Fairs and Entertainers in 18th-Century Russia

Fairs and Entertainers in 18th-Century RussiaAuthor(s): Malcolm BurgessSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 38, No. 90 (Dec., 1959), pp. 95-113Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4205122 .

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Fairs and Entertainers in

18th-century Russia

MALCOLM BURGESS

When reminiscing about Russian fairs Alexander Benois wrote in

the 19th century of 'the noise of innumerable brass bands playing

simultaneously, the dull rhythmical beating of the Turkish drums, the squeaking of the swings, the chatter and cries of the thousands

of people assembled round the "ice-hills", or in the decorated lanes

between the various pavilions and merry-go-rounds'. His remarks

show that except perhaps for the brass bands these fairs had not

changed a jot in a hundred years. They contained elements which

had much in common with fairs in other lands: enormous swings or

roundabouts, covered stages on which all kinds of plays were pro? duced, and countless stalls selling sweetmeats and spirits. But to

Benois they always remained different from the fetes and ridottos

seen in London, Paris, Vienna, and elsewhere in Europe. Their

whole atmosphere was distinctive; the gaiety was more intense and

the revelry more varied and spontaneous; and even the European elements were transformed into something Russian and traditional.1

In Russia the fair was generally known as a gulyaniye; but it might also be referred to as pod gorami, which indicated an amalgam of

amusements and diversions to be found in the smaller towns and

villages from the 16th to the 19th century, or as pod kachelyami, which

denoted a similar collection of booths and kiosks. 'Our public

gulyaniya', says one Russian writer, 'which took place during the

winter pod gorami, in the spring at Eastertide, and during the summer

pod kachelyami . . . have never been given enough attention by historians of the theatre, though they constitute a central pivot in

the development of the popular theatre in Russia at an early stage in the formation of its creative energies.'2

The most notable of these gulyaniya were in many respects those

which took place at shrovetide or maslenitsa in Russian. But whether

pod gorami or pod kachelyami they did not necessarily coincide with

religious festivals. In Smolensk, for example, at the close of the 17th

century, the ice-hills and their attendant spectacles went on the

whole winter near the public baths outside the city limits.3 Gulyaniya

1 Alexander Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet, translated by Mary Britnieva, London, 1941, p. 28.

2 Russkiye narodnyye gulyaniya po rasskazam A. Alekseyeva-Yakovleva, edited by E. Kuznetsov, Leningrad-Moscow, 1948, p. 6.

3 Ibid., p. 7.



96 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

were also arranged to mark occasions of national rejoicing such as

coronations, royal marriages, and victory days. The coming of spring on 1 May was customarily celebrated with an out-of-town gulyaniye such as had begun to be held as early as the end of the 16th century at Sokol'niki near Moscow, initially in connection with the departure of the tsar. Peter I later instituted a similar gulyaniye for St Petersburg on 1 May. It was held at Yekaterinhof, and though on a less grand scale than that in Moscow it became just as traditional.4 One ob?

server wrote of it early in the 19 th century:

The gulyaniye of 1 May at Yekaterinhof was very thronged. Crowds of

pedestrians milled about the lawns on the public walks; the particularly curious pressed round the so-called Vauxhall. A military band of the

guards regiments played at various spots; the hills and other seasonal amusements found many adherents desirous of making merry at the start of spring. Some of the jugglers and conjurors, who had formerly been pod kachelyami, had even put in an appearance here to exhibit their skill for a fee.5

These fairs naturally assumed their most ambitious form in the

biggest cities, and St Petersburg in particular always made a proud and splendid show. They were already an established tradition in

the new capital by the end of the first third of the 18th century with

the frozen Neva as a natural setting for scenes of great public gaiety. From the middle of the century they began to be assembled vokrug gor on Tsaritsyn Lug (Mars Field) and also on the Admiralty and

Palace squares near the Winter Palace. But at the end of the 18th

century in Paul I's reign they shifted from Tsaritsyn Lug and Palace

Square to various places on the Neva ice, opposite the Winter Palace, in front of the Academy of Sciences, at a point off the Smol'nyy Dvor, and finally to the islands. After 1827 they were moved back again to the Admiralty and Palace squares near the Winter Palace, possibly to try to eradicate memories of the Decembrist revolt of 1825 which

had produced tragic events not only on the Senate Square but also

on the neighbouring Admiralty Square.6 Fairs, particularly those at shrovetide, provided an excuse for a

grand debauch, so that vodka-sodden townsfolk were a familiar

sight inside the fair enclosure. 'The Russians', related an observer in Peter the Great's time

call the week that precedes the Lenten fast, Maslenitsa, because the use of flesh is forbidden, but butter is allowed during those days. With more truth would I call them Bacchanalia, for they give themselves up to

debauchery the whole time. Then they have no shame of lust, no

4 Ibid., p. 40. 5 Severnaya Pchela, St Petersburg, no. 54, 1826. 6 Russkiye narodnyye gulyaniya, p. 6.



FAIRS AND ENTERTAINERS IN RUSSIA 97

reverence of God, and most mischievous licentiousness is the order of the day.7

The abandon of the crowd continued to amaze travellers for the rest

of the 18th century and even later. In 1768 Lord Macartney ex?

plained that 'butter-week' might be looked on 'as their carnival, for it is spent in public diversions and all kinds of licentiousness'.8

Another foreign traveller commented in the same strain early in the

19th century:

The inhabitants of Petersburg [he wrote] pass the carnival in one con? tinued whirl of merry-making; the streets are filled with men, women and children in their gala dresses, and the gay carriages and sledges of the nobility are ever passing and repassing. As Lent is very strictly kept among the Russians, the people are resolved to enjoy pleasure in its utmost extravagance, before they are obliged to bid it a temporary farewell. This excess, however, is indulged in by the lower classes only, who are at this season seen intoxicated and perishing in the streets, sacrificed to their mad festivity.9

Hard drinking was certainly a notable feature of fairs, and none

was complete without a large, gaily emblazoned tent known to all

as 'The Bell', marked with a waving flag and a green, curling fir-

tree, the centre-piece of the fair-ground. Under the awning there

were barrels of liquor and casks of wine, and a special ladle attached

to a bar served the warm liquid to all who were thirsting. It was more common simply to ask 'for the ladle' than to call 'for the vodka', and few people passed by 'The Bell' without slipping inside.

