Russian Theatre, or Complete Collection of All Russian Theatrical Works
Russian Theatre or Complete Collection of All Russian Theatrical Works was a publication of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg from 1786 to 1794.
Russian Theatre was published in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, and a total of 43 parts appeared.
The publication was conceived by Princess Yekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, director of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and chair of the Russian Academy, to collect both previously published and manuscript Russian plays in a single corpus.
The aim of the project was to compile a complete repertoire of plays in the Russian language—both those already printed and previously unpublished, whether original, adapted, or simply translated. The publication is organized systematically: first come tragedies, followed by dramas, comedies, and comic operas.
The series included according to the Brockhaus-Efron works by Alexander Ablesimov, Ippolit Bogdanovich, Denis Fonvizin, Vyazmitinov, Catherine II, A. Klushin, Yakov Knyazhnin, E. Kostrov, I. Krylov, Vasily Lyovshin, M. V. Lomonosov, V. Lukin, Vasily Maykov, I. Mikhailov, P. Plavilstshchikov, Pavel Potemkin, M. Prokudin, Alexander Sumarokov, Trediakovsky, D. I. Khvostov, Kheraskov, and others.
The 39th part of the Complete Collection of All Russian Theatrical Works, published in 1793, contained a tragedy by Yakov Knyazhnin, Вадим Новгородский, which was also separately published. The tragedy was judged “dangerous” by the censorship authorities, which ordered “the strictest investigation regarding the author and the publication of his tragedy.” Copies were confiscated and destroyed. As a result, a complete copy of part 39 of Russian Theatre and the separately printed tragedy were already major bibliographical rarities by the early 19th century.