The article focuses on the part of Linards Laicen’s (1983–1937) biography marginalised in contemporary literary research – his life in the USSR. In literary studies, the main attention is paid to the writer’s early work; his move to the USSR is seen as a break in his writer’s creative growth, highlighting his obedience to the demands of socialist realism and schematism.
The article outlines the most important aspects of Laicens’s biography, trying to construct his potential worldview and find the causal links to his arrival in the USSR. In 1932, Laicens was forced to emigrate to Moscow, where he spent the last five years of his life. Even though the Soviet government had tightened control over the artistic processes, Laicens continued to write according to his aesthetics, risking not only being censored but also politically persecuted.
In 1935, Laicen’s last novel, “Limitrofija”, was published. It was written at a time when socialist realism was recognised as the only legitimate direction of art creation in the USSR. The article analyses the circumstances of the novel’s origin, poetics, features of modernism, sources of influence, publishing difficulties, and reception.
After analysis of the documents available in the archives, correspondence, notes, publications, as well as the text of the novel itself, it is concluded that Laicens’s location in the USSR is not unambiguous/voluntary, and the novel “Limitrofija” is also part of his modernist and experimental literary contribution. This shows the continuity of Laicens’s creative search, although the USSR is dominated by political censorship and constant control and threats.
Commentary: The dynamic panel model: a promising approach to clarify sources of influence in developmental psychopathology - a commentary on Wichstrøm et al. (2017)
