In the Struggle for Proletarian Literature: Financial and Political Components

JATS XML:

XML

BibTEX:

BIB

Research Information Systems Citation Format:

RIS

PDF
Abstract:
Based on the new archival materials the article examines the financial and economic side of the historical and literary process of the 1920s–1930s. Under the conditions of the new economic policy, the proletarian and “poputnicheskiy” (fellow travelers) writers’ unions — were involved in an acute competitive struggle for hegemony on the literary front. As archival documents show, in the first half of the 1920s, “poputnicheskiy” unions enjoyed the support of the party and the government, possessed their own publishing houses and literary magazines. The mass character of the Association of Proletarian Writers helped them to gain attention from the Central Committee of Bolshevic party and to get finances and literary magazines at their disposal. After the formation of the Federation of Associations of Soviet Writers, proletarian writers usurped political influence in it and gained the desired material advantage. The party faction of the Federation, which consisted mainly of representatives of proletarian unions, determined the financial, ideological, and publishing policy of the Federation. In the early 1930s, the Association of Proletarian Writers waged a war against “poputnicheskiy” writers’ unions, including the section of translators in Moscow and Leningrad. The destruction of creative writers’ freedom is illustrated in the article according to the documents of the archives of the IWL RAS by the example of the fate of the writer and translator A.K. Vinogradov.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2024-5-223-276
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/GGRMVT
Author: Daria S. Moskovskaya
About the author: Daria S. Moskovskaya, DSc in Philology, Director of Research, Head of the Manuscript Department, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8089-9604 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Author 2: Elena D. Galtsova
About the author 2: Elena D. Galtsova, DSc in Philology, Director of Research, Chef of Laboratory, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2292-287X E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: November 14, 2023
Date of Publication: February 21, 2024
Approved after reviewing : December 12, 2024
Publication Type: Research Article
For citation: Moskovskaya, D.S., Galtsova, E.D. “In the Struggle for Proletarian Literature: Financial and Political Components.” Codex manuscriptus, issue 5. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 223–276. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2024-5-223-276
Keywords: literary policy, financing, economics, nep, author, customer, literary struggle, archive, RAPP, MASTER, FOSP, A.K. Vinogradov, translators section, A.M. Gorky, B.I. Yarkho, M.D. Eichengolts, I.I. Ionov.

REFERENCES

Aimermacher, Politika i kul’tura pri Lenine i Staline, 1917–1932 [Politics and Culture under Lenin and Stalin, 1917–1932]. Moscow, Airo-XX Publ., 1998. 204 p. (In Russ.)
Voitikov, S. Istoriia protivostoianiia: TsK ili Sovnarkom [The History of the Confrontation: the Central Committee or the Council of People’s Commis- sars]. Moscow, Veche Publ., 2018. 476 p. (In Russ.)
Dinershtein, A. A.K. Voronskii: V poiskakh zhivoi vody [Voronsky: In Search of Living Water]. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2001. 357 p. (In Russ.)
Goriaeva, M., editor. Instituty upravleniia kul’turoi v period stanovleniia. 1917–1930-e gg. Partiinoe rukovodstvo; gosudarstvennye organy upravle- niia: Skhemy [Institutes of Cultural Management in the Period of Formation. 1917–1930s. Party Leadership; Government Bodies: Schemes]. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2004. 310 p. (In Russ.)
Kiyanskaya, O.I., and D.M. Feldman. “‘Legche verbliudu proiti v igol’noe ukho, chem Narbutam sdelat’sia kommunistami’: k istorii protivostoianiia V.I. Narbuta i A.K. Voronskogo v 1927 g.” [“‘It is Easier for a Camel to Go through the Eye of a Needle than for Narbuts to Become Communists’: on the History of the Confrontation between V.I. Narbut and A.K. Voronsky in 1927”]. Glebova, I.I., editor. Trudy po rossievedeniiu: sbornik nauchnykh statei [Proceedings on Russian Studies: a Collection of Research Articles], is- sue 7. Moscow, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2018, pp. 280–308. (In Russ.)
Kiyanskaya, O.I., and D.M. Feldman, D.M. Slovesnost’ na doprose. Sledstvennye dela sovetskikh pisatelei i zhurnalistov 1920–1930-kh gg. [Verbal Language during Interrogation. Investigative Cases of Soviet Writers and Journalists of the 1920s–1930s]. Moscow, Neolit Publ., 2018. 384 p. (In Russ.)
Konets institutsii kul’tury dvadtsatykh godov v Leningrade: po arkhivnym materialam: sbornik statei [The End of Cultural Institutions of the 20s in Leningrad: according to Archival Materials. Collection of Articles], by M.E. Malikova. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2014. 492 p. (In Russ.)
Moskovskaya, S. “Iz arkhiva Gosizdatata v OR IMLI RAN” [“From the Archive of the State Publishing House in MD IWL RAS”]. Codex manuscriptus. Stat’i i arkhivnye publikatsii [Codex Manuscriptus. Articles and Archival Publications], issue 1. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2019, pp. 14–40. (In Russ.)
Moskovskaya, D.S. “Proletarskaia literatura kak proekt” [“Proletarian Literature as a Project”]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, no. 5, 2021, pp. 80– 93. (In Russ.)
Moskovskaya, S. “Federatsiia ob’’edinenii sovetskikh pisatelei kak model’ literaturnogo protsessa 1926–1932 gg. — organizatsionnaia, finansovaia, ideologicheskaia i esteticheskaia sostavliaiushchie (po arkhivnym pervoistochnikam iz Otdela rukopisei IMLI RAN)” [“Federation of Associations of Soviet Writers as a Model of the Literary Process of 1926– 1932 — Organizational, Financial, Ideological and Aesthetic Components (Based on Archived Primary Sources from the Department of Manuscripts IWL RAS)”]. Filologicheskie nauki. Nauchnye doklady vysshei shkoly, no. 6, 2020, pp. 135–146. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.6-20.135
Ovcharenko, A.Yu. Rovesniki: sodruzhestvo pisatelei revoliutsii “Pereval” v istoriko-literaturnom protsesse 1920–1930-kh godov [Peers: the Community of Writers of the Revolution “Pass” in the Historical and Literary Process of the 1920–1930s]. Moscow, Ekon-Inform , 2018. 322 p. (In Russ.)
Osokina, Za fasadom stalinskogo izobiliia [Behind the Façade of Stalinist Abundance]. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 1999. 271 p. (In Russ.)
Rogachevsky, “V preddverii Soiuza pisatelei SSSR: FOSP i institutsional’nye ramki ob’’edineniia sovetskikh pisatelei v 1920-e gody” [“On the Eve of the Union of Writers of the USSR: FOSP and the Insti- tutional Framework of the Association of Soviet Writers in the 1920s”]. Giuntera, Kh., and E. Dobrenko, editors. Sotsrealisticheskii kanon: sbornik statei [Socialist Realist Canon: Collection of Articles]. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 2000, pp. 267–278. (In Russ.)
Turitsyn, I.V., and A.A. Nasonov. “K voprosu o bor’be s liberal’noi ideologiei v usloviiakh nepa (1921–1926 )” [“On the Issue of the Fight against Liberal Ideology under the NEP (1921–1926)”]. Nauka i shkola, no. 5, 2011, pp. 146–149. (In Russ.)