One of the founders of the Russian tongue theatre modern repertoire is rightly regarded the muscovite Aleksandr Nikolaevic Ostrovskij (1823-1886). Ostrovskij along thirty years of activity wrote more than fifty pieces among comedies and dramas and, for the value of his production, he is regarded as an innovator both by the linguistic point of view and the representation of his times society. He is an author of great interest just for his purposes are directed to the satire of morals and customs of the way of life of a certain part of the bourgeoisie. Indeed he highlighted the middle class problems, that of the mercantile bourgeoisie getting stronger. In 1850 Ostrovskij published 'Managing on one's own', that was well receipted among men of letters and by the public, while the board of censors put its veto. In the following pieces -'Do not seat on the other people's sledge' (1853), 'Poverty is not vice' (1854) and You can't live as you want' (1855) - Ostrovskij begins to focus, widely and with very good choose of situations, the environment of the family tyranny within the power hierarchy, the middle class mercantile society in Russia gave to the head of the family unit, both man or woman, concerning the question it will be a crucial point also in the following works. Poverty is not vice (1854) deals with, precisely , a merchant who wants her daughter to get married with a very rich old man. The young girl, instead, loves, requited, a young peer, but it is irrelevant to an interest marriage. It's resolving, as deus ex machina, the fortuitous intervention of the drunkard uncle, who reveals in public the old man nefarious behaviour. So the young girl can get married with his lover. It's of 1860 the Ostrovskij's masterpiece, The hurricane, a middle class and love too drama. Set in a provincial town, its protagonists are two merchants and their families: the old Dikoj and the very rich Marta Kabanova. She has two sons, the rough Tichon, married with the sensitive and very devout Katerina, and Varvara, a woman of doubtful morality, who in spite of the rigid dictates of the lording mother, is the lover of the salesman of the old merchant Dikoj. 

 

A Gustave Doré vignette in which the land owners use their peasants as fiches, an allusion to the absolute power on their "souls"

Meanwhile, Dikoj's son, Boris, falls in love with Katerina, who oppressed by the wearing presence of her mother in law misses a lot her own life before marriage, she did not choose, and she is sensitive to the young's loving glances. Katerina, then, understands she's in love with Boris and struggles against her own conscience not to give up to her illicit love.   

Patriarchal family of merchants in Nizni Novgorod region, at east of Moscow

The momentary absence of her husband and her sister in law, Varvara's action, who throws her into Boris's arms, foster the adultery. Katerina, oppressed by remorse and her own moral principles, cannot do anything beside telling her husband and her mother in law what happened and, due to the latter crude mentality, is induced to the reparatory suicide, she actuates jumping into the waters of the Volga river, while an hurricane upsets all around; the corpse of Katerina will be found by the clockmaker Kuligin, who, fearless, publicly declares his own deep contempt toward his own fellow townsmen, responsible too of the death of the young girl. Ostrovskij, between 1862 and 1868, produced four historical dramas, set into the period of Ivan the Terrible and of 'the turbids “ (XVI century), as 'The false Demetrius'(1867). Then the author takes again the thread and the tones of the situation comedy, writing several pieces among which 'Mad Money' (1870), 'The forest' (1871), 'Wolves and sheep' (1875) and 'Without dowry' (1879). 'The forest' is a drama setting a rich and avid widow, Bulatov, her young gigolo, and Aksjusa, her young niece. In love with Aksjusa and requited, Petr, son of a merchant, who will not oppose to their marriage, in exchange for a conspicuous dowry, the rich widow is not inclined to lavish.