Metadata: Russian Drama
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- St. Petersburg State Theatrical Library
- Holding institution (official language):
- САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКАЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ ТЕАТРАЛЬНАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА
- Postal address:
- 191011, St. Petersburg, ul. Zodchego Rossi, d. 2.
- Phone number:
- +7 (812) 5717711
- Web address:
- http://www.sptl.spb.ru
- Email:
- sptl@sptl.spb.ru
- Reference number:
- [unnumbered fond]
- Title:
- Russian Drama
- Title (official language):
- Русская Драма
- Creator/accumulator:
- The Drama Censorship
- Date(s):
- 1754/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 22,965 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are censorship and working manuscript copies of plays; print editions (many of them composite volumes); dedicatory inscriptions; and all manner of censors’, directors’, and prompters’ markings, abridgements, remarks, names of performers, scenery diagrams, etc. Pertaining to Jewish history and culture are manuscript and typewritten copies of the following dramatic works, adaptations, and Russian translations of foreign plays (in some cases, the translator is not indicated): D. Ia. Aizman, Wives (1907); S. Arnault, Iakhil’ (1889); Mark Arnshteyn, Der vilner balebesl (The Little Vilna Householder); Sholem Asch, With the Wave (David) (undated); Sof’ia Belaia (S. N. Bogdanovskaia), Mlle. Pashette (undated); T. Bernard, Happy Ending (trans. L. Bernshtein and N. Tasin, 1914); Henri Bernstein, Israel (trans. M. A. Potapenko, 1909), For What? (trans. N. N. Elizarov, 1903), and Samson (trans. P. Zvezdich and A. Tezi, undated); M. Bernshtein, The Lawyer (trans. V. K. Miule, 1900); F. I. Vorob’ev, The Jewess (the plot is adapted from the famous opera La Juive by Fromental Halévy, undated); G. G. Ge, The Kiss – First and Last (1906); Iu. Davydov, Go Down to the Pharmacy (scenes from everyday Jewish life, 1874); V. Zolotov, Manikhim Ben-Israel (the plot is borrowed from Karl Spindler’s novel The Jew; undated); P. A. Karatygin, The Wandering Jew in a New Form, or, A Wedding Ball, with Obstacles (an adaptation of a French vaudeville; 1855); N. A. Krasheninnikov, The Wailing of Rachel (1911); R. Cumberland, One of Ours, or, A Rare Jew (trans. M. Ia. Khashkes, 1875); Tat’iana Maiskaia (T. A. Maizel’), The Evil Force (1902); L. I. Mandel’shtam, A Jewish Family (1854); A. Kh. Mozer, Not the Zhid Who’s a Jew, But the Zhid Who’s a Zhid (undated); Max Nordau, Two Worlds (produced for the Russian stage by A. P. Burd-Voskhodov, 1903) and The Right to Love (trans. V. Pliutsinskaia); N. N. Ol’khovskaia, The Jew under Seal (1853); A. Remizov, On Judas, Prince of Iscariot (1919); Victor Séjour, The Jew, or, Glory and Disgrace (trans. V. A. Karatygin, 1844); P. N. Semenov, Success from Failure, or, An Adventure in a Jewish Tavern (1818); Eugene Sue, The Wandering Jew (trans. M. Fedorov and S. N. Khudiakov, undated); and The Wandering Jew (no author indicated; undated); Ia. N. Tolstoi, Widukind Tower, or, The Jewish Capitulation (1820); N. N. Urvantsov, The Martyr Sura, or, Yankel the Musician (a play from Jewish life; composed from plots by Ia. Gordin, S. Iushkevich, O. Dymov, and others; 1913); Osip Dymov, Hear O Israel! (1907) and The Voice of the Blood (1903); S. S. Iushkevich, The King (1907); E. N. Chirikov, Friends of Openness (1905); E. Shakhovaia, Judith (1877), A. A. Shakhovskoi, The Jew in Love (the plot is adapted from an old piece titled The Jew in the Barrel; 1846); E. Erkman, The Polish Jew (undated); etc.
