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The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Youth Theater TRAM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Lynn Mally
Lynn Mally*
Affiliation:
Department of History at the University of California, Irvine
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Extract

“Young people need their own theater, akin to their own spirit,” wrote the actor Nikolai Kriuchkov in a memoir of his life in the theater in the 1920s and 1930s. While he acknowledged that the Soviet Union had developed a network of professional Komsomol theaters aimed at youth, Kriuchkov charged that in general these theaters simply duplicated the repertoire of conventional stages. But TRAM, an acronym for the Theater of Working-Class Youth (Teatr Rabochei Molodezhi), where Kriuchov got his start, was different. “It had its own topical themes, its own character, and young people went willingly.”

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , Fall 1992 , pp. 411 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1992

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References

Research for this article was supported in part by a grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). I would like to thank Marjorie Beale, Cornelia Dayton, Robert Moeller, Patricia O'Brien, Anne Walthall and Sharon Ullman for their comments.

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9. Some clubs attempted to follow the principles of the United Artistic Circle quite literally. See for example “Teatral'naia rabota kluba ‘Metallist’ v Leningrade,” Rabochii klub 31/32 (1926): 97-98.

10. On the early origins of TRAM, see the memoirs of one participant, Marinchik, Pavel, Rozhdenie Komsomol'skogo teatra (Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1965), 16–21 Google Scholar.

11. Marinchik, 5-6, 28-40; “Vtoroi vecher vospominanii rabotnikov TRAMa ot 15/V 1930,” TsGALI, f. 2723 (N. G. Zograf), op. 1, d. 534, 11. 8-14 ob; Sokolovskii, M, “TRAM na perelome,” Sovetskii teatr 2/3 (1931): 17 Google Scholar.

12. N. G. Zograf, “Tvorcheskii put’ Leningradskogo TRAMa,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 220, 11. 4-26. Zograf was part of a Narkompros commission that oversaw TRAM work and also a member of the TRAM central soviet. His extensive personal archive is one of the best sources of information on TRAM activities.

13. M. Sokolovskii, “Puti razvitiia Leningradskogo TRAMa,” TsGALI, f. 941 (Gosudarstvennaia Akademiia khudozhestvennykh nauk), op. 4, d. 66, 11. 1-2. See also Piotrovskii, A, “Puti Leningradskogo TRAMa,” in Leningradskii TRAM v Moskve, Hurt’ 1928 (Leningrad: Izdanie GosTRAMa, 1928), 18 Google Scholar

14. “Vtoroi vecher vospominanii rabotnikov TRAMa,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 534, 11. 8-24; Marinchik, 38-82.

15. Erven, Eugene van, Radical People's Theatre (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 1–14 Google Scholar, esp. 9.

16. A. Gorbenko, Sashka Chumovoi: Komsomol'skaia komediia in Piotrovskii, A. and Sokolovskii, M., eds., Teatr rabochei molodezhi: Sbornik p'es dlia Komsomol'skogo teatra (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1928), 94–136 Google Scholar, quotation 130. The titles of TRAM plays often included contemporary slang. As far as possible, I am using the English titles as they appear in Rudnitsky, Konstantin, Russian and Soviet Theatre: Tradition and the Avant-Garde, trans. Permar, Roxane (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988 Google Scholar).

17. Mironova, V. M., TRAM: Agitatsionnyi molodezhnyi teatr 1920-1930kh godov (Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1977), 26 Google Scholar; Marinchik, 73. For a sampling of reviews see “K otkrytiiu Teatra Rabochei Molodezhi,” Zhizn’ iskusstva 46 (1925): 19; and Levin, N, “Sashka Chumovoi,” Zhizn’ iskusstva 48 (1925): 12 Google Scholar.

18. See for example Tolmachev, D, “TRAM i ego perspektiva,” Zhizn’ iskusstva 12 (1926): 12 Google Scholar.

19. “V priemochnuiu komissiiu teatra rabochei molodezhi,” TsA VLKSM, of. 1 (Tsentral'nyi Komitet VLKSM), op. 23, d. 396, 1. 125.

20. Mironova, 34.

21. See Sheila Fitzpatrick, “The Problem of Class Identity in NEP Society,” in Russia in the Era of NEP, 12-33; Mally, Lynn, Culture of the Future: The Proletkult Movement in Revolutionary Russia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 69–75 Google Scholar.

