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Appendix 1: Editorial Structures and Policy-Making of the Soviet 'Thick

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Appendix 1: Editorial Structures and Policy-Making of the Soviet 'Thick Appendix 1: Editorial Structures and Policy-Making of the Soviet ‘Thick’ Journal Inside the ‘thick’ journal Approximately 30 people were directly involved with the journal in the monthly production of Nash sovremennik (1981–91). These were divided among two bodies with overlapping membership, the editorial board (redaktsionnaya kollegiya, or redkollegiya) and the editorial office (redaktsiya). The editorial office The editorial office, which carried out the day-to-day work of preparing each issue of Nash sovremennik, consisted of the editor in chief, the deputy chief editors, the responsible secretary, the heads of department (usually four in number – of prose, poetry, criticism and publitsistika) and the regular staff mem- bers (literaturnye sotrudniki), one or two in each department. In addition, there was a staff member to deal with readers’ letters, a technical editor, one or two proofreaders, a typist and a secretary. When the workload of the journal became especially onerous, ‘ad hoc readers’ from outside the journal could be called upon to help with the work of the editorial office. The chief editor Executive power within the journal was concentrated in the hands of the chief editor. The chief editorship was a nomenklatura post to which appointment was made by the Central Committee. If the chief editor came from outside Moscow, he would be granted a propiska (Moscow living permit) and an apartment. The RSFSR Writers’ Union played an advisory and consultative role in making this appoint- ment. The chief editor was held responsible by higher instances for the content of each issue of the journal: final decisions on publication policy were always for- mally his. The chief editor was endowed with wide-ranging powers, including those of appointment, and relations at the journal were authoritarian. Adherence to the established hierarchy of relationships was strict. Each level of authority and responsibility – deputy chief editors, responsible secretary, heads of department and regular staff members – was well defined. The personal views and style of work of the chief editor had a great impact on the journal. The chief editor was able to take decisions without consulting his colleagues, or against their better judge- ment. The chief editor’s voice was one to be reckoned with in the discussions with the Central Committee departments and the censorship if disagreements arose. Deputy chief editors In the running of the journal, the deputy chief editors were the chief editor’s main aides. Together with the chief editor they took the most important decisions on 148 Appendix 1 149 publication policy, in so far as these were made at the journal itself. Together with the chief editor, they were also the journal’s most important representatives in dealing with outside institutions – the Writers’ Union, the censorship, the Central Committee departments, ministries and other bodies. The post of deputy chief editor was demanding and time-consuming, requiring a combination of literary and editing talent and organizational ability. The restrictions placed on the deputy chief editor by the hierarchical nature of the journal’s organization, and a chief editor’s reluctance to delegate, limited the scope for creativity. Two deputy chief editors were responsible for co-ordinating the work of the editorial office in line with the instructions of the chief editor. Of the two, one would be nominated first deputy chief editor. Each deputy chief editor oversaw two of the departments in the journal. The first deputy chief editor would nor- mally oversee the departments of prose and criticism, and the second deputy chief editor the departments of publitsistika and poetry. Deputy chief editors took responsibility for overseeing the production of alternate numbers of the journal. Formally, these appointments were made by the chief editor in association with the RSFSR Writers’ Union, and required confirmation by the Cultural Department of the Central Committee. Since these were not nomenklatura positions, the Central Committee would not arrange a Moscow living permit or an apartment for a deputy chief editor. The deputy chief editors (and other members of the editorial staff) therefore had to be drawn from the capital city. Appointments to the two posts of deputy chief editor were a key means by which political influence could be brought to bear on Nash sovremennik, and the ideological and institutional ties of the journal variously established, strength- ened, weakened or broken altogether. Each deputy chief editor brought to the journal their own views and connections within the intellectual community, and these appointments thereby allowed policy-makers to encourage, restrain and generally manipulate ideological groupings within the intellectual community. It was customary for the ‘team’ of deputy chief editors to reflect a balance of inter- ests, and therefore they tended to be appointed