scholarly journals Soviet Publishers and Readers of French Literature, Late 1920s – 1930s

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 738-754
Author(s):  
S. I. Panov ◽  
◽  
O. Yu. Panova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
French Literature ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Love Stories ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Publishing Policy ◽  
New Guidelines

Soviet images of French literature are often reduced to the Stalinist canon of the late 1930s that comprised classical literature, including “modern classics,” like Romaine Rolland or Anatole France; and Communist and leftist writers selected as ideologically and aesthetically suitable for the Soviet reading audience, such as Henri Barbusse, Paul Vaillant Couturier, and others. This stereotype being partially true suggests, however, a simplistic and flattened view of the Soviet reception of French literature. It should be noted that even in the late 1930s there existed a certain amount of diversity in the choice of French authors; for example, International Literature magazine from time to time published ideological opponents like Pierre Drieu la Rochelle or Henry de Montherlant. As for the 1920s, in the course of the New Economic Policy both state and private publishing companies offered a wide and varied range of writers and books that included classics, “proletarian” and “revolutionary” authors along with adventure fiction, love stories, and “colonial novels,” easy reading, “decadent,” conservative, and “reactionary” writers. The paper traces transformations of publishing policy during the pivotal years of late 1920s and early 1930s, the period of the “Great Turn” in Soviet society, marked by processes of centralization, total state control, and tightening of censorship. Archival documents allow us to analyze the role of Soviet intellectuals (literary critics, reviewers, editors, publishers) in the elaborating of new guidelines and implementing new practices in publishing policy and organizing readers feedback. A collection of readers’ letters of the mid-thirties, stored in the archival funds of GIKHL (State Publishing House of Fiction), documents the process of the making of the Soviet reader and shows a range of readers’ opinions and attitudes to French writers and their works at the early stage of Stalinist canon forming.

scholarly journals The Petrograd Philosophical Society and the “Academia” Publishing House: Materials from A.A. Krolenko’s Archival Fond in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Russia

2020 ◽  
pp. 293-305
Author(s):  
Elena F. Sinelnikova ◽  
◽  
Vladimir S. Sobolev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Initial Period ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Records Management ◽  
National Library ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Russian Scientific ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Work Done

Drawing on documentary sources from the personal provenance archival fond of the famous publisher and bibliologist A.A. Krolenko (Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia) the article clarifies the role of the Petrograd Philosophical Society in the creation and initial activities of the famous publishing house “Academia.” It thus enables to redefine some processes of the Russian scientific and cultural life in the first years of Soviet power. The article draws on the documentary complex of the personal fond of A.A. Kolenko in order to show some important forms, methods, and trends of the publishing activities of the Petrograd Philosophical Society in the early 1920s. Interesting information on the topic is being introduced into the scientific circulation for the first time: concerning the creation of the publishing house, organizing of the bookstore, preparing translations of Plato's works, founding the “Mysl” magazine, etc. The chronological scope of the article is limited to the period of 1921–1923, since it was during these years that the publishing house “Academia” operated within the frameworks of the Petrograd Philosophical Society and under its auspices. The article draws on diverse in their composition and content documents from the A.A. Kolenko’s fond: records management documents, reports, diary entries, photos, memories, letters, etc. Taken together, these archival sources testify to the most serious work done by the Petrograd Philosophical Society to organize the publishing house and ensure its work under the difficult conditions of the initial period of the New Economic Policy. The identified archival documents form a single complex on the history of the remarkable publishing house “Academia,” at the origins of which stood the Petrograd Philosophical Society.

