Amateur theatres and amateur publics in the Russian Republic, 1958-71

This examination of amateur theatres from 1957 to 1971 reveals that members of the education public beyond the cultural elite were engaged in shaping the cultural landscape to suit their own preferences, if not necessarily state priorities. In their efforts to expand social criticism and stylistic innovation, 'amateur Publics', consisting of amateurs and their supporters, invoked the term 'civic spirit' (grazhdanstvennost') to explain artistic heterodoxy as a form of loyal criticism of Soviet society. Amateurs also pursued formal and informal mechanisms to improve troupes' material conditions and status in order to secure permanent sites for those critical views.