Selected text
In 1949 struggle against cosmopolitans [18] began. One Jewish producer was fired from our theater. They told him that he was staging the wrong plays and at the meeting they called him a ‘cosmopolite with no roots’. Everybody knew that there was a censoring department that selected the repertoire, but nobody said a word. My brother didn’t have any problems being the leading actor. As for me, I did have some. Director of the theater said to me: 'You know, Anna, you need to wear fancier clothes and get a lorgnette and you should meet the audience you’re your lorgnette’. I didn’t know what a lorgnette was. I thought it was some kind of glasses and why did I ever need glasses having no sight problems? [stereotypical outfit of artists at the time] There were other picks intended to prepare the grounds for removing me from my position. I was upset, of course. I was with the theater at the most trying time during the war in Siberia and I was a reliable employee and all of a sudden they didn’t need me. In 1950 I went to work at the puppet theater. My theater management tried to convince me to resume my work at the theater, but I refused. In 1954 they addressed me again and I returned to work at the theater for young spectators. I thought I was familiar with the situation there and I gave so much effort to this theater. I worked in the administration, but it wasn’t a key position.
Interview
Anna Gliena