New Materials for Studying Preparation and Staging of the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957

2018 ◽  
pp. 550-563
Author(s):  
Daniel Sawert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Unique Event ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Local Traditions

The article assesses archival materials on the festival movement in the Soviet Union in 1950s, including its peak, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in 1957 in Moscow. Even now the Moscow festival is seen in the context of international cultural politics of the Cold War and as a unique event for the Soviet Union. The article is to put the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in the context of other youth festivals held in the Soviet Union. The festivals of 1950s provided a field for political, social, and cultural experiments. They also have been the crucible of a new way of communication and a new language of design. Furthermore, festivals reflected the new (althogh relative) liberalism in the Soviet Union. This liberalism, first of all, was expressed in the fact that festivals were organized by the Komsomol and other Soviet public and cultural organisations. Taking the role of these organisations into consideration, the research draws on the documents of the Ministry of culture, the All-Russian Stage Society, as well as personal documents of the artists. Furthermore, the author has gained access to new archive materials, which have until now been part of no research, such as documents of the N. Krupskaya Central Culture and Art Center and of the central committees of various artistic trade unions. These documents confirm the hypothesis that the festivals provided the Komsomol and the Communist party with a means to solve various social, educational, and cultural problems. For instance, in Central Asia with its partiarchal society, the festivals focuced on female emancipation. In rural Central Asia, as well as in other non-russian parts of the Soviet Union, there co-existed different ways of celebrating. Local traditions intermingled with cultural standards prescribed by Moscow. At the first glance, the modernisation of the Soviet society was succesful. The youth acquired political and cultural level that allowed the Soviet state to compete with the West during the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students. During the festival, however, it became apparent, that the Soviet cultural scheme no longer met the dictates of times. Archival documents show that after the Festival cultural and party officials agreed to ease off dogmatism and to tolerate some of the foreign cultural phenomena.

scholarly journals The illustrative concept of the production of “City” by V.Pidmohylnuy

2018 ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
N. Ivanova ◽  
А. Mykhailova
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Publishing Policy ◽  
Visual Text ◽  
Publishing Strategy ◽  
The City

The research is devoted to the analysis of the editorial and publishing policy of “Solomiia Pavlychko’s Publishing House “Osnovy”. One of the important tools of “Osnovy” publishing strategy at the present stage is the modernization of its product, which consists of the original visualization of the artistic text. In accordance with the new publishing policy, “Osnovy” launches the “Alternative Series of Ukrainian Classics” with the illustrations of young Ukrainian artists.The scientific novelty of our research is the conceptual comprehension of the publishing project “Alternative Series of Ukrainian Classics”. The visual version of the novel “The City” by V. Pidmohylnyi is of special attention. In the study, we suggest that the name “Alternative Series ...” is a successful marketing technique, as for many readers, classics is related to the official ones, sometimes boring and formalized “school” ideas about literature. So, it was planned that the concept “alternative” would become a modern slogan for the project and expand the audience of potential readers. Thus, the works of Ukrainian classics received an entirely new illustration for a modern Ukrainian.The analysis of the illustrative presentation of novel “The City” by V. Pidmohylnyi, published in “Osnovy” in 2017, affords the ground for the suggestion that the work became a truly alternative in the sense of avant-garde design. The article emphasises the idea that “The City” (2017), which is being investigated by us, is especially distinguished among other reprints of classical Ukrainian literature by the collision and dialogue of the verbal urban text of V. Pidmohylnyi (1927) with the avant-garde, postmodern, comic visual text of modern city by M. Pavliuk (2017). New meanings of the verbal text are born on the collision of two urban discourses. Thus, through the illustrative material, the modern city, described in the novel by V. Pidmohylnyi 90 years ago, becomes relevant and modern for the citizens of 2017. So, we are dealing with the postmodern illustrative design of the classical edition, which through the latest forms of visualization, creates new visions and contexts.The offered study states that “Osnovy” is not only a publishing house, creating a quality publishing product concerning the latest news, but also uses modern marketing strategies to implement its products.

scholarly journals THE SOVIET MODEL OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE OF THE FATE OF THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
V.V. Sukhonos
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Groups ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Soviet Model

