The Libretto
The Bolt tells a rousing Soviet tale of socialist labour, sabotage and victory over counter-revolutionary subversion. The ballet opens with the factory workers engaged in their morning exercise ahead of an exciting new day: a state-of-the art machine has been installed and there is to be a celebration in the workshop. Everyone enjoys an amateur performance from factory staff who impersonate characters such as a pompous Bureaucrat or a burly Blacksmith. Olga, the secretary of the local Komsomol group – the young communists’ league — also performs with her peers. But as work on the new machine gets underway, three workers arrive late for the morning shift fresh from a night of drinking: Ivan Corkscrew, Fedor Beer and their ringleader Lenka Gulba, or Lazy Idler. They attempt to interrupt their colleagues but the chief engineer catches them and reports their behaviour. As the curtain falls on the first act, work continues and the hum of the machines rises.
Act Two opens on a village scene, with the workers’ small log huts, a traditional wooden church and a tavern. The local priest and his parishioners dance to the music of accordions, played by Komsomol members. Among them is Kozelkov, the pompous factory clerk, who shows off a dance he learned in the city, hoping to impress the Komsomol musicians. As the crowd moves into the church for the day’s service, Lazy Idler and his fellow hooligans stumble out of the tavern. Determined to continue their drinking into the next day, the men hatch a plan to sabotage the factory. Lazy Idler persuades Goshka, a young village boy, to drop a large bolt into the factory machinery. At this moment Boris, the shock worker brigade leader and Olga’s boyfriend, passes by the conspirators. Though he has overheard none of their plans, the hooligans suspect him of eavesdropping and beat him to a pulp, leaving him unconscious behind a log. Finishing his sermon, the priest — who is a lazy and drunken man himself — leaves the church and finds the hooligans brandishing a bolt. He realises what they are up to and, rather than denouncing them, gives them his blessing.
The conspiracy succeeds in the final act when Goshka sneaks into the workshop and throws the bolt into a lathe, causing the machine to short-circuit. Boris tries to foil the plot by dashing in to retrieve the bolt, but instead gets locked in the room by Lazy and his comrades. The guards are called and Boris is handcuffed, but Goshka soon crumbles under the weight of his guilt and confesses to the crime. Olga is overjoyed when Boris is released and Lazy is arrested, while all the factory’s workers celebrate the victory over the saboteurs. Another variety performance takes place mocking imperialist stereotypes such as the Colonial Slave Girl or the Job Hopper. The recital ends with several dances by Red Army soldiers who are on leave. The curtain falls on the whole gathering raising triumphant banners that proclaim: ‘Protect the Machines’ and ‘Saboteurs Go Home’.
