CHAPTER X.
SEVENTH PERIOD: OSTROVSKY, A.K.TOLSTOY, POLONSKY, NEKRASOFF, SHEVTCHENKO, AND OTHERS.
The new impulse imparted to all branches of literature in Russia during the '50's and the '60's could not fail to find a reflection in the fortunes of the drama also.

Nowhere is the spirit of the period more clearly set forth than in the history of the Russian theater, by the creation of an independent Russian stage.
Russian comedy had existed from the days of Sumarokoff, as we have seen, and had included such great names as Von Vizin, Griboyedoff, and Gogol.
But great as were the works of these authors, they cannot be called its creators, in the true sense of the word, because their plays were like oases far apart, separated by great intervals of time, and left behind them no established school.

Although Von Vizin's comedies contain much that is independent and original, they are fashioned after the models of the French stage, as is apparent at every step.

"Woe from Wit" counts rather as a specimen of talented social satire than as a model comedy, and in its type, this comedy of Griboyedoff also bears the imprint of the French stage.

Gogol's comedies, despite their great talent, left behind them no followers, and had no imitators.