On the Path Toward the Establishment of the National Theater of Kalmykia

Abstract

The development of informational
technologies makes it possible to expand
to a considerable degree the domain
of the unexplored, revealing new, at times
unusual, remarkable and unexpected facts,
for example, from the past history of our
country, from the history of the formation
of its national cultures. One such discovery
may be deemed to be the information about
the initial stage of work on the establishment
of the national theater of Kalmykia.
The reader’s familiarization with this
interesting event is what comprises the goal
of the present article. Its content includes
information about the preparation
and the realization of the grandiose theatrical
premiere of the performance of “Ulan-Sar” —
an original mass entertainment event which
united theater, music and choreography with
ethnography and folklore.
Since the performance possessed an interregional
status, the article lists the cities
and organization which massively participated
in this large-scale event, as well
as its organizers. A special place is taken
by information about the critical-analytical
article of professor, Doctor of Philological
Sciences, folklorist Alexei Smirnov-Kutachesky
(1876 – 1958) devoted to detailed study
of this production. Mention is also made
of the tragic fate of its author, Sandzhi
Kalyayev (1905 – 1985), a great enthusiast,
the organizer and first director of the national
theater of Kalmykia, subsequently
the first people’s poet of the republic.