Poverty is No Vice (Bednost ne porok, Бедность не порок) is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, written in 1853 and published as a separate edition in the early 1854.
On November 23, 1853, the play was publicly read at Apollon Grigoriev's and was warmly welcomed by the audience of good friends.
For some reason the Moskvityanin chief Mikhail Pogodin was hesitating with the publication, but the play soon came out as a book and was taken up by the Maly Theatre, for actor Prov Sadovsky's benefice.
[1] Poverty is No Vice was premiered on January 25, 1854, with Prov Sadovsky playing Lyubim Tortsov, the "virtuous drunkard" and "a true Russian," unlike, apparently, his affluent brother who was trying "to be an Englishman."
The premiere coincided with the famous French actress Rachel's shows, which had to be moved to morning hours.