22. Marinchik, 76, 78, 102; “Vecher vospominanii rabotnikov Trama ot 12 maia 1930g,” “Vtoroi vecher vospominanii,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 534, 11.1-24.

23. Adrian Piotrovskii: Teatr, kino, zhizn’ (Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1969), 5-11.

24. See the memoirs of these evenings by Piotrovskii's wife, Akimova, Alisa, “Chelovek dal'nikh plavanii,” in Adrian Piotrovskii, 362 Google Scholar.

25. Piotrovskii, A. I., “Osnovy samodeiatel'nogo iskusstva,” Za sovetskii teatr\ (Leningrad: Academia, 1925), 73 Google Scholar.

26. Piotrovskii, A., “TRAM: Stranitsa teatral'noi sovremennosti,” Zvezda 4 (1929): 142–52Google Scholar; M. Sokolovskii, “V nogu s komsomolom,” Komsomol'shaia pravda, 1 June 1928; Piotrovskii, A. and Sokolovskii, M., “O teatre rabochei molodezhi,” in Teatr rabochei molodezhi, 3–8 Google Scholar.

27. See Sokolovskii's speech at a meeting of the Leningrad TRAM, 4 March 1929, TsGALI, f. 2947 (Moskovskii Teatr imeni Leninskogo Komsomola), op. 1, d. 4, 11. 4-23.

28. Piotrovskii, A. and Sokolovskii, M., “O teatre rabochei molodezhi,” in Teatr rabochei molodezhi, 4–5 Google Scholar.

29. Piotrovskii, A. and Sokolovskii, M., “Dialekticheskaia p'esa,” in L'vov, N., Plaviatsia dni(Leningrad: Teakinopechat', 1929), 3–9 Google Scholar; idem, “Spektakl’ o sotsialisticheskom sorevnovanii,” in L'vov, N., Klesh zadumchivyi (Leningrad: Teakinopechat', 1930), 3–4 Google Scholar.

30. A. Piotrovskii, “TRAM,” 147.

31. Piotrovskii and Sokolovskii, “Dialekticheskaia p'esa,” 5.

32. “Idut novye liudi,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, 16 June 1928. Soviet theater historians recognizeTRAM's link to the avant-garde only grudgingly. See Rudnitsky, Russian and Soviet Theatre, 203-5.

33. Kagan, A. G., Molodezh’ posle gudka (Moscow, 1930), 30–38 Google Scholar, cited in Gooderham, Peter, “The Komsomol and Worker Youth: The Inculcation of ‘Communist Values’ in Leningrad during NEP,” Soviet Studies 34 (1982): 522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34. “Trebuem gastrolei Leningradskogo Trama,” Molodoi rabochii, 16 March 1928.

35. “Osnovnye printsipy polozheniia o TRAM'e,” in Chicherov, ed., Za TRAM, 69.

36. On TRAM's repertoire, see Leningradskii TRAM v Moskve; on its reception see “Golos rabochei molodezhi,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, 6 July 1928; “Na zavodakh,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, 13 July 1928.

37. See the now classic article on this theme by Sheila Fitzpatrick, “Cultural Revolution as Class War,” in Cultural Revolution in Russia, 8-40.

38. Sheila Fitzpatrick has made the most persuasive case for the role of youth in the first Five-Year Plan. See her “Cultural Revolution as Class War,” in Cultural Revolution in Russia, 21-7; and Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921-1932 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 136-57Google Scholar. See also Chase, William J., Workers, Society, and the Soviet State: Labor and Life in Moscow, 1918-1929 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 256–92Google Scholar; Kuromiya, Hiroaki, Stalin's Industrial Revolution: Politics and Workers 1928-1932 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 100–35Google Scholar; and Baum, Ann Todd, Komsomol Participation in the Soviet First Five-Year Plan (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

39. G-ov, V., “V bor'be za tramovskoe dvizhenie,” Zhizn’ iskusstva 19 (1928): 9 Google Scholar; Mironova, 6.

40. Marinchik, 170, 207; Knorre, F, “Moskovskii TRAM,” Rabis 26 (1929): 9 Google Scholar.

41. “Ustav Teatra Rabochei Molodezhi,” Novye etapy samodeiatel'noi khudozhestvennoi raboty(Moscow: Teakinopechat', 1930), 101. For reports of local membership figures, seeZa TRAM, 54-56; Sbornik materialov k tret'emu plenumu tsentral'nogo soveta Tramov pri TsK VLKSM (Moscow: TsK VLKSM, 1930), 15-27; TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 419, 1. 79; TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 419, 1. 58.

