ABSTRACT
A leksandr Petrovich Sumarokov, poet, dramatist, essayist, and translator. One of the most productive and influential writers of his time, often referred to as the father of Russian drama, Sumarokov viewed himself as a truly modern, secular writer. Highly influenced by French Neoclassicism, his European-oriented poetry and dramas were liberated from the Church Slavonic tradition. His innovative approach to the Russian language was manifest in his original work, but also in his imitations of Molière and in his translations from French (Rousseau, Racine), from Latin (Horace), and from German. He was responsible for broadening the then-limited repertoire of Russian literary genres and for developing a programme for the Russian language and literature which he formulated in several verse epistles. Sumarokov’s opinions on approaches to translation were expressed in several letters and in his epistle below.
