Title of the article:

PROLETARIAN vs SOVIET LITERATURE, (HOW THE PARTY DIRECTED LITERATURE)

Author(s):

Bystrova, O.V.

Information about the author/authors

Olga V. Bystrova, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, 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/0000‑0003‑1542‑2516
E-mail: bystrova63@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2024

Volume

Vol. 73

Pages

pp. 182–195

Received

February 08, 2024

Approved after reviewing

February 16, 2024

Date of publication

September 25, 2024

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2024-73-182-195

Index UDK

821.161.1

Index BBK

83.3

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Russian National Science Foundation Grant No. 20‑18‑00394 “Politics and Literature. Digital archive of literary organizations of the 1920s and 1930s.’ Available at: https://rscf.ru/project/20‑18‑00394/.

Abstract

The paper analyzes the process of formation and introduction into practice of party control over the literary process. The correlation/opposition of the terms “proletarian literature” and “Soviet literature” in the first decade of Soviet power is considered through the prism of increasing party influence on society. The first manifestation of party control is the decree “On Proletkult” (1920), after which the organization entered the structure of the People’s Commissariat of Education. Adopted in 1925, the resolution “On the party’s policy in the field of fiction” clearly pointed to the only possible way of development: literature can and should develop within the framework of Soviet ideology. The resolution of 1932 “On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations” demonstrated to the literary community that RAPP did not have the capabilities of a “state administrative organization”. Only a party that can and should use literature as an ideological tool has such opportunities. The restructuring of literary organizations has changed the status of fiction, which overnight became “Soviet”. The first All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934 finally consolidated the concept of “Soviet” for the country’s fiction, which made it the bearer of party ideology. The prerequisites for such strict guardianship of the state are connected with the peculiarities of the historical development of the Bolshevik Party, the nature of which was the suppression of dissent. An analysis of the development of relations between the party leadership and literary organizations in the USSR during the period under study indicates that the actions of the party in its desire to control are associated with the desire to turn literature into an ideal propaganda tool.

Keywords

Proletarian Literature, Soviet Literature, Resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), Proletkult, VAPP, RAPP, Organizing Committee of Soviet Writers, I All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers

Reference

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