>Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, others write ballets and overtures

One of England's main exports has always been English culture. Even today. This tiny island is the source of The Lord of the Rings *and* Harry Potter, both of which are reverent toward English culture and nostalgic for its past.

This has always been so. English novels got translated and pushed in Russia as soon as they were written. And they've always pushed Shakespeare really, really hard (they still do). Tolstoy read him knowing that his reputation was "greatest writer of all time," which is a meme the English started. That's why he goes in on Shakespeare so hard in What Is Art?, his aesthetic treatise. It wasn't just Russia that was obsessed with Shakespeare, it was happening in a lot of places all over the world. Everyone had to contend with Shakespeare because the English made sure he was ubiquitous, whether you liked him or hated him.

>>8693461
>>8693489
OP you should also know that by the 19th century, Russia had developed a sort of cultural insecurity in the face of Europe, which it was so near to but never a part of. The underlying phenomena here are the scientific revolution and the dawn of industrialisation in Europe, since those were the modes which enabled the organisation of Europes cultural capital in true classifications of worth (based on class, whose nuance comes with the onset of capitalism), which was of course essential for the beginning of imperialism.
Russia was not at Europes cultural level of development, as well as having a long history of direct tension between the creative impulse and the arms of the state. I think Russia has a longer history of explicitly and directly political art, because so much of it was written in dissent of the state.
England simply became the most efficient little cultural factory of Europe, and so their own most highly esteemed art was giddily gobbled by artists in Russia.

Because Shakespeare is the greatest

There are also very famous Italian operas based on his work. Shakespeare was popular everywhere in Europe at the time.

Bcus of the "aura" surrounding shakespeare's name, so congenial with the need for mythic involvement of oral cultures like Russia, less significant, or more easily escapable, in more visual societies

>>8693489
>the English made sure he was ubiquitous
Could you elaborate? This sounds illogical - the English somehow forced other Europeans to translate Shakespeare and to perform him in theaters? How?