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Origins of the Russian Puppet Theater: An Alternative Hypothesis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
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The Russian puppet theater (kukol'nyi teatr or Petrushka) is not well known in the West. There are passing references to it in general histories of puppetry and the like, but unfortunately these are more often confusing than enlightening. One learns, for example, that the Old Russian version of the Polish marionette theater, the szopka, was the “bertep [sic] meaning Bethlehem,“ or that the first known description of a Russian puppet show appears in “Adam O'Leary's [sic] Travels in Russia and Persia.” Perhaps even more unfortunate, Petrushka has been neglected by native scholars as well. Their failure to deal seriously with the origins of the Russian puppet theater has been particularly glaring, and they have also largely ignored its early history. Most have, in fact, been content to view the entire period before the 1630s, when Adam Olearius appeared with his famous illustrated description of a performing Russian puppeteer, as terra incognita.
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References
1. Baird, Bil, The Art of the Puppet (New York, 1965), p. 1965 Google Scholar. The author must mean vertep, the Ukrainian word for “cave” or “manger” which is analogous to the Polish szopka. We will not concern ourselves here with the Ukrainian vertep, since it did not play a major role in the evolution of the secular puppet theater in Russia. Originally a Christmas play performed by students, the vertep has been compared to the morality and mystery plays of Western Europe. It was brought to the Ukraine from Poland in the late sixteenth century and eventually spread to Belorussia and Great Russia. During the course of the seventeenth century it did have some impact on the evolution of the Russian legitimate theater. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, V. N., Russkii teatr ot istokov do serediny XVIII v. (Moscow, 1957), pp. 76–82.Google Scholar
2. McPharlin, Paul, ed. and trans., A Repertory of Marionette Plays (New York, 1929), p. 291 Google Scholar. The reference here is obviously to Adam Olearius, the Dutch scholartraveler who accompanied an embassy from the Duke of Holstein to Muscovy and Persia in the 1630s.
3. The complete text of Olearius’s description of the Russian puppet theater appears toward the end of this article. A comprehensive history of the Russian puppet theater remains to be written. The earliest attempt at writing a scholarly account of Russian puppetry was made by Peretts, V. N., Kukol'nyi teatr na Rusi (St. Petersburg, 1895)Google Scholar. Peretts's study is quite brief and begins only in the early seventeenth century. Among the most recent studies is Smirnova’s, N. I. Sovetskii teatr kukol (Moscow, 1963)Google Scholar, which contains two solid chapters on the earliest period. A delightful fictionalized account of the early history of Petrushka was recently published by Privalov, B. A., Petrushka—dusha skomorosh'ia (Moscow, 1963).Google Scholar
4. In fact, according to A. M. Veselovsky, the skomorokhi, as bear-tamers, probably visited Germany and Italy as early as the sixteenth century or even earlier, bringing the puppet theater back with them to Russia at this time. See his Razyskaniia v oblasti russkago dukhovnago stikha, pts. 6-10, in Sbornik Otdeleniia russkago iazyka i slovcsnosti Imperatorskoi Akadcmii nauk, 32, no. 4 (1883): 187. On the skomorokhi see Zguta, Russell, “ Skomorokhi: The Russian Minstrel-Entertainers,” Slavic Review, 31, no. 2 (June 1972): 297–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Alferov, A, “Petrushka i ego predki,” in Desiat chtenii po literature, 4th ed. (Moscow, 1915), p. 195 Google Scholar. In the West the puppet theater had become a popular form of secular entertainment by the twelfth century, and there is evidence that even earlier, between the seventh and ninth centuries, puppets had been put to the service of the church. Reich, Hermann, Dcr Mimus, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Berlin, 1903), pp. 833–34 Google Scholar; Nicoll, Allardyce, Masks, Mimes and Miracles (New York, 1963), p. 1963.Google Scholar
6. In the Eastern or Byzantine Empire the puppet theater was flourishing as early as the sixth century. Reich, Der Mimus, p. 834; Nicoll, Masks, p. 167.