After paying their devotions at the sign of the flag and fir-tree, the fair-goers moved on with a glowing heart to the other diversions

of frolic and jollity. All the while vendors with baskets and trays of

nuts and sweets shouted their wares from stall to stall, and the strains

of the balalaika and bandura could be heard from every side. Here

and there trestles were laid with bowls of spiced honey-tea (sbiten') and buckwheat beer (buza), rich, syrupy, and alcoholic with its

tempting aroma.10 A great attraction was always the swings, both

'round' and 'straight'. In early times they turned round and round

high in the air, like a gigantic wheel, with brightly painted wagon? ettes filled with tipsy revellers. Then there was the roundabout on which all could ride to their heart's content, known in the 18th

century as the karuseV and later as the 'hobby horses' (kon'ki). While

7 Diary of An Austrian Secretary of the Legation at the Court of Czar Peter the Great, translated from the Latin, London, 1863, I, p. 257. 8 Sir George Macartney, An Account of Russia, London, 1768, p. 192. 9 Sir Robert Ker Porter, Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden, during the years 1805, 1806, i8oy, 1808, London, 1809, I, pp. 153-4. 10 I. E. Zabelin, 'Khronika obshchestvennoy zhizni v Moskve s poloviny XVIII stoletiya', I and II, Opyty izucheniya russkikh drevnostey, Moscow, 1875, II, p. 391.




the merry-go-round whirled about with creaking cogs and pulleys, an orchestra groaned from the quaint machinery, and up above, on

a platform beneath the gilded cupola, a clown and jester showed their

antics to the passing riders.11

Perhaps the greatest adventure of all at the fair was a trip on the

'ice-hill'. Outside Russia these switchbacks were referred to as

'montagnes russes' in recognition of their Russian origin. At St

Petersburg, when the Neva was frozen over, a temporary stage of

wood was erected about forty or fifty feet above the surface of the

river, from the top of which was a steep descent which was flooded

with water. This promptly froze and formed a terrifying slide. These

ice switchbacks usually stood in pairs, facing each other, so that

when the sledges had hurtled to the bottom of one they could im?

mediately climb up the second. The populace shuttled up and down

them all day long, and at night they were illuminated with coloured

lamps, which greatly heightened the effect of the scene.

Round these hills are erected wooden stages or booths [says an on?

looker] in one of which is exhibited a collection of foreign animals; in

another rope-dancing; in a third a puppet-show; in a fourth phantas?

magoria, and so on. The price of admission to these sights is so trifling, that everyone may share in the general gaiety.12

But the ice-hills had one great disadvantage: with the coming of

spring and the warmer weather, they became altogether useless and

ceased to function after Easter.

It was customary to personify the spirit of carnival, usually by a

Bacchus escorted by satyrs and bacchanalians. These would parade

through the streets with a chariot built for the occasion in a grotesque

style, while the beating of drums and the blare of trumpets announced

the beginning of another season of public festivity. Fairs were at?

tended by all classes of the populace, and crowds of sledges, carriages and pedestrians normally blocked the entrances. When the nobility attended they drove up in winter in sledges lined with rich furs,

aproned with green and crimson velvet and bordered with gold lace.

The wealthier merchants arrived in sleighs or carts decorated in

red, green, gold, or silver with strange carved work and uncouth

'whirligigs of iron'. But it was to the lower classes that the fair made

most appeal. The court and the nobility had the theatre to entertain

them. But apart from the wooden khoromina in Peter the Great's 11 Sometimes the horses were replaced by cubicles holding two or three travellers.

For details on the construction of these roundabouts and platforms cf. I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., p. 474. 12 Prussia. The World in Miniature, edited by Frederic Shoberl in 4 vols, London, 1822, I, pp. 109-10. According to one of the earliest guide books of St Petersburg these ice-hills were set up on the Okhta, on Krestovskiy Island and on the Neva before the Winter Palace (cf. Pavel Svin in, Dostopamyatnosti Sanktpeterburga iyego okrestnostey, St Petersburg, 1816, pp. 76-80).




time, there was no popular drama in Russia until after 1750. The

result was that the fairs with their opportunities for showmanship and spectacle were the only occasions when the common people could really satisfy their love of diversion and variety.

Music and dancing were introduced to amuse the public, and the

Russian dance, or barina,13 was always performed before an admiring crowd. This display of national art was a species of amatory panto? mime and became exciting to watch. A foreigner described it as

follows:

A young man and woman are the actors in this diversion, which is

singularly interesting for the clever mixture of caresses and refusals, of smiles and disdain. The lover expresses his passion to his mistress by the tenderest attitude and gesture. She answers him by combining with the graces of her sex a certain languor, which imparts to them more

expression, an affected tardiness, and mincing steps. Sometimes she sets her arms akimbo, and fixes her eyes steadfastly on her lover, and, while his head and body incline the contrary way, she seems to repel him by this stately attitude. The lover then dances as a supplicant; with his head hanging down and his hands folded over his breast, he turns round his fair-one, and extends his arm towards her, at the same time making a particular motion with his shoulders. The scene changes, the action becomes brisker; the nymph flies off from her suitor with an air of triumph, and returns a moment afterwards and darts at him a look fraught with all the art and blandishment of a coquet. The lover acts the like part alternately humble and disdainful, the supplicating and the offended wooer.14

Sometimes the dance took on a more licentious form both in voice

and in gesture, with ferocious whining and sudden convulsive spasms. One traveller says that while 'full of the grossest libidinous expression and most indecent posture, it is in other respects graceful: it resembles the attitude of Bacchanalians on Greek vases'.15 It is interesting to note that even at the court it had not yet been completely ousted by the minuet and contre-danse. Elizabeth herself was an expert per? former of the barina which, says Staehlin, was still danced at court

masquerades.16 Contemporary observers were more often delighted by these native Russian dances than disgusted at their abandon.

13 Another variety was the golubets. 14 J. Atkinson and J. Walker, A Picturesque representation of the Manners, Customs and Amusements of the Russians in one hundred coloured plates, 3 vols, London, 1812 [In English and French] (No page numbers). See also description of F. V. Bergholtz, Diary of a Kammer-Junker, Moscow, 1902, 13 Feb. 1722; Russia. The World in Miniature, ed. by F. Shoberl, I, pp. 70-2; V. N. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, Istoriya russkogo teatra, Moscow-Lenin? grad, 1929, I, pp. 148-50; William Tooke, View of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine II and to the close of the eighteenth century, 3 vols, London, 1800, II, pp. 61-2.

