New Eastern Europe - November-December 2017

Legnica with a view to Russia

GRZEGORZ ŻURAWIŃSKI

The Modjeska Theatre in Legnica, Poland.

“Talking about Russia from a the-
atre stage in Legnica has much more
meaning than in any other place in Po-
land,” says Jacek Głomb, who has been
the director of the Modjeska Theatre
in Legnica for the past 23 years. Leg-
nica is a small town, located in Lower
Silesia in western Poland with a popula-

tion of about 100,000. It is no accident

that for the 40th anniversary of the Pol-

ish theatrical stage in Legnica and the

commemoration of the 175 years of the

building’s existence, which will be cele-

brated this year, the theatre is preparing

an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s

Demons.

Little Moscow

For 48 years, since the end of the
Second World War in 1945 until Sep-
tember 1993, Legnica was called “Lit-
tle Moscow”. It got this nickname due
to the fact that the Soviet troops sta-

tioned in Poland at that time had their

headquarters in Legnica. As a result,

there were many Soviet elements to be

found throughout the town. There was

a Soviet airport as well as Soviet bar-