- Archival history:
- The St. Petersburg State Theatrical Library was founded 30 August 1756 per the edict of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna that established the first professional Russian theatre. It arose as a repertoire library of the Russian Theater Troupe, and was subsequently reorganized as the Central Library of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. However, it is clear from archival research that the library of the Russian Theater Troupe began to take shape well before the edict itself. In particular, this is attested to by copies of manuscript plays housed in the library dating from 1754 through 1759 marked “From the Library of the Court Theater.” The name and agency jurisdiction of the library changed on numerous occasions: from 1759-1889, it was called the Library of the Russian Court Theater; from 1889-1917, the Central Library of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters; from 1917-31, the Central Russian Drama Library; from 1931-34, the Library of the A. S. Pushkin Theater; from 1934-93, the A. V. Lunacharskii Leningrad State Library; and since 1993, the St. Petersburg State Theatrical Library (SPb GTB). Since 1889, the library’s fonds have been supplemented with collections of plays from other state troupes (French, German, and Italian) working in St. Petersburg in the 18th-19th c. After 1917, the library opened its fonds to all persons interested in the theatre arts. Currently the library’s fonds number over 700,000 storage units. A third of them (manuscripts, rare and valuable publications, personal papers of theatre figures, decoration and costume designs, theatre programs and posters, one-of-a-kind photographic images, etc.) are housed in the library’s Department of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archival and Visual Materials. All materials of this department are catalogued (including in card catalogues), insofar as the St. Petersburg State Theatrical Library employs the library accounting system (with the exception of the Archival Materials Sector, which has inventories).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This fonds began to be formed in 1756, reflecting the repertoire of the Russian Imperial Drama Theater established in St. Petersburg. In 1889 it was transferred to the Central Library of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. In 1927, the collection of Grand Prince Pavel Aleksandrovich (son of Emperor Alexander II and uncle of Nicholas II) from the former palace of Princess O. Palei at Tsarskoe Selo (“The Collection of the Palace of Princess Palei at Tsarskoe Selo”) was transferred to the fonds from the State Book Fund. The collection includes first editions by Russian dramatists of the 18th and first half of the 19th c., and several rare provincial editions of the late 18th and early 19th c., constituting a valuable source for the study of the repertoire of the Russian theatre; the collection also includes a “complete collection of Russian plays and operas” – the multivolume Russian Theater [Rossiiskii featr]. Among the collection’s rarities is a first edition of Ia. B. Kniazhnin’s tragedy Vadim of Novgorod [Vadim Novgorodskii], the print run of which was destroyed by order of the Senate in 1793.
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- St Petersburg
- Access points: persons/families:
- Aizman, D. Ia.
- Arnault, S.
- Arnshteyn, Mark
- Asch, Sholem
- Belaia, Sof’ia
- Bernard, T.
- Bernshtein, L.
- Bernshtein, M.
- Bernstein, Henri
- Burd-Voskhodov, A. P.
- Chirikov
- Cumberland, R.
- Davydov, Iu.
- Elizarov, N. N.
- Erkman, E.
- Fedorov, M.
- Ge, G. G.
- Gordin, Ia.
- Iushkevich, S.
- Karatygin, P. A.
- Karatygin, V. A.
- Khashkes, M.
- Khudiakov, S. N.
- Krasheninnikov, N.
- Maiskaia, Tat’iana
- Mandel’shtam, L. I.
- Miule, V. K.
- Mozer, A. Kh.
- Nordau, M.
- Ol’khovskaia, N. N.
- Pliutsinskaia, V.
- Potapenko, M. A.
- Remizov, A.
- Séjour, Victor
- Semenov, P. N.
- Shakhovaia, E.
- Shakhovskoi, A. A.
- Spindler
- Sue, Eugène
- Tezi, A.
- Tolstoi, Ia. N.
- Urvantsov, N. N.
- Vorob’ev, F. I.
- Zolotov, V.
- Zvezdich, P.
- Subject terms:
- Censorship
- Literature
- Literature--Novels, poetry, and plays
- Manuscripts
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes card catalogues systematised by subject and alphabetically; and an electronic catalogue.
- Finding aids:
- Catalogues (card and electronic) are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary