Aleksei Sergeevich Suvorin

Since 1920, the building of the theatre, at 65 Fontanka Embankment, became the home of Bolshoi Drama Theatre (now known as Tovstonogov Drama Theatre).

By the second half of the 1890s, when Chekhov finally distanced himself from Suvorin, the latter had plunged headlong into theatre. With secure financial backing, he launched his own stage company in 1895. His powerful connections allowed him to get the censorship lifted on Leo Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness, which was premiered at his theatre. Before long, Suvorin's predilection for controversial pieces made his theatre unpopular with liberal elites. At the opening night of The Sons of Israel (1900), "the actors were pelted with apples, galoshes, and other missiles".

In 1876, Suvorin acquired ownership of the failing newspaper Novoye Vremya ("New Times"); he remained the editor in chief until his death. In 1880, he founded a reputable historical journal, Istorichesky Vestnik. He confessed to favour the newspaper over his family and worked hard to expand its circulation. By the end of the 1880s, Novoye Vremya counted as one of the most profitable and up-to-date enterprises in the Russian publishing industry.

Suvorin's intense dislike of reform and reformers was deeply entrenched: back in 1873, his first wife had been shot dead by her lover, a liberal officer who proceeded to commit suicide. Another influence was Fyodor Dostoyevsky, with whom he was on close terms, especially during the last year of the novelist's life. Suvorin was succeeded at the helm of the family business by one of his sons. His grave is in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Suvorin's personality as a writer is somewhat overshadowed by his journalism. Nevertheless, he was very prolific and published a number of short stories and plays in the major outlets of the liberal media of which he was considered a leader. Capitalising on that success, Suvorin set up a publishing venture in 1871. Among his first publications was the Russian Calendar, which was in high demand all over Russia, followed by an unprecedented series of cheap editions of classics, both foreign and Russian. For more demanding readers, he issued a suite of richly illustrated albums about the great art galleries of Europe.

A major step forward in his career was in 1861, when, electrified by the Emancipation Manifesto, he relocated to Moscow, where he found himself at the periphery of a burgeoning literary scene. At first money was tight, instigating Suvorin to move to St. Petersburg, where he joined the staff of the St. Petersburg Vedomosti, an influential newspaper with liberal leanings. He soon became its leading contributor and secretary to the editor in chief. Suvorin's feuilletons, published under the pen name "Stranger", were an instant sensation and inspired him to turn his attention to more creative writing.

Ever since the 1860s, Suvorin had been interested in theatre and regularly published theatrical criticism. He befriended Anton Chekhov, when the latter was an aspiring journalist and became one of his few intimates. Their extensive correspondence is captivating reading. It illustrates the evolution of Chekhov's views on all aspects of Russia's life over the years. It has been noted that Chekhov was so blinded by his affection towards Suvorin that he wrote a one-act sequel to his anti-Semitic play.

Suvorin was a quintessential selfmade man. Born of a peasant family, he succeeded in gaining access to a military school at Voronezh from which he graduated in 1850. In the following year, he arrived in St. Petersburg and joined a major artillery school there. With limited prospects of pursuing a military career, he spent eight years in his native haunts, teaching history and geography, first in Bobrov and then in Voronezh. No one could have predicted that within two or three decades, the provincial teacher would rise to become one of the most influential men in the empire.

Aleksei Sergeevich Suvorin was born on September 11, 1834 in Korshevo, Bobrov Uyezd, Voronezh Governorate, Russian Empire.