Armoured Train 14-69

Armoured Train 14-69
Photograph of Khmelev (centre) from the 1927 Moscow production.
Written by	Vsevolod Ivanov
Date premiered	8 November 1927 (1927-11-08)
Place premiered	Moscow Art Theatre
Original language	Russian
Genre	Socialist realism

Armoured Train 14-69 (Russian: Бронепоезд 14-69, Bronepoezd 14-69) is a 1927 Soviet play by Vsevolod Ivanov. Based on his 1922 novel of the same name, it was the first play that he wrote and remains his most important. In creating his adaptation, Ivanov transformed the passive protagonist of his novel into an active exponent of proletarian ideals; the play charts his journey from political indifference to Bolshevik heroism.Set in Eastern Siberia during the Civil War, it dramatises the capture of ammunition from an counter-revolutionary armoured train by a group of partisans led by a peasant farmer, Nikolai Vershinin. It is a four-act play in eight scenes that features almost 50 characters; crowd scenes form a prominent part of its episodic dramatic structure. Near the end of the play a Chinese revolutionary, Hsing Ping-wu, lies down on the railway tracks to force the armoured train to stop.

Armoured Train 14-69 was first performed by the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) in a production that opened with a gala performance on 8 November 1927. It was commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The production was directed by Constantin Stanislavski, Ilya Sudakov and N. Litovtsieva (of 76 rehearsal sessions, Stanislavski directed 11, though the staging as performed was principally his). The lead role of Vershinin was played by Vasili Kachalov (in his first role as a peasant), while Olga Knipper played Nadezhda Lvovna, Nikolai Batalov played Vaska Okorok, and Nikolai Khmelev played Peklevanov. Of the staging of the crowd scenes, the playwright observed during rehearsals that the MAT actors "want to and can portray the mass and at the same time distinguish each individual within this mass."Viktor Simov created the scenic design, after Stanislavski rejected the initial sketches of Leonid Chupiatov. It was the first successful Soviet play that the theatre presented. In the history of theatre, the MAT production of Armoured Train 14-69 has been seen as a turning point, heralding the new form of Socialist realism that would soon dominate dramatic production in the Soviet Union.