and removed in pairs. Periods when an established team worked together would be followed by a ‘transitional’ period until a new team of deputy chief editors was formed. As a result, these appointments were sensitive indicators of political influences on the journal and illustrative of the wider world of Soviet politics. The appointments also provided a mechanism for the chief editor to escape responsibility for controversial publi- cations. Deputy chief editors could be used as scapegoats and sacked when polit- ical problems arose. In this way a chief editor could survive successive teams of deputy chief editors. The responsible secretary Appointment to the post of responsible editor (secretary) was made by a process similar to that for deputy chief editor. The duty of the responsible editor was to act as a ‘chief of staff’, co-ordinating the work of all departments in accordance with instructions from the chief and deputy chief editors. The responsible secre- tary ensured that all procedures in the production of each issue were carried out on time. The responsible secretary was the official who conducted the initial and regular contacts with the censorship in the course of the production of each issue. The post’s functions included dealing with the printers (in the case of 150 Appendix 1 Nash sovremennik, Krasnaya zvezda, a Ministry of Defence printing press) and preparing the meetings of the editorial board. The departments The four ‘heads of department’ at the journal could be appointed by the chief edi- tor without prior consultation with any other bodies. They were frequently made on the advice of the deputy chief editors. The prose department was the most important and therefore had the largest staff of two or three regular staff members under the head of department. The departments of criticism, publitsistika and poetry usually had only one additional staff member. The head of the poetry department, given the interest the chief editors took in the poetry published (both Vikulov and Kunyaev were poets), was at once on closer terms with the chief editor and more directly subordinated to his wishes than were his colleagues. The party organization By tradition, the party secretary was usually the head of one of the more minor departments less burdened with work, frequently the head of the poetry depart- ment. The small Communist Party organization at the journal was a rather anom- alous institution in which one of the members – the editor in chief – was a nomenklatura appointee of the Central Committee. As well as the chief editor, deputy chief editors had normally to be party members (in 1987 Aleksandr Kazintsev became the first non-party deputy chief editor). For the responsible sec- retary and the heads of department, party membership was the norm but excep- tions were frequent. It was not usual for regular staff members (or the technical staff) to be party members. As a rule, the party organization would play a signifi- cant role in the life of the journal only on the rare occasions when there arose a serious conflict between the chief editor and higher party bodies. Even then, the etiquette of party behaviour was such that the chief editor was spared humilia- tion by his subordinates. The journal’s party secretary would visit the party dis- trict committee (raikom) at least once a month to report to an official in that committee’s department of propaganda responsible for overseeing the work of the journal, one of the numerous official ‘overseers’ (kuratory) of the journal at different levels of the party. The trade union organization As in every Soviet workplace there was a trade union organization concerned with employees’ affairs, including vacations and various social matters. One member of staff would be the trade union representative. The editorial board The editorial board (redkollegiya) consisted of the editor in chief, the deputy chief editors, the responsible secretary, usually the heads of departments and a selected number (between ten and fifteen) of well-known writers. Non-staff members of the editorial board were usually party members, but this was not obligatory. Members of the editorial board were listed on the title page of the journal each month. Appendix 1 151 Non-executive members of the editorial board were appointed by the chief editor in consultation with the RSFSR Writers’ Union, and confirmed by the Department of Culture (on occasion by the Department of Propaganda). The redkollegiya played a consultative role in determining overall publication policy. Plenary sessions of this body were held usually twice a year to discuss both the past work of the journal and plans for the future. Individual members of the editorial board varied greatly in the personal interest they took in the journal. Some, commonly referred to as the ‘active group of authors’ (avtorskii aktiv), regularly contributed their own work. Some actively sought out new work by other authors which they forwarded to the chief editor (for example, Viktor Astaf’ev). Others were ‘sleeping’ members, who took only the barest, formal part in the life of the journal.
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