The First Days of the Soviet Theatre: Stanislav Vinaver’s Dramatic Testimonies

Abstract

Stanislav Vinaver witnessed October Revolution. In April 1917, he was sent to Russia on a diplomatic mission and stayed there until the autumn of 1919. After returning to Serbia, he published articles about Russia (ideology, revolution, war, life, theatre, art, music) in Politika and Republika, Belgrade daily newspapers, and in Kritika, a Zagreb magazine, which, in their form, resembled dramatic sketches, stories, reports, and travel essays. This paper discusses Vinaver’s articles on theatre issues in Bolshevik Russia, primarily the Kamerny Theatre and the Moscow Drama Theatre. Vinaver’s ideas about the repertoire and aesthetic searches of the two Moscow theatres are interpreted in the context of the time of their emergence, together with the context of artistic assessment, which is by no means inferior to today’s interpretations of the role of the Kamerny and Moscow Drama Theatres in the development of the Soviet experimental theatre.