Russian drama before the Revolution; Soviet drama 1917-1921; the civil war in Soviet drama; Bulgarov's "The White Guard" and "Flight"; satirical comedy and melodrama; the plays of Nikolay Erdman; Mayokovsky;s "The Bedbug" and "The Bathhouse"; indiriect social comment; towards socialist realism.

The period between the Revolution of 1917 and Stalin's coming to power in the early 1930s was one of the most exciting for all branches of the arts in Russia. This study tries to show how the diversity of the Soviet arts of the 1920s continued the major trends of the pre-Revolutionary years.