Desacralization of religion and monarchy in the curriculum of the Petrograd theatre (ballet) school during the Early Soviet period (1917–1921)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the little-known early Soviet period in the history of the Petrograd Theatre (Ballet) School (now the Vaganova Ballet Academy) and examines one aspect of the transformation of an Imperial educational institution into a Soviet one. The new ideology manifested itself most clearly in the displacement of traditional religious practices, as well as religious and monarchical symbolism, from the everyday life of the school.Based on the study of numerous archival administrative records preserved in the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg (fonds R-259, R-260), the author identifies evidence of specific measures aimed at desacralization within the school and analyzes how the participants of these events responded to the changes. The article addresses the issue of the liquidation of the school church which has been inaccurately represented in the existing scholarship on the subject.Based on a number of memoirs by ballet artists, the study traces the evolution of attitudes toward the figure of the priest Fr. Vasily Pigulevsky, whose life and pastoral service were inextricably linked with the school for more than forty years. An attempt to assess the impact of the described desacralization measures and the final conclusion are made regarding the overall character of this process.