Theatre activity in the southern Urals at the initial period of the thaw

The paper deals with the problems of theatre activity development in the southern Urals at the initial period of the thaw. The research objective is to define what changes happened in the theatre activity in the Southern Urals after Stalin’s repressions in 1953–1964. For the research the author used periodicals, archival documents, books about the theater. The research has shown that after Stalin’s personality cult exposure there were big theater changes in the southern Urals. People became more interested in the theatre. It was in Bashkiria where the theater developed greatly. The paper examines the creative activity of theatres in the southern Urals, Orenburg Region and Bashkortostan, reveals specific features and problems in the functioning of the studied institutions in the era of the thaw, studies repertoire policy of theaters. The repertoire updated and new theaters opened. Actors and directors found new forms of art self-expression. Drama art stops being the weapon of the political propaganda. The author has no opportunity to carry out a comparative analysis of this research with other researches as the subject has not been investigated by anybody yet.