Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (Russian: Денис Иванович Фонвизин, IPA: [dʲɪˈnʲis ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ fɐnˈvʲizʲɪn]; 14 April [O.S.

[6][7] Denis Fonvizin received a good education at the Imperial Moscow University and very early began writing and translating.

Fonvizin's principal model, however, was not Molière, but the great Dano-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg, whom he read in German, and some of whose plays he had translated.

The central character, Mitrofanushka, is the accomplished type of vulgar and brutal selfishness, unredeemed by a single human feature—even his fondly doting mother gets nothing from him for her pains.

The dialogue of these vicious characters (in contrast to the stilted language of the lovers and their virtuous uncles) is true to life and finely individualized; and they are all masterpieces of characterization—a worthy introduction to the great portrait gallery of Russian fiction.

As a measure of its popularity, several expressions from The Minor have been turned into proverbs, and many authors (amongst whom Alexander Pushkin) regularly cite from this play, or at least hint to it by mentioning the characters' names.