7. Illustrated in Nicoll, Masks, p. 159, fig. 107. See also Kondakov, N. P., “O freskakh lestnits Kievo-Sofiiskago sobora,” Zapiski Imperatorskago russkago arkhcologicheskago obshchestva, n.s., 3 (1888): 287–306 Google Scholar; Ainalov, D. and Redin, E., Kicvo-Sofiiskii sobor: Izsledovanie drevnei mozaicheskoi i freskovoi zhivopisi (St. Petersburg, 1889), pp. 103–17.Google Scholar
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12. It should be noted here that the “exception” is indeed intriguing despite its questionability. It arises from a statement made by Baird (Art of the Puppet, p. 84 and illus. p. 27) in which he speculates that the ancient ancestors of the Slavs, the Scythians, as well as some of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia could have been familiar with shadow puppetry as early as 500 B.C. “It is known,” he writes, “that the Scythians of the third and fourth centuries B.C. made handsome silhouettes of leather. And in the burial grounds among the Altai Mountains near Outer Mongolia, along the old trade route between China and Russia, there have been found cutout leather animals, one a moose that could well have been a shadow figure.” One is more inclined, however, to agree with Karl Jettmar, who describes similar leather silhouettes as appliqué decorations, quite common among the nomadic peoples of this area. Some have been found, for example, in the Altai region of Central Asia adorning the exterior of a wooden sarcophagus and a saddle dating from the Scythian era. Jettmar, Karl, Art of the Steppes, trans. Keep, Ann E. (London, 1967), pp. 95–97, 123, 125.Google Scholar
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14. Baird, Art of the Puppet, p. 35; Smirnova, Sovetskii teatr kukol, pp. 13-14. Professor Vernadsky, in his Origins of Russia (Oxford, 1959), makes the following observation in the course of his description of the festivities surrounding the Maslenitsa or pre-Lenten festival: “Companies of itinerant actors and musicians (skomorokhi) performed short plays, some of them remnants of the old sacred drama of the heathen times. … An outgrowth of these shows was the puppet-theatre (Petrushka)” (p. 112).
15. Evreinov, N. N., Istoriia russkogo teatra s drevneishikh vremcn do 1917 goda (New York, 1955), p. 1955 Google Scholar. The exact meaning of the term moskoliudstvo is still problematic. For a complete, annotated text and commentary on Luka Zhidiata’s sermon wherein this reference occurs see Ponomarev, A. I., ed., Pamiatniki drevne-russkoi tserkovno-uchitel'noi literatury, vol. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1894), pp. 14–24.Google Scholar
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17. For a comparison of Maslenitsa and the Western carnival see Miller’s, V. F. “Russkaia maslenitsa i zapadno-evropeiskii karnaval,” in Rechi i otchct chastnoi gimnazii Perepelkinoi (Moscow, 1884), pp. 1–49 Google Scholar. D. Rovinsky has reproduced a series of twenty illustrations depicting the week-long activities connected with Maslenitsa in eighteenthcentury Russia in his Russkiia narodnyia kartinki, vol. 2 (St. Petersburg, 1900), pp. 351-54.
18. An interesting comparison has been drawn between the rites surrounding Iarilo and the ancient Charilo, Greek by Calderon, G. in his article “Slavonic Elements in Greek Religion,” Classical Rcview, 27 (1913): 79–81.Google Scholar
19. The Rusalki were reputed to be the spirits of drowning victims, premature babies, and infants who died unbaptized (the latter sometimes also called Mavki). In the spring they roamed about the fields and allegedly tickled people to death or drowned those who went near water.
20. A good description of the tug of war and scattering of the rusalka puppet is provided by A. Veselovsky in his article “Genvarskiia rusalii i gotskiia igry v Vizantii,” Zhurnal Ministcrstva narodnago prosvcshchcniia, September 1885, p. 4. Other methods of disposing of the puppet are described by Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, , Istoriia russkogo tcatra, 2 vols. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1929), 1: 169–70Google Scholar. Special songs for Rusalia can be found in Chubinsky, P. P., comp. and ed., Trudy Etnografichesko-statisticheskoi ekspeditsii v zapadno-russkii krai, vol. 3 (St. Petersburg, 1872), pp. 187–92.Google Scholar
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22. Only quite recently Rybakov, B. A., in his important article “Kalendar' IV veka iz zemli Polian,” Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 4 (1962): 66–89 Google Scholar, brilliantly and conclusively demonstrated that the annual agrarian festivals of the proto-Slavs can be traced back at least to the fourth century A.D.
23. I. Beliaev was the first to postulate the theory that the skomorokhi were native in origin, with roots deep in early Russian paganism. See “O skomorokhakh,” Vremennik Imperatorskago obshchcstva istorii i dreimostci rossiiskikh, 20 (1854): 70-71. A. Afanas'ev elaborates on this theme in the first volume of his Poctichcskiia vozzreniia Slav'ian na prirodu (Moscow, 1865), pp. 336-39.
24. It is obvious that some of the images or “puppets” which had originally been the focal point of religious worship among the Eastern Slavs continued to be used, in spite of official proscription, even to recent times in conjunction with some of the cyclic festivals of the countryside.
