Researches of Kharkiv’s Theater Culture of the 19th and the first half of the 20th cc.: Problems of Historiography

Background. Recently, specialists in drama studies have displayed growing interest to the problems of historiography concerning theaters. One of its most urgent tasks is to reveal just how much the scientific approach is applied to creating a historical paper. This goes hand in glove with studies into sociopolitical and scientific worldview of authors of the researches, the sources used, the interpretation of facts as well as the style of material’s presentation. Objectives, methods and materials of the research. The purpose of this study is to outline the circle of the most important sources, which contain the data on the history of theater in Kharkiv; to characterize their authors; to define the degree of their mastering of accessible information while writing books and articles on various periods in the development of theater culture in this city in the 19th c.; to establish the main challenges to researchers they have to face under modern conditions. In this study, the author has chosen to apply the traditional cultural-historic method of research. It generally consists of collecting primary information on a certain phenomenon or a prominent figure, working it out, finding its correlation with appropriate historic events, and then making an attempt to substantiate the meaning and importance of the phenomenon / figure studied, in the context of the development of arts in the region. The article based on memoirs, archive materials, periodic publications (containing articles on the activities of theater companies, theatrical managers, actors etc.) and literature on the history of drama as well as general publications, which include items on the theater life in the city. Due to the lack of an entire elaborated bibliographic system, researchers have to engage themselves in painstaking browsing through the entire corpus of periodicals. In Kharkiv, the main sources of relevant information are such periodicals as the “Ukrainskiy vestnik” magazine (1816–1819) and some newspapers: “Kharkovskie gubernskie vedomosti” (1838–1915), “Yuzhnyy kray” (1880–1919), “Utro” (1906–1916), Kharkov (1877–1880), Kharkovskiy listok (1898–1905) and more. Results. The former newspaper “Kharkovskie gubernskie vedomosti” published, in 1841, the essay “Theater in Kharkov” by dramatist and a prominent public figure Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnov’yanenko (1778–1843), who described the very first period in the history of theater in Kharkiv (1780–1816). In the 1870s, the “Kharkovskie gubernskie vedomosti” started to publish regularly analytical and summarizing articles, which were an attempt at creating theater’s history of a certain period. There was, for one, an article “The Kharkov Drama Theater in Recent Ten Years” by Ivan Ustinov, published in 1877 and dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Diukovs’ private theater company. I. Ustinov not only gave a brief analysis of the theater’s repertoire between 1867 and 1877, but also included biographies and short characteristics of the actors, which were playing then on Kharkiv stage. Ustinov also is famous as the compiler of the bibliographic index “The Books on Kharkov Governorate” (1886), with certain information on the history of theater in this city. In the 1880s, Konstantin Schelkov, a graduate of the Kharkiv University’s Law School, wrote his articles on the theater in the “Kharkovskie gubernskie vedomosti”. The newspaper published, among others, his article “Materials for the History of Theater in Kharkiv” (1881), in which he described the activities of the theater’s management headed by N. D. Alferaki in 1845–1848. In the early 1880s, another big newspaper, the “Yuzhnyy kray”, was started. Its columnist Nikolay Chernyaev took a great interest in the history of theater in Kharkiv. Mr. Chernyaev’s works include a systematic review of theater culture in Kharkiv from Catherine II epoch until 1843 as well as a number of essays on the development of theater in Kharkiv up to 1880. The author collected wide documentary material dedicated to specific periods of history as well as to certain artistic figures. Chernyaev studied many various sources: dailies and magazines, published in the capital cities and in provinces, many collections of documents, memoirs and so on. Chernyaev’s works proved to be useful to historians D. I. Bagalei and D. P. Miller who covered the history of theater in their famous book “The History of the City of Kharkov during 250 Years of its Existence.” In the first half of the 20th c., there were no integral and systematic researches on the history of the city of the previous century, so the monograph “The Beginnings of the Theater in Kharkov” by Arkadiy Pletniov, published in 1960, one can consider as summarizing. The author based much of his study on the works of N. I. Chernyaev. He also widely used the materials resting in the A. A. Bakhrushin Museum of Theater, Moscow, and in many archives. In his monograph, Dr. Pletniov did not limit himself with listing the events of theatrical life, but thoroughly analyzed the activities of the Board of Trustees and such managers as I. Shtein and L. Mlotkovskiy. In several supplements, one can find lists of main roles played on Kharkiv stage by its prominent actors (N. Rybakov, L. Mlotkovskiy, K. Solenik). Pletniov’s work, enriched by references and commentaries, played an important part in creating the complex picture of Kharkov’s theatrical life. Due to abundance of the facts and clear style, Dr. Pletniov’s book stays up to now a valuable source on the subject. Conclusions. The analysis of historiography concerning the theater in Kharkiv of the 19th and early 20th cc. enables the author to come to conclusion that the main challenges a modern researcher has to face are as follows: the absence of system in bibliographic manuals; lacunas in the funds of periodicals of most libraries; the absence of important documents in archives. Theater life in Kharkiv has been studied far from satisfactory level yet. The following problems of history especially need thorough research work from historical point of view: theater critique; drama art; architecture of theater buildings in Kharkiv; amateur theater companies; charity for theaters; and some other points. The task of modern researchers, as we see it, lies in gradual filling the gaps mentioned above.