The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the

Central Committee of the Communist Party Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

(1932) after disbanding a number of other writers' organizations, including

Proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolu ...

and the

Russian Association of Proletarian Writers The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, also known under its transliterated abbreviation RAPP (russian: Российская ассоциация пролетарских писателей, РАПП) was an official creative union in the ...

. The aim of the Union was to achieve party and state control in the field of literature. For professional writers, membership of the Union became effectively obligatory, and non-members had much more limited opportunities for publication. The result was that exclusion from the Union meant a virtual ban on publication. However, the history of the Union of Writers also saw cases of voluntary self-exclusion from its cadre. Thus,

Vasily Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the auth ...

Semyon Lipkin Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin (russian: Семён Израилевич Липкин) (6 September (19, New Style) 1911 – 31 March 2003) was a Russian writer, poet, and literary translator. Lipkin's importance as a poet was recognized once his w ...

, and Inna Lisnyanskaya left the Union of Writers in a show of solidarity after the exclusion of Victor Yerofeev and Yevgeny Popov in punishment for self-publishing.

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...

gave the opening address to the first Soviet Writers' Congress in August 1934, stating the "tendentious" purpose of literature as forming Marxist ideology in the minds of Soviets and illustrating the centrality of ideologically-pure literature to the Soviet and Stalinist project: After the

end of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the Union of Soviet Writers was divided into separate organizations for each of the

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. The Russian section was transformed into the

Union of Russian Writers The Union of Russian Writers (russian: Союз российских писателей, translit=Soyuz rossiyskikh pisateley) is a non-governmental organization uniting Russian and writers (novelists, poets, essayists, etc.). It was established i ...

Chairmen

The post of chairman of the Union of Writers has been held by: *

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

(1934–1936) *

Vladimir Stavsky Vladimir Petrovich Stavsky (Владимир Петрович Ставский; born Kirpichnikov, Кирпичников; 30 July 1900 – 14 November 1943) was a Soviet Russian writer, editor (in 1937–1941, of ''Novy Mir'') and literary admin ...

(1936–1938) * Alexander Fadeyev (1938–1944 and 1946–1954) *

Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov (russian: Николай Александрович Тихонов; ukr, Микола Олександрович Тихонов; – 1 June 1997) was a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. H ...

(1944–1946) *

Alexey Surkov Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov (russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Сурко́в; October 13, 1899 in Yaroslavl Province, Russian Empire – June 14, 1983 in Moscow, USSR) was a Russian poetry, Russian Soviet poet, editor, lite ...

(1954–1959) *

Konstantin Fedin Konstantin Aleksandrovich Fedin ( rus, Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Фе́дин, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈfʲedʲɪn, a=Konstantin Alyeksandrovich Fyedin.ru.vorb.oga; – 15 July 1977) was a So ...

(1959–1977) * Georgi Markov (1977–1986) *

Vladimir Karpov Vladimir Vasilyevich Karpov (russian: Владимир Васильевич Карпов; 28 July 1922 – 18 January 2010) was a Soviet soldier, writer of historical novels and public figure. He was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union for bra ...

(1986–1991)

Publication

From January 1946 to December 1990 the Union published a journal titled ''Soviet Literature Monthly''. The title was later shortened to ''Soviet Literature''. The journal published translations of Soviet literature. It was issued in English, French, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak editions.

References

External links

Spartacus Educational

{{Authority control Civic and political organizations based in the Soviet Union Soviet literature Socrealist literature

Arts organizations established in 1932 Organizations disestablished in 1992 1932 establishments in the Soviet Union 1992 disestablishments in Russia Trade unions in the Soviet Union

Chairmen

Publication

See also

References

External links