In 1746 Feodor Grigorievitch Volkhoff, the son of a merchant, built in Yaroslavl (on the upper Volga), the first Russian theater, to hold about one thousand spectators. Five years later, the news of the fine performances of the actors and actresses of Volkhoff's theater reached St. Petersburg, and the troop was ordered to appear before the court. Four years later still, the existence of the Russian theater was assured, by imperial decree. Sumarokoff was appointed the director, having, evidently, for a long time previously had full charge of all dramatic performances at court; and also, evidently, been expected to furnish plays. His first tragedy, "Khoreff," dates from 1747. In the following year "Hamlet" appeared. Until the arrival of the Volkhoff troop, all his plays were acted in St. Petersburg only, by the cadets and officers of the "Nobles' Cadet Corps," where he himself had been educated. Towards the end of Elizaveta Petrovna's reign, Sumarokoff acquired great renown, almost equaling that of Lomonosoff in his literary services, and the admirers of Russian literature of that day were divided into hostile camps, which consisted of the friends and advocates of these two writers, the Empress Elizabeth being at the head of the first, the Empress Katherine II. (then Grand Duchess) at the head of the second. For about ten years (1759-1768), Sumarokoff published a satirical journal, "The Industrious Bee," after which he returned to his real field and wrote a tragedy, "Vysheslaff," and the comedies, "A Dowry by Deceit," "The Usurer," "The Three Rival Brothers," "The Malignant Man," and "Narcissus." In all he wrote twenty-six plays, including the tragedies "Sinav and Truvor," "Aristona," and "Semira," before the establishment of the theater in St. Petersburg, in addition to "Khoreff" and "Hamlet," "Dmitry the Pretender," and "Mstislaff." "Semira" was regarded as his masterpiece, and among his comedies "Tressotinius" attracted the most attention. All these, however, were merely weak imitations of the narrow form in which all French and pseudo-classical dramas were molded, the unities of time, place, and action exerting an embarrassing restriction on the action; and the heroes, although they professed to be Russians, with obscure historical names (like Sinav and Truvor), or semi-mythical (like Khoreff), or genuinely historical (like Dmitry the Pretender), were the stereotyped declaimers of the bombastic, pseudo-classical drama.