On 24 September 2026, Vilnius will host an academic conference dedicated to the history of Russian drama theatre in Lithuania and its broader Baltic context. The conference seeks to initiate an interdisciplinary discussion of the Russian drama theatre as an institution shaped by cultural policy, examining the circumstances of its emergence, its modes of operation, and its subsequent transformations.

The emergence of Russian drama theatres in the Baltic states in the mid-twentieth century, in the post-war period, was closely linked to the formation of Soviet cultural policy and the development of a new cultural infrastructure. These institutions functioned not only as spaces for theatrical art, but also as platforms for the dissemination of the Russian language and culture within the multilingual and multicultural urban environments of Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn.

To date, the history of Russian drama theatre in the Baltic states has received relatively little scholarly attention. This conference aims to foster a broader academic discussion of Soviet-era cultural institutions by examining their operation, significance, and subsequent interpretations through the lenses of postcolonial analysis, cultural memory, and institutional transformation.

The conference takes two dates in Lithuanian theatre history as its chronological points of reference:

• 1946 – the first performance by the professional Vilnius Russian Drama Theatre in Lithuania, Alexander Ostrovsky’s Without Guilt, was staged, marking the beginning of Russian drama theatre activity in post-war Lithuania.
• 1986 – the State Russian Drama Theatre of the Lithuanian SSR moved from its premises on Jogailos Street (then V. Kapsukas Street) to the theatre building on J. Basanavičius Street (now Vilnius Old Theatre).

Suggested research themes (non-exhaustive list):

The emergence of Russian drama theatre in Lithuania and the Baltic states: historical preconditions and cultural context;
Soviet cultural policy and the formation of theatre institutions;

The establishment of Russian drama theatres in the occupied Baltic states within the broader context of Soviet nationalities policy;

The consequences of Soviet cultural policy and lessons for the present;
The dissemination of Russian culture in the Baltic region and mechanisms of cultural policy;
Theatre repertoire, artists, and artistic trends during the Soviet period;
Postcolonial and post-Soviet perspectives in Baltic cultural studies;
Transformations of cultural and theatre institutions after 1990;

Landmark productions, artists, and artistic turning points in the history of the Russian Drama Theatre / Old Theatre of Vilnius;
The transformation of the Old Theatre of Vilnius’s identity and its interpretations today.

We welcome historical, theoretical, and comparative research.

Call for Contributions

We invite historians, theatre scholars, cultural researchers, sociologists, anthropologists, art historians, and scholars from other fields to submit paper proposals and contribute to the conference programme.

Please submit the title of your paper and an abstract of up to 200 words by email to [email protected] by 1 September 2026. Proposals may be submitted in Lithuanian or English.

Authors of selected proposals will be notified by email.

The conference aims to initiate a broader academic discussion on the history of Russian drama theatre in the Baltic region and to encourage new research in this field.