BETWEEN ART AND PROPAGANDA: THE THEATER CULTURE OF SOVIET UKRAINE

Abstract

The Soviet mono-ideological state put culture under control, using it as a tool of propaganda. The introduction of the canon of socialist realism was accompanied by repressions against dissenting artists, innovation in art was eliminated. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, Ukrainian theater was also in such conditions.
The following theaters played an important role in the theatrical life of Ukraine: the State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet named after T. Shevchenko, the Odessa Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, the Drama Theater named after M. Zankovetska, the Zaporizhzhia State Musical and Drama Theater named after Shchors and others.
The stage repertoire was carefully controlled, unified productions with template scenarios and typical images were encouraged, glorifying Soviet reality, heroes of labor and the achievements of communism. Ukrainian, Russian and foreign classical drama was permitted. Examples of works: «The Young Guard» based on the novel by O. Fadeev, «Nazar Stodolya» by T. Shevchenko, «Marusya Boguslavka» by M. Starytsky, «Intrigue and Love» by F. Schiller. Works that violated Ukrainian national themes were censored. Theater criticism of the time tried to interpret their content from the point of view of a class approach, the struggle for social justice, etc. This led to a distortion of Ukrainian national motifs.
The ideology imposed on Ukrainian artists transformed the mission of theaters from serving society to serving the state. The history of Ukrainian Soviet theater has preserved the names of prominent figures who tried to preserve the originality of Ukrainian theater and made attempts to balance between art and propaganda.