FROM KAMCHATKA TO GEORGIA THE BLUE BLOUSE MOVEMENT AND EARLY SOVIET SPATIAL PRACTICE by Robert F. Crane B.A., Georgia State University, 2001 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2005 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DEITRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Robert F. Crane It was defended on March 27, 2013 and approved by Atillio Favorini, PhD, Professor, Theatre Arts Kathleen George, PhD, Professor, Theatre Arts Vladimir Padunov, PhD, Professor, Slavic Languages and Literature Dissertation Advisor: Bruce McConachie, PhD, Professor, Theatre Arts ii Copyright © by Robert Crane 2013 iii FROM KAMCHATKA TO GEORGIA THE BLUE BLOUSE MOVEMENT AND EARLY SOVIET SPATIAL PRACTICE Robert Crane, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 The Blue Blouse movement (1923-1933) organized thousands of workers into do-it-yourself variety theatre troupes performing “living newspapers” that consisted of topical sketches, songs, and dances at workers’ clubs across the Soviet Union. At its peak the group claimed more than 7,000 troupes and 100,000 members. At the same time that the movement was active, the Soviet state and its citizens were engaged in the massive project of building a new society reflecting the aims of the Revolution. As Vladimir Paperny has argued, part of this new society was a new spatial organization, one that stressed the horizontal over the vertical, the uniform of the hierarchical, and the collective over the individual. Relying on David Harvey’s revision of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories, this dissertation explores the role of the Blue Blouse movement in the production and reproduction of this new Soviet space, examining the spread of the movement across the material space of the Soviet Union; the production of a discursive space on the pages of Blue Blouse, the movement’s magazine; and the collective imagining of space on the stage during Blue Blouse performances. A detailed discussion of the Blue Blouse movement in Kharkiv, then capital of the Ukrainian SSR, examines the role that place, language, and nationality played in the new Soviet space. The concluding section deals with the displacement of the Blue Blouse from the center of the do-it- yourself theatre movement as its magazine was closed, its lead organizer arrested, and its work discredited. By aggressively promoting geographic and ethnic diversity in its bid to stretch iv “from Kamchatka to Georgia,” the Blue Blouse enabled participation in a shared spectacle, which imagined a citizenry appropriate to this new state. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. XVI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 THE BLUE BLOUSE IN TIME: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BLUE BLOUSE MOVEMENT ...................................................................................................... 6 1.1.1 The Blue Blouse in Performance ............................................................... 11 1.2 CRITICAL METHODOLOGY ....................................................................... 20 1.2.1 Soviet Space. ................................................................................................ 26 1.3 ORGANIZATION ............................................................................................. 29 2.0 MATERIAL SPACE: THE BLUE BLOUSE MOVEMENT ................................ 31 2.1 APPROPRIATION AND USE OF SPACE: THE BLUE BLOUSE IN THE BEERHALLS AND IN THE CLUBS ............................................................................... 34 2.2 ACCESSIBILITY AND DISTANCIATION: COVERING ONE SIXTH OF THE EARTH ...................................................................................................................... 48 2.3 DOMINATION AND CONTROL OF SPACE: “THE BATTLE FOR QUALITY” ......................................................................................................................... 58 2.4 PRODUCTION OF SPACE: EVERY PERIPHERY A CENTER ............... 68 2.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 77 vi 3.0 REPRESENTATION OF SPACE: BLUE BLOUSE AND THE BLUE- BLOUSENIKS............................................................................................................................. 78 3.1 APPROPRIATION AND USE OF SPACE: ON THE PAGES OF BLUE BLOUSE.. ............................................................................................................................ 82 3.2 ACCESIBILITY AND DISTANCIATION: “WE ANSWER” ..................... 92 3.3 DOMINATION AND CONTROL OF SPACE: FROM THE EDITORS . 103 3.4 PRODUCTION OF SPACE: THE BLUE BLOUSE ALBUM.................... 111 3.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 119 4.0 SPACES OF REPRESENTATION: BLUE BLOUSE PERFORMANCE AND THE SOVIET GEOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION ................................................................. 121 4.1 USE OF SPACE: POLITICS, WORK, AND EVERYDAY LIFE .............. 124 4.1.1 Political Education: “Memorial of Lenin” ............................................. 124 4.1.2 The Politics of Labor: “The Tournament of Production” .................... 127 4.1.3 The Politics of Private Life: “Marusia Poisoned Herself.” ................... 130 4.2 ACCESS AND DISTANCIATION: STAGING THE MARGINS .............. 134 4.2.1 Songs of Modernization and Equalization: Chastushki on the Country and the City ............................................................................................................... 135 4.2.2 Communism = Soviet Power + Electrification: “Make Way For Lenin’s Little Lamps” ............................................................................................................ 141 4.2.3 “Ded Raeshnik” on the Women’s movement: “On Comrade Kollontai, the New Marriage Law and My Bully of a Wife” ................................................. 145 4.3 CONTROL OF SPACE: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CAPITAL .......... 148 4.3.1 The External Enemy: The International Review ................................... 148 vii 4.3.2 Defending Soviet Space: “Red Army” .................................................... 152 4.3.3 The Internal Enemy: Spichkin the Impostor ......................................... 158 4.4 PRODUCTION OF SPACE: STAGING THE WORKERS’ STATE ........ 162 4.4.1 The Machine Dance: “Ford and Us” ....................................................... 162 4.4.2 Revisiting the Classics: “Moliere in a Blue Blouse” .............................. 166 4.4.3 The first Soviet Musical: Koroleva Erred ................................................ 170 4.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 177 5.0 AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: THE BLUE BLOUSE IN KHARKIV ..................... 179 5.1 KHARKIV IN THE 1920S .............................................................................. 180 5.2 “METALLIST:” BLUE BLOUSE AT THE METALWORKER’S CLUB 186 5.3 NIEBIESKA BLUZA: THE POLISH BLUE BLOUSE .............................. 192 5.4 VILLAGE THEATRE .................................................................................... 196 5.5 AT THE WORKBENCH: THE LIVING NEWSPAPER OF THE KHORPS.. ......................................................................................................................... 199 5.6 THE JOLLY PROLETARIAN ...................................................................... 204 5.7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 206 6.0 CONCLUSION: THE BLUE BLOUSE DISPLACED ......................................... 208 6.1 BORIS IUZHANIN: “PROFESSION: BLUE BLOUSENIK”.................... 210 6.2 NIKOLAI L'VOV’S INVESTIGATION OF THE “LIVING NEWSPAPER CRISIS”.. ........................................................................................................................... 215 6.3 THE OLYMPIAD OF DO-IT-YOURSELF THEATRE ............................. 220 6.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 226 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................ 233 viii BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 269 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The first trio of Blue Blouse organizers in 1923. B. Iuzhanin, V. Mrozovskii, and V. Voskresenskii. Sinaia bluza 71-72 (1928), 5. ................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. “An Evening Devoted to Currency Reform.” Siniaia bluza 1 (1924), 34. .................... 14 Figure 3. Ded Raeshnik. Siniaia bluza 1 (1924), 49. .................................................................... 16 Figure 4. Tamara Tomiss, director. Physical culture number. Siniaia bluza 71-72 (1928), 29. ... 17 Figure 5. Nina Aizenberg. Costume design for Koroleva Erred. Siniaia bluza 63-64 (1927), 9. 18 Figure 6. Nina Aizenberg. Costume design for Karmen. Siniaia bluza 65-66 (1927), 16. .......... 18 Figure 7. Advertisement for Mosselprom Cafeteria located