The Kyiv “Incident”: A War of Statutes

Abstract

The paper focuses on the reconstruction and analysis of the so-called Kyiv “incident” (1908) that marked a new type of conflict in the theatre life and developed a new disposition in the theatrical community. What constituted the incident was a collective refusal of the actors to proceed with the play until the theatre reporter and critic Petr Yartsev (1870–1930) would not leave the premises of the Solovtsov theatre. This “incident” roused the theatrical community, becoming the subject of intense discussions in the All-Russia press during the 1908–1910. It was covered in dozens of short notices and disputes; however, it was never analyzed from the standpoint of the change in statuses and dispositions: the researchers mainly pointed out at the “progressive” aesthetic ideas of the Moscow critic and backward province. This, probably unintentionally, again trapped the discussion within the limitations of the “Russian world.” Sometimes, though, Petr Yartsev, the theatre journalist who provoked the conflict, was even considered conservative in his artistic taste (while, in reality, someone’s aesthetic taste is not relevant until it becomes a factor of a proven impact or a marked of a covert collision). Nevertheless, the witnesses and participants of the “incident” left enough testimonies to analyze it as a marker of new tendencies in the theatre culture, in particular, as a marker of development of new relations between theatre and theatre journalism, especially taking into account that during the period, similar incidents occurred not only in Kyiv. Hence, this phenomenon became widespread and revealed the new type of conflict. A. Kugel, an editor of the Saint Petersburg journal Theatre and Art (Teatr i iskusstvo), played a significant role in development of this new disposition. Having turned from the local event into the All-Russia war of statuses, the Kyiv “incident” announced the era of the new type of conflicts (metropolis vs province, art vs the press). The court judgement in favor of the press became a precedent that defined the new rules and boundaries in the relations between theatre and the press.