Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

The Establishment and Development of Rural Schools in Russia (19

th

-21

st

 Centuries) 

 

35

rural communities, compiling a suitable repertoire of plays and providing 

space in school buildings for staging them. 

One notable example of the organisation of theatre as part of the 

development of Russian rural schools was the peasant amateur theatre in 

Petino village, Voronezh province.

20

 This theatre was established in 1888 by 

N. F. Bunakov in Petino School to serve the purposes of education and 

culture. Notably, the repertoire of plays included scenes from traditional 

social life, folk songs, games, rituals and celebrations. For example, in the 

play  Sirotka by G. Vasilyev, the old song Ah Vyi Seni, Moyi Seni (Ah, you 

inner porch, you are my inner porch) is performed, and one scene depicts a 

“nochnoye” (night horse watch) - an element of traditional rural life.

21

 In a 

drama about everyday life, Ne Tak Zhivi, Kak Khochetsya by A. Ostrovsky, the 

folk songs Zhil Yeremka Da Foma (Lived Yeremka and Foma), Oy Lapti Moyi, 

Lapotochki Moyi (Oh, you are my bark shoes) are featured, and a Maslenitsa 

(celebration for the end of winter) is staged. In a comedy by Kruglopolov 

Bobyil, folk traditions such as carol singing, fortune-telling, costuming and 

wedding rituals all make an appearance.  

Bunakov made great efforts to propagate his personal experiences of 

establishing community theatres, especially among countryside (“public”) 

teachers: it was not only local teachers from Voronezh province who came 

to watch plays at Petino theatre: educators from Tambov and Poltava 

provinces came as well. Bunakov published articles, wrote notes for various 

journals in Russia and abroad, and gave lectures to various conferences on 

the topic of theatre. He formulated a number of recommendations on the 

organisation of folk (including school-based) theatre in rural areas: 

- The contents of the play should reflect public life and should be 

familiar to actors and audiences;  

- The play should have perfect morals encouraging “goodness of 

impression;” 

- Characters should preferably be of the same age as school children; 

- Scenes from folk life should be “truthful and realistic” and the play 

itself should be neither “boring and too deep, nor dull and empty.”

22

 

At the same time, Bunakov spoke against “deliberately instructive 

theatrical plays.” He also offered some very valuable insights on 

enunciation: “speech should be in the local style, reproduced as accurately 

as possible, without faking, simplification or rough stenography.”

23

 

                                                 

20

 Nesterova 2002, p. 5. 

21

 Bunakov 1953, p. 305. 

22

 Ibid., p. 304. 

23

 Ibid. 

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V. J. Arestova 

 

36

Public theatre was seen by Bunakov as a form of cultural and 

educational work and as a necessary component of the rural educational 

environment. His ideas of not only children’s but all rural people’s 

education by means of theatre corresponded to ideas of the great educator 

of the Chuvash people, I. Y. Yakovlev, who used theatre in Simbirsk 

Chuvash Teacher’s School (founded 1868) to train teachers for rural 

schools.

24

 

Yakovlev considered folk art to be the very foundation of the new 

culture, and concentrated his efforts on bringing his students closer to 

world culture whilst also studying Chuvash culture. He pursued the idea that 

the process of understanding both Russian and world culture should be 

based on native folk culture. 

In connection with this, he encouraged extracurricular events which 

broadly involved local folklore, which the students of Simbirsk School 

collected during their summer folklore practice. Students organised 

traditional folk celebrations such as an Akatui festival with circle dances, 

games (Chuvash, of course), competitions and the giving of gifts 

(embroidered shawls) by girls to boys. This was a real reproduction of a folk 

celebration. To encourage students to practice reading in Chuvash, 

Yakovlev compiled Chuvash Bukvar, a book of 23 short stories, 45 riddles 

and around 4,000 sayings, collected by himself and his students.

25

 

Yakovlev’s Simbirsk School was a source of culture and education, 

both for training teachers and for the education of the Chuvash people. 

Using ethnotheatcrical forms in the educational process, for example, 

dramatising rural rites or reviving household folk celebrations, Yakovlev’s 

school encouraged all that represented the national culture of the Chuvash 

people. As a result the first teachers in Chuvash, being students of 

Yakovlev, took these theatrical practices from Simbirsk School to 

educational institutions around the Chuvash republic. Yadrin Real School, 

Cheboksary City School (which taught three-year teacher training courses), 

Ikkovo’s two-grade school, Bichurin’s two-grade school, Indyrchino, 

Yanshikhovo-Norvashi, Yantikovo and Shibylgy Schools and Poretsk 

Teacher Seminary all had school theatres where plays based, among other 

things, on Chuvash folk traditions were staged.

26

 

From this perspective, Yanshikhovo-Norvashi School in Yantikovo 

region is an important example. As an inspector of non-Russian schools of 

the Kazan school district, I. Ya. Yakovlev went to Yanshikhovo-Norvashi 

in 1879 look at the possibility of building a school in that village. In 1887 an 

                                                 

24

 Efimov 2008, p. 120. 

25

 Ibid., p. 123. 

26

 Ivanov-Ekhvet 1987, p. 287. 

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