The premiere show of the satirical play “The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol was held at the Alexandrinsky Theater on April 19, 1836 (or May 1 in the Julian calendar). When the plot was finished, it took only a few months to stage it. In January that year, Nikolai Gogol read his play at the residence of the Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky. It was attended by quite a few famous literary figures, including Pushkin who had given Gogol the idea of the play. In March, the censorship office issued permission to stage the play, and during April and May “The Government Inspector” was shown in two main Russian theaters — first in Saint Petersburg and then in Moscow.

The fact that the permission was granted so quickly can be attributed to Vasily Zhukovsky. As a mentor to Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, Zhukovsky was well received by the imperial family. He made sure that “The Government Inspector” was role-played in front of the emperor Nicholas I, and managed to assure him that, “the play is in no way compromised, it is only a harmless jest at the expense of incompetent provincial officials.”

The tickets to the premiere were sold out, bringing the theater a total of 4,220 rubles, which was quite a big amount at the time. The actors included Ivan and Yelena Sosnitsky, Varvara Asenkova, Pyotr Grigoryev, Alexander Martynov, Alexander Afanasyev and other famous members of the theater troupe.

The event was remarkable for the attendance of Nicholas I himself. The troupe supervisor Alexander Khrapovitsky wrote in the right margin of the premiere poster,

Nonetheless, Gogol was left dissatisfied with the way the play had been staged.

The writer particularly resented the acting of Nikolai Dur. In Gogol’s opinion, Dur’s Khlestakov “behaved like a bunch of vaudeville rascals.”

Following the premiere at the Alexandrinsky Theater, Gogol spent a few years revising the play by removing longueurs, reducing the lines of the officials and adjusting Khlestakov’s monologues. The last edition is dated 1842 and, compared to others, contains a detailed description of the final silent scene that was of special importance to Gogol.