In this dress, the People’s Artist of the RSFSR Fatima Ilskaya performed the role of Tatiana in Maxim Gorky’s play “Enemies”. The production was called “Doshmannar” and was staged at the Tatar State Academic Theater named after Galiaskar Kamal in 1936 and 1963. It was directed by Gumer Ismagilov — a Tatar, Crimean and Uzbek theater director.
Fatima Ilskaya masterfully portrayed her character — the 28-year-old Tatiana, who is married to a man whose brother runs the factory where the murder takes place. Through the words of this character, Gorky predicted an approaching victory of the working class over the “masters”. Tatiana is forced to live among dishonest and greedy people and cannot escape from their world just yet. She possesses a tender and conscientious nature and speaks the truth calmly and plainly, while the people around her believe that she “treats them poorly.” After pondering whether people should just stop torturing each other, she suggests giving the factories and land to working-class people so that everyone can live in peace.
The play “Enemies” was published in 1906 and received acclaim as the first literary work of the new genre — socialist, or proletarian, realism. The trend was used to describe the society’s path to building socialism from a documentary and historical point of view.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the play “Enemies” was banned from being staged, with the censor stating:
