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Memorandum from TsK VKP(b) Department of Cultural-Educational Work Head A. S. Shcherbakov to the TsK VKP(b) secretaries on the situation at MKhAT

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By Shcherbakov, Alexander Sergeevich Department of Cutural Educational Work

Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953

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Document 92

Memorandum from TsK VKP(b) Department of Cultural-Educational Work Head A. S. Shcherbakov to the TsK VKP(b) secretaries on the situation at MKhAT. AP RF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 24, ll. 18–21. Original. Typewritten. On the document is the instruction: “Discuss. St[alin].”

17 September 1935

To TsK VKP(b) Secretaries Com. I. V. Stalin Com. L. M. Kaganovich Com. N. I. Yezhov

At the instruction of the TsK VKP(b) secretaries, the Department of Cultural-Educational Work has familiarized itself with the situation at the Gorky MKhAT for a second time.

The theater's situation is no better and no worse. The MKhAT leadership, K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, take no interest in the theater whatsoever. They are more involved with their opera theaters. The mutual squabbling between them, which gets increasingly intense, has completely destroyed any unified leadership at MKhAT. The theater now has two lines, two camps recruiting their own supporters, drawing actors and directors into petty intrigues and quarreling. Two secretariats have been created which are energetically fanning the disputatious atmosphere.

There is no firm repertoire plan, the theater lives on a day-to-day basis. The theater's work is not planned, and right now no one knows what the theater will be doing in a year or two. The directors are not doing any creative work and have no line of principle. The actor corps, with rare exceptions, is in a depressed state. The theater has eight staff directors and the same number of assistants, but they are staging only a few performances, and the others, while receiving a salary at the Art Theater, are working only on the side (Sakhnovsky, Litovtseva, Mordvinov, Teleshova, etc.).

Page 220

There have been very few new productions, and most of even the most prominent actors have had no new roles. […] V. Ya. Stanitsyn has been rehearsing the role of Molière for four years, and no one knows when the performance will be.

No creative work is being done with the actors, who are left to their own devices. The situation is particularly bad with the so-called young actors (with ten years' seniority at MKhAT): they are completely at a loose end, don't get new roles for years, no one is teaching them, no one is interested in their needs and requests.

[…]

The general state of dissatisfaction found especially vivid expression in a discussion of Com. Stalin's speech at a general meeting of artists at the graduation of students from the Military Academies. The meeting went on for two days, and at it the theater's principal leading directors and artists spoke.

[…]

After this meeting the mood deteriorated even more, for no changes occurred, and K. S. Stanislavsky's circle (deputy managing director Egorov and others) started behaving provocatively, slipping into counterrevolutionary speeches. […]

The Department of Cultural-Educational Work feels it is essential that urgent measures be taken to bring MKhAT back to health and that, after eliminating the diarchy, a director be appointed there who is a member of the VKP(b) and has the necessary experience and authority among the artistic intelligentsia.

Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko should be kept on as artistic directors and honorary directors.

One of the following candidates could be nominated for the position of director:

1. Boiarsky—VKP(b) member since 1919, VTsIK member, now chairman of the Rabis [Union of Arts Workers] TsK. 2. Cherniavsky—VKP(b) member since 1919, VOKS [All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries] second deputy chairman. 3. Litovsky—VKP(b) member since 1918, head of Glavrepertkom. 4. Apletin—VKP(b) member since 1919 (form[er] Left SR, 1905–1918), was VOKS deputy chairman. Now secretary of the International Organization of Revolutionary Writers (MORP). 5. Imas—VKP(b) member since 1920, deputy head of the administration of theatrical performance enterprises of RSFSR Narkompros. Head of the TsK VKP(b) Department of Cultural-Educational Work A. Shcherbakov

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Document Details

Document TitleMemorandum from TsK VKP(b) Department of Cultural-Educational Work Head A. S. Shcherbakov to the TsK VKP(b) secretaries on the situation at MKhAT

AuthorShcherbakov, Alexander Sergeevich; Department of Cutural Educational; Work

RecipientRussian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the; Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik; Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of; the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union,; CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the; VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control; Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist; Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b); (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union; Communist Party (Bolsheviks); Dzhugashvili, Iosif Vissarionovich (Stalin); Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseevich; Yezhov, Nikolai Ivanovich

RepositoryAPRF

ID #f.3, op.35, d.24, ll.18-21

DescriptionN/A

Date1935 Sep 17

AOC VolumeSoviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953

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