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L'Union des Écrivains Soviétiques (1934-1991): un moyen pour une fin et le modéle de toutes les unions créatrices du bloc Soviétique
The Union of Soviet Writers (1934-1991): a means for a goal and a model for all the creative unions in the Soviet bloc
[journal article]
Abstract
Created in 1934, the Union of Soviet Writers facilitated the instrumentalisation of literature by the Soviet authorities: it was its main goal, explicitly proclaimed at the first Congress of this Union, and repeated until the 1980s. The Union of Soviet Writers was supposed to create and educate a "N... view more
Created in 1934, the Union of Soviet Writers facilitated the instrumentalisation of literature by the Soviet authorities: it was its main goal, explicitly proclaimed at the first Congress of this Union, and repeated until the 1980s. The Union of Soviet Writers was supposed to create and educate a "New Person" who would build and embody communism. Furthermore, the Union of Soviet Writers was the model of other creative unions in the USSR and in the Soviet bloc. For more than fifty years, it selected, guided and controlled writers; it participated to the censorship process, as well as to the purges and repression of dissidents. In exchange, the Union of Soviet Writers received very important material rewards, of which its leaders were the main beneficiaries. The Union of Writers developed as a pyramidal structure: it had organizations in every Soviet republic (in Russia, only since 1958) and in many towns, and they collaborated at all levels with the corresponding CPSU structures. During the Stagnation, it also reactivated functional links with the army, the Ministry of the Interior and the Komsomol, with kolkhozes and factories. The Union of Soviet Writers was infiltrated by the KGB, which contributed to spreading fear and sterilizing an official literature of which few works are still read nowadays.... view less
Keywords
writer; USSR; literature; propaganda; communism; historical development; censorship; repression; secret service; instrumentalization; cultural policy
Classification
Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Art, Sociology of Literature
General History
Document language
French
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 37-54
Journal
Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 17 (2017) 1
ISSN
1582-4551
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 1.0