42. “Revoliutsionnyi dogovor,” April 1929 conference of the Leningrad regional TRAM, TsGALI, f. 2947, op. 1, d. 6, 1. 37.

43. Sokolovskii, M, “U istokov tramovskogo dvizheniia,” Rabochii i teatr 29/30 (1932): 11 Google Scholar.

44. Piotrovskii, and Sokolovskii, , “Spektakl',” in L'vov, N., Klesh zadumchivyi, 3 Google Scholar.

45. L'vov, Klesh zadumchivyi, 13.

46. Ibid., 48.

47. Ibid., 45.

48. Ibid., 8.

49. Mokul'skii, S., “'Klesh zadumchivyi, '” Zhizn’ iskusstva 20 (1929): 6–7 Google Scholar.

50. Beletskii, I “O tvorcheskom puti Moskovskogo Tsentral'nogo Trama,” Za agitbropbrimdu i TRAM 1 (1932): 22–24 Google Scholar; Piotrovskii, A. D. and Sokolovskii, M., ‘T'esa v bor'be'za piatiletku,” in Rostoslavlev, N., Dai piat’ (Leningrad: Teakinopechat, 1930), 5 Google Scholar; Mironova, 59. The title is a pun, since it literally means “(live five” and refers to the Five-Year Plan.

51. “Novyi tramovskii god,” Sbornik materialov k trel'emu plenumu, 3.

52. ’ Compare the statements by Tsil'man at the April 1929 Leningrad TRAM conference TsGALI, f. 2947, op. 1, d. 6, 1. 34 to the final resolutions passed at the first nationalTRAM conference in July 1929, Chicherov, ed., Za TRAM, 73.

53. See Tverskoi, K, “Teatral'naia rabota Leningradskikh profsoiuzov,” in Profsoiuzy i iskusstvo, eds. Edel'son, Z. A. and Filippov, B. M. (Leningrad, 1927), 53–66 Google Scholar.

54. “Problemy kul'turnoi revoliutsii i zadachi kul'turno-politicheskoi raboty profsoiuzov,” Pravda, 14 July 1930.

55. Avlov, G., Teatral'nye agitpropbrigady v klube (Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe lzdatel'stvo Khudozhestvennoi Literatury, 1931)Google Scholar.

56. Ipatov, V, “TRAMy v tret'em godu piatiletki,” Za agitpropbrigadu i TRAM 1 (1931): 37–38 Google Scholar.

57. “Novyi tramovskii god,” Sbornik materialov k tret'emu plenumu, 6. See also Litovskii, O, “TRAM,” Smena 2/3 (1931): 28 Google Scholar.

58. Contrast the views in Brown, Edward J., The Proletarian Episode in Russian Literature 1928-1932 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1953 Google Scholar, where he defends RAPP's differentiated aesthetics to those in the classic Soviet study, Sheshukov's, S. Neisto-uye rexmiteli (Moscow: Moskovskii Rabochii, 1970 Google Scholar, where socialist realism is portrayed as rescuing Soviet culture from RAPP's fanaticism.

59. See Kemp-Welch, A., Stalin and the Literary Intelligentsia, 1928-39 (New York: St. Martin's, 1991), 82–89 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60. Ibid., 89.

61. “Za proletarskii teatr!” Sovetskii teatr 2/3 (1931): 1.

62. “zadachakh RAPP na teatral'nom fronte,” Sovetskii teatr 10/11 (1931): 4-10, esp. 8-9.

63. I. Chicherov, “Oshibki i nedostatki tramovskogo dvizheniia,” 23 June 1931, TsGALI, f. 2947, op. 1, d. 32, 11. 3-6. See also idem, “Za boevoi soiuz RAPPa i TRAMa,” la agitpropbrigadu i TRAM 1 (1931): 5-10.

