• F. F. Rraskolnikov and V. I.Nemirovich-Danchenko: Two points of view on Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-3-28-41

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Natalia S. Skorokhod

PhD, associate professor of the Theatre Art Department
Russian State Institute of Performing Arts
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: naskorokhod@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000

F. F. Rraskolnikov and V. I.Nemirovich-Danchenko: Two points of view on Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”

Abstract

The article explores F.F.Raskolnikov’s work on the stage version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” for the Moscow Art Theatre in several contexts. Firstly, Fyodor Raskolnikov is seen as a political figure in high positions in People’s Commissariat of Education in the late 1930, and also as an active participant in the literary process, and in discussion on the literary heritage of Leo Tolstoy particularly. This discussion took place on the pages of the Soviet press at the forefront of the writer’s centenary celebration. The most important discussion subject was the interpretation of Lenin’s views on the work of the writer. The fact of Raskolnikov’s influence on the decision to adapt the novel “Resurrection” for stage in the Moscow Art Theatre is established. Secondly, for the first time it is proposed to explore the first variant of the stage version from the perspective of Raskolnikov’s another dramatic experience, the historical drama “Robespierre”. The author discovers similarity in poetics of the stage version and the play, and comes to the conclusion that both dramatic experiences have epic nature. It is a matter of principle, that the play’s poetics in many ways corresponds to German stage director Erwin Piscator’s experiments. The hero of his performance is not an individual, but a mass of people, an idea or an event. Raskolnikov applied the same principle to his stage version. Nemirovich-Danchenko’s view on the novel was different: he was especially interested in possibility of imparting the author’s poetics, “the spirit of the novel”, Tolstoy’s view on his heroes and events. As a result of multiple reworkings of the stage version, Nemirovich-Danchenko’s attitude won. Originality of the performance was related to introduction of the epic form subject to the stage version. This epic form subject, “a Person from the Author”, entered into special relationship with dramatic heroes and commented their actions from the moral and ethical perspective of Leo Tolstoy.

Keywords

Soviet Theatre, Lenin, Raskolnikov, Lunacharsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, ‘Resurrection’, Leo Tolstoy, epic play, stage version.

For citation

Skorokhod N. S. F. F. Rraskolnikov and V. I.Nemirovich-Danchenko: Two points of view on Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” In: Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2021, no. 3, pp. 28–41.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-3-28-41

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Received: 30.06.2021

Accepted: 08.08.2021