The article contains a first-held comprehensive analysis of one of the less researched early dramas by A. F. Pisemsky «Old-timer and New Recruit» in the context of the development of the playwright’s aesthetics, juxtaposing it to its contemporary journal belles-lettres of the start of the Crimean campaign. Arguments are presented in favour of Pisemsky’s drama being a phenomenon that goes beyond the limits of drama belles-lettres by its aesthetic merits.
