ABSTRACT
In 1921 I entered the Proletcult organization1 as a theatre designer. The Proletcult Theatre busily sought new art forms that would correspond to the ideology of the new Russian state structure. Our troupe was composed of young workers who wished to create genuine art; they brought to this aim a quite new kind of temperament and a new viewpoint on the world and on art…. The next years were a fierce struggle. In 1922 I became director of the First Moscow Workers’ Theatre and completely broke with the views of the Proletcult administration. The Proletcult staff adhered to Lunacharsky’s2 position: to maintain old traditions and to compromise on the question of pre-revolutionary artistic efficiency. I was one of the most unbending supporters of LEF (Left Front), where we wanted the new, meaning works that would correspond to the new social conditions of art. We had on our side at that time all the young people and innovators, including the futurists Meyerhold and Mayakovsky; in the most rigid opposition to us were the traditionalist Stanislavsky* and the opportunist Tairov3….
