Arbeiten und Texte zu Slawistik ∙ Band 46 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) Wolfgang Kasack Russian Literature 1945-1988 Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbHWolfgang. Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access 00047014 ARBEITEN UND TEXTE ZUR SLAVISTIK • 46 HERAUSGEGEBEN VON WOLFGANG KASACK Wolfgang Kasack RUSSIAN LITERATURE 1945-1988 1989 München • Verlag Otto Sagner in Kommission Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access í+Ъ/І ( ĻĻ׳/ .fb *־ “ This exposition of Russian literature from 1945 to 1987 is a revised and considerably enlarged third issue of my books "Die russische Literatur 1945-1976й (München 1980). "Die russische Literatur 1945-1982" (München 1983). My thanks to Miss Carol Sandison for the suggestion of an English version and for the task of translation. My thanks also to my colleagues at the Slavic Institute of Cologne University - Miss Monika Glaser, Mrs. Barbara Göbler, Dr. Frank Göbler, Miss Annette Julius. Mrs. Angelika Lauhus M.A.. Dr. Irmgard Lorenz, Miss Daniela Scarpati. Mrs. Marianne Wiebe M.A. - for bibliographical, editorial and technical assistance in the preparation of the text. Köln and Much, Decem ber 1988 W.K. Further information can be found in: Wolfgang Kasack, Dictionary of Russian Literature Since 1917. New York: Columbia University Press 1988; Vol fgang Kazak, Éntsiklope- dicheskii slovar* russkoi literatury s 1917 goda. London: Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd 1988. CIP-Titelaufnahme der !Deutschen Bibliothek Kasack, Wolfgang: : München ־ .Wolfgang Kasack / ־ Russian literature 1945 1988 Sagner, 1989 (Arbeiten und Teite zur SUvistik : 46) ד690־3ד ISBN 3-« 4 -2 NŁ Russian literature nineteen hundred and fortjrTive to nineteen hundred and eighty-eight: GT Bayerisch« 8tutsblbllotbM Ш ncnen Translated by Carol Sandison Alle RechteVorbehalten ISSN 0173-2307 ISBN 3-87690-374-2 Gesamtherstellung Walter Kleikamp * Köln Printed in Germany Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access 00047014 Contents Fo rew o rd .............................................................................................7 1945-1953 Renewal of Party control ......................................................................9 Post-war reconstruction ......................................................................13 War, revolution and the p a st ............................................................... 17 Human relationships............................................................................22 1953-1964 The dawning of freedom and conservative repression ..................... 25 The truth about the past ......................................................................29 The present in literature ......................................................................37 General human problems .................................... ........................... 44 1964-1985 The division of literature ......................................................................49 The Soviet p a st.................................................................................... 64 Russian history.................................................................................... 77 Problems of the present ......................................................................81 Satire ...................................................................................................91 Non-realist literature............................................................................96 Science fiction .................................................................................. 103 General human problems ................................................................. 106 1985-1988 Transformation of the politics of literature........................................129 No t e s .................................................................................................142 Further reading ................................................................................ 145 Index of n a m e s .................................................................................. 148 Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access r - л * ■ ־ 4 ' . * ! № 3 * 1 . ■г 1 Т у , а־ •Í í ^ г ' 1 'י і А ■III Ё Ж , Ш 1 ‘ ״יîftW 4 ר _ I ♦ יי י ״'»י׳ ?׳J•1 т ш Е Ж *1 и* ,З * Г *Ѵ “ * "sf: ׳׳ י״ .׳ ״ י !'. w,.׳ י ■*■.1ļfv;i1,, w■ .>-f *.ל í־ г 4-. b״ ו - т Д й л , r, ־-* i 11 >ן 4 _ ו #■. _ Ul V * י'י«_י ’_ ^ • ,יi " ׳י *V!!, ׳ a ■ ו י . »כ W li , \ H.y F< !1- ו Т ' л 4 . i ■ I « h и י ־ ן » = ׳ i r - . יו’ י&! V״n i i 3 ״ "i 1 ' * ł . ־ ו Ú A 9 Н І в * I - ״ J A 1 и1 - - ת­ ״С■ ■.f 11 י L u ip i.w I ״ ­ ׳■;.■ רי f d } 5 '״״*־ ■ W i •• v . n i ור .не ז r■ i " ־ DP ו I ä ^ L к ״ b ' 1 . 1 L I n v HJ * 4 ־ייי -! i ^ , JL.Í "י ^ ז f l ו ļ^.'.fli *Ifi -іѴгИ Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access 00047014 Foreword The end of the Second World War marks a watershed in twentieth- century Russian literature. The phases of this literature are also con- ditioned by political factors: in 1917 by the Bolshevik seizure of power; in 1932 by the creation, on Party orders, of a single Writers’ Union (one of many measures to establish centralization of power); in 1953 by Stalin’s death - or in 1956 by his exposure at the 20th Party Congress (which initiated de-Stalinization); in 1964 by the fall of Khrushchev leading through the years of Brezhnev’s supremacy to 1984 and to Gorbachev’s rise to power in 1985. The development of Russian literature from 1945 to 1988 will in what follows be considered in four phases, with breaks in 1953, 1964, and 1985, and with each general conspectus followed by an exposition of particular topics. The subjection of post-1917 Russian literature to politics is a consequence of the claim of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unbn to guide literature. The implementation of this claim was subject to considerable fluctuations, going so far as to degrade the art of verbal expression into a mere instrument of propaganda, while at other times personal artistic expression was tolerated to the point of social criticism. The central concept of this literature, in duty bound to endorse its own social system, is that of "Socialist Realism"*, formulated in 1932. Together with the principle of "Party spirit"* (partiinost’ - subordination to the directives of the Communist Party), this unites the requirement for an idealized evocation of the future, simple comprehensibility for large numbers of people and a basic integration in Marxist materialist philosophy. The impossibility of a uniform intellectual and spiritual alignment in all the people sharing a language or a social system is evident, on the one hand, from the many works which were published in the Soviet Union without completely corresponding with the principles of Socialist Realism, and on the other by the (especially since 1959) increasing phenomenon of the circulation of literary works outside the censor-controlled Soviet publishing system - some in duplicated copies (samizdat *), some in Western editions (tamizdat *). The division in Russian literature began with the Bolshevik takeover in 1917, when a large number of important 7 Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access 00047014 writers emigrated. It resumed in 1941-1945, when a procession of writers left the country under cover of the German troops, and it became universally evident for the third time when, year by year from 1972, leading Soviet authors chose the road to freedom. Since 1917 even the Soviet interpretation of what forms part of "Soviet literature" has vacillated, individual works and authors having constantly been acknowledged, rejected, condemned or rehabilitated according to the political climate. Only what, at a given time, is politically recognized belongs to "Soviet literature", thus allowing the concept to encompass literature in all the many languages spoken in the USSR. The concept “Russian literature", however, is determined by language and has one unalterable meaning; it transcends political divisions, and includes works of the non-Russian nations in the Soviet Union only when they are by bilingual authors. 8 Wolfgang Kasack - 9783954794379 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 04:19:17AM via free access 00047014 1945-1953 Renewal of Party control This period begins with the end of the Second World War and ends with the death of Stalin; it is marked by intensified Party control over spiritual and intellectual life as a whole, and by the consolidation of the second emigration. In order to ensure success in the struggle against Nazi Germany, the Soviet leadership had been forced into two basic tactical concessions. Externally, it had had to form an alliance with its ideological opponents, the “capitalists“; internally, it had been compelled to allow some scope to non-Communist forces