“It was funny, but not fun”: dramatic experiments of pre-revolutionary Tomsk writers

The paper examines various extant versions of dramatic works created by Tomsk writers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include individual books printed in Tomsk, works featured in periodicals, inclusions within larger collections, and those reprinted from local publications as brochures. The focus is on the plays written by Tomsk authors, performed locally, yet absent from archived and library collections. Analysis of the source materials, namely the dramatic works of pre-revolutionary Tomsk authors, reveals the significant challenges encountered in the regional development of this literary genre. Dramatic literature was not a common pursuit for local writers, though their plays did receive occasional staging in Tomsk. The literary history of Tomsk includes the unique adaptation of a play to the adventurous novel, “Tomsk Slums”. This adaptation facilitated a partial reconstruction of the unsaved text of the pre-revolutionary play, which captivated the Tomsk pre-revolutionary audience. A prominent feature of Tomsk theater criticism involved the strong condemnation of local dramatic innovations, probably accounting for the hesitancy of certain authors to submit their plays for review. Although no major original plays of high artistic merit were found, the discovered material indicates a developing mastery of new dramatic and literary forms in pre-revolutionary Tomsk literature.