Evgenij Švarc’s Unpublished Play Šura Klimova in Its Historical and Literary Context

Abstract

This article presents the publication and commentary of a previously unknown, unpublished, and never-staged play by the prominent Russian playwright Evgenij Švarc, Šura Klimova. Recently discovered in a Moscow archive, the play is based on a debate that was widely discussed in the USSR at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s concerning career choice during the period of industrialization. The letters to the magazine “Pioner” that initiated this debate were written by a teenage girl, who also serves as the protagonist of the play. Her name is Šura Klimova; she comes from a poor family and dreams of becoming a wealthy film star. Both in reality and in the dramatic plot, she is criticized for her “petty-bourgeois” aspirations. The article examines the historical context of the play’s creation at a pivotal moment in Soviet history and situates it within Švarc’s oeuvre. Although Šura Klimova represents one of his earliest dramatic experiments, it already displays the techniques and stylistic devices characteristic of Švarc’s later, more famous plays.