‘Stalin Died but Not Completely’: On the Theatrical Legacy of Totalitarian Catastrophe

I began working on this article in the winter of 2022, when Russia's invasion Ukraine shattered fragile stability Europe. Artur Solomonov's tragifarce How We Buried Josef Stalin (2019) speaks directly to catastrophic time but also legacy Stalinism Russia. ‘A play about flexibility and immortality’, farce confronts its audience with dilemma Stalinism, which Putin's putrid regime continues mobilize. Using irony, hyperbole grotesque, it proposes a dramaturgical response question why hostility world, isolationism nationalistic aspirations are deeply ingrained collective psyche Russian society. To Solomonov, issue rests malleability that embraces an image tyrant allows remain immortal; feeds nostalgia, prepared ground for rise what Lev Gudkov called ‘recurring totalitarianism’.