15 Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, Cam? bridge, 18 io, Part I, pp. 61 and 63. See, for example, a pen-and-wash drawing by Jean Baptiste Le Prince, Divers Ajustements et Usages de Russie, 1764, Print Room, Fitz? william Museum, Cambridge. 16 J. von Staehlin, Sankt-peterburgskiy vestnik, Part IV, 1779, September, p. 245.




No variety of European dancing [Staehlin remarks] can compare with

the native Russian, when a comely Russian girl in her Russian dress

is dancing; and one may venture to say, that in the whole of the world there is no other dance which can surpass the Russian with its charm.17

By 1750 dramatic performances had also begun to be given at

fairs: comedies, interludes, farces, and the whole gamut of the corn-

media deW arte. They were staged in tents and wooden booths (lubo-

chnyye): in Moscow during the Christmas holiday near the Novinski

and at shrovetide on the Moscow river. The repertoire was some?

what varied but not always decorous, since it had to suit the taste of

both the actors and the public who paid no more than five kopeks for entry. The performers were tradesmen, apprentices, and mer?

chants, who dressed up as clowns and buffoons.18 These forms of

amusement were known as balagany, which strictly speaking referred

to the covered stages erected around the enclosure. They were large,

gaily painted pavilions adorned with coloured pictures and crimson

curtains. The balagany existed as late as 1900 when they finally

perished under the onslaught against alcoholism led by Prince A. P.

Oldenburg.19 Another peculiarly Russian innovation at the fair was

the raiki. These were humorous dissertations in verse delivered from

the galleries, platform and peep-shows on the fair-ground:

Perhaps nowhere [says I.E. Zabelin] did a Russian express himself so

truly and with so much humour as at these expositions and commen? taries upon the raiki sketches, which for the most part have no meaning in themselves, but take on completely unexpected tones before the

lively, apt and sometimes very witty explanations.20

A popular form of amusement which had its roots in antiquity was bear-baiting. This sport had already been banned by Aleksey Mikhailovich; but it still continued, and many celebrated and

wealthy Moscow citizens were so addicted to performing bears that

they kept them at their town houses. The owners of the bears usually took them round the fair on a cord; but not infrequently they escaped from their leashes and caused grievous damage and alarm amongst the surging mob. A decree was therefore promulgated in 1744 strictly

enjoining the inhabitants to keep their beasts on strong chains and

firmly muzzled.21 But incidents must still have arisen, for by another

17 Ibid. 18 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., p. 392. 19 Alexandre Benois, op. cit., p. 325. For further information on the balagany see A. V. Leifert, Balagany, Petrograd, 1922. Right up to the 1860s it was prohibited to act pod gorami any plays dealing with aspects of Russian life or to perform dialogues upon the stages of the balagany theatres. An exception was made only for the Panomorshchiki, the veteran male artists of the carousels, the PodkacheVnyye komiki, the Petrushechniki, for whom the prohibition never became effective since, in view of the aesthetic standards of the ruling classes, such performers were not considered to be actors (Russkiye narodnyye gul? yaniya, p. 12). 20 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., p. 392. 21 Ibid., p. 393.




decree of 1752 the Empress Elizabeth finally prohibited the training of

bears in St Petersburg and Moscow.22 Even so, the custom was not

completely stamped out, and Miss Catherine Wilmot saw bear-

baiting in a theatre on the Sparrow hills in the environs of Moscow

as late as 1805. The theatre consisted of 'scaffolding formed into

temporary boxes'.23

By the mid-18th century, when the manners and modes of Europe were flooding into Russia and Anne and Elizabeth were busy finding artistes for their court theatres, a varied assortment of clowns, jugglers, funambulists and puppet-masters had already begun to offer perform? ances to the Russian public. They were mostly French, German or

English showmen who had decided, like so many greater personalities, to try their failing fortunes in the Russian eldorado. The ordinary Russian people were unused to the surprising feats of such comedians, and gladly paid their silver rubles and hard-earned kopeks to see

the fun. It was not long, therefore, before these foreign circus-troupes discovered that the Russian gulyaniya could help their earnings, and

that the fair-ground was a profitable place on which to set up their

booths.

The first artistes arrived under Peter the Great, but it was not

until Elizabeth's reign that they came to St Petersburg and Moscow

in a regular stream. Among them was Martin Nierenbach who

brought a puppet-theatre to St Petersburg in 1744. He was followed in 1745 by Johann Friedrich Schlitz and in 1747 by the harlequin Josef Scolari, the partner of J. P. Hilferding who managed the German theatre.24 Between 1753 and 1755 another puppet-show was maintained at Moscow by Ilya Yakubovsky.25 Conjurers also set up marionettes in Russia, for a certain Fritz Anton Sarger, who arrived from Riga in 1750 with his company and a performing horse and gave shows under the direction of Pantaloon Hilferding, dis?

played in Moscow and St Petersburg between 1759 and 1762 'a set of large Italian dolls two arshins in height who will move freely about

22 The empress, nevertheless, remained interested in performing bears, because the next year, on 12 April 1753, Baron Cherkasov received a directive from the empress ordering a certain Commissar Karpov to train and maintain two cubs, which walked upright on their hind paws, until the empress returned from Moscow to St Petersburg {Sbornik starinnykh bumag khranyashchikhsya v Muzei P. I. Shchukina, Moscow, 1900, Part VI, PP- 358-9). 23 The Russian Journals of Martha and Catherine Wilmot 1803-1808, edited by the Marchioness of Londonderry and H. M. Hyde, London, 1934, pp. 192-3. Catherine Wilmot in a letter to Miss Anna Chetwood, 24 September 1805. 24 Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti and the supplements Zametki prilozhennyye, St Petersburg, 1744, nos. 3, 11; ibid., 1745, nos. 1-15 and Arkhiv Akademii Nauk, no. 97, p. 45; V. Mikhne- vich, Istoriya russkoy muzyki, St Petersburg, 1879, p. 154. For material concerning the early history of the circus in Russia, see V. N. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross 'Nachalo tsirka v Rossii' (O teatre, Sbornik staley, vremennik otdela istorii i teorii teatra G.I.I.I., Leningrad, 1927, II, pp. 66-106). 25 I. E. Zabelin, 'Iz Khroniki obshchestvennoy zhizni v Moskve v XVIIIom stoletii' (Sbornik lyubiteley rossiyskoy slovesnosti, Moscow, 1891, p. 564).




the stage and be so skilfully presented as to seem alive'.26 At the end

of the 19th century V. N. Perets commented on the significance of

the puppet-theatre in Russia as follows:

