Pedagogies of puppetry in Soviet and post-Soviet Kazakhstan
The Almaty State Puppet Theatre was established in 1936. During this period, Stalin used the Kazakh steppe as a site of forced deportation, collectivisation, exile, and imprisonment. Famine had recently ravaged the Kazakh population. How could the state prioritise something as seemingly trivial as puppets? Why give the children theatre during a time when so many were finding themselves without parents, a place to live, or enough to eat?
This paper examines pre-Soviet enthusiasm for puppetry and the institutionalisation of the art during the twentieth century – first with the goal of socialising the masses, but increasingly concerned with teaching children how to be good. Based on archival work and on ethnographic observations of the contemporary puppet theatre, and drawing from my forthcoming monograph on this topic, the talk focuses on the theatre in Alma-Ata, the Soviet name for the city which became capital of the Kazakh Soviet Republic in 1927. I argue that the theatre offered more than mere propaganda for the Kazakh Republic’s smallest citizens. Bilingual from the beginning, the theatre travelled extensively during its first years, offering many adults and children their first theatrical performance of any kind. Sustained government sponsorship of puppetry moreover models a commitment to giving children beauty and joy through the art of animation.
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This page was last updated on 30 June 2024
