Theatrical Societies of the USSR

voluntary public professional organizations consisting of theater workers from the Union republics of the USSR. The theatrical societies of the USSR were established on the model of and with the cooperation of the All-Russian Theatrical Society. Societies have been organized in Armenia (founded 1940), Azerbaijan (1944), Byelorussia (1946), Estonia (1945), Georgia (1945), Kazakhstan (1962), Kirghizia (1961), Latvia (1945), Lithuania (1947), Moldavia (1958), Tadzhikistan (1971), Turkmenistan (1973), the Ukraine (1944), and Uzbekistan (1945).

The supreme administrative body of each theatrical society is the congress of delegates, which is convened every five years. Between congresses, the societies are supervised by a board that is headed by a presidium consisting of leading theatrical figures belonging to the society. The theatrical societies of the USSR are centered in the capitals of Union republics; they usually maintain houses of actors. Local chapters have been organized in the centers of autonomous republics, krais, and oblasts.