Lunacharsky, Anatoli (11 Nov. 1875) Reference library
The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre
..., Anatoli [ Vasilevich ] (b. Poltava, Russia , 11 Nov. 1875 ; d. Menton, France , 26 Dec. 1933 ) Russian theatre critic , dramatist and first head of the Soviet Commissariat of Education and Enlightenment. Appointed to this post in 1919 , he took issue with ultra-radical theatrical experimentalism and advocated a return to the realist traditions of the nineteenth century. Generally, however, he fostered a climate of critical tolerance in the arts, despite his own partisan preferences, and encouraged the building of new theatres. A writer of...
Lunacharsky, Anatoly Reference library
Nick Worrall
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
..., Anatoly ( 1875–1933 ) Russian/Soviet dramatist, critic, and the Soviet Union's first cultural commissar, from 1917 to 1929 . Educated at the University of Zurich, Lunacharsky's tastes were cosmopolitan and, on the whole, enlightened. In a book of critical and theoretical essays which appeared in 1908 , he rubbed shoulders with leading symbolist theorists/practitioners of the day, including Meyerhold , whom he appointed head of the theatrical section of the Cultural Commissariat in 1919 , before growing alarmed at some of his protégé's...
Lunacharsky, Anatoly Reference library
The Companion to Theatre and Performance
..., Anatoly ( 1875–1933 ) Russian/Soviet dramatist , critic , and the Soviet Union's first cultural commissar ( 1917–29 ). Lunacharsky's tastes were cosmopolitan; in a book of essays ( 1908 ), he rubbed shoulders with leading *symbolists , including *Meyerhold , whom he appointed head of the theatrical section of the Cultural Commissariat in 1919 , before growing alarmed at some of his protégé's innovative excesses and dismissing him. In 1923 he coined the slogan ‘Back to *Ostrovsky ’, as part of an attempt to curb the tendencies of the ...
Lunacharsky, Anatoli Vasilevich Reference library
The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (2 ed.)
..., Anatoli Vasilevich ( 1875–1933 ), first Commissar for Education in Soviet Russia, an able and cultured man to whom the USSR owes the preservation and rejuvenation of those Imperial theatres—notably the Moscow Art Theatre —which survived the Revolution. He was also responsible for the organization of the new Soviet theatres which sprang up in vast numbers, many of which are named after him. He realized that the new audiences would inevitably demand new plays and methods of production, but that the old plays, both Russian and European, were part of...
Lunacharsky, Anatoly Vasilyevich (24 Nov. 1875) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (6 ed.)
...Lunacharsky, Anatoly Vasilyevich (b. Poltava, Ukraine , 24 Nov. 1875 (11 Nov. Old Style); d. Menton, France , 26 Dec. 1933 ) Russian Commissar for Enlightenment 1918–29 Lunacharsky was the son of tsarist official of radical political views. He became interested in Marxism, while still in his teens and, as a student at Zurich University, met Rosa Luxemburg , who impressed him profoundly. Back in Russia in 1899 he was soon arrested for his political activities. When he returned to Switzerland in 1902 he joined the socialist philosopher A. A....
Lunacharsky, Anatoly Vasilyevich (24 Nov. 1875) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Political Biography (2 ed.)
..., Anatoly Vasilyevich (b. Poltava , 24 Nov. 1875 ; d. 26 Dec. 1933 ) Russian ; Commissar for Enlightenment 1918–29 Lunacharsky was the son of tsarist official of radical political views. He became interested in Marxism, while still in his teens and, as a student at Zurich University, met Rosa Luxembourg, who impressed him profoundly. Back in Russia in 1899 he was soon arrested for his political activities. When he returned to Switzerland in 1902 he joined the socialist philosopher A. A. Bogdanov , whose sister he married. Lunacharsky met...
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Narkompros
Pushkin Theatre
Maly Theatre
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Alexander Blok
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Robert Bolt
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Moscow Art Theatre
Soviet Union
socialist Realism
Narkompros Quick reference
A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (3 ed.)
... ( NKP ) A cultural organization founded in Soviet Russia in 1917 shortly after the October Revolution; the word is an abbreviation of Narodny Komissariat Prosveshcheniya (People's Commissariat for Enlightenment). Narkompros was directed by the writer and politician Anatoly Lunacharsky ( 1875–1933 ) and was in charge of general cultural and educational policy. It contained several sections, including a Visual Arts Section called IZO Narkompros; this was headed by the painter David Shterenberg ( 1881–1948 ), who was based in Petrograd (St Petersburg),...
Schröder Reference library
Anne Beetem Acker
The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments
...During World War I, the firm manufactured only 100 pianos per year and worked mainly on military equipment. In 1918, the business was nationalized by the Soviet government and piano production stopped, resuming under Soviet control first under the name Lunacharsky (after the culture minister Anatoly Lunacharsky) in 1922, and then as part of the Red October firm in 1925. See P. Zimin : History of the Piano and its Predecessors (Moscow, 1968). Anne Beetem Acker ...
