Aleksander Ivanovich Pisarev (Russian: Александр Иванович Писарев, 14 July 1803, village Znamenskoye, Oryol Governorate, Imperial Russia, - 15 March 1828, Moscow) was a Russian playwright, translator and theatre critic. Pisarev died of tuberculosis aged only 24, much to the distress of his friends, one of whom, Sergey Aksakov was convinced that in 1828 Russian literature lost one of its greatest talents who had every potential to become the 'Russian Aristophanes'. "All of our vaudevillians of today count less than this one man, Pisarev," wrote Vissarion Belinsky years later.