The article is devoted to the constitutional and legal issues of local government organizations. The main attention is paid to the Soviet model of local government, which, in the period of the industrialization of the country, focused on the further strengthening of the Soviet state apparatus, the deployment of the so-called “Soviet democracy” and the fight against bureaucratic defects. However, such a situation as a whole was not typical of the Soviet system. That is why the Bolsheviks attempts to attract the poor sections of the rural population. However, success in this direction was caused not so much by the strengthening of the Soviet economy as a whole, but by the opportunity for the rural poor to plunder wealthy peasants, which had developed because of the dictatorship of the proletariat existing in the USSR. Subsequently, the Bolshevik Party raised the issue of organizing special groups of poverty or factions for an open political struggle to attract the middle peoples to the proletariat and to isolate wealthy peasants (the so-called “kulaks”) during the elections to the Soviets, cooperatives, etc. With the onset of socialist reconstruction, there was a need to organize poverty, because it was an important element and the establishment of “Soviet democracy in the countryside.” The Stalin Constitution of 1936 transformed the Soviets. From 1918, they were called the Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army Deputies, and now, with the entry into force of the Stalin Constitution, the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. This transformation of the Soviets reflected the victory of the socialist system throughout the national economy, radical changes in the class composition of Soviet society, and a new triumph of “socialist democracy”. In addition, the “victory of socialism” in the USSR made possible the transition to universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot. On December 24 and 29, 1939, citizens of the Soviet Union elected their representatives to the local Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. 99.21 % of the total number of voters took part in the vote. The election results are another testament to the growing influence of the Bolshevik Party on the population of the Soviet Union, which has largely replaced the activities of the Soviets themselves, including the local ones. Holding elections to the regional, regional, district, district, city, village and settlement councils of workers’ deputies completed the restructuring of all state bodies in accordance with the Stalin Constitution and on its basis. With the adoption in 1977 of the last Constitution of the USSR, the councils of workers’ deputies were renamed the councils of people’s deputies. In 1985, the last non-alternative elections were held for 52,041 local councils, and in 1988, their structure became more complicated: there were presidencies organizing the work of regional, regional, autonomous regions, autonomous districts, district, city and rayon in the cities of Soviets. People’s Deputies. Within the framework of the city (city subordination), village, and town councils, this work is carried out directly by the heads of the designated Councils. On December 26, 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR introduced regular amendments to the Constitution of the USSR, which formally abolished the Presidencies, but did not prohibit their existence. On September 5, 1991, the Constitution of 1977 was effectively abolished. Finally, it happened after December 26, 1991, when the USSR actually ceased to exist. Thus, existing in the USSR during the period of socialist reconstruction and subsequent transformations that began with the processes of industrialization and ended as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the model of local government organization remained ineffective due to its actual replacement by the activities of the governing bodies of the ruling Communist Party. Keywords: Local Government; the system of Councils; local Councils; Council of Deputies of the working people; Council of People’s Deputies; Soviet local government.

scholarly journals Vasyl Domanytskyi’s Participation in Work of “Vik” Publishing House

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-32
Author(s):  
Bohdan Tsymbal
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Terminus Post Quem ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Printed Sources

The paper explores the initial activity of Kyiv publishing house “Vik” and Vasyl Domanytsky’s participation in its work. The history of the publishing house has not been properly studied yet. The vast majority of sources used by the scholars contain many inconsistencies, and the existing research works don’t pay attention to the causes of the differences, but rather exacerbate the problem due to uncritical attitude to the sources. The author, therefore, focuses on three issues: 1) the time when the publishing house was founded; 2) its employees; 3) Domanytskyi’s participation in its work. Researchers date the origins of the publishing house differently, within a wide period of 1894–1897. Most of them rely on a limited range of printed sources that may contain some mistakes. Based on the crossed analysis of the ‘main’ (popular) sources with the involvement of those less popular among specialists, the author identified the causes of differences in the works of the scholars and made an attempt to explain the causes of such inaccuracies. The new archival materials not only confirmed the results of studying the printed sources but also helped to establish the earliest documented date directly related to the work of the publishing house. This date may be reasonably taken as a starting point of its history. Studying the archival documents of the censorship department allows making some assumptions about the staff of the publishing house, which although remains insufficiently studied. The list of personalities is still limited to the five most famous members of the publishing circle. The findings also help to clarify the terminus post quem of Vasyl Domanytskyi’s involvement in the work of the publishing house. The results obtained are important not only for the further study of the history of Ukrainian book printing but also for highlighting the relationship of publishers with the censorship in the Russian Empire and the work of the Kyiv “Moloda Hromada” circle. The paper explores the initial activity of Kyiv publishing house “Vik” and Vasyl Domanytsky’s participation in its work. The history of the publishing house has not been properly studied yet. The vast majority of sources used by the scholars contain many inconsistencies, and the existing research works don’t pay attention to the causes of the differences, but rather exacerbate the problem due to uncritical attitude to the sources. The author, therefore, focuses on three issues: 1) the time when the publishing house was founded; 2) its employees; 3) Domanytskyi’s participation in its work. Researchers date the origins of the publishing house differently, within a wide period of 1894–1897. Most of them rely on a limited range of printed sources that may contain some mistakes. Based on the crossed analysis of the ‘main’ (popular) sources with the involvement of those less popular among specialists, the author identified the causes of differences in the works of the scholars and made an attempt to explain the causes of such inaccuracies. The new archival materials not only confirmed the results of studying the printed sources but also helped to establish the earliest documented date directly related to the work of the publishing house. This date may be reasonably taken as a starting point of its history. Studying the archival documents of the censorship department allows making some assumptions about the staff of the publishing house, which although remains insufficiently studied. The list of personalities is still limited to the five most famous members of the publishing circle. The findings also help to clarify the terminus post quem of Vasyl Domanytskyi’s involvement in the work of the publishing house. The results obtained are important not only for the further study of the history of Ukrainian book printing but also for highlighting the relationship of publishers with the censorship in the Russian Empire and the work of the Kyiv “Moloda Hromada” circle.

