Self-organized movement and the agitprop theatre in the first years of the Russian Revolution (1917-1921)

Abstract

This article aims to present the main elements that mark the birth, characteristics and deadlocks of Russian agitprop theater, within the self-organized movement that marked the early years of the Russian Revolution. Less than an apparatus of the party leadership, this kind of theater was initially a result of a more varied movement, which included workers, students, soldiers and avant-garde artists. It redefined the ways of conceiving the relationship between actor and audience, made a profound revision of the traditional popular theater, and gained unprecedented massive reach in Russian and European theatrical history – characteristics that prevailed most intensely until the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921.