Thaw (1953-1964): Taganka Theatre and the Experimental Russian Arts Scene
Where Manezhnaya Square and Seven Sisters personify Stalin's desire to portray Communism to the rest of the world, Taganka Theatre represents Khrushchev's attempt to show the rest of the world to Russians after the death of Stalin. After over 20 years of Stalin's rigid communist idealogy (1929-1953), a new Red Party Liuetenant, Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964) wanted to intorduce the USSR to the intelectual revolution that they had missed (1). Where the buildings that defined Stalin's reign are known for outward granduer, the Taganka Theatre is defined by what took place inside. Although the theatre was built in the last year of Khrushchev's reign, it represents the years of hard-fought reforms he put in place to counteract Stalin's effort to eclipse Russia from the world community (1). In 1956 Khrushchev gave his famous speech, denouncing Stalin's repression of the Russian people and after the speech Khrushchev put into place "rehabillitations" that started with freeing untried prisoners and continued with laws protecting freedom of speech and expression. Russia, a country so well known for its cultural contributions to the world during the 19th century, was put under a freeze during Stalin's version of isolationism, thus it is unsurprising that they call the era of Khrushchev's rule a 'thaw' for its revival of Russian individuality and artistic expression. By the end of Khrushchev's reign, iconic places of performance art like the Taganka Theatre were starting to pop up (2).
"I think art education, especially in this country, where government pretty much ignores it, is so important for young people." - Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dancer from the Soviet Union
Despite the success of Khrushchev's thaw in allowing for individuality and a reintroduction of the USSR into the world community, he was still constantly being attacked by the extremes of the communist party for his lack of control and, more so, his dissmisal of Stalin (1). During Khrushchev's time in power many of the occupied terretories of USSR, like Georgie, Hungary and Poland, revolted (3). While many of Khrushchev's critics liked his attempt to introduce places like Taganka Theatre, it seems that Khrushchev made the same mistake as Stalin in the sense that he was overzeloused and rushed to show results. As Khrushchev isolated himself from his communist party members, he simply got more brazen and extreme, like with his removal of Stalin from Lenin's Mausoleum (3). This extremity is what lead to the possibility of Taganka Theatre and the fellow experimental artists of the time. If one can imagine Soviet Russia's timeline as a pendiulum of freedom and tyranny, then one would say Taganka Theatre and Khrushchev's rule in general are at the extreme end of freedom. Thus, with the anger that Khrushchev stirred up in his own party and with his inevitable removal that finally took place in 1964, like a penduilum, Russia rapidly went back to the opposite extreme (1).
Fun Fact: Taganka Theatre continued to run even during some of the harshest eras of Soviet artistic oppression. In fact, in 1984, the head director Yuri Lyubimov got in trouble for his creative work and was stripped of his Soviet citizenships. Despite the theatre's trouble with the Soviet government, the theatre survived and is now one of Moscow's few artistic landmarks that was founded during the Soviet area and still exists today (2).
1. Richardson, Dan, and Jonathon Reynolds. The Rough Guide to Moscow. New York: Rough Guides, 2009. Print.
2. Beumers, Birgit. Yury Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre, 1964-1994. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1997. Print.
3. "The Thaw | Soviet Cultural History | Britannica.com." The Khrushchev Era, 2016. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.