Without a Dowry is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky that premiered on 22 November [O.S. 10 November] 1878 at the Maly Theater and first published in the January 1879 issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski. Met with indifference by the contemporary critics, later it came to be regarded as a classic of the Russian theatre. Yakov Protazanov directed a cinematic adaptation, Without a Dowry, which was released in 1937, and Eldar Ryazanov also adapted it into a popular 1984 film.

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repertoire." His dramas are among the most widely read and frequently performed stage pieces in Russia.