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Readers and Writers in the USSR

Readers and Writers in the USSR ANTHONY OLCOTT (Hamilton, NY, U.S.A.) READERS AND WRITERS IN THE USSR It was literature which first brought glasnost' to the Soviet public, and to the attention of the world, and it is the literary world which has particu- larly carried forward the glasnost' revolution. Unfortunately, however, the changes of the Gorbachev regime, which literature began and fostered, have meant increasingly that writers no longer write and readers no longer read. This may be seen particularly well in the evolution of literary glasnost', which might provisionally be periodicized by years. In 1986 glasnost' first appeared in literature on contemporary themes, written by authors who were highly successful Soviet literary figures, who were already identified in the Brezhnev era with such protest as then was possible. Astafev and Rasputin, who both had decried ecological despoliation and rural disintegration as early as the 1970s, each published novels, Pechal'nyi detektiv (The Sad Detective) and Pozhar (The Fire), respectively, which took those concerns to new levels of frankness, both thematically and linguistically, while Aitmatov, who had been complaining of Soviet aspirituality since the mid-1970s, executed a similar escalation of topic with Plakha. Behind these prominent figures were scores of lesser lights, most of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Soviet and Post Soviet Review Brill

Readers and Writers in the USSR

Olcott, Anthony
The Soviet and Post Soviet Review , Volume 15 (1): 201 – Jan 1, 1988
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1988 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1075-1262
eISSN
1876-3324
DOI
10.1163/187633288X00130
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ANTHONY OLCOTT (Hamilton, NY, U.S.A.) READERS AND WRITERS IN THE USSR It was literature which first brought glasnost' to the Soviet public, and to the attention of the world, and it is the literary world which has particu- larly carried forward the glasnost' revolution. Unfortunately, however, the changes of the Gorbachev regime, which literature began and fostered, have meant increasingly that writers no longer write and readers no longer read. This may be seen particularly well in the evolution of literary glasnost', which might provisionally be periodicized by years. In 1986 glasnost' first appeared in literature on contemporary themes, written by authors who were highly successful Soviet literary figures, who were already identified in the Brezhnev era with such protest as then was possible. Astafev and Rasputin, who both had decried ecological despoliation and rural disintegration as early as the 1970s, each published novels, Pechal'nyi detektiv (The Sad Detective) and Pozhar (The Fire), respectively, which took those concerns to new levels of frankness, both thematically and linguistically, while Aitmatov, who had been complaining of Soviet aspirituality since the mid-1970s, executed a similar escalation of topic with Plakha. Behind these prominent figures were scores of lesser lights, most of

Journal

The Soviet and Post Soviet Review – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1988

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