All the plays which were given at the puppet-theatres in the 18th cen?

tury and at the beginning of the 19th century by the various touring 'exhibitors' and 'conjurors' were partly known from the performances of real live actors. At the time when mysteries, moralites, Staats-und-

Hauptacionen gradually vanished from the scene towards the end of last century, the puppet-theatre, which was pre-eminently German,

preserved them even until very recently. Thus the puppet-theatre in our country reflected a period that was already past in the history of the drama. The repertoire was moreover accessible and comprehensible to the audience, on the one hand by reason of its connection with biblical

history and on the other by the very character of the plays which de?

picted the cultures of popular legends and folk-lore.27

The special favour which puppets seem to have enjoyed during the

middle years of the 18th century was due to the fashion set by the Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich, who was known to delight in his

own collection of dolls. He even used to work the figures himself:

for example, Catherine complains that during an illness in the

winter of 1745-6 he constructed a puppet-theatre in his own room

after Easter, to which he invited courtiers and their ladies. She her?

self considered this plaything 'la chose du monde la plus insipide'.28 Marionettes soon came to be rivalled by acrobats. Already in 1750

an unnamed acrobatic family from England, including husband,

wife, son and five-year-old daughter, was offering a show which in?

cluded a tight-rope walking act and a horse trained to jump through four hoops on the stage.29 Three other similar troupes arrived in

1756. The first belonged to Fischer who exhibited a box of wax

figures, fruits and comestibles as well as a boy of eleven who vaulted

through the air with naked swords. A dressed-up monkey and a dog

26 Journal of the Senate, 12 September 1750; SPB. Ved., 1760, no. 44; Moskovskiye Vedo- mosti, 1761, nos. 44-76, 102; 1762, no. 1; Arkhiv Ak. Nauk, no. 249, p. 1; Gerngross, op. cit., p. 82, and also I. E. Zabelin in Opyty izuch. russk. drev., II, pp. 403, 404. For a history of the puppet-theatre in Russia, see V. N. Perets, Kukol'nyy Teatr na Rossii, Tezhegodnik Imperator- skikh teatrov, St Petersburg, 1894-5, Prilozheniye, I. Detailed information on the reper? toire of Sarger may be found on pp. 109-24. 87 V. N. Perets, op. cit., p. 124. 28 Catherine II, Sochineniya: na osnovanii podlinnykh rukopisey i s obyasnitel'nymi primechani- yami A. JV. Pypina, ed. by Imperatorskaya Akad. Nauk, St Petersburg, 1901-7, XII, Memoires, IV [I], p. 232. The French resident at the Russian court, however, mentions that the grand duke had already become intrigued with his marionettes three months before Easter, probably at Christmas time: 'Heritier presomptif d'un vaste empire et majeure en sa qualite de Due de Holstein, il y a trois mois que son grand amusement est un theatre de marionettes qu'il fait dresser dans son appartement.' (Dispatch of the French resident at the Russian court, d'Alion, 8 March 1746 printed in V. Bil'basov, Tekaterina do votsareniya, iy2g-iy62, Berlin, 1900, pp. 216-17.) 89 Kammer-fur'erskiy zhurnal, St Petersburg, io October 1750; SPB. Ved., 1750, no. 97; cf. Gerngross, op. cit., p. 82.



FAIRS AND ENTERTAINERS IN RUSSIA IO3

also performed various tricks on a tiny trapeze. The second troupe was managed by a Dutchman, Benjamin Rijman, who displayed different types of animals.30 The third arrival was an Englishman, Michael Stewart, who was already giving performances at Moscow

in 1757 at the newly constructed Comedy Theatre between the Red

and Pokrovsky Gates. Moscow News for 1757 carried the following announcement about him in Nos. 26, 29, and 34:

On April the 3rd of this year 1757, in Moscow between the Myasnitsky and Pokrovsky Gates, in the newly constructed Comedy Theatre, by the Woodland Row, an Englishman just lately arrived, Michael

Stewart, equilibrist, will display his skill in an exhibition of the balance which is extraordinary and not previously seen, and is most worthy of view and wonderful in the variety of tricks. He will begin, as from this

April 3rd, henceforth, on the days prescribed, sharp at five o'clock in the afternoon; spectators will pay 1 ruble each for the front seats, 50 kopeks for the second best, 25 kopeks for the third best. Masters' servants will not be admitted without payment.31

During the Christmas holidays at the beginning of 1758 another

Englishman called Berger also performed at the Comedy Theatre.

He employed the best jumper, well worthy of fame, who sometimes

appeared. He vaulted across 12 men, standing one behind the other, on one of whose shoulders was a boy; during the jump, he somersaulted over him up in the air with extreme lightness and came down exactly on both feet; he also jumped over io men with bare swords raised aloft; at length over four men on horseback. He lay down on his stomach and, like a fist, flipped into the air, turning over in the midst of his jump etc. His wife, a Frenchwoman of low build, displayed the most skilful

example of balance: for instance, she stood on her head on the point of a raised spike, putting a ruble between, and raising her legs and whole body upwards with the help of her hands by which she held the

spike, she turned right over; sometimes she used only one hand, and took up a glass of wine in the other which she drank in that position. She even repeated this on three, four, or a greater number of chairs, placed one on top of the other. To conclude the act she always gave a short pantomime, in which she performed another set of jumps and

pyramids. The Empress herself was several times at her representations and gave her 600 rubles.32

Englishmen seem to have been very successful when performing at fairs in Russia. Jack Bates, the famous English horse-rider, tried his luck at the fair in 1764 before going off on his travels in Europe. He excelled at standing on a horse at full gallop, sometimes changing

30 SPB. Ved., 1756, nos. 72, 73, 77, 78, 100; Arkhiv. Ak. Nauk, pp. 213, 462 and ibid., p. 74; ibid., book 220, p. 507; book 221, p. 416; Gerngross, op. cit., p. 82.

