Alexei Nikolaevich Arbuzov was a Soviet playwright. Born into a noble family, he ended up in an orphanage due to his parents' divorce and his mother's illness. He studied at the studio of Pavel Gaideburov's Travelling Theatre and began his career as an actor in agitprop "theatres on wheels", where he wrote his first plays. He collaborated with the TRAM of the Elektrozavod, where Valentin Pluchek staged a production of his play “Mektalia”. In 1938, together with Valentin Pluchek, he founded the Arbuzov Studio. He gained wide recognition for his plays “Tanya”, “The Irkutsk Story”, “My Poor Marat”, “The Happy Days of an Unhappy Man”, “Tales of the Old Arbat”, “Cruel Games”, “An Old-Fashioned Comedy”, and “The Choice”. The Bakhrushin Theatre Museum holds a large collection of materials — playbills, sketches, and photographs — related to productions of Alexei Arbuzov's plays.