Kharkov Russian Drama Theater

(full name, A. S. Pushkin Kharkov Russian Drama Theater), a theater founded in Kharkov in 1933, largely owing to the efforts of the director N. N. Sinel’nikov, who worked in the theater from 1933 to 1937. Its principal directors have included N. V. Petrov (1933–36), A. G. Kramov (1936–51), and V. I. Nenashev (1964–74).

Among the theater’s most successful productions were Slavin’s The Intervention (1933), L. N. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1938), Furmanov’s Chapaev (1934), Simonov’s The Russian People (1942), Leonov’s Invasion (1944), Sholokhov’s Virgin Soil Upturned (1964), Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1964), and Shcherbak’s The Discovery (1975). A. G. Kramov gave a fine portrayal of V. I. Lenin in Pogodin’s plays Man With a Gun (1938) and Kremlin Chimes (1947). Other outstanding productions were Popov’s The Family (1949) and Shatrov’s Sixth of July (1966). The theater’s repertoire includes plays by M. Gorky, A. N. Ostrovskii, L. N. Tolstoy, N. V. Gogol, and A. S. Griboedov. In 1971 it was designated an academic theater. A drama studio has operated at the theater since 1933.

In 1976 the theater company included People’s Artists of the Ukrainian SSR P. P. Antonov, Iu. P. Zhbakov, I. S. Liubich, and N. I. Podavalova and Honored Artists of the Ukrainian SSR A. I. Moskalenko, B. M. Tabarovskii, and N. D. Sheremet. In 1975, A. A. Barsegian (Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR) was appointed the theater’s principal director.