About the work
Five-act drama by Leo Tolstoy, written in 1886 during his turn toward a radically religious and ethical worldview. Its unflinching depiction of seduction, murder and infanticide led Russian censors to ban performance; the play was not staged until 5 December 1902, at the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavski.
Plot
The farmhand Nikita seduces the orphan Marina but leaves her for Anisya, his master's wife. Anisya poisons her husband so she can marry Nikita, who later fathers a child with her daughter from her first marriage and, pressed by the women, kills the newborn. On his stepdaughter's wedding day, crushed by guilt, Nikita breaks down and confesses his crimes in public.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as an unsparing study of how moral corruption spreads through a village community and as one of Tolstoy's harshest social dramas. Later stagings, such as Erwin Piscator's politically charged 1923 Berlin production, helped establish it internationally as a much-performed classic of Russian realism.