Finding Aid

Jewish Theater under Stalinism

Moscow State Jewish Theater (GOSET) and Moscow State Jewish Theater School (MGETU)

Published by IDC Publishers, 2005



Descriptive Summary

Title: Jewish Theater under Stalinism: Moscow State Jewish Theater (GOSET) and Moscow State Jewish Theater School (MGETU)
Dates (inclusive): 1916-1950
Abstract: Documents from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow about the Moscow State Jewish Theater and the affiliated Moscow State Jewish Theater School (MGETU).
Language(s): Documents are in Russian, Yiddish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Belarus, Georgian, Latvian.
Extent: 86 reels; fond 2307 : 650 files ; fond 2308 : 206 files.
Ordernumber: JT-1 - JT-2



Location of Originals

Originals are held by the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow. Fond 2307 (2 opisi) and 2308 (1 opis΄) .




Scope and Content

The collection includes the archive of GOSET (RGALI, Fond 2307) and the archive of the Theatrical School of the State Jewish Theater (MGETU) (RGALI, Fond 2308). This collection of archival documents from the RGALI contains material that describes the history of the Soviet culture and Theater, Jewish Theater, Jewish avant-garde art and the Kremlin's policy toward Jewish society and culture from 1919 until the early 1950s. The collection contains correspondence with ministries, state organizations, authors, administration, plays, notes ( with comments of censors) and the personal archives of Alexei Granovskii, Solomon Mikhoels, and other actors and writers. Other materials that can be found in this collection are press reports from Soviet and foreign periodicals about the theater and its tours in Europe, posters, drawings, theater programs and documents about other Jewish theaters.




Organization and arrangement

The documentary materials of the archive are organized primarily according to the various parts of the theater. As a rule, the chronological principle is maintained within each of the structural units. Personal files of students and lecturers are listed in alphabetical order. This collection is organised into the following sections and subsections:



Selected Search Terms

Persons
Chagall, Marc, 1887-
Granovskii, Aleksei Mikhailovich, d. 1937.
Mikhoels, Solomon Mikhailovich, 1890-1948.
Organizations
Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi evreiskii teatr
Geographic Areas
Soviet Union--History.
Soviet Union--Politics and government.
Topics
Art, Jewish.
Jewish theater.
Jewish theatrical producers and directors
Jews--Persecutions



Custodial History

The documents of GOSET were transferred to RGALI in two stages: In 1958 RGALI received the documents from the Central archive of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and in 1959 from the A.A. Bakhrushin State central theater museum. The museum received the documents from the liquidation commission in 1950. After the closing liquidation of the theater its archive was moved for preservation to the Aleksei Bakhrushin State Theatrical Museum where it was stored (without being catalogued). On the night of January 6-7, 1953 a major fire occurred in the small room where the archives of these discredited theaters were housed. A result of this was not only that the documents suffered considerably, but also that many of them were destroyed. The documentary materials that survived were transferred by order of the Committee for the Arts of the Council of Ministers of the USSR to the collection of the Main Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in 1959 to the Central Archive of Literature and Art (TsGALI), now know as the Russian Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI): Fond 2307, which contains 541 items in storage (dating from 1919-1949).




Index of Personal Names

All personal names that are mentioned in this finding aid are listed below in alphabetic order. Transliterated versions of the names are provided in parentheses.