Nowhere else, no other time in history were experimentalists given such opportunities in art than under Lenin, even though Lenin was terribly conservative in art. As the new people’s commissar of culture and enlightenment, Lunarchasky had a basic view of the Soviet theatre policy:"The task is clear: to appeal to all the young, fresh and healthy in "cultured" society to create a lofty socialist art . . . in order to link great art with the great leaders of the future—the people."(Gorchakov 109)
It was made clear and initiated that the theatre would be used as an educational—manipulative—tool to influence the masses.
In 1918, the Bolsheviks set up a Theatre Section with the task of creating " a new theatre connected with the rebuilding of the state and society upon the principles of socialism"(Gorchakov 109). And, in August 1919, Lenin signed a decree—"On Unification of Theatre Work"—which:
1. nationalized the property of all theatres in Russia
2. centralized the entire theatre economy and subordinated it to the Central Theatre Committee
3. made the Central Theatre Committee responsible for subordinating theatres to the Bolshevik ideology and for giving them "indications of a repertorial character to link them with the popular masses and their socialistic ideal.(Gorchakov 110)
Theatres were now imbued with the ideal of inspiring and revolutionizing the masses, and with the help of the party giving them more freedom, soviet productions, festivals, and propagandist performances were popping up throughout the country. Another factor aiding this mania of theatre development was the free distribution of tickets among worker and soldiers. Thus, the audience was proletariat, and the propaganda was aimed at getting them involved in the revolution.
"Workers participated eagerly all through the twenties in festivals, amateur productions in clubs, and in skits taken from the papers or from their own lives."(Stites Russian Popular Culture 51)
