ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1933 the chief OGPU officers and many thousands of convicts left Medvezhia Gora and the tenor of life in the camps along the canal zone changed. The roads, the plants and factories, the settlements around were awaiting their turn. From now on the entire region was called the NKVD White Sea-Baltic Combine (WSBC). An idea of the activities of the small theatres at Leiguba, Svirlag (Vazhino), Zaton and Lodeinoye Pole may be gleaned from the reminiscences of Vera Nikitina and Gabriel Ramensky. The memoirs of Nikitina and Ramensky reflect the last years of the Solovetsky troupe, left to work at Kem. In 1931 the troupe, then led by Kalugin, was sent into the canal zone proper. The theatre's policy was determined by its leader, taking into account the tastes of the bosses, of course. Of the stage directors who came and went at Medvezhka, many are unknown to us.
