ИСТИНА

This presentation is devoted to the activities of the Society of Russian Dramatists aimed at protecting their copyright (1870–1874). These activities met with prompt and fierce resistance from the provincial entrepreneurs and critics who accused the dramatists of corrupting the theatrical art itself. This conflict revealed a deep mistrust among Russian intellectuals toward the whole sphere of economics and money. The cultural institutions successfully implemented earlier in the West thus necessitated a new examination in Russia. The difficult process of importing the Western mechanisms of copyright protection is explored in this presentation.