“The theater is an open book, it is a living picture of life accessible to everyone”: Problems of the domestic theater on the pages of the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti and the weekly Sovremennaya Letopis’ (1860s–1870s)

The article analyzes the speeches on the national theater transformation by one of the most influential Russian publications of the 1860s-1880s - the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti with its appendix, the weekly Sovremennaya Letopis’; the authoritative publicist Mikhail Katkov was its editor-publisher. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study the historical experience of the domestic theater business in connection with the ongoing processes of reforming the modern Russian theater, as well as the growing interest in the role of domestic conservative journalism in the cultural life of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the introduction of little-studied material into scientific discourse, in particular, the publications of D. V. Averkiev, G. A. Laroche, and M. N. Katkov. An analysis of the publications of the listed authors showed that Katkov’s publications actively supported the reforms of the organizational and creative system of Russian theatrical art, advocated the abolition of the monopoly of imperial theaters and the development of free competition between state-owned and private theaters, warmly welcomed the appearance of a private people’s theater in Moscow in 1872, seeing in this “a convincing argument in favor of freedom of art”. The campaign launched by Moskovskie Vedomosti in support of the reforms of the Russian performing arts largely contributed to the large-scale transformations of the entire organizational and creative system of the Imperial Theaters, and subsequently of the entire Russian theater system. Many of the newspaper’s proposals were taken into account in the Rules for the Management of Russian Drama Troupes of Imperial Theaters adopted in 1882. The further development of the domestic theater confirmed the extreme timeliness and relevance of the performances of the Moscow newspaper: the elimination of the monopoly of the imperial theaters and the permission of private enterprises in the capitals gave an impetus to the development of theatrical business in Russia, contributed to the development of free competition between theaters, the formation of an artistic labor market, and the attraction of talented youth to the stage. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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