KHERASKOV MIIKHAIL (1733-1807) Osvobozhdennaya Moskva: Tragediya. [Liberated Moscow: a tragedy.] M.: Univ. tip., u Khr. Ridigera i Khr. Klaudiya, 1798.

[3], 104 pp.; 8°. In paperback. On the front cover, there is a handwritten label with the title and a pre-revolutionary library stamp. In fair condition. Title page reinforced along the spine; parts of the title page are missing and have been restored with paper, causing minor text loss; spots, stains, library stamps, and numbers on the title page and its verso; library pocket. On p. [3]: 'Tragediya siya v pervyi raz predstavlena na Moskovskom teatre 1798 goda v genvare.' ["This tragedy was first performed at the Moscow theater in January 1798."] The historical basis of the tragedy is the liberation of Moscow by the Russian militia in 1612 from Polish invaders. The love line of the plot is entirely fictional; it represents, presumably, an analogy to the collision of the younger Horace - Camille - Curiatius - Valerius in P. Corneille's tragedy ‘Horace’ (1640). In developing the plot of Osvobozhdennaya Moskva, Kheraskov may have drawn on the works of Russian and foreign historians. It was first presented at the Petrovsky Theater in Moscow on January 18, 1798, and was performed periodically, with long intervals, on the stages of St. Petersburg and Moscow until 1816, including during the Patriotic War, after Napoleon’s expulsion from Moscow, on October 28 and November 1, 1812, in St. Petersburg. Lifetime edition. Bibliography: SK XVIII. No. 8012.