At the beginning of October 1777, Sumarokov, dramatist and first director of the first Russian professional theatre, died in Moscow alone, poverty-stricken and deserted by all. A few actors carried the deceased to the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery and buried him at their own expense. A week later Catherine II received a communication from Prince Volkonsky: ‘In the last few days Aleksandr Sumarokov, being afflicted with a violent illness, has died, but otherwise all here goes well; having nothing more at present worthy of report to Your Imperial Majesty, I commit myself to Your Imperial Grace’.