Metadata: Materials Pertaining to the Operation of Theaters. Issues of Theatrical Training. Drama Censorship
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:
- F. 5
- Title:
- Materials Pertaining to the Operation of Theaters. Issues of Theatrical Training. Drama Censorship
- Title (official language):
- Материалы, отражающие деятельность театров, вопросы театрального образования. Драматическая цензура
- Creator/accumulator:
- Archival Materials Sector
- Date(s):
- 1756/1959
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 157 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
Documents in the fonds are in Russian and Yiddish in Cyrillic and Roman transliteration. Materials pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia may be provisionally divided into the following thematic groups:
1) Documents on the operations of Leningrad theatres, including the Free Comedy Theater; there are repertoire plans and a brief description of the theatre which indicates, aside from the acting troupe, the authors and titles of plays it staged, and in particular, O. Dymov, Nu and D. Ia. Aizman, Consul Granat (1920-25); the A. S. Pushkin Drama Theater – minutes of sessions of its artistic council, and in particular, on the initial discussion and read-through of Isaac Babel’s play Sunset (1920); the Youth Theater – information on it, its repertoire, and bibliographic data mentioning the possible staging of the Swedish playwright J. Berger’s The Destruction of Sodom and The Deluge; and The Crime of Nelly Vanston by V. A. Trakhtenberg, author of the well-known comedy Mendel Marants, or, An Unusual Transformation (1923-28).
2) Materials of the Drama Censorship for 1909-17, including copies of “A report on the number of dramatic works examined by the Drama Censorship in 1909” and “A report on dramatic compositions banned in 1909,” which contains a listing of authors and their works, and the reasons they were prohibited (given here in parentheses), including: G. Levit, Part, Clouds (“the Jewish question: unfortunate and downtrodden Jews are contrasted with perverse, crude Russians”); M. Alters, The Rebirth of Israel (“espouses socialism”); M. Bortniker, The Sinful Ones (“portraying the destruction of a Jewish family that has been victimised by a pogrom, the author arouses enmity toward the Christian culprits”); N. Krasnov, The Love of a Jew (“the war on prejudices”); F. I. Vorob’ev, The Beautiful Jewess (“incites enmity toward non-Russians – toward Jews””); Iu. Volin and A. Pavlov, The Sons of Thunder (“the Jewish question is covered tendentiously”); the Mandarin’s Son (pseud.), A Jew’s Life (“an apologia of Judaism”); D. Benar’e, In the Clutches (“a tendentious depiction of the oppression of Jews”); I. Toibenshlak, For What? (“incites hostility between Christians and Jews”); V. Leonidov, The Life of Those Near and Dear and The Martyrs (“depicts an oppressed generation of Jews”); A. Shchukin, The Golden Facet (“the play’s author takes a tendentious and hostile attitude toward Christians, and idealises Jews”); N. Krasheninnikov, The Wailing of Rachel (“the play’s biblical plot”); Vladimir Jabotinsky, Agasfer (“depicts the revolutionary movement in connection with the Jewish question”); and G. Levchenko, The Pogrom, and A. F. Bediuk, Freida (“depict anti-Jewish pogroms”).
Russian-language works banned in 1909 also include plays by A. Abramov, K. Veizer (biblical plots; trans. Frenkel’), and others. Yiddish-language plays banned in 1909 also include works submitted to the censorship by the following persons (the titles of plays are given as they appear in reports): P. P. Pertsov, Der Egoist (“the revolutionary movement”); Ia. Tsipkus, Shein Takhas shein; I. Latainer, Der seyder Nacht [The First Night of Passover], Kiddush Hashem (“self-sacrifice in the name of religion”), Alilas Dam (“the use of blood for religious purposes”), Der Farloyrener zun [The Lost Son] (“tendentious coverage of religious issues”); Zamanskii, Tsvey veltn [Two Worlds] (“incitement of class enmity”), A tokhter fun folf [A Daughter of the People], Di Eyshes Ish [A Married Woman] (“pornography, the labour question, and tendentious coverage of religious issues”); R. Roneti, Menssie (“tendentious coverage of religious issues”); G. Farber, Srulik Isrulevich (“incitement of class enmity”); Perets Hirshbeyn, Di hayntike giboyrim [A Hero of our Time] (“revolutionary tendencies”); A. Fishzon, Alphonse of Odessa (“pornography”); Ia. Gordin, Di sheyne Miriam [The Lovely Miriam] and Der Emes [The Truth] (“tendentious coverage of religious issues”); Prytikin, Der umshuldiker navenadnik [An Innocent Vagabond] (“criticises the administration in connection with the Jewish question”); and S. S. Iushkevich (Ol’gin), Hunger (“incites class struggle”). There is also an alphabetical list of dramatic compositions that had been examined by the Drama Censorship and approved for performance in 1913-17; newspaper clippings (apparently from Pravitel’stvennyi vestnik) that mention plays approved for performance, including Yiddish-language ones.
- 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:
- Collections of the Archival Materials Sector (f. 1-6, 10, 18, and 44) were formed from personal document collections of leading figures of the Russian stage; also included are the editorial archives of two periodicals: the journal Biriuch [The Herald] (1918-21) and the newspaper Za Sovetskoe iskusstvo [For Soviet Art] (1930s-60s). The fonds of the Book Preservation Department (OKKh) has printed copies of both publications; as does the fonds of the reading room. (The St. Petersburg State Theatrical Library website has digital issues of the journal Biriuch and two Petrograd State Theater Herald collections, as well as a system of supplementary indexes; see http://biruch.sptl.spb.ru/ – accessed 4 May 2015.)
- Access points: locations:
- Israel
- Leningrad
- Russia
- St Petersburg
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abramov, A.
- Aizman, D. Ia.
- Aizman, Nu
- Alters, M.
- Babel’, I. E.
- Bediuk, A. F.
- Berger, J.
- Bortniker, M.
- Dymov, O.
- Farber, G.
- Fishzon, A.
- Frenkel’
- Gordin, Ia.
- Hirshbeyn, Perets
- Iushkevich, S.
- Krasheninnikov, N.
- Krasnov, N.
- Latainer, I.
- Leonidov, V.
- Levchenko, G.
- Levit, G.
- Pavlov, A.
- Pertsov, P. P.
- Roneti, R.
- Shchukin, A.
- Toibenshlak, I.
- Trakhtenberg, V. A.
- Veizer, K.
- Volin, Iu.
- Vorob’ev, F. I.
- Zamanskii
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds has a single inventory systematised according to the alphabetic-thematic principle.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary