March 16, 1915
В Petrograd The literary and artistic cabaret "Stray Dog" closed. The basement where she danced Karsavina, Mayakovsky I read my futuristic poems for the first time, and Shklovsky с Kruchenykh argued for the need to update poetic language. A legend of the Silver Age.
Yes, I loved them, those night gatherings,
On the small table there are ice-cold glasses…
(Anna Akhmatova)
The art cabaret opened on December 31, 1911, in the basement of the architect's house Jaco, which is in the very center of St. Petersburg. The founder is the Society of Intimate Theatre, it was created a couple of years earlier by directors Evreinov, Komissarzhevsky, Mgebrov, writer Alexei Tolstoy and entrepreneur Boris Pronin. On New Year's Eve 1912, the company was looking for a fun place to celebrate the New Year. The name of the iconic establishment was born from a conversation between Tolstoy and Evreinov:
— Don’t we now resemble stray dogs looking for shelter?
- You found a name for our idea.
The basement renovations weren't completed in time for New Year's Eve, but the invited crowd—the capital's elite, summoned by Tolstoy to the opening—didn't dwell on this: the launch had been a success.
The cabaret was conceived as a meeting place for poets, writers, actors, musicians, and artists. Futurists, Acmeists, Symbolists, the "Tsekhoviki" (Centers of the Art) and "World of Art" (World of Art) members gathered here. Akhmatova, Gumilev, Mandelstam, Teffi, Meyerhold, Averchenko and dozens of other bohemian representatives.
Outsiders were also welcome—they were called "pharmacists," regardless of profession, and paid three rubles to enter (artists charged fifty rubles). Those entering the "Basement" were greeted by a poster reading, "Everyone is considered acquainted."
To get into the "Dog," you had to wake up the sleepy janitor, cross two snow-covered courtyards, turn left in the third, go down ten steps, and push open the oilcloth-covered door. You were immediately overwhelmed by the music, the stuffiness, the colorful walls, the noise of an electric fan humming like an airplane. The coat racket, piled high with fur coats, refused to take any more: "No room." The director of the "Dog," Boris Pronin, embraced the guest. "Bah! Who do I see?! Where have you been? Go!" he gestured into space. "Our people are all already there." And he immediately rushed to someone else. The newcomer, of course, was puzzled by this friendly meeting. Did Pronin mistake him for the wrong person? Not at all! Ask Pronin who it was he was just hugging and clapping on the shoulder. He'd probably throw up his hands: "Who the hell knows."
(Georgy Ivanov)
The "Dog" group was originally planned for Wednesdays and Saturdays, but the demand for creative interaction was so great that they also met on Mondays. On other days, they held "unscheduled" evenings: they celebrated poets, staged plays and pantomimes, organized exhibitions, gave lectures, and held debates on topical issues. They gathered after midnight and departed in the morning.
Thanks to "The Dog," we became completely nocturnal <> We (me and Mandelstam, and many others too) began to imagine that the whole world, in fact, was concentrated in "The Dog"
(Vladimir Piast)
Here many chains are untied -
the underground hall will preserve everything
And those words that were spoken at night,
another person wouldn't have said it this morning
(Mikhail Kuzmin)
The "Dog's Way" had its own customs—beating a Turkish drum, writing in a "pig book" (visitors left their impromptu notes there). And then World War I began.
The first breath of war blew the blush from the cheeks of the regulars of the Stray Dog
(Benedict Livshits)
In February 1915, Mayakovsky read the poem “To You!” from the stage of “Dog”.
To you, living for an orgy orgy,
having a bath and warm toilet!
Shame on you about submitting to George
read from newspaper columns? <>
Do you like women yes dishes
give life to please?
I'd rather be at the bar whores
serve pineapple water!
The scandal was enormous - the bourgeois public was insulted at its own expense.
A month later, Sobaka was closed. Officially, it was for illegal alcohol sales. Unofficially, it was due to Mayakovsky's anti-war speech. Some researchers believe the reasons were financial. The art cabaret was reincarnated a year later, in a different location and under a different name—Prival Komediantov.
