About the work
Krechinsky’s Wedding is a three-act comedy by Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin, the first part of his dramatic trilogy Scenes from the Past. He wrote it in 1854; it premiered at Moscow’s Maly Theatre in 1855 and was published in 1856.
Plot
The heavily indebted nobleman Krechinsky plans to marry the wealthy Lidochka, daughter of the landowner Muromsky, to get hold of her dowry and cover his gambling debts. To buy time before the wedding, he and his accomplice Rasplyuev try to pawn a worthless copy of his fiancée’s diamond ring to the moneylender Beck.
Cultural significance
The play opens Sukhovo-Kobylin’s celebrated trilogy, which together with The Case and The Death of Tarelkin exposes the arbitrariness and corruption of Russian justice and administration, and it remains a staple of the Russian-language stage.