ABSTRACT
Now General Secretary of the Communist Party, Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (1879–1953) launched the first Five-Year-Plan to turn the USSR into an industrial nation, enlisting the full participation of the arts in its unrealistic goals. Two important policy changes effected in 1928 had a considerable impact on the theatre. Sovnarkom created an Arts Sector of the Commissariat of Enlightenment known for short as Glaviskusstvo. Glavrepertkom was incorporated as an inflexible censorship office within it, charged with monitoring and approving all plays prior to production. The emollient Lunacharsky was removed from office.
