Shakespeare Inside Out: Hamlet as Intertext in the USSR 1934–43

Abstract

From the very beginning of the establishment of the USSR in 1922, the Soviets regarded theatre as ‘directly useful in the military and political struggle’ (Russell, 1990, p. 15). Indeed, ‘culture’ as a whole constituted ‘one of the primary spheres of revolutionary contestation, like politics and economics’ (Fitzpatrick, 1992, p. 2). But what was the most effective arsenal to deploy in such a struggle? What should be retained from the old canon? What renounced? What, if anything, adjusted to fit the times? The attitude to the European classics, and Shakespeare in particular, was fraught with historical, value-laden palimpsests.¹ A playwright familiar to the literate circles of imperial Russia for well over a century, Shakespeare occupied a complex position in the literary system, reflecting, among other things, a long-standing ‘love-hate’ relationship with the West. Many Bolsheviks wished to sweep away all such pre-Soviet and foreign works from the repertoire; others argued vehemently for their retention. Most, however, expected that the cataclysmic political and social changes that had come about after the First World War, Revolution, and Civil War would result in the birth of new, Soviet Shakespeares. These events, it was hoped, would bring about a Soviet classic. Just as Shakespeare had become a symbol of Englishness, so a Soviet classic would be a potent symbol of ‘Sovietness,’ embracing revolutionary grandeur, powerful emotions, and heroic conflicts. The new Soviet ‘Shakespeare’ would thus render the English Bard redundant. But Soviet Shakespeares proved slow to be born; yet the desire and the hope, periodically re-ignited, lived on.