31 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., p. 400; also Gerngross, op. cit., p. 82. 32 Gerngross, op. cit., p. 83, cf. also Zabelin, op. cit., p. 401.




his saddle in the middle of the ride; then he would straddle two or

three horses, again changing from one to the other. He made one

condition, however: that dogs should not be brought along in case

they frightened the horses.33 Similar feats were indulged in by Simp? son and Wilson in 1776.34 James Price showed his prowess as a marks?

man. He made his wife throw a pack of cards in the air and put a

bullet through the centre of a chosen card. On other occasions he

built up a pyramid of fifteen persons ' which was raised in honour of

Julius Caesar'; also included in his programme was a tight-rope

display with a dancing harlequin, while Price's wife, La Spaniola,

tripped it lightly on a clutch of hen's eggs. But the best attraction

of all was 'an air-balloon, made of English taffeta, covered with

rubber and filled with compressed air', which rose up in the sky

'just like the one in which M. Charles and M. Robert flew up in

France'.35 Among other performers from England were Fletcher

who visited Russia in 1776 and Miss Lamayne Mason who arrived

in 1780. Both were acrobats.

Another form of entertainment at fairs and elsewhere was provided

by elephants and dogs and sometimes by camels, monkeys, parrots, and other creatures. Elephants seem to have been a special attrac?

tion: the court maintained 'Persian Elephants', as they were called, with great care and always used them for grand masquerades and

carnival processions. Catherine says in her memoirs that in 1744 there were fourteen elephants in St Petersburg which had been pre? sented to the Empress Elizabeth by Shah Nadir of Persia and which

could perform all kinds of antics.36 One very big elephant, 'a mighty beast from the land of Persia', caused a great furore in 1796 and

became so popular that a special poem was composed in its honour.37

Performing dogs were also popular. The first time they appeared was in 1766 with a certain Josef Julian Schweizer, and one called

'Le Petit Merveille' did some surprisingly clever stunts in 1771.38 But perhaps the most remarkable canine exhibition of all was given

by the troupe of Signor Antonio Belli. Andrey Bolotov has left an

account of what they did.

Foreigners have lately arrived in Moscow with trained dogs to soak up our money. The dogs walk on a cable, each one balancing; they tour the town; drive forth in a carriage both in front and behind; wait upon two monkeys at dinner; and when mounting the steps, one of them walks

33 M. Ved., 1764, nos. 30, 36; Gerngross, op. cit., pp. 84, 85; and also Zabelin, op. cit., pp. 405, 406. 34 SPB. Ved., 1776, nos. 8, io and 1775, nos? 60-2; M. Ved., 1776, nos. 26-9; Gerngross, op. cit., p. 85. 35 Gerngross, op. cit., p. 85.

36 Catherine II, Memoires, I, pp. 37-8. 37 Gerngross, op. cit., p. 86. 38 M. Ved., nos. 11, 12, 14, 21, 22 and 23; SPB. Ved.9 nos. 82, 85, 86, 87, 104; Gerngross,

op. cit., p. 87; and Zabelin, op. cit., p. 408.



FAIRS AND ENTERTAINERS IN RUSSIA I05

up behind; finally they ring the front door-bell?all the while they raise

such an unbearable barking and howling, which rocks the city, that all

the onlookers hurriedly leave. The show lasts two hours. They are kept and display all this at the house of Boris Mikhailovich Saltykov, which has been especially constructed for such spectacles and ensure for him

a large income.39

Visitors to the fair might also come across tents where jugglers,

juggler-acrobats, and magicians performed. An extant play-bill indicates the type of show which they might expect to see.40 The

troupe involved consisted of a young English girl acrobat, a French

woman acrobat, a fat woman and a child of two. The artistes twisted

themselves in all directions, contorted their arms and legs, knotted

their legs round the neck 'like a cravat', formed pyramids at the

summit of which they juggled with wine-glasses and naked swords, executed sword dances and displayed many other remarkable feats.

In 1773 a troupe arrived in St Petersburg led by Brambilla and

Nomora 'which', said an advertisement, 'is the first of its kind in

Europe and can do simultaneously what many others cannot do

separately'. Its members were expert balancers and jugglers; in one

of his acts Nomora would walk along a tight-rope, then, midway, he would balance an egg on a thin straw which rested upright on a

wineglass held in his mouth; meanwhile, Mlle Rosalia juggled with

two disks so cunningly that they whirled through her hands un?

observed; she would next erect a pyramid of thirty-two wine glasses on her forehead, and thus loaded, she would leap through a series

of hoops or make 'La gran Tornosa'. A lithe little Englishman also

performed for the company.41 Many similar troupes visited Russia

during the second half of the 18th century, among them the com?

pany managed by Mr Saunders which included a certain Mr Pallias

and Berg. Saunders finally retired to Moscow in 1790 and ended his

days giving lessons in English and on the drum. Other names which

recur throughout this period are those of Herman, Andres Troni,

Colpi, Jean Nicolas Dupont, Micoletto and Sandisi.

Magicians and conjurers with various automata were no less

numerous than jugglers and acrobats.42 The tricks of the 'dealers in

magick' were usually mechanical representations or clockwork

curiosities and were very much in vogue. An early expositor of the

diabolical was a clever silversmith called Monsieur Pierre Du

Moulin, who appeared in Russia in 1759 after having travelled all

over Europe since 1752 with a quaint collection of working figures

39 A. T. Bolotov, Pamyatnik protekshikh vremyon, Moscow, 1875, p. 75. 40 Reproduced in Bibliogrqficheskie Zapiski, Moscow, 1859, p. 269. 41 Gerngross, op. cit., p. 91. 42 For a detailed survey of automata, see Alfred Ghapuis and Edmund Droz, Automata. A Historical and Technological Study, London, 1958.




and machines.43 Du Moulin's contraptions could do many things: there was a miniature Swiss peasant girl who weaved a length of

ribbon and sang a refrain; he also had a wonderful electric device

which demonstrated various strange experiments. Another speciality consisted of

a picture in the form of a landscape in which many working models of pedestrians and street vehicles will be seen, and many workmen who are engaged in various jobs as naturally as though they were real; a second picture portrays a mobile head, the actions of which are so

amazing that it scares all the onlookers.44

Du Moulin also had a Russian peasant which most realistically waggled its head and blinked its eyes, a clockwork chinaman, and a

mechanical frog recently completed, over which he has laboured for a considerable time. This frog tells the time by a watch and indicates it when sailing in a boat. This is the most highly perfected piece of mechanism that artifice can ever produce.45

Du Moulin was followed by many others like him. In 1761 there was the Hungarian Johann George Rugatz, while in 1762 a machine was on show 'well worthy of curiosity, and called "The Oracle", which gives an answer to the questions put to it'.46 In 1767 Monsieur Thesieu arrived from France with an amazing optical apparatus which provided a panoramic decor of places and events of interest. The relevant announcement in the papers stated that

M. Thesieu, late machinist to the King of France, having been in the most distinguished cities, has now come here and, after travelling con?

siderably abroad, has through his indefatigable endeavours invented a new scientific optical device; by means of which he displays in a wonder? ful perspective effect, according to the laws of architecture, towns, castles, churches, gardens, harbours, triumphal arches and other things worthy of curiosity which are sufficient to rouse the wonder of the audience.

