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The Powers of Soviet Puppetry

atres of Kazakhstan combined Soviet ideals with Kazakh traditions to educate the masses. In 1941 the Alma-Ata government puppet theatre of Kazakhstan had a problem with Lilliputians.

In light of the struggles of most citizens to simply stay alive during a period of famine and forced collectivisation, the government’s establishment of the puppet theatre seems surprising. Before a separate space for the theatre could be built, let alone more be established across the Kazakh SSR, it seems that the outbreak of the Second World War brought the troupes’ work to a temporary halt. During my first year of ethnographic fieldwork there, the theatre building was undergoing a massive renovation and the puppeteers again found themselves in a temporary rehearsal space, at the city zoo.

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