The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Content Warning: This section of the guide references the sizeism, fascism, child neglect, and sexual harassment that appear in the play.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle opens on “the ruins of a badly shelled Caucasian village” (29) at the end of World War II. There, two neighboring villages (the Galinsk goat-breeding kolkhoz and the Rosa Luxemburg fruit-growing kolkhoz) are disputing who shall take ownership of the valley in the wake of the war. An Expert of the State Reconstruction Commission approaches members from both villages. They say, “When the Hitler armies were approaching, the kolkhoz had been ordered by the authorities to move its goat-herds further to the east. The kolchos now considers resettling in this valley” (29). He declares that the two villages must decide amongst themselves who will own the valley.

Each side presents an argument for why they are better suited to remain in the valley. The agronomist for the Rosa Luxemburg kolkhoz explains that they intend to “increase [their] orchards to ten times their former size” (32). The Old Man, one of the Galinsk kolkhoz, argues that their goats miss their old land, and the cheese they produce is no longer as good as it was before the Germans moved them from the valley.