On the West European Sources of the First Russian Comedies (Based on the Materials of the Ambassadorial Order of the Second Half of the 17th Century)

The aim of the article is to consider the origins of the first Russian comedies on the basis of ambassadorial lists of the Ambassadorial Order of the second half of the 17th century. The first attempts of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to start a theatre in Russia date back to 1660. The year before, in 1659, the Russian mission headed by V.B. Likhachev brought an ambassadorial list containing, in addition to diplomatic affairs, a chapter on performances seen in Italy, called comedies (komidii). From that moment on, any performances were called comedies in all official Russian documents, not igrishcha (games) or pozorishcha (shows with a shameful shade) as it was customary earlier, and referred to any performance regardless of the genre division. In 1667-1668, the Russian mission in Spain and France headed by P.I. Potemkin received an audience in the Tuileries Palace, where the Russian diplomats saw French comedies (Desmarets' Blows of Fate and Moliere's Amphitryon). In June 1672, i.e., in the midst of another diplomatic mission headed by A.A. Vinius, the decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on the establishment of the first Russian theatre was issued. Nevertheless, according to new studies, the first performance in Russia was the ballet Orpheus, staged in February 1672 and incorporating the features of a Western European staging tradition (for example, features of the use of perspective scenery), including the one known from the ambassadorial reports. Since then, the Ambassadorial Order, run by the boyar Artamon Matveyev and his associates, activists of the German Quarter in Moscow, the pastor of the Lutheran church in Moscow Johann Gottfried Gregory, the translator of the Ambassador Order Yuri Givner, the court's chief physician Laurent Ringuber Snr, becomes the main institution symbolizing the beginning of theatrical life in Russia. Thus, the first Russian theatre was created during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, when diplomatic relations were being established with Western European states, through the efforts of the members of the Ambassadorial Order. In fact, the Ambassadorial Order became the centre of theatrical performances in Russia, and the Russian diplomatic mission played an important role in this regard: descriptions of "amusements" at the courts of Western European sovereigns, including the theatre, began to appear in Russia. The analysis of early Russian court comedies in the context of the ambassadorial lists of Russian missions of those years reveals patterns in the formation and development of the court theatre in Russia, which emerged in the last third of the 17th century.

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