Nikolai Evreinov "The Storming of the Winter Palace"

In 1920, on the third anniversary of the October Revolution, dramatist Nikolai Evreinov directed a cast of 10,000 actors, dancers, and circus performers-as well as a convoy of armored cars and tanks-in *The Storming of the Winter Palace.* The mass spectacle, presented in and around the real Winter Palace in Petrograd, was intended to recall the storming as the beginning of the October Revolution. But it was a deceptive reenactment because, in producing the events it sought to reenact, it created a new kind of theater, *agit-drama*, promulgating political propaganda and deliberately breaking down the distinction between performers and spectators. *Nikolaj Evreinov: "The Storming of the Winter Palace"* tells the fascinating story of this production. Taking readers through the relevant history, the authors describe the role of *The Storming of the Winter Palace* in commemorating Soviet power. With a wealth of illustrations, they also show how photographs of Evreinov's theatrical storming eventually became historical documents of the October Revolution themselves.