The Forest (Russian: Лес, romanized: Les) is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky written in 1870 and first published in the January 1871 issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine.

It also featured Nadezhda Medvedeva (Gurmyzhskaya), Glikeriya Fedotova (Aksyusha), Ivan Samarin (Milonov), Vasily Zhivokini (Bodayev), Prov Sadovsky (Vosmibratov, Neschastlivstev), Sergey Shumsky (Schastivtsev).

[1] The Forest was praised by Nikolai Nekrasov (who called it 'brilliant') and Ivan Turgenev, who told Ostrovsky in a letter that he thought the character of Neschastlivtsev was one of the author's best creations ever.

[7] Aleksey Pleshcheev, reviewing the Moscow Artist Club's production of The Forest, expressed indignation at the fact that such a masterpiece has been so poorly treated by the Russian Imperial Theatres.

[8] One of the play's admirers was the actor Prov Sadovsky who's made a personal request for his son Mikhail to appear as Bulanov, as gymnasium student, which the latter did at the Moscow premier, on 26 November 1871.