Theaters of the Soviet Army and Navy

Soviet professional theaters of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. The theaters of the Soviet Army and Navy, which until 1946 were called theaters of the Red Army, began as amateur groups of the Red Army and Red Navy that were gradually consolidated by professional actors and stage directors.

Between 1930 and the 1950’s the theaters included the Theater of the Northern Caucasus Military District, the Theater of the Special Byelorussian Military District, the Iuzhno-Sakhalinsk Theater, the Theater of the Turkestan Military District, the Theater of the Northern Group of Forces, the Theater of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, and the Second Theater of Soviet Forces in Germany, which was disbanded in 1974. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), many military theaters were divided into individual front performance brigades. The theaters of the North Sea and Black Sea fleets alone gave more than 42,000 performances at the front.

As of 1975, the theaters of the Soviet Army and Navy included the Theater of the Red Banner Carpathian Military District, the Theater of the Red Banner Far East Military District, the Theater of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (renamed the Vs. V. Vishnevskii Theater in 1970), the Theater of the Red Banner Black Sea Fleet, and the Theater of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet. The largest theater associated with the armed forces of the USSR is the Central Soviet Army Theater, organized in Moscow in 1929.

The repertoire of the theaters of the Soviet Army and Navy includes plays by Vs. V. Vishnevskii, Vs. V. Ivanov, A. E. Korneichuk, K. A. Trenev, B. A. Lavrenev, K. M. Simonov, and L. M. Leonov, as well as Russian and foreign classics and works by modern playwrights. The theaters regularly commission plays by local writers, for example, Pinchuk’s The Lieutenants and Major as Major, Semenenko’s Comrades-in-arms, Shavrin’s Poem of a Soldier, Chuprynin’s The Sea Should Be on the Right, and Krein’s Hasten to Succeed. Although they concentrate on heroic, patriotic, and military themes, the theaters also try to embrace the widest possible range of contemporary problems.