Skomorokh

The skomorokhs (sing. скоморох in Russian, скоморохъ in Old East Slavic, скоморaхъ in Church Slavonic) were medieval East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose for their oral/musical and dramatic performances. The etymology of the word is not completely clear. There are hypotheses that the word is derived from the Greek σκώμμαρχος (cf. σκῶμμα, "joke"); from the Italian scaramuccia ("joker", cf. English scaramouch); from the Arabic masẋara; and many others.

The skomorokhs appeared in Kievan Rus no later than the mid-11th century although fresco depictions of skomorokh musicians in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev dated to the 11th century.

The Primary Chronicle data about skomorokhi concurs with the period. The monk chronicler denounced the skomorokhi as devil servants. Furthermore the Orthodox Church often railed against the skomorokhi and other elements of popular culture as being irreverent, detracting from the worship of God, or even downright diabolical. For example Theodosius of Kiev, one of the co-founders of the Caves Monastery in the eleventh century, called the skomorokhi "evils to be shunned by good Christians". Their art was related and addressed to the common people and usually opposed the ruling groups who considered them not just useless but ideologically detrimental and dangerous by both the feudalists and the clergy.

Skomorokhi were persecuted in the years of the Mongol yoke when the church strenuously propagated ascetic living. The skomorokh art reached its peak in the 15th–17th century. Their repertoire included mock songs, dramatic and satirical sketches called glumy (глумы) performed in masks and skomorokh dresses to the sounds of domra, balalaika, gudok, bagpipes or buben (a kind of tambourine). The appearance of Russian puppet theatre was directly associated with skomorokh performances.

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