Classics in the Van of the Irish Revolt

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Eoghan Moloney
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
Literary Output

This chapter provides an assessment of the classically inflected literary output of Thomas MacDonagh, demonstrating how it generates a tension with the contemporary nativist movement with which MacDonagh also sympathized. The romanticization of the rebel leaders of the 1916 Rising as poets and intellectuals is discussed in the context of their engagement with classical models, and it is suggested that the nationalist narrative of opposition to classical literature in favour of Celtic heritage has obscured the more nuanced reality of figures like MacDonagh who were open to a wider range of cultural influences. The poetry of Catullus, translated by MacDonagh in both published and archival documents, illustrates how classical models enabled him to find a consonance between past and present.

scholarly journals Communist Party of Bolsheviks as a Soviet Social Elevator in the Context of the New Economic Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 902-932
Author(s):  
T. I. Morozova ◽  
◽  
V. I. Shishkin ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Internal Mobility ◽  
New Generation

The authors analyze and interpret the processes that occurred during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period in the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) (RCP(b)) — All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) (AUCP(b)) as a “social elevator” from the standpoint of the theory of social mobility. The article takes into account the achievements of national historiography and is based on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. The authors reveal conditions that the party leadership imposed on those who wanted to “enter” the elevator; the number and social composition of replacements; the mechanisms, instruments, and procedures used to carry out movements between floors, as well as the volume of these movements; the transformation of the party as a social elevator; and its impact on mobility in Soviet society. The authors conclude that, thanks to the mass recruitment of workers, the height of the party pyramid quickly increased, and its structure and profile became more complex, which increased the potential for internal mobility. The forced promotion of young Communists into leading party bodies and the expansion of the number of party committees artificially caused upward intra-party mobility and the formation of a new generation of middle-level elites. The use of the nomenklatura system for appointing to the upper floors of the party hierarchy completed the process of rebuilding the RCP(b) — AUCP(b) as a social elevator controlled by Stalin’s Central Committee. As a result, by the end of NEP, the party’s influence social stratification in Soviet society became decisive.

scholarly journals “Unicul Lucru Capabil Să Surprindă Un Crâmpei De VeȘnicie, Este Arta” Forestiera Feltrinelli, De Joachim Wittstock, Traducere De Maria Sass

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 291-298
Author(s):  
Ana-Blanca Ciocoi-Pop
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
German Literature ◽  
Love Stories ◽  
European Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Dimensions

