Senelick Laurence, Ostrovsky Sergei. The Soviet Theater

Yale University Press, 2014. — 784 p. — ISBN: 9780300194760.An authoritative and rich account of the Soviet Theater from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the demise of the USSR in 1991. Apart from character portraits it also offers colorful vignettes of life on the stage and off the stage. It also shows the loyalty of the audience that stuck with it through adversity and hard times. The history and politics of the era deeply influenced Soviet theater. It remained innovative and exciting, growing, adapting, and flourishing despite harsh, often illogical pressures inflicted by a totalitarian government.