Court theatre as a proven source of the europeanization of Russia during tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s reign

Russia’s Theatrical Past: Court Entertainment in the Seventeenth Century (2021), written by Claudia Jensen, Ingrid Mayer, Stepan Shamin, and Daniel C. Waugh, focuses on the Russian court theatre of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, which existed from 1672 to 1676. The book analyzes this theatre within the context of Russian culture and diplomatic relations between Russia and Western Europe from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century. The study of intercultural exchange and how Russia assimilated Western European theatrical and musical traditions is based on unique documents, such as European newspapers, diplomats’ reports, foreign travel accounts, witness accounts, and payment records, that were found in Russian and Western European archives. In tracing the transmission and spread of Western performance traditions on Russian soil, the authors use the concept of intertheater. Intertheatrical processes were largely conditioned by diplomatic contacts. The book presents the Alexei Mikhailovich’s court theatre as a proven source of the Europeanization of Russia, which began before the reforms of Peter the Great.