Bolshoi Ballet of censorship. It was the first time a show has been pulled in such a way since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking rumours about the motivation behind it. Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the world's foremost ballet companies, in addition to being one of the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. The word "bolshoi" means "big" or "grand" in Russian. The company operates on a hierarchical system, similar to those used by other leading European ballet companies, with senior dancers ranked as principals, and descending in order of importance through lead soloist, first soloist, soloist and finally,
Lovers of the Russian Word Lovers of the Russian Word The Colloquy of Lovers of the Russian Word (, "Beseda lyubitelei russkogo slova") was a conservative and proto-Slavophile literary society founded in St. Petersburg in the early nineteenth century. The society began meeting as early as 1807, but its regular monthly meetings began in March 1811 in "a beautiful and luxuriously appointed hall in Derzhavin's large home on the banks of the Fontanka"; as many as 500 people might attend its meetings, and it published its own journal, the "Chteniya v Besede lyubitelei russkogo slova" (Readings at the Colloquy of Lovers of the Russian Word),