Saint Petersburg commercial school, and in 1859 - from the physics and mathematics Department of the Saint Petersburg University (natural Sciences Department).
Initially, he translated books on natural science from foreign languages. in 1866, he began working as a novelist and playwright. Collaborated with the magazine "Epoha" ("the Age"), newspaper "Moscovskie vedomosti" ("Moscow news", "Novoye Vremya" ("The new age"). In 1869-1871, he was head of the literary Department of the "world illustration". In 1863-1865, together with A. N. Serov, he wrote the libretto of the Opera "Rogneda". In addition to numerous dramas, Averkiev wrote novels, short stories, poems, publicistic and critical articles about literature and theater.
Averkiyev's best known plays were Frol Skorbeyev (1869) and Old Times in Kashira (1872); both continued to be produced into the Soviet times. He was also an acclaimed theatre critic who contributed to Epokha, Moskovskiye Vedomosti, Novoye Vremya and Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya (where he was the head of the literary section, in 1869-1871). Averkiyev's magnum opus On Drama won him the Pushkin Prize in 1893.
