Baku Russian Theater

(full name, Samed Vurgun Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theater), a Russian theater in the Azerbaijan SSR, organized in 1923 on the basis of the Baku Free Satirical Propaganda Theater, which opened in 1920. At first, the Baku Russian Theater was called the Baku Workers’ Theater (BRT). The theater staged sketches on political themes, reviews, and choreographic scenes. Since the middle of the 1920’s, the theater has staged such contemporary Soviet plays as Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia (1926), Ivanov’s The Armored Train 14–69 (1927), Vishnevskii’s Optimistic Tragedy (1934), Pogodin’s The Kremlin Chimes (1941 and 1956), and Mayakovsky’s The Bathhouse (1957). The theater also stages classical works, including Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1946) and The Seagull (1960), Lermontov’s Masquerade (1934 and 1959), Gorky’s Egor Bulychov and Others (1951), and Griboedov’s Woe From Wit (1951). Plays of Azerbaijani playwrights occupy a special place in the theater’s repertoire. These include Dzh. Dzhabarly’s Seville (1930) and The Bridge of Fire (1933), S. Vurgun’sBagif(1946 and 1956) and Farkhad and Shirin (1947), and Kasymov’s Dawn Over the Caspian (1951). The directors D. G. Gutman, G. A. Georgievskii, S. A. Maiorov, A. L. Gripich, M. K. Ashumov, A. G. Ridal’, and K. E. Stepanov-Kolosov have worked in the theater. Members of the troupe include (1970) People’s Artists of the Azerbaijan SSR K. L. Babicheva, R. S. Ginzburg, V. V. Otradinskii, V. K. Shir’e and P. B. Yudin; People’s Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR and Tadzhik SSR S. I. Iakushev; and People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR A. I. Stepanov. The theater’s director is Honored Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSRG. Sh. Giul’akhmedova-Martynova. The principal director is People’s Artist of the RSFSR E. M. Beibutov, and the chief set designer is People’s Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR S. M. Efimenko.