The stereoscope also exhibited a shipwreck which suddenly turned into a perfectly flat painting in colour, as well as trees, flowers, fruit, all the delights of the park, and the illuminations at Vienna in honour of the marriage of the Holy Roman emperor and at Paris and Versailles to celebrate the recovery from illness of the king of France. Thesieu even sold various types of optical gadgets, including

43 Conrad William Cooke, Automata Old and New, no. 29, London, Chiswick Press, 1893 (a lecture delivered at a meeting of the Sette of Odd Volumes held at Limmer's Hotel, on Friday, 6 November 1891), p. 69. Du Moulin's early automata were purchased in Nuremberg by Bereis, a counsellor of Helmstadt, at whose place they were seen by Beckmann in 1754. 44 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., pp. 401-2; cf. also Gerngross, op. cit., p. 96. 45 Ibid. 46 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., pp. 404-5.




one which 'shows a ship battered against the rocks in a raging storm

off the island of Martinique onto which the crew of the above vessel

have been cast and who have been nourished for the past three months

on stones by swallowing different pebbles given to them for sus?

tenance'.47 The entrance fee for the ordinary public was 25 kopeks,48 but people of quality were not asked to pay a specific sum since

'their generosity was rather more relied upon'. Wily foreigners realised that in this way the extravagant Russian barin would be all

the more encouraged to give handsomely. The court often extended its patronage to the makers of automata

and their machines. Beckmann mentions in his History of Inventions

that he himself saw the famous automata of M. Vaucanson at the

palace of Tsarskoye Selo in 1764 where he learnt that they had been

purchased from the maker. Vaucanson, who was a great mechanical

genius and a member of the academie des sciences at Paris, had

constructed three very elaborate pieces of machinery in 1738: a

flute-player, a figure which played the drum and the shepherd's

pipe of Provence, and an artificial duck. These automata had been

exhibited at the opera house in the Haymarket in London during

1742; but by 1764 when Beckmann inspected them, they were no

longer in working order.49

From the end of 1771 until 1773 Giuseppe Ruspino presented

spectacles similar to those of Thesieu. They included

the bombardment and capture of Bender by the imperial Russian forces and the siege and seizure of Constantinople in 1655 by the Venetians and naval battles at sea; illuminations of fire, a triumph, the distance

separating St Petersburg, London, Berlin, Venice, Constantinople and Paris where it is also possible to observe the voyagers met with along the wayside in carriages, cabriolets, equipages and those travelling on horseback or foot; above all this, the sky is naturalistically portrayed with the sun, moon, stars, thunder, lightning and rain.50

From 1775 until 1790 Dr Megelius also exhibited the magical arts:

a bouquet of flowers bloomed in an hour and the head of Holofernes

spoke. But the American magician Blank excelled even Ruspino and

Megelius. In 1778 he gave performances at Moscow and accom?

plished the following marvels mysteriously described as 'The Wonders

of Light':

1. Portraits painted on canvas change the hue of the face and turn of themselves into white, pale, crimson and black colours. 2. An Austrian

47 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., pp. 409-10. 48 The kopek was roughly worth an English Jd. at this time. Thus the usual entrance

fee was about is. 49 A full description of these ingenious devices is given by Cooke, op. cit., pp. 60-8. 50 M. Ved., 1771, nos. 54, 63; 1773, nos. 1-4; Gerngross, op. cit., pp. 95-6.




woman perched on a bare table not only does everything that a live

person can do, but can even think. 3. A merchant of Salzburg, on the command of the audience, opens and closes his shop and brings out

samples of cloth in the colours for which he is asked. 4. A Bacchus tips out as much water and wine as requested from a barrel borne on his

head. 5. If any individual member of the audience desires a flower in

his imagination, then that same flower is exhibited. 6. Should any of

the audience order a drum to be moved to any spot, then that same drum

will beat a march of its own accord without being touched. 7. The said

Blank at a distance of three paces will shoot at himself from a pistol loaded by the audience themselves, and he will pass round the very same bullet for examination that was in the barrel and which would

kill anyone unacquainted with the trick, in order that it may be seen as

the same bullet with which the pistol was loaded.51

This last miracle perhaps explains the name of the daring American, and it may well be merely a pseudonym.

The most famous of the automata which found their way to Russia

was the automaton chess-player of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, which was constructed in 1776 and was for some years the wonder

of every country in Europe. This automaton was a life-size sitting

figure dressed as a Turk, which had before it a large rectangular chest or cabinet, three feet six inches long, two feet deep, and two

feet six inches high. On the top of the cabinet was a chess-board and

a set of men. The seat on which the figure sat was attached to the

cabinet and the whole was on castors and could be wheeled about

the floor. When the automaton was exhibited, the exhibitor began

operations by opening the doors of the cabinet and showing its

contents. These doors were then closed and locked, the machinery was wound up, and the figure was ready to play a game of chess

with anyone who would challenge him. On starting the game the

figure moved its head and seemed to look at every part of the board.

When it checked the king it nodded its head three times, and when

it threatened the queen it nodded twice. It also shook its head when

its adversary made a false move, and replaced the offending piece. It nearly always won the game but occasionally lost. When com?

pleted, the automaton was exhibited in Riga, Moscow, St Peters?

burg, Berlin, Presburg, Vienna and London. Thousands of people saw it without discovering its secret. But in 1789 a book was pub? lished by Mr Freyherre of Dresden which showed that ?a well taught

boy very thin and tall for his age (sufficiently so that he could be con?

cealed in a drawer below the chess-board) agitated the whole'.52

51 M. Ved., 1778, nos. 5-21; Gerngross, op. cit., p. 96. 62 The real story of this most ingenious and successful scientific fraud is so interesting that it is worth recounting. In the year 1776 a regiment, half Russian and half Polish, mutinied at Riga. The mutineers were defeated, and their chief officer, Worowski, fell,



FAIRS AND ENTERTAINERS IN RUSSIA IO9

Eight years after his debut as an equilibrist in St Petersburg, the

British impresario, Michael George Maddox53 turned up in Moscow, and an advertisement in the Moscow News of November 1775 in?

formed the public that he would exhibit 'a cabinet of mathematical

and scientific curiosities and puzzles lately brought over by him from

England'. On sale at the entrance to the exhibition was 'an exact

description of their works'.54 Maddox was undoubtedly a skilled

mechanic and horologist. Among his collections of inventions were

some truly wonderful clocks which amazed all who saw them. He

presented one of them to Catherine II and another to Count S. M.