25. The earliest reference to the Old Slavonic word kukla occurs in the fifteenthcentury edition of the tenth-century Bulgarian Khronografiia Ioanna Malaly, in which the original Greek (image) (meaning “of the stage,” “theatrical” ) is rendered as kukla. Sreznevsky, I. I., Materialy dlia slovaria drevne-russkago iazyka po pis'mcnnym pamiatnikam, 3 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1893-1912; reprint, Graz, 1955), p. 1360 Google Scholar. The word kukla does not appear in any native Russian source until the early seventeenth century. Here it also carries the broad connotation of “theatrical performance,” in the Greek sense of the term, and appears to be borrowed from Canon 51 of the Trullan Church Council (Constantinople, 692), where mimes and theaters are singled out for censure. Tikhomirov, N., ed., Pamiatniki otrechcnnoi russkoi literatury, vol. 2 (Moscow, 1863), p. 313 Google Scholar. See also Mansikka, V. J., Die Religion der Ostslaven (Folklore Fellows Communications, no. 43) (Helsinki, 1922), p. 254.Google Scholar
26. Veselovsky, Razyskaniia, pp. 189-95.
27. Ibid., p. 191.
28. Azarin, Simon, Kniga o chudcsakh pr. Sergiia, ed. Platonov, S. O. (St. Petersburg, 1888), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar
29. Baird, Art of the Puppet, p. 34.
30. Among the several meanings which Sreznevsky (Materialy, 2: 1090-92) gives for these two synonymous Old Russian words are the following: spectacle, performance, presentation, and show.
31. “O pozorishchnykh igrakh, ili komediakh i tragediakh,” Sankt-Peterburgskiia vedomosti, no. 44-46 (1733), pp. 175-76, as cited in Smirnova, Sovetskii teatr kukol, p. 18.
32. The earliest known use of the word kukla, in its modern Russian meaning of “puppet” or “puppet theater,” dates from 1699. S. K. Bogoiavlensky, comp., Moskovskii teatr pri tsariakh Alcksce i Pctre: Materialy, in Chteniia v Imperatorskom obshchestve istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh pri Moskovskoin universitete, bk. 2 (1914), p. 78.
33. Aleksei’s gramota, the original version of which was dated December 5, 1648, was addressed to the voevoda of Belgorod, Timofei Fedorovich Buturlin, but was actually intended for all of Russia. Reprinted in full by Ivanov, P. I., Opisanie Gosudarstvennago arkhiva starykh del (Moscow, 1850), pp. 296–99 Google Scholar. See also N. Kharuzin’s informative article “K voprosu o bor'be moskovskago pravitel'stva s narodnymi iazycheskimi obriadami i sueveriiami v polovine XVII v.,” Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, no. 1 (1897), pp. 143-51.
34. Ivanov, Opisanie, pp. 296, 297.
35. Relevant excerpts from Filaret’s ukaz are cited in Famintsyn’s, A. S. Skomorokhi na Rusi (St. Petersburg, 1889), p. 182.Google Scholar
36. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, Russkii teatr, p. 60.
37. An excellent text of “Petrushka” can be found in P. N. Berkov’s anthology, Russkaia tiarodnaia drama XVII-XX vekov (Moscow, 1953), pp. 113-23. A badly translated, abridged version of the play appears in McPharlin, Repertory of Marionette Plays, pp. 291-300.
38. Sreznevsky, Materialy, 2: 1090.
39. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, Russkii teatr, pp. 6-7.
40. Ibid., p. 6.
41. Sreznevsky, Materialy, 1: 1021.
42. Zguta, “Skomorokhi,” p. 301.
43. Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei, vol. 30: Novgorodskaia vtoriaia (arkhivskaia) letopis' (Moscow, 1965), p. 189.
44. By 1565 Kazan could boast eight professional skomorokhi, one of them a woman. See “Pistsovye knigi goroda Kazani 1565-68 gg. i 1646 g.,” in Materialy po istorii narodov SSSR, vol. 2: Materialy po istorii tatarskoi ASSR (Leningrad, 1932), pp. 14, 18-19, 23-24, 33, 36, 43.
45. Akty sobrannye v bibliotekakk i arkhivakh rossiiskoi imperii arkheograficheskoiu ekspeditsieiu Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk, vol. 1: 1294-1598 (St. Petersburg, 1836), p. 62.
46. Herberstein, Sigismund von, Descriptions of Moscow and Muscovy, ed. Picard, Bertold, trans. Grundy, J. B. C. (New York, 1969), p. 1969.Google Scholar
47. Stoglav, chap. 41, ques. 19.
48. Baron, S. H., trans, and ed., The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Stanford, 1967), p. 142 and illusGoogle Scholar.
49. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, Russkii teatr, p. 60.
50. See note 33.
51. I. la. Gurliand, Ivan Gebdon — kommissarius i rezident: Materialy po istorii administratsii moskovskago gosudarstva vtoroi poloviny XVII veka (Iaroslavl, 1903), p. 49.
52. Fortunately for the historian, this beating caused a minor diplomatic incident between Denmark and Russia. The Danish envoy in Moscow lodged a formal complaint on behalf of Kaulitz with Peter, who ordered an investigation into the whole affair, a transcript of which has survived. Bogoiavlensky, Moskovskii teatr, pp. 77-80.
53. Ibid., pp. 81-82.
54. Smirnova, Sovetskii teatr kukol, p. 19.
55. Otchet impcratorskoi publichnoi biblioteki za 1868 god (St. Petersburg, 1869), pp. 205-6, as cited in Smirnova, Sovetskii teatr kukol, p. 19.
56. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, Russkii teatr, p. 60.