First play about the railway

Abstract

The article considers the first essay in Russian literature in which the image of the railway appears. We will talk about the comedy-vaudeville P.S. Fedorov “A Trip to Tsarskoye Selo by Rail” (1838). In the future, this image became one of the key in Russian culture at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, writers such as L. Tolstoy, Nekrasov, Kuprin, Leskov and others addressed it, endowing it with diff erent meanings — from positive to sharply negative and all the more interesting to learn about the origins of its occurrence. The author of the article concludes that in Fedorov’s comedy, the railway is a locus that determines the plot of the play and the happy resolution of the conflict. In general, the railway is considered by the author of vaudeville as a miracle and a great achievement of progress, and almost every character in the play utters praise words to her. Attention is also paid to the figure of the author of the play, Pavel S. Fedorov, one of the largest playwrights and translators, who for 26 years led the repertoire of the St. Petersburg theaters, whose work was forgotten in the 21st century. The facts outlined in the article may be useful for interdisciplinary connections in the lessons of history and literature, as well as special disciplines for future railway workers.