Kamensky, the owner of a country house theatre. Kamensky's clock

played various tunes: at eleven minutes past two?the time of the old

count's death?it struck up a solemn requiem 'Rest with thy Saints'; and at four o'clock?the time of the new count's birth?it played 'Praise, o praise the glorious issue'.55 Maddox's exhibition in Moscow

was evidently such a great success that he found it necessary to print an announcement in 1776 'conveying his most humble thanks to all

having had both his thighs fractured by a cannon-ball. He hid himself in a ditch until after dark, when he dragged himself to the neighbouring house of a doctor named Orlov, a man of great benevolence, who took him in and concealed him, but he had to amputate both his legs. During the time of Worowski's illness, Orlov was visited by his intimate friend the Baron von Kempelen, and after many consultations and much thought, Kempelen hit upon the idea of conveying him out of the country by devising this auto? maton (as Worowski was a great chess-player), and in three months the figure was finished.

In order to avoid suspicion he gave performances en route to the frontier. The first performance was given at Tula, on 6 November 1777. The machine and Worowski were packed in a case and started for Prussia, but when they reached Riga, orders came from the Empress Catherine for Baron von Kempelen to go to St Petersburg with his automaton. The empress played several games with him, but was always beaten, and then she wanted to buy the figure. This was an awkward situation for Kempelen, and he was at his wits' end to know how to wriggle out of it. He declared that his own presence was absolutely necessary for the working of the machine, and that it was quite impossible for him to sell it, and after some further discussion he was allowed to proceed on his journey. C. Cooke op. cit., pp. 74-80. See also An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton Chess-Player of Mr De Kempelen, with an easy method of imitating the movements of that celebrated figure. Illustrated by original drawings, London, 1821 (printed anonymously). The chess-player was purchased by a Mons. Anthon in 1777 who took it all over Europe. At his death it came into the hands of Johann Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, who sent it to the United States. It was afterwards sent back to Europe, and by 1844 was in the possession of a mechanician of Belleville named Crozier.

53 M. Ved. y nos. 92-103. Michael Maddox has been the subject of an excellent study by Olga Chayanova, Teatr Maddoksa v Moskve, 1776-1805, Moscow, 1927. 64 M. Ved., nos. 92-103. 65 Gerngross, op. cit., p. 95. Maddox constructed another such clock which achieved fame: 'Some years ago', says Dr Lyall, 'he constructed after immense labour, a most beauti? ful piece of mechanism; a musical clock which plays a number of tunes, at the changes of which new scenery presents itself to view. He sold this clock to Mr Lukmanof, whose magazine in the Stretenka, or as oftener called the Lubianka, deserves a visit on account of its curiosities. Mr L. has repeatedly refused large offers for the above clock.' (The Character of the Russians and a Detailed History of Moscow, London, 1823, P- 33^0 This clock also had figures which moved and danced about, and was 'highly prized by the well-known dealer, Dmitri Alexandrovich Lukhmanov' (D. Blagovo, 'Rasskazy babushki. Iz vospominaniy pyati pokoleniy. (Yelizaveta Petrovna Yankova 1768-1861)' in Rasskazy babushki, zapi- sannyye i sobrannyyeyeya vnukom, St Petersburg, 1885, p. 205). The clock survived the passage of time and was exhibited at the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition in 1872 (O. Chayanova, op. cit., p. 24; M. Ved., nos. 13-15).



HO THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

who have done him the honour of viewing the above entertain?

ments presented by him'. His exhibition closed in January 1776.56 But in June he was invited to form a partnership with Prince Urusov

of the Znamenka theatre, and the agreement between them was

formally ratified in August.57 Another type of novelty during these years was a kind of shadow-

show, known as 'The Chinese Shades'. The first information about

these shades relates to 14 September 1762 when the stage designer Duclos presented them to the public and the Grand Duke Peter

Fyodorovich.58 The shades were seen again in 1776 and 1777 when

they were worked by Sanquirico, while from 1783 to 1799 a certain

Giuseppe Chiosa exhibited them in both St Petersburg and Moscow.

A description of the show runs as follows:

Many wonderful transformations and panoramas of towns, woodlands, oceans, streets and buildings; also a tempest at sea with thunder, lightning and rain as a result of which ships break up and cargoes are thrown out and sink to the bottom, indeed it is worthy of admiration since all these effects exactly resemble a painting. Afterwards puppets appear and dance in different ways, so that everyone is amazed on

regarding their realistic movements and pirouettes, and acknowledges their excellence in comparison with living figures.59

A great attraction always at fairs and elsewhere were dwarfs,

freaks, bearded ladies, fat gentlemen, and giants. In the 18th century none was more famous than the colossus Bernardo Gigli who arrived

in Moscow in 1765. Gigli measured eight feet two inches in height and was reputed to weigh about ninety stones. His native city was

Trento, and he performed before all the crowned heads of Europe, beginning with Francis I and the king of the Romans at Luxemburg injune 1763 and ending with Catherine II at Tsarskoye Selo on 21 April 1765. In Moscow Gigli could be viewed at his lodgings in the house of Mr Oznobishin in the 'foreign quarter'. He was also on show at the fair from eleven a.m. until two p.m. and after lunch from four until nine in the evening.60 The usual admission price was

forty kopeks; but people of quality were expected to offer more. A

souvenir of Bernardo the Giant in the form of a metal engraving was on sale at his lodging. After about a month in Moscow Gigli announced his departure for St Petersburg; but a last look could be

56 M. Ved., nos. 13-15. 57 O. Chayanova, op. cit., pp. 24-6. 58 'Semyona Poroshina "Zapiski" '

(Russkaya Starina, St Petersburg, 1881, XXXI, Prilozhenive, p. 158). 59 SPB. Ved., 1776, nos. 79-95; M. Ved., 1777, II, 21; SPB. Ved., 1783, nos. 93-5; 1784, nos. 2-9; M. Ved., 1784, nos. 19-23; 1786, nos. 24, 26; 1788, nos. 22-39; Gerngross, op. cit., p. 97- 60 D. Rovinsky. Russkiye Narodnyye Kartinki, 5 vols of text and atlas in 7 vols with plates in black and white and hand-coloured, St Petersburg, 1881, nos. 324, 325.



