Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 33, Constantine Stanislavsky, the father of method acting.

Last time, we finished up the two-part series on the invasion of the Soviet Union during

World War II, known as Operation Barbarossa.

Today, we're shifting our focus to the arts, discussing Konstantin-Slavsky-born, Alexiev, one of the greatest Russian and Soviet actors and directors.

His primary claim to fame, though, is his system of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.

It is known as the Stenislavski system. Now, this episode was

recommended to me about a year ago from one of my listeners. Well, I usually plan these

episodes about a year in advance. So I've been waiting to do this one for quite a long time,

and I want to thank the listener whose name quite a long time, and I want to thank

the listener whose name I can't find, but I want to thank her for recommending this, because

this was absolutely incredible. I mean, Stanislavski's life was an amazing one. And here is how

he describes it in his book, My Life and Art, quote, I was born in Moscow in 1863,

a time that may well be taken as a dividing point between two great epochs.

I remember the landmarks of the age of serfdom, its icons and icon lamps, its lard candles,

its pony express, that peculiar Russian conveyance known as the Tarentas, the flintlock muskets,

the cannon that were small enough to be mistaken for playthings.

My eyes have witnessed the coming of electric projectors,

railroads and express trains, automobiles, airplanes, steamboats,

submarines, the telegraph, the radio, and the 16-inch gun.

In such ways from the l large candle to the electric projector,

from the Pony Express to the radio,

...