Abstract Joachim Wittstock’s novella Forestiera Feltrinelli, translated into Romanian by Maria Sass, appeared under the aegis of the Honterus publishing house in Sibiu, in 2019. Combining present-day economic realities, with a parallelism of temporal planes, and the antonimy between the mythical past and the disillusioning present, Wittstock manages to interweave in his most recent volume social and historical analyses, love stories and subtle eroticism, existentialist concerns and political dimensions. The volume can be regarded as an important contribution to a better relationing of the Romanian readership with German literature in Romania, and to a better understanding of the complex thematic and narrative mechanisms in Joachim Wittstock’s works. A fascinating page of the history of Sibiu, of the Romanian Saxons, and of the author’s biography, the volume is a succesful and innovative attempt in the landscape of contemporary Romanian and European literature, and its Romanian translation a welcome and necessary initiative in view of a multicultural understanding of the literatures of ethnic minorities in Romania.

scholarly journals THE CRIMINAL SITUATION IN UKRAINE DURING THE NEP

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Mykola Bondarchuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Destructive Processes ◽  
Historical Methods

The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the measures taken by the relevant Soviet authorities in the USSR during the period of the new economic policy (NEP) in order to eliminate the manifestations of organized crime. Objectives of the study: to determine the main causes of banditry and its manifestations in Soviet Ukraine in the NEP; to explore the ways and methods of struggle of the Soviet power against it. The methodological basis of the study are general scientific (logical, comparative), and special historical methods (problem-chronological). They allowed to determine this period, in which the problem of organized crime is studied specifically, in chronological and logical order. Comparative analysis was used to study individual phenomena of this process. The study is also based on the principles of scientificity, historicism and objectivity. The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the manifestations of organized crime in Soviet Ukraine in 1921-1928 and ways to combat them was carried out. New archival documents on this issue and materials of periodicals of those years were put into scientific circulation. An attempt has been made to give an objective, unbiased assessment of these phenomena and the actions of the Soviet authorities in those years. Conclusions. The new economic policy of the Soviet state during the 1920's was implemented against the background of increasing manifestations of various social anomalies. The struggle against them took place in a difficult socio-economic situation in which the society found itself after the First World War. According to the analysis of the archival sources, the Soviet authorities attached great importance to these measures, and first of all to their termination. These problems were caused by various factors, but primarily by the destructive processes in society itself and the struggle of the Bolsheviks for the establishment of their power. This also applies to the events of the recent Civil War in the former Russian Empire and the state liberation struggle in Ukraine in 1917-1921. One of the main reasons for the growth of organized crime was a difficult economic situation caused by the effects of military communism. In the period under study, namely in the first half of the 1920's, the process of formation of the law enforcement system of the Soviet power took place. The main burden of responsibility for the state of the criminogenic situation in the country rested with the local police.

scholarly journals Attitude to the New Economic Policy in the RCP (B) Party Organizations of the Vyatka Gubernia in 1921-1923: Archival Materials

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
Yuri N. Timkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

Drawing on archival materials from the State Archive of the Kirov Region and the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region, the article analyzes attitudes to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the party organizations of the RCP (B) of the Vyatka guberina in 1921. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that the author draws on archival documents to investigate the attitude of communists to the decision of the X Congress of the RCP (B) to replace surplus tax by tax in kind (prodnalog) and other measures for the development of the NEP in 1921. It turns out that party workers in position of responsibility and ordinary members of the party, as a rule, understood and perceived the NEP in their own way, reading into it the interests and needs of different social and professional groups. Moreover, there emerged some ideological differences due to different understanding of the political goals of the New Economic Policy. For the first time in local historiography, the author has introduced into scientific use some previously unknown archival facts. The analysis of the archival material allows the author to conclude that the attitude to the NEP of party workers in position of responsibility and of rank-and-file members differed. If the “top” of the party discussed the ideological aspects of the NEP, the “bottom” members, as a rule, were interested in its practical orientation. There was no unanimous support for the NEP not just among the responsible party workers, but also among the rank-and-file members. The author comes to the conclusion that the lack of clear understanding of the nature of the New Economic Policy caused disagreements in the party ranks, which, in absence of the tradition of broad discussion of controversial issues, was fraught with danger of a split. The Military Communism ideology and low literacy (including political one) that prevailed in the party ranks did not promote good understanding of the new party course and its creative application under specific regional conditions. Critics and open opponents of the NEP faced “organizational conclusions.”

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