The Change of Cultural Paradigm Through the Prism of Theatrical Art in the Belarusian Provinces in the 1830s-1860s

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of the mutual influence of sociopolitical processes and theatre in the cities of Belarus in the 1830s-1860s. Based on archival and bibliographic sources, the peculiarities of the development of scenic art in conditions of Russification are revealed. Despite administrative prohibition, since the mid-1850s authors of many Polish-language comedies and historical dramas mythologized the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the January Uprising the authorities of the Russian Empire began to regard the theatre as an ideological means by which Polish culture was replaced by the Russian one.