64. Chicherov, “Oshibki,” 11. 7 ob.-8.

65. See the comments of I. A. Savchenko, head of the Baku TRAM and one of the authors of Oil, in “Disput o postanovkakh Bakinskogo Trama: Neft’ i Pogibla Ro.ssiia” 9July 1931, TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 537, 11. 6-8 ob., 68 ob-70.

66. Ibid., 11. 9-31; quotation 1.31 ob.

67. Piotrovskii, A, “O sobstvennykh formalistskikh oshibkakh,” Rabochii i teatr 3 (1932): 10 Google Scholar.

68. [Mikhail Sokolovskii], “Sploshnoi potok,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 531, 11. 110-61.

69. Bliumenfel'd, V., “Za propagandistskii stil’ v ‘Frame,” Rabochii i teatr 12 (1932): 14 Google Scholar.

70. See Marinchik, 240; Zograf, “Puti Leningradskogo TRAMa,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 220, 11.103-4.

71. “O perestroike literaturno-khudozhestvennykh organizatsii. Postanovlenie TsK VKP(b) ot 23 aprelia 1932 g.,” Pravda, 24 April 1932.

72. See “O perestroike tramovskogo dvizheniia. Resoliutsiia TsS VLKSM po dokladu TsS Tramov,” TsGALI, f. 2723, op. 1, d. 423, 11. 7-11.

73. For a small sampling of these reviews, see Boiarskii, la., “Samodeiatel'noe iskusstvo na vysshuiu stupen',” Sovelskii teatr 9 (1932): 2–8 Google Scholar; “K itogam olimpiady,” Trud, 17 August 1932; A. Gladkov, “Luchshie sily professional'nogo iskusstva na pomoshch’ khudozhestvennoi samodeiatel'nosti,” Sovetshoe iskusstvo, 15 August 1932.

74. For the clearest expression of these views, see “Pervye itogi,” Sovetskoe iskusstvo, 21 August 1932; A. Kasatkina, “Iskusstvo millionov,” Izvestiia, 22 August 1932.

75. Mikhail Sokolovskii cited in Nedoshivin, G. and Chushkin, N., “Na povestke ovladenie khudozhestvennym nasledstvom,” Za agitpropbrigadu i TRAM 3/4 (1932): 17 Google Scholar.

76. The Leningrad and Moscow TRAMs assumed the name of Komsomol theaters (teatry imeni Leninskogo Komsomola). The Sverdlovsk TRAM became the Theater of Komsomol'skaia Pravda.The Kuibyshev TRAM was renamed the Theater of the Komsomol's Twentieth Anniversary. See Teatral'naia entsiklopediia (Moscow: Sovetskaia Entsyklopediia, 1967), 5: 264.

77. “Stenogramma seminara-soveshcheniia rukovoditelei teatrov Rabochei Molodezhi (TRAM) pri klubnoi inspektsiia VTsSPS,” TsGAOR, f. 5451 (VTsSPS), op. 18, d. 510, 11. 49-50.

78. See the memoirs of Pavel Marinchik from the Leningrad TRAM, 239-47; and those of the Sverdlovsk TRAM participant Gur'eva, K., “la vyrosla s teatrom,” in Desiat’ let Sverdlovskogo TRAMa (Sverdlovsk: Ural'skii Rabochii, 1936), 51-52Google Scholar. For a representative account in Soviet theater history, see Zograf, N. G. et al., Ocherki istorii russkogo sovetskogo dramaticheskogo teatra (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1954), 751–53, 757.Google Scholar

79. Robin, Regine, “Popular Literature of the 1920s: Russian Peasants as Readers,” in Russia in the Era of NEP, 253–67Google Scholar, esp. 263-65.

80. Kuromiya, 214-15; Hoffman, David L., “Moving to Moscow: Patterns of Peasant In-Migration during the First Five-Year Plan,” Slavic Review 50 (Winter 1991): 847–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81. TsGAOR, f. 5451, op. 18, d. 510, 1. 63. Indeed Beletskii was at a loss to describe what distinguished TRAM from other theaters except the fact that the participants were young.

82. Akimova, Alisa, “Chelovek dal'nikh plavanii,” in Adrian Piotrovskii, 364 Google Scholar.