FAIRS AND ENTERTAINERS IN RUSSIA III

obtained for twenty kopeks. The time of viewing was also put for?

ward by an hour, and the public were able to attend from ten a.m.

until one p.m. and from three until eight in the evening.61 After 1773 grand guignol and the harlequinade became very popular

features at fairs. The fantoccini kiosks always attracted large audiences, and the noisy Punch-and-Judy showmen were rapidly surrounded

when they uttered their raucous cries of 'Here's Petrushka! Come,

good people, and see the show!' The adventures of Harlequin and

Columbine were first brought to Russia by the juggling troupe of

Brambilla and Nomora.62 They did not greatly differ from the usual

traditions, but Brambilla and Nomora succeeded in presenting their

pantomime with excellent effects. The role of Pantaloon was played

by Nomora himself, Pierrot by Zemenzato, Harlequin by Brambilla, and the pretty Columbine by Brambilla's wife. Other characters

also figured in the plot: a shoemaker, cooks, lackeys and physicians. There were three exciting titles in the repertoire: 'Harlequin turned

pastry-cook and cobbler', 'The Magic Ring' or 'Harlequin Scare?

crow and Simpleton Pierrot' and 'Arlechino nell desposito e resucci-

tato per il podore magico'. Harlequin's adventures in this third

item were enacted in the following order:

i. The stage will represent a grave, Harlequin will sit on the tomb in a shroud; 2. the stage becomes a forest and Harlequin changes into a living person in another garb; 3. Harlequin exits centre stage, creeps into a sack and climbs out again in a woman's costume; 4. Harlequin jumps into the mouth of a cannon, Pierrot fires the cannon and Harle?

quin shoots through the air over the stage; 5. Harlequin turns into a

gibbet on which he himself will be hanged. Pierrot laughs when he sees

this, but Harlequin gradually slips down from the gallows onto a coffin and changes into a live Harlequin with his own coffin; 6. Harlequin and Columbine are transformed into giants; 7. both giants are con? verted into four flaming Chinese keys; from each of these a multitude of fiery lilies spring.

Sometimes the troupe gave benefit performances in aid of a collea?

gue: for example, to help Pajaccio who seems to have suffered from

bad health. Pajaccio took to drink before coming on and requested the public to forgive him this little weakness.

Respected Sirs, [he announces] I will drink several full glasses to your good health, and at every drop swallowed I wish you every success. I am sure that you most highly respected patrons will wish all the best

611. E. Zabelin, op. cit., pp. 404, 408; cf. also Gerngross, op. cit., pp. 88, 89. 62 After the date of the first appearance of the troupe of Brambilla and Nomora in Russia it is interesting to observe that porcelain figures of Harlequin and Columbine were being made at the famous Gardner factory. Two of these exquisite little figures may be seen in the Russian state museum: 'Dama-Arlekin' and 'Arlekin'. An illustration is given in Russkiy Khudozhestvennyy Farfor, by B. N. Emme, Moscow-Leningrad, 1950, p. 88.




to poor old Pajaccio. All along the way to Moscow will I drink to

your health. Then hereafter live happily on.63

In October 1774 the troupe left St Petersburg for Moscow, where it

gave the same programme as in St Petersburg with a few minor

additions. Brambilla and Nomora left Moscow the following year at the beginning of lent, after which no more was heard of them.64

The harlequinade remained a favourite spectacle at the fair until

it was swept away by zealous reformers at the end of the 19th century. It was repeated from year to year with little variation, although the

grotesque qualities of the original Harlequin gave way, as in Europe, to a beautiful, youthful dancer, no longer dressed according to the

commedia dell' arte as Lancret and Watteau portrayed him, but shining with spangles and flitting gracefully over the stage. The miracles

remained just as incredible as in the 18th century: Harlequin always

escaped unharmed, only to be led once more to the very entrails of

hell by Pantaloon's rough gang; then the Fairy Fortuna, who ap?

peared on a turning glittering wheel, would finally snatch the two

lovers from the jaws of grinning devils placed round the stage and

conduct Harlequin and Columbine into a paradise lit up with pink

Bengal lights. This charming guignol in the balagany theatres pro?

foundly affected the great masters of the Russian ballet in their

early youth. Vsevolozhsky, director of the imperial theatres after

1880, Dyagilev, Fokin, Stravinsky, Benois, Bakst, Roerich, Larionov

and Nataliya Goncharova, to name only a few, strongly reflect in

their work the influence of the gulyaniye with its colourful pantomimes and fairy-tale splendours.

Except for Yakubovsky and his puppet show, no Russian names

have so far been mentioned in connection with the performances and

spectacles at 18th-century fairs. There was, however, one Russian

infant prodigy, a little girl named Alexandra Repkova who played twelve pieces on a gusli when only three years old cof her own accord

and without any kind of instruction'. The curious paid twenty-five

kopeks to see this wonder.65 It is strange that no Russian artistes

should have made a name in the harlequinade, marionettes, juggling or other diversions, when amateur Russian actors had already begun to be recruited for the stage and masquerade at Yaroslavl', St

Petersburg and Moscow. No doubt the foreign showmen were

jealous of their position, and as their troupes were small, unlike the

?? SPB. Ved., 1773, nos. 85, 86, 87, 94, 95, 99, 101, 104; 1774, nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,11, 17; Gerngross, op. cit., pp. 91, 92. 64 M. Ved., 1774, nos. 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 102, 103, 104; 1775, nos, 2, 4, 8, 13, 14; see also an article by Inozemtsev on this troupe in Istoricheskiy Vestnik, 1901, April, LXXXIV, p. 274 and V. N. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, 'Inostrannyye antreprizy Yekaterinskogo vremeni' (Russkiy Bibliofil, Petrograd, 1915, no. 6, pp. 79-81). 65 I. E. Zabelin, op. cit., p. 410.



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larger companies needed for opera buffa and straight drama or comedy,

they had no need to engage extras from the Russian public whom

they had come to amuse. Shows at the Russian fair thus became and

remained the prerogative of foreign managers, and it was not until

the 19th century, when celebrated showmen such as Yegarev, whom

Benois vividly describes in his Reminiscences, were successfully pre?

senting their balagany, that Russian performers came to appear more

frequently before the general public and had the chance to make a

name for themselves.



Fairs and Entertainers in 18th-Century Russia

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