ABSTRACT
As long as cinema remained an ambulant form of entertainment, no specific cinema architecture existed in Russia. Cinema shows were put on in rented premises, most frequently in seasonal theatres. Proprietors of mobile cinemas had hired circus marquees, market stalls, vacant storerooms, dockside warehouses, etc. 1 If any special premises did exist at that time, they were only small, light structures like fairground booths. Attempts were nevertheless made to adapt to specifically Russian conditions. Vast distances and bad roads made overland travel very difficult, and so, in 1906, a ‘floating electrical theatre’ that could house five hundred spectators was erected on a barge towed by a river steamer. It was called the Stenka Razin; its planned route was down the Volga river. It had coloured sails and its crew and ushers were supposed to be dressed as Razin's brigand gang. Since its projection machine was most probably equipped with oxygen lamps, it was extremely likely that it would eventually catch fire. Fortunately, it did so before the first spectator set foot on board.
